Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights and strength of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication].
7 For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice,(A)
8 Harden not your hearts as at Meribah and as at Massah in the day of temptation in the wilderness,(B)
9 When your fathers tried My patience and tested Me, proved Me, and saw My work [of judgment].
10 Forty years long was I grieved and disgusted with that generation, and I said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they do not approve, acknowledge, or regard My ways.
11 Wherefore I swore in My wrath that they would not enter My rest [the land of promise].(C)
Psalm 69
To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Lilies.” [A Psalm] of David.
1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck [they threaten my life].
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail with waiting [hopefully] for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would cut me off and destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are many and mighty. I am [forced] to restore what I did not steal.(A)
5 O God, You know my folly and blundering; my sins and my guilt are not hidden from You.
6 Let not those who wait and hope and look for You, O Lord of hosts, be put to shame through me; let not those who seek and inquire for and require You [as their vital necessity] be brought to confusion and dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
7 Because for Your sake I have borne taunt and reproach; confusion and shame have covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother’s children.(B)
9 For zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches and insults of those who reproach and insult You have fallen upon me.(C)
10 When I wept and humbled myself with fasting, I was jeered at and humiliated;
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword (an object of scorn) to them.
12 They who sit in [the city’s] gate talk about me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord. At an acceptable and opportune time, O God, in the multitude of Your mercy and the abundance of Your loving-kindness hear me, and in the truth and faithfulness of Your salvation answer me.
14 Rescue me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me and from out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the floodwaters overflow and overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up nor the [dug] pit [with water perhaps in the bottom] close its mouth over me.
16 Hear and answer me, O Lord, for Your loving-kindness is sweet and comforting; according to Your plenteous tender mercy and steadfast love turn to me.
17 Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; O answer me speedily!
18 Draw close to me and redeem me; ransom and set me free because of my enemies [lest they glory in my prolonged distress]!
19 You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; my adversaries are all before You [fully known to You].
20 Insults and reproach have broken my heart; I am full of heaviness and I am distressingly sick. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall [poisonous and bitter] for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar (a soured wine) to drink.(D)
22 Let their own table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare to them; and when they are secure in peace [or at their sacrificial feasts, let it become] a trap to them.
23 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually [from terror, dismay, and feebleness].
24 Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let the fierceness of Your burning anger catch up with them.
25 Let their habitation and their encampment be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.(E)
26 For they pursue and persecute him whom You have smitten, and they gossip about those whom You have wounded, [adding] to their grief and pain.
27 Let one [unforgiven] perverseness and iniquity accumulate upon another for them [in Your book], and let them not come into Your righteousness or be justified and acquitted by You.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and the book of life and not be enrolled among the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright and in right standing with God).(F)
29 But I am poor, sorrowful, and in pain; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving,
31 And it will please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see it and be glad; you who seek God, inquiring for and requiring Him [as your first need], let your hearts revive and live!(G)
33 For the Lord hears the poor and needy and despises not His prisoners (His miserable and wounded ones).
34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and [His servants] shall remain and dwell there and have it in their possession;
36 The children of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it.
Book Three
Psalm 73
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is [only] good to Israel, even to those who are upright and pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious of the foolish and arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they suffer no violent pangs in their death, but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they smitten and plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride is about their necks like a chain; violence covers them like a garment [like a long, luxurious robe].
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish; and the imaginations of their minds overflow [with follies].
8 They scoff, and wickedly utter oppression; they speak loftily [from on high, maliciously and blasphemously].
9 They set their mouths against and speak down from heaven, and their tongues swagger through the earth [invading even heaven with blasphemy and smearing earth with slanders].(A)
10 Therefore His people return here, and waters of a full cup [offered by the wicked] are [blindly] drained by them.
11 And they say, How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who always prosper and are at ease in the world; they increase in riches.
13 Surely then in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency.
14 For all the day long have I been smitten and plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 Had I spoken thus [and given expression to my feelings], I would have been untrue and have dealt treacherously against the generation of Your children.
16 But when I considered how to understand this, it was too great an effort for me and too painful
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood [for I considered] their end.
18 [After all] You do set the [wicked] in slippery places; You cast them down to ruin and destruction.
19 How they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors!
20 As a dream [which seems real] until one awakens, so, O Lord, when You arouse Yourself [to take note of the wicked], You will despise their outward show.
21 For my heart was grieved, embittered, and in a state of ferment, and I was pricked in my heart [as with the sharp fang of an adder].
22 So foolish, stupid, and brutish was I, and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You do hold my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to honor and glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And I have no delight or desire on earth besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the Rock and firm Strength of my heart and my Portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from You shall perish; You will destroy all who are false to You and like [spiritual] harlots depart from You.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God and made Him my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.
5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom], one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem—for one uncompromisingly righteous person].(A)
2 And though they say, As the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely.
3 O Lord, do not your eyes look on the truth? [They have meant to please You outwardly, but You look on their hearts.] You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to take correction or instruction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to repent and return to You.
4 Then I said, Surely these are only the poor; they are [sinfully] foolish and have no understanding, for they know not the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God.
5 I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they must know the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God. But [I found the very reverse to be true] these had all alike broken the yoke [of God’s law] and had burst the bonds [of obedience to Him].
6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the desert shall destroy them, a leopard or panther shall lie in wait against their cities. Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their backslidings and total desertion of faith are increased and have become great and mighty.
7 Why should I and how can I pass over this and forgive you for it? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full and bound them to Me by oath, they committed [spiritual] adultery, assembling themselves in troops at the houses of [idol] harlots.
8 They were like fed stallions roaming at large; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?
25 Circumcision does indeed profit if you keep the Law; but if you habitually transgress the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be credited to him as [equivalent to] circumcision?
27 Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the Law will condemn you who, although you have the code in writing and have circumcision, break the Law.
28 For he is not a [real] Jew who is only one outwardly and publicly, nor is [true] circumcision something external and physical.
29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and [true] circumcision is of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal [matter]. His praise is not from men but from God.
3 Then what advantage remains to the Jew? [How is he favored?] Or what is the value or benefit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the brief communications, the intentions, the utterances) of God.(A)
3 What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]?
4 By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].(B)
5 But if our unrighteousness thus establishes and exhibits the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust and wrong to inflict His wrath upon us [Jews]? I speak in a [purely] human way.
6 By no means! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?
7 But [you say] if through my falsehood God’s integrity is magnified and advertised and abounds to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner?
8 And why should we not do evil that good may come?—as some slanderously charge us with teaching. Such [false teaching] is justly condemned by them.
9 Well then, are we [Jews] superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control].
10 As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one.(C)
11 No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God.(D)
12 All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!
13 Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously). The venom of asps is beneath their lips.(E)
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.(F)
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood.
16 Destruction [as it dashes them to pieces] and misery mark their ways.
17 And they have no experience of the way of peace [they know nothing about peace, for a peaceful way they do not even recognize].(G)
18 There is no [reverential] fear of God before their eyes.(H)
30 I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accord—but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision], and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me.
31 If I alone testify in My behalf, My testimony is not valid and cannot be worth anything.
32 There is Another Who testifies concerning Me, and I know and am certain that His evidence on My behalf is true and valid.
33 You yourselves have sent [an inquiry] to John and he has been a witness to the truth.
34 But I do not receive [a mere] human witness [the evidence which I accept on My behalf is not from man]; but I simply mention all these things in order that you may be saved (made and kept safe and sound).
35 John was the lamp that kept on burning and shining [to show you the way], and you were willing for a while to delight (sun) yourselves in his light.
36 But I have as My witness something greater (weightier, higher, better) than that of John; for the works that the Father has appointed Me to accomplish and finish, the very same works that I am now doing, are a witness and proof that the Father has sent Me.
37 And the Father Who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. Not one of you has ever given ear to His voice or seen His form (His face—what He is like). [You have always been deaf to His voice and blind to the vision of Him.]
38 And you have not His word (His thought) living in your hearts, because you do not believe and adhere to and trust in and rely on Him Whom He has sent. [That is why you do not keep His message living in you, because you do not believe in the Messenger Whom He has sent.]
39 You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me!
40 And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life.
41 I receive not glory from men [I crave no human honor, I look for no mortal fame],
42 But I know you and recognize and understand that you have not the love of God in you.
43 I have come in My Father’s name and with His power, and you do not receive Me [your hearts are not open to Me, you give Me no welcome]; but if another comes in his own name and his own power and with no other authority but himself, you will receive him and give him your approval.
44 How is it possible for you to believe [how can you learn to believe], you who [are content to seek and] receive praise and honor and glory from one another, and yet do not seek the praise and honor and glory which come from Him Who alone is God?
45 Put out of your minds the thought and do not suppose [as some of you are supposing] that I will accuse you before the Father. There is one who accuses you—it is Moses, the very one on whom you have built your hopes [in whom you trust].
46 For if you believed and relied on Moses, you would believe and rely on Me, for he wrote about Me [personally].
47 But if you do not believe and trust his writings, how then will you believe and trust My teachings? [How shall you cleave to and rely on My words?]
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation