Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH.
1 ¶ Blessed are those who walk in the perfect way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are those that keep his testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart.
3 For those who do no iniquity walk in his ways.
4 ¶ Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5 O that my ways were ordered to keep thy statutes!
6 Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have insight unto all thy commandments.
7 ¶ I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
8 I will keep thy statutes; O do not utterly forsake me.
BETH.
9 ¶ With what shall a young man cleanse his way? when he shall keep thy word.
10 ¶ With my whole heart I have sought thee; O let me not err from thy commandments.
11 ¶ Thy spoken word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
12 ¶ Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
13 ¶ With my lips I have declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as above all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts and consider thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy words.
GIMEL.
17 ¶ Deal bountifully with thy slave that I may live and keep thy word.
18 ¶ Open my eyes, and I shall behold the wonders of thy law.
19 ¶ I am a stranger in the earth; hide not thy commandments from me.
20 ¶ My soul is broken from desiring thy judgments at all times.
21 ¶ Thou hast reprehended the proud; cursed are those who err from thy commandments.
22 ¶ Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.
23 ¶ Princes also sat and spoke against me as thy slave spoke according to thy statutes.
24 ¶ For thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors.
To the Overcomer upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Help, LORD; for the merciful man ceases, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 Each one speaks vanity with his neighbour: they speak with flattering lips and with a double heart.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, saith the LORD; I will set in safety the one whom the wicked one has ensnared.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked press in on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the LORD because he has dealt bountifully with me.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is no one that does good.
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 ¶ The workers of iniquity certainly know this; those who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD.
5 There they were in great fear: for God is with the nation of the righteous.
6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the LORD is his hope.
7 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD turns back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
16 ¶ And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thy horn with oil and go; I will send thee to Jesse of Bethlehem for I have provided me a king among his sons.
2 And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul understands it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take a heifer with thee and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD.
3 And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do, and thou shalt anoint unto me the one whom I name unto thee.
4 And Samuel did as the LORD said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Comest thou peaceably?
5 And he said, Peaceably; I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice.
6 ¶ And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab and said, Peradventure is the LORD’s anointed before him?
7 And the LORD replied unto Samuel, Do not look on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him, for it is not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has the LORD chosen this one.
9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither has the LORD chosen this one.
10 Again, Jesse made his seven sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD has not chosen these.
11 And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are all thy young men here? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he keeps the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send for him, for we will not sit down to the table until he comes here.
12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and of a beautiful countenance and handsome. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.
13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him from among his brethren; and the Spirit of the LORD prospered David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
10 ¶ There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the company called the Italian,
2 a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, who gave many alms to the people and prayed to God always.
3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him, Cornelius.
4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms {lit. thine acts of mercy} are come up for a memorial before God.
5 And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter;
6 he lodges with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side; he shall tell thee what it behooves thee to do.
7 And when the angel who spoke unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those that waited on him continually;
8 and when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.
9 ¶ On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew near unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour;
10 and he became very hungry and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a rapture of understanding
11 and saw the heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth,
12 in which were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth and wild beasts and reptiles and fowls of the air.
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
15 And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, That which God has cleansed, do not call common.
16 This was done three times, and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
12 But Peter arose and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
13 ¶ And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about sixty furlongs from Jerusalem.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went together with them.
16 But their eyes were held fast that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?
18 And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 Then he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
20 and how the princes of the priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.
21 But we were hoping that it was he who should redeem Israel, and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
22 Although also certain women of our company made us astonished, who before daybreak were at the sepulchre;
23 and when they did not find his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
24 And certain of those who were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said; but they did not see him.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken;
26 ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter (like this) into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded this unto them in all the scriptures concerning himself.
28 And they drew near unto the village where they went, and he made as though he would have gone further.
29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30 And it came to pass as he sat at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it and broke and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us in the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?
33 And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and those that were with them,
34 saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
35 And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International