Book of Common Prayer
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
31 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge.
Let me never be disappointed.
Deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Bow down your ear to me.
Deliver me speedily.
Be to me a strong rock,
a house of defense to save me.
3 For you are my rock and my fortress,
therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me,
for you are my stronghold.
5 Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
6 I hate those who regard lying vanities,
but I trust in Yahweh.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness,
for you have seen my affliction.
You have known my soul in adversities.
8 You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.
You have set my feet in a large place.
9 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.
My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow,
my years with sighing.
My strength fails because of my iniquity.
My bones are wasted away.
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,
a horror to my acquaintances.
Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
12 I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.
I am like broken pottery.
13 For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side,
while they conspire together against me,
they plot to take away my life.
14 But I trust in you, Yahweh.
I said, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
16 Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.
17 Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.
Let the wicked be disappointed.
Let them be silent in Sheol.[a]
18 Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.
19 Oh how great is your goodness,
which you have laid up for those who fear you,
which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,
before the sons of men!
20 In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man.
You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.
21 Praise be to Yahweh,
for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
22 As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.”
Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
23 Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints!
Yahweh preserves the faithful,
and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who hope in Yahweh.
By David.
35 Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me.
Fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler,
and stand up for my help.
3 Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me.
Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor.
Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind,
Yahweh’s angel driving them on.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
Yahweh’s angel pursuing them.
7 For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me.
Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.
8 Let destruction come on him unawares.
Let his net that he has hidden catch himself.
Let him fall into that destruction.
9 My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh.
It shall rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you,
who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him;
yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”
11 Unrighteous witnesses rise up.
They ask me about things that I don’t know about.
12 They reward me evil for good,
to the bereaving of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.
I afflicted my soul with fasting.
My prayer returned into my own bosom.
14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother.
I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
15 But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together.
The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it.
They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
16 Like the profane mockers in feasts,
they gnashed their teeth at me.
17 Lord, how long will you look on?
Rescue my soul from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions.
18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly.
I will praise you among many people.
19 Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me;
neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.
20 For they don’t speak peace,
but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21 Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me.
They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”
22 You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent.
Lord, don’t be far from me.
23 Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God!
My Lord, contend for me!
24 Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness.
Don’t let them gloat over me.
25 Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!”
Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
26 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity.
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
27 Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad.
Yes, let them say continually, “May Yahweh be magnified,
who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”
28 My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.
5 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.” 2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, 5 (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying,
6 “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
7 “You shall have no other gods before me.
8 “You shall not make a carved image for yourself—any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me 10 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 “You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God;[a] for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
12 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 13 You shall labor six days, and do all your work; 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work—neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 “Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
17 “You shall not murder.
18 “You shall not commit adultery.
19 “You shall not steal.
20 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
22 Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.
4 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. 5 For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, 6 seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,”(A) who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; 9 pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
10 He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”[a]
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him. 15 He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of God’s Kingdom is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall.
18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
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