Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, the slave of the LORD, who spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
1 ¶ I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.
4 The pain of death compassed me, and the rivers of Belial made me afraid.
5 The pain of Sheol compassed me about: the snares of death came before me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the mountains collapsed and were removed because he was wroth.
8 Smoke went up out of his nostrils, and fire devoured out of his mouth; coals were kindled by it.
9 He lowered the heavens and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub and flew: yea, he flew upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place; in his tabernacle round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the heavens.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out his arrows and scattered them; he shot out lightnings and destroyed them.
15 Then the depths of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, even though they were too strong for me.
18 They were ready for me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my staff.
19 He brought me forth also into a wide place; he delivered me because he delighted in me.
20 ¶ The LORD will reward me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he shall recompense me.
21 Because I have kept the ways of the LORD and did not become wicked departing in apostasy from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was perfect before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.
25 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with a perfect man thou wilt show thyself perfect;
26 with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the perverse thou wilt show thyself adversary.
27 Therefore thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down high looks.
28 For thou wilt light my fire: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 ¶ For with thee I have scattered armies; and in my God I have overcome walled defenses.
30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is precise: a shield to all those that wait in him.
31 For who is God except the LORD? or who is a refuge except our God?
32 It is God that girds me with strength and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and sets me upon my high places.
34 He trains my hands for the battle, so that a bow of bronze shall be broken by my arms.
35 In the same manner thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand will hold me up, and thy meekness shall multiply me.
36 Thou shall enlarge my steps under me, and my knees shall not tremble.
37 I shall pursue my enemies and overtake them: neither shall I turn again until they are consumed.
38 I shall smite them, and they will not be able to rise: they shall fall under my feet.
39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued my enemies under me.
40 Thou hast also given me the necks of my enemies that I might destroy those that hate me.
41 They cried out, but there was no one to save them: even unto the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them as small as the dust before the wind: I scattered them as the dirt in the streets.
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the Gentiles: a people whom I did not know served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me: the sons of strangers submitted themselves unto me even against their will.
45 The strangers fell away and were afraid in their close places.
46 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God that avenges me and subdues the peoples under me.
48 He delivers me from my enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the one who would betray me.
49 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the Gentiles and sing praises unto thy name.
50 He gives great deliverance to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
6 ¶ I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places: yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.
7 And also I have withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied, yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.
9 I have smitten you with the east wind and with the caterpillar; your many gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees were devoured by the locust; yet ye have never returned unto me, said the LORD.
10 I have sent among you the pestilence in the way to Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.
11 I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the fire; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.
12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I must do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For, behold, he that forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares unto man what is his thought, that makes the darkness into morning and treads above the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of the hosts, is his name.
11 ¶ Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 waiting for and desiring earnestly for the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promises, wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
14 Therefore, beloved, seeing that ye hope for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.
15 And have as saving health the patience of our Lord, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you
16 in almost all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, among which are some things that are hard to understand, which those that are ignorant and unstable twist, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things in advance, be on guard lest by the error of the wicked ye be deceived with the others and fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and until the day of eternity. Amen.z
33 ¶ Hear another parable: There was a certain husband of a house who planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country,
34 and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his slaves to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it.
35 And the husbandmen took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other slaves more than the first, and they did unto them likewise.
37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us take his inheritance.
39 And they took hold of him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.
40 Therefore, when the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
41 They say unto him, He will destroy those wicked men without mercy and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
42 Jesus said unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
45 And as the princes of the priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.
46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they held him as a prophet.
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