Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 26
[A Psalm] of David.
1 Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; I have [expectantly] trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide.
2 Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.
3 For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth [faithfully].
4 I do not sit with false persons, nor fellowship with pretenders;
5 I hate the company of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence, and go about Your altar, O Lord,
7 That I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell of all Your wondrous works.
8 Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.
9 Gather me not with sinners and sweep me not away [with them], nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
10 In whose hands is wickedness, and their right hands are full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful and gracious to me.
12 My foot stands on an even place; in the congregations will I bless the Lord.
Psalm 28
[A Psalm] of David.
1 Unto You do I cry, O Lord my Rock, be not deaf and silent to me, lest, if You be silent to me, I become like those going down to the pit [the grave].
2 Hear the voice of my supplication as I cry to You for help, as I lift up my hands toward Your innermost sanctuary (the Holy of Holies).
3 Drag me not away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace with their neighbors, but malice and mischief are in their hearts.
4 Repay them according to their work and according to the wickedness of their doings; repay them according to the work of their hands; render to them what they deserve.(A)
5 Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operations of His hands, He will break them down and not rebuild them.
6 Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my Strength and my [impenetrable] Shield; my heart trusts in, relies on, and confidently leans on Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song will I praise Him.
8 The Lord is their [unyielding] Strength, and He is the Stronghold of salvation to [me] His anointed.
9 Save Your people and bless Your heritage; nourish and shepherd them and carry them forever.
Psalm 36
To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David the servant of the Lord.
1 Transgression [like an oracle] speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear or dread of God before his eyes.(A)
2 For he flatters and deceives himself in his own eyes that his iniquity will not be found out and be hated.
3 The words of his mouth are wrong and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plans wrongdoing on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject or despise evil.
5 Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgments are like the great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
8 They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house; and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.(B)
10 O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, Your righteousness (salvation) to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride overtake me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the workers of iniquity fall and lie prostrate; they are thrust down and shall not be able to rise.
Psalm 39
To the Chief Musician; for Jeduthun [founder of an official musical family]. A Psalm of David.
1 I said, I will take heed and guard my ways, that I may sin not with my tongue; I will muzzle my mouth as with a bridle while the wicked are before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace without profit and had no comfort away from good, while my distress was renewed.
3 My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
4 Lord, make me to know my end and [to appreciate] the measure of my days—what it is; let me know and realize how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].
5 Behold, You have made my days as [short as] handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Truly every man at his best is merely a breath! Selah [pause, and think calmly of that]!
6 Surely every man walks to and fro—like a shadow in a pantomime; surely for futility and emptiness he is in turmoil; each one heaps up riches, not knowing who will gather them.(A)
7 And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the scorn and reproach of the [self-confident] fool!
9 I am dumb, I open not my mouth, for it is You Who has done it.
10 Remove Your stroke away from me; I am consumed by the conflict and the blow of Your hand.
11 When with rebukes You correct and chasten man for sin, You waste his beauty like a moth and what is dear to him consumes away; surely every man is a mere breath. Selah [pause, and think calmly of that]!
12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not Your peace at my tears! For I am Your passing guest, a temporary resident, as all my fathers were.
13 O look away from me and spare me, that I may recover cheerfulness and encouraging strength and know gladness before I go and am no more!
1 How solitary and lonely sits the city [Jerusalem] that was [once] full of people! How like a widow has she become! She who was [a]great among the nations and princess among the provinces has become a tributary [in servitude]!
2 She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are [constantly] on her cheeks. Among all her lovers (allies) she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.(A)
3 Judah has gone into exile [to escape] from the affliction and laborious servitude [of the homeland]. She dwells among the [heathen] nations, but she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtook her amid the [dire] straits [of her distress].
4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly or the appointed feasts. All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh and groan, her maidens are grieved and vexed, and she herself is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries have become the head; her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children have gone into captivity before the enemy.(B)
6 From the Daughter of Zion all her beauty and majesty have departed. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they have fled without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem [earnestly] remembers in the days of her affliction, in the days of her [compulsory] wanderings and her bitterness, all the pleasant and precious things that she had from the days of old. When her people fell into and at the hands of the adversary, and there was none to help her, the enemy [gloated as they] looked at her, and they mocked at her desolations and downfall.
8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become an unclean thing and has been removed. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; yes, she herself groans and sighs and turns [her face] away.
9 Her filthiness was in and on her skirts; she did not [seriously and earnestly] consider her final end. Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] singularly and astonishingly; she has no comforter. O Lord [cries Jerusalem], look at my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself [in triumph]!
10 The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her precious and desirable things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary [of the temple]—[b]when You commanded that they should not even enter Your congregation [in the outer courts].(C)
11 All her people groan and sigh, seeking for bread; they have given their desirable and precious things [in exchange] for food to revive their strength and bring back life. See, O Lord, and consider how wretched and lightly esteemed, how vile and abominable, I have become!
12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was dealt out to me, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger!
41 The sun is glorious in one way, the moon is glorious in another way, and the stars are glorious in their own [distinctive] way; for one star differs from and surpasses another in its beauty and brilliance.
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. [The body] that is sown is perishable and decays, but [the body] that is resurrected is imperishable (immune to decay, immortal).(A)
43 It is sown in dishonor and humiliation; it is raised in honor and glory. It is sown in infirmity and weakness; it is resurrected in strength and endued with power.
44 It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. [As surely as] there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
45 Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life].(B)
46 But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical and then the spiritual.
47 The first man [was] from out of earth, made of dust (earthly-minded); the second Man [is] the Lord from out of heaven.(C)
48 Now those who are made of the dust are like him who was first made of the dust (earthly-minded); and as is [the Man] from heaven, so also [are those] who are of heaven (heavenly-minded).
49 And just as we have borne the image [of the man] of dust, so shall we and so [a]let us also bear the image [of the Man] of heaven.
50 But I tell you this, brethren, flesh and blood cannot [become partakers of eternal salvation and] inherit or share in the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (that which is decaying) inherit or share in the imperishable (the immortal).
25 At that time Jesus began to say, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth [and [a]I acknowledge openly and joyfully to Your honor], that You have hidden these things from the wise and clever and learned, and revealed them to babies [to the [b]childish, untaught, and unskilled].
26 Yes, Father, [I praise You that] such was Your gracious will and good pleasure.
27 All things have been entrusted and delivered to Me by My Father; and no one [c]fully knows and [d]accurately understands the Son except the Father, and no one [e]fully knows and [f]accurately understands the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son [g]deliberately wills to make Him known.
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will [h]ease and relieve and [i]refresh [j]your souls.]
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest ([k]relief and ease and refreshment and [l]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.(A)
30 For My yoke is wholesome (useful, [m]good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
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