Book of Common Prayer
Michtam of David.
1 ¶ Preserve me, O God: for in thee I have put my trust.
2 I said unto the LORD, Thou art my goodness: I have no goodness apart from thee;
3 to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent: all my delight is towards them.
4 The sorrows of those that hasten after another god shall be multiplied; their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; thou dost maintain my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I will bless the LORD, who gives me counsel: my kidneys also instruct me in the night seasons.
8 ¶ I have set the LORD always before me: because when he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest secure.
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy Merciful One to see corruption.
11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
A Prayer of David.
1 ¶ Hear righteousness, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that does not go out of feigned lips.
2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold uprightness.
3 Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast refined me and hast found no iniquity; that which I thought did not pass through my mouth.
4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have observed the ways of the violent.
5 Sustain my steps in thy ways that my footsteps not slip.
6 I have called upon thee, because thou dost hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.
7 Show thy mercy to be marvellous, O Saviour of those who put their trust in thee, from those that rise up against thy right hand.
8 ¶ Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me with the shadow of thy wings,
9 from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
10 They are closed in with their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly.
11 They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes upon throwing us down to the earth
12 like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, with thy sword;
14 from men, with thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, who have their portion in this life and whose belly thou dost fill with thy provision: they satisfy their sons and leave the rest to their family.
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
To the Overcomer upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my cry?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest in the midst of the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee and were delivered: they trusted in thee and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men and despised of the people.
7 All those that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 Turn him over to the LORD, let him deliver him, let him save him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb; thou hast made me wait upon thee since I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
11 ¶ Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round about.
13 They opened their mouth upon me as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may count all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the unicorns.
22 ¶ I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor in spirit; neither has he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before those that fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied: those that seek him shall praise the LORD; your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD; and all the families of the Gentiles shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles.
29 All those that are fat upon earth shall eat and worship; all those that go down to the dust shall bow before him; and no one can keep his own soul alive.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he has done this.
5 ¶ Hear ye this word, because I raise up a lamentation upon you, O house of Israel.
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall not be able to rise again: she was forsaken upon her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus hath the Lord GOD said: The city that sent out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which sent forth a hundred shall have ten, in the house of Israel.
4 ¶ But thus hath the LORD said unto the house of Israel, Seek me, and ye shall live:
5 but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off doing righteousness in the earth,
8 look unto him that makes the seven stars and Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name;
9 that strengthens the spoiler against the strong, so that the spoiler shall come against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12 For I have known of your many rebellions and your great sins that afflict the just and take a ransom and turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek that which is good, and not that which is evil that ye may live; and so the LORD, the God of the hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
15 Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that the LORD God of the hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16 ¶ Therefore the LORD, the God of the hosts, the Lord, said this: Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of thee, said the LORD.
1 ¶ Jude, slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those that are called, sanctified in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy and peace and charity be multiplied unto you.
3 ¶ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly persevere in the faith which was given once unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in unawares without fear or reverence of God, who from beforehand have been ordained unto this condemnation, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying God who alone has dominion, and our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
5 I will, therefore, remind you, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those that did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their first estate but left their own habitation, he has reserved in eternal chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, were set forth for an example, having received the judgment of eternal fire.
8 ¶ In the same manner these deceived dreamers, defile their flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of higher powers.
9 Yet when Michael, the archangel, contended with the devil, disputing over the body of Moses, he dared not bring against him a curse of judgment, but said, The Lord reprehend thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they do not know; but what they know by nature as animals without reason, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your banquets of charity, feeding themselves without any fear whatsoever: clouds without water, carried to and fro of the winds; trees withered as in fall, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own abominations; erratic stars, to whom is reserved gross darkness eternally.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints
15 ¶ to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have unfaithfully committed and of all the hard words which the unfaithful sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own desires; and their mouth speaks arrogant things, admiring persons to take advantage.
22 ¶ And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables and said,
2 The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a certain man, a king, who made a marriage feast for his son
3 and sent forth his slaves to call those that were invited to the wedding, and they would not come.
4 Again, he sent forth other slaves, saying, Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my bulls and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage.
5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise,
6 and the others took his slaves and entreated them spitefully and slew them.
7 But when the king heard of this, he became angry and sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.
8 Then he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy.
9 Go ye therefore into the entrances of the highways and call as many as ye shall find to the marriage.
10 So those slaves went out into the highways and gathered together everyone that they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was filled with guests.
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who did not have on a wedding garment,
12 and he said unto him, Friend, how didst thou come in here not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the slaves, Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into the darkness outside; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
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