Book of Common Prayer

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹ ¶ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy mercy; according unto the multitude of thy compassion eradicate my rebellion.

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my rebellion; and my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou be declared just in thy word and pure in thy judgment.

⁵ Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me.

⁶ Behold, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts, and in the secret things thou hast made me to know wisdom.

⁷ ¶ Remove the sin in me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

⁹ Hide thy face from my sins and eradicate all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy saving health, and thy spirit of liberty shall uphold me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

¹⁴ ¶ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

¹⁶ For thou dost not desire sacrifice or else would I give it; thou dost not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

¹⁸ Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Then thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the burnt offering, the offering that has been totally consumed by the fire; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim (lilies), A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

² I sink in deep mire where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

³ I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.

⁴ Those that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty; then I restored that which I did not take away.

⁵ O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my guiltiness is not hid from thee.

⁶ Do not let those that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of the hosts, be ashamed for my sake; do not let those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

⁷ Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.

⁸ I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s sons.

⁹ For the zeal of thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

¹⁰ When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.

¹¹ I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them.

¹² They that sat in the gate spoke against me, and I was the song of the drunkards.

¹³ ¶ But I corrected my prayer unto thee, O LORD, in the time of thy good pleasure; O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy saving health.

¹⁴ Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not drown; let me be delivered from those that hate me and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵ Let not the violent force of the waters overcome me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

¹⁶ Hear me, O LORD, for thy mercy is perceptible, look upon me according to the multitude of thy acts of compassion

¹⁷ And hide not thy face from thy slave, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.

¹⁸ Draw near unto my soul and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.

¹⁹ Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour; my adversaries are all before thee.

²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was no one, and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹ They also gave me gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²² ¶ Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their prosperity, let it become a stumbling block.

²³ Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake.

Aleph

1 ¶ How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! The great one among the nations is become as a widow; the princess of provinces is become tributary.

Beth

² She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies.

Vau

⁶ And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed; her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Zain

⁷ Jerusalem remembered the days of her affliction and of her rebellions and of all her desirable things that she had in the times of old when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and no one helped her; the enemies saw her and mocked at her days of rest.

Cheth

⁸ Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed; all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; yea, she sighs and is turned backward.

Teth

⁹ Her filthiness is in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore she came down surprisingly; she has no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

Jod

¹⁰ The enemy has spread out his hand upon all her precious things, and she saw the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Caph

¹¹ All her people sought their bread with sadness; they have given all their precious things for food to maintain life; see, O LORD, and consider, for I am become vile.

Lamed

¹² ¶ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is come unto me because the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

1 ¶ Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:

² Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵ For in the same manner that the sufferings of the Christ abound in us, so also our consolation abounds by Christ.

⁶ And if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and saving health, which is effected in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and saving health.

⁷ ¶ And our hope of you is steadfast, being certain, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

¹² ¶ And the next day when they left Bethany, he was hungry,

¹³ and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing upon her; but when he came to her, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet.

¹⁴ Then Jesus, answering, said to the fig tree, Never again shall anyone eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵ And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus, entering into the temple, began to cast out those that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those that sold doves

¹⁶ and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

¹⁷ And he taught them, saying, Is it not written that my house shall be called house of prayer by all the nations? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

¹⁸ And the scribes and the princes of the priests heard it and sought how they might kill him, for they feared him because all the multitude was astonished at his doctrine.

¹⁹ But when evening was come, Jesus went out of the city.

²⁰ And passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

²¹ Then Peter, remembering, said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou didst curse is withered away.

²² And Jesus, answering, said unto them, Have faith in God.

²³ For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Remove thyself and cast thyself into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he says shall be done whatsoever he says shall be done unto him.

²⁴ Therefore I say unto you that everything that ye ask for, praying, believe that ye receive it, and it shall come upon you.

²⁵ And when ye are praying, forgive if ye have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in the heavens will also forgive you your trespasses.