Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ In thee, O LORD, have I waited; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in thy righteousness.
2 Incline thine ear unto me; deliver me speedily; be thou my strong rock, for a house of defence to save me.
3 For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake thou shalt lead me and guide me.
4 Thou shalt pull me out of the net that they have laid in secret for me; for thou art my strength.
5 Into thy hand shall I commit my spirit; thou shalt ransom me, O LORD God of truth.
6 I have hated those that regard lying vanities; but I wait in the LORD.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities
8 and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a wide place.
9 ¶ Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: my eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
10 For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
11 I was a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to my acquaintances: those that see me without flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I have become like a lost vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side; while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in thee, O LORD; I said, Thou art my God.
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy slave; save me for thy mercies’ sake.
17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon thee; let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be cut off for Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
19 ¶ Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for those that wait in thee before the sons of men!
20 Thou shalt keep them in the secret place of thy face from the pride of man; thou shalt keep them in the tabernacle protected from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the LORD, for he has shown me his marvellous mercy in a strong city.
22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou hast heard the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
23 O love the LORD, all ye his merciful ones, for the LORD preserves the faithful and plentifully rewards the proud doer.
24 Be of good courage and strengthen your hearts, all ye that wait in the LORD.
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Plead my cause, O LORD, with those that strive with me; fight against those that fight against me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up in my help.
3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against those that persecute me; say unto my soul; I am thy saving health.
4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
7 For without cause they have hid their net for me in a pit, which without cause they have dug for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he has hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.
9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD; it shall rejoice in his saving health.
10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, who delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoils him?
11 ¶ False witnesses rose up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
12 They rewarded me evil for good until my soul was alone.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer rose up in my bosom.
14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourns for his mother.
15 But in my adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; yea, the smiters gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they tore me apart and did not cease:
16 With immature hypocritical mockers, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
17 ¶ Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Restore my soul from their destructions, my life from the lions.
18 I will give thee thanks in the great congregation; I will praise thee among many people.
19 Let not those that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those that hate me wink with the eye without a cause.
20 For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful matters against those that are meek in the land.
21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.
22 This thou hast seen, O LORD; do not keep silence; O Lord, do not be far from me.
23 Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.
25 Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it; let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.
27 Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause; let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the peace of his slave.
28 And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.
21 ¶ Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech, the priest, and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no one with thee?
2 And David said unto Ahimelech, the priest, The king has commanded me a business and has said unto me, Let no one know anything of this business about which I send thee and what I have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servants to a certain place.
3 Now, therefore, what is under thy hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand or what there is present.
4 And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread under my hand; there is only sacred bread, which I will give thee if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
5 And David answered the priest and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us since yesterday and the day before yesterday since I came out, and the vessels of the young men were holy although the way is profane; how much more that today it shall be sanctified with the vessels.
6 So the priest gave him the sacred bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread that had been taken from before the LORD to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the slaves of Saul was there that day, fulfilling a vow before the LORD, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the principal of the pastors of Saul.
8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy hand a spear or a sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s business required haste.
9 And the priest replied, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou didst overcome in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a veil behind the ephod; if thou wilt take that, take it, for there is none other except that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it to me.
10 ¶ And David arose and fled that day from the presence of Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath.
11 And the slaves of Achish said unto him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands?
12 And David laid up these words in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.
13 And he changed his behaviour before them and feigned himself a fool in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
14 Then Achish said unto his slaves, Behold, ye see the man is mad; why then have ye brought him to me?
15 Have I need of mad men that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?
13 Now when Paul and his company sailed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; then John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
14 ¶ But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and sat down.
15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the princes of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.
16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God hearken.
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm he brought them out of it.
18 And for the time of about forty years, he suffered their manners in the wilderness.
19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they asked for a king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, saying, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised up Jesus as Saviour unto Israel:
24 John, having first proclaimed before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea
8 and from Jerusalem and from Idumaea and from beyond Jordan. And those who dwell around Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came unto him.
9 And he spoke to his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
10 For he had healed many, insomuch that as many as had plagues pressed upon him to touch him.
11 And the unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and cried out, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
12 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.
13 ¶ And he went up to the mountain and called unto himself whom he would, and they came unto him.
14 And he established twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach
15 and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils:
16 Simon, whom he gave the name Peter;
17 and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed them Boanerges, which is The sons of thunder;
18 and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus and Simon the Canaanite
19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him; and they came home.
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