Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon: The silent dove in a distant land, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he oppresses me fighting me daily.
2 My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day my life is filled with sorrow; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies be turned back; in this I know that God is for me.
10 In God I will praise his word; in the LORD I will praise his word.
11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.
12 Thy promises are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my life from death; thou hast kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David, when he fled from the presence of Saul in the cave.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities are overpast.
2 I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from the heavens and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
4 My soul is among lions, and I lie even among those that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7 ¶ My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing; I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will arise early.
9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.
1 ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?
2 Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,
5 which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect; suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they attempt to hide the snares; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they perfect and put into effect that which they have invented in the inward thought of each one of them and that which they have devised in their heart.
7 ¶ But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own council and agreements to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall understand his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall become secure in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm and Song of David.
1 ¶ Praise doth rest in thee, O God, in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Words of iniquity overwhelmed me, but thou shalt purge away our rebellion.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou dost choose and cause to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple.
5 With tremendous things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our saving health, who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those that are afar off upon the sea:
6 ¶ Thou art he who doth establish the mountains by thy strength, being girded with valour:
7 He who stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the Gentiles.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy wonders; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou dost visit the earth, and when thou hast caused it to want, thou dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; thou dost prepare their grain, according to thy will.
10 Thou dost water its rows abundantly; thou dost settle its furrows; thou dost make it soft with showers of rain; thou dost bless its sprouting.
11 Thou dost crown the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds distill fatness.
12 They fall upon the habitations of the wilderness; and the hills gird themselves with happiness.
13 The plains clothe themselves with sheep, and the valleys cover themselves with grain; they give shouts of triumph, they even sing.
30 ¶ And it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt return unto thy heart among all the Gentiles, where the LORD thy God shall have driven thee,
2 and shalt convert unto the LORD thy God and shalt hear his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
3 then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity and have mercy upon thee and will return and gather thee from all the peoples where the LORD thy God has scattered thee.
4 If thou hast been driven out unto the outmost parts of the heavens, from there will the LORD thy God gather thee and from there will he take thee;
5 and the LORD thy God will return thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt inherit it; and he will do thee good and multiply thee more than thy fathers.
6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou may live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies and on those that hate thee, who persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and thou shalt hear the voice of the LORD and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the LORD thy God will make thee abound in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body and in the fruit of thy beasts and in the fruit of thy land, for good; for the LORD will turn to rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers,
10 when thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, when thou shalt turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul.
10 ¶ Now I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and clemency of the Christ (who in presence am low among you, but being absent am bold toward you)
2 but I beseech you that I need not be bold when I am present with that confidence, with which I am esteemed to use against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the destruction of strong holds),
5 casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ
6 and having a readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 ¶ Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If anyone trusts to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.
8 For though I should glory somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed,
9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
10 For his letters, they say, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
11 Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.
12 ¶ For we dare not mix ourselves in with or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they do not understand that they are measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves.
13 But we will not glory of things beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the rule, of the measure which God has distributed to us, to reach even unto you.
14 For we do not overextend ourselves by reaching unto you; for we are also come unto you with the gospel of the Christ,
15 Not glorying of things beyond our measure in the labours of others; but having hope of the increase of your faith, that we shall be abundantly enlarged among you according to our rule,
16 to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, without entering into the measure {Gr. rule} of another to glory in that which has already been made ready.
17 But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.
18 For it is not he that commends himself that is approved, but whom the Lord commends.
31 ¶ Then he took unto him the twelve and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles and shall be mocked and spitefully treated and spitted on;
33 and they shall scourge him and put him to death, but the third day he shall rise again.
34 And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they did not know what was said.
35 ¶ And it came to pass that as he came near unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat beside the way begging,
36 and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what this might be.
37 And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passes by.
38 And he cried out, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
39 And those who went before rebuked him that he should remain silent; but he cried out so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought unto him, and when he was come near, he asked him,
41 saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may see.
42 And Jesus said unto him, See; thy faith has saved thee.
43 And immediately he saw and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
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