Book of Common Prayer
By David.
26 Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity.
I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.
2 Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me.
Try my heart and my mind.
3 For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
I have walked in your truth.
4 I have not sat with deceitful men,
neither will I go in with hypocrites.
5 I hate the assembly of evildoers,
and will not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence,
so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,
7 that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard
and tell of all your wondrous deeds.
8 Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house,
the place where your glory dwells.
9 Don’t gather my soul with sinners,
nor my life with bloodthirsty men
10 in whose hands is wickedness;
their right hand is full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in my integrity.
Redeem me, and be merciful to me.
12 My foot stands in an even place.
In the congregations I will bless Yahweh.
By David.
28 To you, Yahweh, I call.
My rock, don’t be deaf to me,
lest, if you are silent to me,
I would become like those who go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you,
when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
3 Don’t draw me away with the wicked,
with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings.
Give them according to the operation of their hands.
Bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh,
nor the operation of his hands,
he will break them down and not build them up.
6 Blessed be Yahweh,
because he has heard the voice of my petitions.
7 Yahweh is my strength and my shield.
My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped.
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices.
With my song I will thank him.
8 Yahweh is their strength.
He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save your people,
and bless your inheritance.
Be their shepherd also,
and bear them up forever.
For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh.
36 A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to detect and hate his sin.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plots iniquity on his bed.
He sets himself in a way that is not good.
He doesn’t abhor evil.
5 Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like a great deep.
Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
7 How precious is your loving kindness, God!
The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house.
You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
9 For with you is the spring of life.
In your light we will see light.
10 Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you,
your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Don’t let the foot of pride come against me.
Don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the workers of iniquity are fallen.
They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise.
For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David.
39 I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.
I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
2 I was mute with silence.
I held my peace, even from good.
My sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned.
I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Yahweh, show me my end,
what is the measure of my days.
Let me know how frail I am.
5 Behold, you have made my days hand widths.
My lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
6 “Surely every man walks like a shadow.
Surely they busy themselves in vain.
He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was mute.
I didn’t open my mouth,
because you did it.
10 Remove your scourge away from me.
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,
you consume his wealth like a moth.
Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
12 “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry.
Don’t be silent at my tears.
For I am a stranger with you,
a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,
before I go away and exist no more.”
12 Then Job answered,
3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty.
I desire to reason with God.
4 But you are forgers of lies.
You are all physicians of no value.
5 Oh that you would be completely silent!
Then you would be wise.
6 Hear now my reasoning.
Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak unrighteously for God,
and talk deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality to him?
Will you contend for God?
9 Is it good that he should search you out?
Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
10 He will surely reprove you
if you secretly show partiality.
11 Won’t his majesty make you afraid
and his dread fall on you?
12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes.
Your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 “Be silent!
Leave me alone, that I may speak.
Let come on me what will.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth,
and put my life in my hand?
15 Behold, he will kill me.
I have no hope.
Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
16 This also will be my salvation,
that a godless man will not come before him.
17 Listen carefully to my speech.
Let my declaration be in your ears.
21 withdraw your hand far from me,
and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
22 Then call, and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you answer me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face,
and consider me your enemy?
25 Will you harass a driven leaf?
Will you pursue the dry stubble?
26 For you write bitter things against me,
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 You also put my feet in the stocks,
and mark all my paths.
You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
12 Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly. 2 He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. 4 When he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him. 6 The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.
7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off his hands. 8 The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
11 When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she didn’t open the gate for joy, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
15 They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” 16 But Peter continued knocking. When they had opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But he, beckoning to them with his hand to be silent, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. 35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. 36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. 38 I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”
39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. 41 You do the works of your father.”
They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”
42 Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me. 46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”
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