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.
3 ¶ And Solomon became a relative of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, for he took Pharaoh’s daughter to wife and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the LORD and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
2 Until then the people sacrificed in high places because there was still no house built unto the name of the LORD until those days.
3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David, his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
5 ¶ In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what you wish that I shall give thee.
6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shown unto thy slave David, my father, great mercy, according to the way he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great mercy that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
7 And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy slave king instead of David my father; and I am but a tender young man; I do not know how to go out or come in.
8 And thy slave is in the midst of thy people whom thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
9 Give, therefore, thy slave a hearing heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this thy so great a people?
10 And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thyself long life neither hast asked riches for thyself nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to hear judgment,
12 behold, I have done according to thy words: behold, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and glory so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee in all thy days.
14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as thy father David walked, then I will lengthen thy days.
15 And when Solomon awoke, he beheld it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings and made a banquet for all his slaves.
9 Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,
10 saying, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.
11 Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul.
12 ¶ And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, many were in agreement to depart from there also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice and winter there, which is a port of Crete and lies toward Africa and the west.
13 And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, raising sails, they sailed close by Crete.
14 But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. {devastating cold north wind from Europe}
15 And when the ship was caught up by it and could not resist against the wind, the ship was taken by the wind and drifted.
16 And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat,
17 Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into Syrtis, {or the sandbanks} struck sail and so were driven.
18 And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
19 and the third day with our own hands we cast off the dead works of the ship.
20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then lost.
21 ¶ Then after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete to have avoided this harm and loss.
22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any person’s life among you, but only of the ship.
23 For the angel of God stood by me this night, whose I am and whom I serve,
24 saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar; and, behold, God has given thee all those that sail with thee.
25 Therefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
26 However we must be cast upon a certain island.
14 ¶ Two days after was the passover and the days of unleavened bread; and the princes of the priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, that they might kill him.
2 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.
3 And he being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, sitting at the table, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and breaking the alabaster, she poured it over his head.
4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarius and given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6 But Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She has wrought a good work on me.
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whenever ye will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.
8 She has done what she could, for she has anticipated anointing my body for the burial.
9 Verily I say unto you, Wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, came unto the princes of the priests to deliver him unto them.
11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International