Book of Common Prayer

A Psalm of David.

Aleph

¹ ¶ Do not be angry with the evildoers, neither be thou envious of the workers of iniquity.

² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb.

Beth

³ Wait in the LORD and do good; live in the land and uphold the truth.

⁴ In the same manner delight thyself in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.

Gimel

⁵ Turn thy way unto the LORD and wait in him, and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶ And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy uprightness as the noonday.

Daleth

⁷ ¶ Be silent before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not be angry with him who prospers in his way, with the man who brings wicked devices to pass.

He

⁸ Cease from anger and forsake wrath: let not thy wrath in any wise cause you to become evil.

⁹ For evildoers shall be cut off; but those that wait for the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

Vau

¹⁰ For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Zain

¹² The wicked plots against the just and gnashes upon him with his teeth.

¹³ The Lord shall laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.

He

¹⁴ The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy and to slay such as are of upright conversation.

¹⁵ Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bow shall be broken.

Tet

¹⁶ A little that a righteous man has is better than the many riches of the sinners.

¹⁷ For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

Jod

¹⁸ The LORD knows the days of the perfect, and their inheritance shall be for ever.

¹⁹ They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

Caph

²⁰ But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD as the fattest of rams shall be consumed; as smoke they shall fade away.

Lamed

²¹ ¶ The wicked borrows and does not repay: but the righteous shows mercy and gives.

²² For such as are blessed of him shall inherit the earth, and those that are cursed of him shall be cut off.

Mem

²³ The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and he delights in his way.

²⁴ Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

Nun

²⁵ I have been young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

²⁶ He is ever merciful and lends, and his seed is a blessing.

Samech

²⁷ Depart from evil, and do good, and thou shalt live for evermore.

²⁸ For the LORD loves uprightness and does not forsake his merciful ones; they are preserved for ever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

Ain

²⁹ The righteous shall inherit the earth and live upon it for ever.

Pe

³⁰ The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue brings forth judgment.

³¹ The law of his God is in his heart; therefore none of his steps shall slide.

Tzaddi

³² The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him.

³³ The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

Koph

³⁴ ¶ Wait on the LORD and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the earth; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

Resh

³⁵ I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

³⁶ Yet he passed away, and, behold, he was not: I sought him, but he could not be found.

Schin

³⁷ Mark the perfect, and behold the upright, for the end of each one of them is peace.

³⁸ But the rebels were destroyed all together; the wicked were cut off in the end.

Tau

³⁹ But the salvation of the righteous is the LORD; he is their strength in the time of trouble.

⁴⁰ And the LORD helped them and delivers them; he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they wait in him.

³² Ask, therefore, now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has any other been heard like it?

³³ Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and lived?

³⁴ Or has God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ Unto thee it was shown that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is no one else other than he.

³⁶ Out of the heavens he made thee to hear his voice that he might instruct thee, and upon earth he showed thee his great fire, and thou hast heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷ And because he loved thy fathers, therefore, he chose their seed after them and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt,

³⁸ to drive out Gentiles from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

³⁹ Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the LORD is the only God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is no other.

⁴⁰ Thou shalt keep, therefore, his statutes and his commandments which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee and with thy sons after thee and that thou may prolong thy days upon the land which the LORD thy God gives thee, for ever.

3 ¶ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through the Christ towards God:

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,

⁶ ¶ who also has made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ministry of death in the letter engraved in stones was glorious, so that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to fade away,

⁸ How shall not the ministry of the Spirit be for greater glory?

⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, much more shall the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

¹⁰ For even that which was so glorious had no glory in this respect, in comparison with the glory that excels.

¹¹ For if that which fades away was glorious, much more shall that which remains be glorious.

¹² ¶ Seeing then that we have such hope, we speak with great confidence,

¹³ And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that glory which was to fade away:

¹⁴ (And thus their senses became hardened, for until this day remains the same veil not uncovered in the reading of the old testament, which veil is taken away in Christ.

¹⁵ But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

¹⁶ Nevertheless when they convert to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.)

¹⁷ For the Lord is the Spirit, and where that Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ Therefore we all, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord with uncovered face, are transformed from glory to glory into the same likeness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

16 ¶ And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

² And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou may no longer be steward.

³ Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord takes the stewardship away from me; I cannot dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴ I know what I shall do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

⁵ So he called each one of his lord’s debtors unto him and said unto the first, How much dost thou owe unto my lord?

⁶ And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.

⁷ Then said he to another, And how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and write eighty.

⁸ And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done discreetly; for the sons of this age are in their generation more prudent than the sons of light.

⁹ And I say unto you, Make friends unto yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when these fail, you may be received into eternal dwellings.