Book of Common Prayer

2 Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?

² The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ.

³ Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us.

⁴ He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them.

⁵ Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage.

⁶ But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment.

⁷ The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.

⁸ Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.

⁹ Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

¹⁰ And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth.

¹¹ Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling.

¹² Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way.

¹³ When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, blessed are all they that trust in him.

26 The psalm of David before he was anointed. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?

² Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen.

³ If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.

⁴ One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit his temple.

⁵ For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle; in the day of evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle.

⁶ He hath exalted me upon a rock: and now he hath lifted up my head above my enemies. I have gone round, and have offered up in his tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation: I will sing, and recite a psalm to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, my voice, with which I have cried to thee: have mercy on me and hear me.

⁸ My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek.

⁹ Turn not away thy face from me; decline not in thy wrath from thy servant. Be thou my helper, forsake me not; do not thou despise me, O God my Saviour.

¹⁰ For my father and my mother have left me: but the Lord hath taken me up.

¹¹ Set me, O Lord, a law in thy way, and guide me in the right path, because of my enemies.

¹² Deliver me not over to the will of them that trouble me; for unjust witnesses have risen up against me; and iniquity hath lied to itself.

¹³ I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.

¹³ Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.

¹⁴ And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.

¹⁵ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.

¹⁶ Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes.

¹⁷ Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and make thee waste shall go out of thee.

¹⁸ Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee.

¹⁹ For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be chased far away.

²⁰ The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: The place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in.

²¹ And thou shalt-say in thy heart: Who hath begotten these? I was barren and brought not forth, led away, and captive: and who hath brought up these? I was destitute and alone: and these, where were they?

²² Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and will set up my standard to the people. And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and carry thy daughters upon their shoulders.

²³ And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses: they shall worship thee with their face toward the earth, and they shall lick up the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be confounded that wait for him.

18 At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven?

² And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them,

³ And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵ And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.

⁶ But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.

⁷ Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.

⁸ And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire.

⁹ And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

¹⁰ See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

¹¹ For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

¹² What think you? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray?

¹³ And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoiceth more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray.

¹⁴ Even so it is not the will of your Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

19 Unto the end. A psalm for David.

² May the Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation: may the name of the God of Jacob protect thee.

³ May he send thee help from the sanctuary: and defend thee out of Sion.

⁴ May he be mindful of all thy sacrifices: and may thy whole burnt offering be made fat.

⁵ May he give thee according to thy own heart; and confirm all thy counsels.

⁶ We will rejoice in thy salvation; and in the name of our God we shall be exalted.

⁷ The Lord fulfill all thy petitions: now have I known that the Lord hath saved his anointed. He will hear him from his holy heaven: the salvation of his right hand is in powers.

⁸ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.

⁹ They are bound, and have fallen; but we are risen, and are set upright. O Lord, save the king: and hear us in the day that we shall call upon thee.

126 Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.

² It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

³ Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.

⁴ As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken.

⁵ Blessed is the man that hath filled the desire with them; he shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate.

¹³ And they brought to him young children, that he might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought them.

¹⁴ Whom when Jesus saw, he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.

¹⁵ Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it.

¹⁶ And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them, he blessed them.