Book of Common Prayer
69 Save me, O God, for the waters have entered even to my soul.
2 I sink in the deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, and the streams run over me.
3 I am weary from crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who would destroy me, and are wrongfully my enemies, are mighty. Thus, I restored that which I did not take.
5 O God, You know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from You.
6 Do not let those who trust in You, O LORD God of Hosts, be ashamed because of me. Do not let those who seek You be confounded through me, O God of Israel.
7 For Your sake I have suffered reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.
9 For the zeal of Your House has eaten me, and the rebukes of those who rebuked You have fallen upon me.
10 I wept and my soul fasted; but that was to my reproach.
11 I put on sackcloth also; and I became a proverb to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate speak of me; and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But LORD, I make my prayer to You in an acceptable time, in the multitude of Your mercy. O God, hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, so that I do not sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Do not let the flood water drown me or let the deep swallow me up; and do not let the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good! Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me quickly.
18 Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of my enemies.
19 You have known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. All my adversaries are before You.
20 Rebuke has broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to have pity, but there was no one; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 For they gave Me gall in My food; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table be a snare before them, and their prosperity their ruin.
23 Let their eyes be blinded, so that they do not see; and make their loins tremble always.
24 Pour out Your anger upon them, and let Your wrathful displeasure take them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom You have stricken; and they add to the sorrow of those whom You have wounded.
27 Lay iniquity upon their iniquity; and do not let them come into Your righteousness.
28 Let them be put out of the Book of Life. Do not let them be written with the righteous.
29 When I am poor and in heaviness, Your help, O God, shall exalt me.
30 I will praise the Name of God with a song and magnify Him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than a young bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this; and those who seek God shall be glad; and Your heart shall live.
33 For the LORD hears the poor and does not despise prisoners.
34 Let Heaven and Earth praise Him; the seas and all that moves in them!
35 For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, so that men may dwell there and possess it.
36 Also, the seed of His servants shall inherit it; and those who love His Name shall dwell therein. To him who excels: A Psalm of David, to put in remembrance
73 Truly, God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart!
2 As for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had very nearly slipped.
3 For I envied the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no pains in their death; but they are lusty and strong.
5 They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore, pride is as a necklace to them, and cruelty covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes bulge with fatness. They have more than heart can wish.
8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They talk presumptuously.
9 They set their mouth against Heaven, and their tongue walks through the Earth.
10 Therefore, his people return here; for waters of abundance are drained by them,
11 and they say, “How does God know it?” or “Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Lo, these are the wicked; yet they always prosper and increase in riches.
13 Certainly, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For I have been punished daily and chastened every morning.
15 If I say, “I will judge like this,” behold, I have trespassed the generation of Your children.
16 When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me,
17 Then I went into the Sanctuary of God, and I understood their end.
18 Surely, You have set them in slippery places, and cast them down into desolation.
19 How suddenly they are destroyed, ended and horribly consumed,
20 As a dream when one awakes, O LORD, shall You make their image despised when You raise us up.
21 Certainly, my heart was grieved; and I was pricked in my core.
22 So foolish was I and ignorant! I was a beast before You!
23 Yet, I was always with You. You have held my right hand.
24 You will guide me by Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom do I have in Heaven but You? And, I have desired nothing on the Earth besides You.
26 My flesh fails and my heart also. God is the strength of my heart and my portion, forever.
27 For lo, those who withdraw themselves from You shall perish. You destroy all those who are unfaithful to You.
28 As for me, it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the LORD God, so that I may declare all Your works. A Psalm to give instruction, committed to Asaph
1 In the days of Ahasuerus (This is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces,
2 in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his throne, which was in the palace of Shushan),
3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his princes and his servants—even the power of Persia and Media—and to the captains and governors of the provinces which were before him.
4 So that he might show the riches and glory of his kingdom, and the honor of his great majesty for many days, even 180 days.
10 On the seventh day, when the King was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas (the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of king Ahasuerus)
11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with the crown royal, so that he might show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to look upon.
12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s word which he had given in charge to the eunuchs. Therefore, the king was very angry, and his wrath kindled in him.
13 Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for so was the King’s manner towards all who knew the law and the judgment—
14 and closest to him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia, and Media—who saw the king’s face and sat the first in the kingdom),
15 “What shall we do to Queen Vashti according to the law, because she did not do according to the word of King Ahasuerus, by the commission of the eunuchs?”
16 Then Memucan answered before the king and the princes, “The Queen Vashti has not only done evil against the king, but against all the princes, and against all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
17 For the act of the queen shall become known to all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their own eyes, and shall say, ‘The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the Queen to be brought in before him, but she did not come.’
18 “So shall the princesses of Persia and Media say this day to all the king’s princes when they hear of the act of the queen. Thus shall there be much spitefulness and wrath.
19 “If it please the king, let a royal decree proceed from him; and let it be written among the statutes of Persia and Media. And let it not be transgressed that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to someone who is better than she.
17 Now as they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 And Paul (as was his custom) went in and argued with them from the Scriptures for three Sabbaths,
3 Opening, and alleging, that Christ must have suffered and risen again from the dead; and saying, “This is Jesus Christ. Whom I preach to you.”
4 And some of them believed (also a great multitude of the Greeks who feared God, and not a few of the chief women) and joined with Paul and Silas.
5 But the Jews who did not believe - moved with envy – took some wicked fellows from the marketplace. And when they had assembled a multitude, they made a disturbance in the city. And they assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers before the heads of the city, crying, “Those who have subverted the state of the world are here also!
7 “Jason has received them. And they all act against the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another King - Jesus!”
8 And they troubled the people and the heads of the city, when they heard these things.
9 Nevertheless, when they had received bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.
10 And the brothers immediately sent away Paul and Silas to Berea by night. And when they had gotten there, they entered into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 Also, these were more noble men than those at Thessalonica. They received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, and honorable Greek women, and not a few men.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica knew that the Word of God was also preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also, and moved the people.
14 And immediately the brothers sent Paul away, to go to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there.
15 And those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens. And when they had received a commandment for Silas and Timothy to come to him at once, they departed.
36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, that you may be the children of the Light.” These things Jesus spoke. And having departed, He hid Himself from them.
37 And though He had done so many miracles before them, they did not believe in Him,
38 so that the saying of Isaiah the Prophet might be fulfilled, that said, ‘Lord, who believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?’
39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah says again,
40 ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.’
41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His Glory and spoke of Him.
42 Nevertheless, even among the chief rulers, many believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be cast out of the synagogue.
43 For they loved the praise of man more than the praise of God.
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