Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 101
A Psalm of David.
1 I will sing of mercy and loving-kindness and justice; to You, O Lord, will I sing.
2 I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way—O when will You come to me? I will walk within my house in integrity and with a blameless heart.
3 I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them who turn aside [from the right path]; it shall not grasp hold of me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil person or thing.
5 Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off [from me]; he who has a haughty look and a proud and arrogant heart I cannot and I will not tolerate.
6 My eyes shall [look with favor] upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks blamelessly, he shall minister to me.
7 He who works deceit shall not dwell in my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.
8 Morning after morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.
Psalm 109
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 O God of my praise! Keep not silence,
2 For the mouths of the wicked and the mouth of deceit are opened against me; they have spoken to me and against me with lying tongues.
3 They have compassed me about also with words of hatred and have fought against me without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my adversaries, but I resort to prayer.
5 And they have rewarded and laid upon me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man over him [as a judge], and let [a malicious] accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When [the wicked] is judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer [for leniency] be turned into a sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office and charge.(A)
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continual vagabonds [as was Cain] and beg; let them seek their bread and be driven far from their ruined homes.(B)
11 Let the creditor and extortioner seize all that he has; and let strangers (barbarians and foreigners) plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend or continue mercy and kindness to him, neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their names be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth!—
16 Because the man did not [earnestly] remember to show mercy, but pursued and persecuted the poor and needy man, and the broken in heart [he was ready] to slay.
17 Yes, he loved cursing, and it came [back] upon him; he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him.
18 He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, and it seeped into his inward [life] like water, and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him as the raiment with which he covers himself and as the girdle with which he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But You deal with me and act for me, O God the Lord, for Your name’s sake; because Your mercy and loving-kindness are good, O deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded and stricken within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it lengthens and declines; I toss up and down and am shaken off as the locust.
24 My knees are weak and totter from fasting; and my body is gaunt and has no fatness.
25 I have become also a reproach and a taunt to others; when they see me, they shake their heads.(C)
26 Help me, O Lord my God; O save me according to Your mercy and loving-kindness!—
27 That they may know that this is Your hand, that You, Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but do You bless. When adversaries arise, let them be put to shame, but let Your servant rejoice.
29 Let my adversaries be clothed with shame and dishonor, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace and confusion as with a robe.
30 I will give great praise and thanks to the Lord with my mouth; yes, and I will praise Him among the multitude.
121 I have done justice and righteousness; leave me not to those who would oppress me.
122 Be surety for Your servant for good [as Judah was surety for the safety of Benjamin]; let not the proud oppress me.(A)
123 My eyes fail, watching for Your salvation and for the fulfillment of Your righteous promise.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy and loving-kindness, and teach me Your statutes.
125 I am Your servant; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension), that I may know (discern and be familiar with the character of) Your testimonies.
126 It is time for the Lord to act; they have frustrated Your law.
127 Therefore I love Your commandments more than [resplendent] gold, yes, more than [perfectly] refined gold.
128 Therefore I esteem as right all, yes, all Your precepts; I hate every false way.
129 Your testimonies are wonderful [far exceeding anything conceived by man]; therefore my [penitent] self keeps them [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
130 The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple.
131 I opened my mouth and panted [with eager desire], for I longed for Your commandments.
132 Look upon me, be merciful unto me, and show me favor, as is Your way to those who love Your name.
133 Establish my steps and direct them by [means of] Your word; let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 Deliver me from the oppression of man; so will I keep Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].(B)
135 Make Your face shine [with pleasure] upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.(C)
136 Streams of water run down my eyes, because men do not keep Your law [they hear it not, nor receive it, love it, or obey it].
137 [Rigidly] righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments and all expressions of Your will.
138 You have commanded and appointed Your testimonies in righteousness and in great faithfulness.
139 My zeal has consumed me and cut me off, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
140 Your word is very pure (tried and well refined); therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small (insignificant) and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.(D)
143 Trouble and anguish have found and taken hold on me, yet Your commandments are my delight.
144 Your righteous testimonies are everlasting and Your decrees are binding to eternity; give me understanding and I shall live [give me discernment and comprehension and I shall not die].
36 And the Lord said to Moses,
37 Speak to Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning and scatter the fire at a distance. For the censers are hallowed—
38 The censers of these men who have sinned against themselves and at the cost of their own lives. Let the censers be made into hammered plates for a covering of the altar [of burnt offering], for they were used in offering before the Lord and therefore they are sacred. They shall be a sign [of warning] to the Israelites.
39 Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers with which the Levites who were burned had offered incense, and they were hammered into broad sheets for a covering of the [brazen] altar [of burnt offering],
40 To be a memorial [a warning forever] to the Israelites, so that no outsider, that is, no one not of the descendants of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the Lord, lest he become as Korah and as his company, as the Lord said to Eleazar through Moses.
41 But on the morrow all the congregation of the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord.
42 When the congregation was gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked at the Tent of Meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it and they saw the Lord’s glory.
43 And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting.
44 And the Lord said to Moses,
45 Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces.
46 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer and put fire in it from off the altar and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun!
47 So Aaron took the burning censer as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and behold, the plague was begun among the people; and he put on the incense and made atonement for the people.
48 And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.
49 Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the matter of Korah.
50 And Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting, since the plague was stayed.
13 For the promise to Abraham or his posterity, that he should inherit the world, did not come through [observing the commands of] the Law but through the righteousness of faith.(A)
14 If it is the adherents of the Law who are to be the heirs, then faith is made futile and empty of all meaning and the promise [of God] is made void (is annulled and has no power).
15 For the Law results in [divine] wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression [of it either].
16 Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants—not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all.
17 As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.(B)
18 [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be.(C)
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah’s [deadened] womb.(D)
20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God,
21 Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.
22 That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God).
23 But [the words], It was credited to him, were written not for his sake alone,
24 But [they were written] for our sakes too. [Righteousness, standing acceptable to God] will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God, Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our [a]acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].
20 For the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out in the morning [a]along with the dawn to hire workmen for his vineyard.
2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And going out about the third hour (nine o’clock), he saw others standing idle in the marketplace;
4 And he said to them, You go also into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will pay you. And they went.
5 He went out again about the sixth hour (noon), and the ninth hour (three o’clock) he did the same.
6 And about the eleventh hour (five o’clock) he went out and found still others standing around, and said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day?
7 They answered him, Because nobody has hired us. He told them, You go out into the vineyard also [b]and you will get whatever is just and fair.
8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, Call the workmen and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first.(A)
9 And those who had been hired at the eleventh hour (five o’clock) came and received a denarius each.
10 Now when the first came, they supposed they would get more, but each of them also received a denarius.
11 And when they received it, they grumbled at the owner of the estate,
12 Saying, These [men] who came last worked no more than an hour, and yet you have made them rank with us who have borne the burden and the [c]scorching heat of the day.
13 But he answered one of them, Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this man hired last the same as I give to you.
15 Am I not permitted to do what I choose with what is mine? [Or do you begrudge my being generous?] Is your eye evil because I am good?
16 So those who [now] are last will be first [then], and those who [now] are first will be last [then]. [d]For many are called, but few chosen.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation