Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide thyself from my supplication.
2 Attend unto me and hear me: I mourn in my complaint and make a noise
3 because of the voice of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked; for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Behold, then I would flee far away and dwell in the wilderness. Selah.
8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
9 ¶ Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; iniquity also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof; deceit and guile depart not from her streets.
12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13 But it was thou, who in my estimation was, my lord, and of my own family.
14 We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company.
15 Let them be condemned unto death, and let them go down alive into Sheol for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
16 ¶ As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice.
18 He has ransomed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me.
19 God shall hear and bring them down, even he that abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, nor do they fear God.
20 He has put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he has defiled his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
23 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of the grave; bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee.
Maschil of Asaph.
1 ¶ O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why does thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed, this Mount Zion, in which thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the eternal desolations, unto every enemy who has done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Thine enemies have roared in the midst of thy assemblies; they set up their own banners for signs.
5 Renowned, as one on the way to heaven, he who lifted up axes upon the thick trees for the work of the sanctuary.
6 But now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.
7 They have set fire to thy sanctuaries; they have defiled the tabernacle of thy name in the earth.
8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them at once; they have burned up all the meeting places of the people of God in the earth.
9 We no longer see our own banners; there is no longer any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows. How long shall this be?
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why dost thou withdraw thy hand, even thy right hand? Why dost thou hide it in thy bosom.
12 ¶ For God is my King from of old, he who works saving health in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou didst break the heads of leviathan in pieces and didst give him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the river; thou didst dry up mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter.
18 ¶ Remember this, that the enemy has spoken against the LORD and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the beasts; forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed; the poor and destitute shall praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches thee daily.
23 Forget not the voices of thine enemies; the tumult of those that rise up against thee increases continually.
Aleph
2 ¶ How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger! He has cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger!
Beth
2 The Lord has destroyed and has not forgiven; he has destroyed in his wrath all the habitations of Jacob; he has thrown down to the ground the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he has polluted the kingdom and its princes.
Gimel
3 He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel; he has caused his right hand to draw back in the presence of the enemy, and he burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours round about.
Daleth
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy; he strengthened his right hand as an adversary and slew everything of beauty that could be seen in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he poured out his fury like fire.
He
5 The Lord was as an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all her palaces; he has dissipated his strong holds and has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
Vau
6 And he has violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his congregation; the LORD has caused the solemnities and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has rejected in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
Zain
7 The Lord has cast off his altar; he has abhorred his sanctuary; he has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have shouted in the house of the LORD as in the day of a feast.
Cheth
8 The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he has stretched out the line; he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they were destroyed together.
Teth
9 Her gates were thrown to the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are carried off among the Gentiles; there is no law; nor have her prophets found vision from the LORD.
Nun
14 Thy prophets have preached vanity and foolishness unto thee; and they have not uncovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity but have preached unto thee vain prophecies and digressions.
Samech
15 All that passed by clapped their hands over thee and whistled and wagged their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
Pe
16 All thine enemies opened their mouths regarding thee; they whistled and gnashed their teeth; they said, Swallow her up; certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found it, we have seen it.
Ain
17 The LORD has done that which he had determined; he has fulfilled his word that he had commanded from the time of old; he has destroyed and has not forgiven; and he has caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee; he has raised up the horn of thine adversaries.
23 Moreover I call God for a witness upon my soul that I have not yet come unto Corinth to spare you.
24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy, for by faith ye stand.
2 ¶ But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in grief.
2 For if I make you grieve, who is he then that shall make me glad, but the same who is grieved by me?
3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have grief from those of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know how much more charity I have towards you.
5 ¶ But if any have caused me grief, he has not grieved me, but in part, that I may not put a burden on you all.
6 Sufficient to such a one is this reprehension, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with too much grief.
8 Therefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your charity toward him.
9 For to this end also I wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ,
11 lest Satan should deceive us, for we do not ignore his devices.
12 ¶ And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and dug a place for the winefat {Place where grapes are tread} and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went far away.
2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a slave that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.
3 And taking him, they beat him and sent him away empty.
4 And again he sent unto them another slave, and casting stones at him, they wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully handled.
5 And again he sent another, and him they killed and many others, beating some and killing some.
6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the place shall be ours.
8 And taking hold of him, they killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 What, therefore, shall the lord of the vineyard do? He shall come and destroy those husbandmen and shall give his vineyard unto others.
10 And have ye not read this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected is placed as the head of the corner;
11 This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
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