Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm to Asaph.
1 ¶ The God of gods, even the LORD, has spoken and convocated the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined forth.
3 Our God shall come and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4 He shall convocate the heavens of above, and the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Gather my merciful ones together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is the judge. Selah.
7 ¶ Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee; I am God, even thy God.
8 I will not reprove thee regarding thy sacrifices; thy burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are with me.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine and the fullness thereof.
13 Must I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
14 Sacrifice praise unto God and pay thy vows unto the most High
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
16 ¶ But unto the wicked God saith, What part hast thou to declare my statutes or that thou should take my covenant in thy mouth?
17 Seeing thou dost hate chastening and dost cast my words behind thee.
18 When thou didst see a thief, then thou didst consent with him and hast been partaker with adulterers.
19 Thou didst give thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frames deceit.
20 Thou didst sit and speak against thy brother; thou didst slander thine own mother’s son.
21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou didst think that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes.
22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I take you away, and there be none to deliver.
23 Whosoever sacrifices praise glorifies me; and to him that orders his ways aright I will show the salvation of God.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.
1 ¶ Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; defend me from those that rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men.
3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul; the strong are gathered against me; I am not in rebellion, nor in sin, O LORD.
4 They run and prepare themselves when I have committed no iniquity; awake to help me and behold.
5 Thou, therefore, O LORD God of the hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the Gentiles; be not merciful to any rebellious workers of iniquity. Selah.
6 They will return at evening; they will bark like dogs and go round about outside the city.
7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for who, say they, doth hear?
8 ¶ But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the Gentiles in derision.
9 I will reserve his strength unto thee, for God is my defence.
10 The God of my mercy shall meet me on the way; God shall let me see my desire upon my enemies.
11 Slay them not lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; they shall be subject to weakness and to a curse.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 And at evening let them return and let them bark like dogs and go round about outside the city.
15 Let them wander up and down for food and murmur if they are not satisfied.
16 But I will sing of thy power; I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.
17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing, for God is my defence and the God of my mercy.
To the Overcomer upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.
1 ¶ O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us; thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.
2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it; heal its breaches, for it shakes.
3 Thou hast showed thy people hard things; thou hast made us to drink the wine of shaking.
4 Thou hast given a banner to those that fear thee that they raise up for the truth. Selah.
5 That thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand and hear me.
6 ¶ God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver;
8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom I will cast out my shoe; Philistia, triumph thou because of me.
9 Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom?
10 Surely thou, O God, who had cast us off; and thou, O God, who did not go out with our armies.
11 Give us help from trouble, for vain is the salvation of man.
12 Through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
To the Overcomer upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ O LORD our Lord, how great is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy praise above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou might still the enemy and the avenger.
3 ¶ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou dost visit him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and beauty.
6 Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how great is thy name in all the earth!
To the Overcomer upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ How amiable are thy habitations, O LORD of the hosts!
2 My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young upon thine altars, O LORD of the hosts, my King and my God.
4 Happy are those that dwell in thy house; they shall continually praise thee. Selah.
5 Happy is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are thy ways,
6 who passing through the valley of Baca, shall make it a well; the rain also shall fill the pools.
7 They go forth in a great multitude; and in order, they shall see God in Zion.
8 ¶ O LORD God of the hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed,
10 for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand outside of them. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield unto us; the LORD will give grace and glory; he will not withhold good from those that walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of the hosts, happy is the man that trusts in thee.
18 ¶ Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all the gates of thy cities, which the LORD thy God shall give thee throughout thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with just (and righteous) judgment.
19 Thou shalt not twist that which is right; thou shalt not respect persons neither take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
20 Thou shalt follow justice and righteousness, that thou may live and inherit the land which the LORD thy God gives thee.
14 ¶ When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God gives thee and shalt inherit it and shalt dwell therein and shalt say, I will set a king over me like all the Gentiles that are round about me;
15 Thou shalt surely appoint as king over thee the one whom the LORD thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set as king over thee; thou may not set a stranger over thee, who is not thy brother.
16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; for the LORD has said unto you, Ye shall not procure to return any more to that way.
17 Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver or gold.
18 And it shall be when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall cause a copy of this second law to be written in a book in the presence of the priests the Levites;
19 and it shall be near unto him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them,
20 that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.
8 ¶ Likewise, brethren, we make known unto you the grace of God bestowed on the congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of Macedonia,
2 how that in a great trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
3 For to their power, I bear record, and even beyond their power they were willing of themselves,
4 praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the grace and take upon us the fellowship of the ministry to the saints.
5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and then unto us by the will of God.
6 Insomuch that we exhorted Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete among you the same grace also.
7 ¶ Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith and in word and in knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.
8 I speak not as commanding, but by occasion of the diligence of others and to prove the sincerity of your charity.
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be enriched.
10 And in this I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who began not only to do, but also to be diligent a year ago.
11 Now therefore finish the doing of it that as there was a readiness to will, so there may also be a performance out of that which ye have.
12 For if there is first a willing desire, it is accepted according to what a person has and not according to what they do not have.
13 For I mean not that others be eased and ye burdened,
14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality:
15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack.
16 ¶ But thanks be to God, who put the same diligence into the heart of Titus for you.
18 ¶ And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that it behooves us always to pray and not faint,
2 saying, There was in a city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man;
3 and there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Defend me from my adversary.
4 And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God, nor regard man,
5 yet because this widow troubles me, I will do her justice, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says.
7 And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry day and night unto him though he bears long regarding them?
8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International