Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, the slave of the LORD, who spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
1 ¶ I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.
4 The pain of death compassed me, and the rivers of Belial made me afraid.
5 The pain of Sheol compassed me about: the snares of death came before me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the mountains collapsed and were removed because he was wroth.
8 Smoke went up out of his nostrils, and fire devoured out of his mouth; coals were kindled by it.
9 He lowered the heavens and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub and flew: yea, he flew upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place; in his tabernacle round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the heavens.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out his arrows and scattered them; he shot out lightnings and destroyed them.
15 Then the depths of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, even though they were too strong for me.
18 They were ready for me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my staff.
19 He brought me forth also into a wide place; he delivered me because he delighted in me.
20 ¶ The LORD will reward me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he shall recompense me.
21 Because I have kept the ways of the LORD and did not become wicked departing in apostasy from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was perfect before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.
25 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with a perfect man thou wilt show thyself perfect;
26 with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the perverse thou wilt show thyself adversary.
27 Therefore thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down high looks.
28 For thou wilt light my fire: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 ¶ For with thee I have scattered armies; and in my God I have overcome walled defenses.
30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is precise: a shield to all those that wait in him.
31 For who is God except the LORD? or who is a refuge except our God?
32 It is God that girds me with strength and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and sets me upon my high places.
34 He trains my hands for the battle, so that a bow of bronze shall be broken by my arms.
35 In the same manner thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand will hold me up, and thy meekness shall multiply me.
36 Thou shall enlarge my steps under me, and my knees shall not tremble.
37 I shall pursue my enemies and overtake them: neither shall I turn again until they are consumed.
38 I shall smite them, and they will not be able to rise: they shall fall under my feet.
39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued my enemies under me.
40 Thou hast also given me the necks of my enemies that I might destroy those that hate me.
41 They cried out, but there was no one to save them: even unto the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them as small as the dust before the wind: I scattered them as the dirt in the streets.
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the Gentiles: a people whom I did not know served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me: the sons of strangers submitted themselves unto me even against their will.
45 The strangers fell away and were afraid in their close places.
46 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God that avenges me and subdues the peoples under me.
48 He delivers me from my enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the one who would betray me.
49 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the Gentiles and sing praises unto thy name.
50 He gives great deliverance to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
16 ¶ In that season two women, that were harlots, came unto the king and stood before him.
17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
18 And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered that this woman was delivered also and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, except the two of us in the house.
19 And this woman’s child died in the night because she lay on top of him.
20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom.
21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I had given birth to.
22 And the other woman said, No, but my son is alive, and thy son is dead. And this one said, No, but thy son is dead, and my son is alive. Thus they spoke before the king.
23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that is alive, and thy son is dead. And the other saith, No; but thy son is dead, and my son is alive.
24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.
26 Then the woman, of whom the living child was, spoke unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it, for she is its mother.
28 And all Israel heard of that judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to judge.
27 And when the fourteenth night was come as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic sea, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country
28 and sounded and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms.
29 Then fearing lest we should fall upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.
30 And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,
31 Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
32 Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have waited and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Therefore I pray you to take some food, for this is for your salvation and health, for there shall not one hair fall from the head of any of you.
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
36 Then they were all of good cheer, and they also took some food.
37 And we were in all, in the ship, two hundred and seventy-six souls.
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the grain into the sea.
39 And when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they discovered a certain gulf with a shore, into which they decided, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.
40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and made toward shore.
41 But falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.
43 But the centurion, desiring to save Paul, frustrated this counsel and commanded that those who could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land;
44 and the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they were all saved by making it to land.
12 ¶ And the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou may eat the passover?
13 And he sends forth two of his disciples and said unto them, Go into the city, and a man shall meet you bearing a pitcher of water; follow him.
14 And wherever he shall go in, say to the husband of the house, The Master says, Where is the guestchamber where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16 And his disciples went forth and came into the city and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the passover.
17 And in the evening he went with the twelve.
18 And when they sat at the table and ate, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you who eats with me shall betray me.
19 And they began to be sorrowful and to say unto him one by one, shall it be I? and another said, shall it be I?
20 And he, answering, said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dips with me in the dish.
21 The Son of man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.
22 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and, blessing it, broke it and gave to them and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
23 And taking the cup, having given thanks, he gave it to them; and they all drank of it.
24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
26 And when they had sung the hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
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