Old/New Testament
1 ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3 and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
9 For he satisfies the soul that is destitute and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 ¶ Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,
11 because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bonds asunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron asunder.
17 ¶ The fools, because of the way of their rebellion, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their graves.
21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
22 And let them offer the sacrifices of praise and publish his works with singing.
23 ¶ Those that go down to the sea in ships that do work in many waters,
24 these have seen the works of the LORD and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
26 They mount up to the heavens; they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and all of their knowledge is of no avail.
28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivers them out of their afflictions.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are at rest; so he brings them into the haven of his will.
31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33 ¶ He turned rivers into a wilderness and the watersprings into dry ground;
34 the fruitful land into salt flats, because of the wickedness of those that dwell therein.
35 He turns the wilderness into reservoirs of water and dry ground into watersprings.
36 And there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation
37 and sow the fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
38 He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly and suffers not their cattle to decrease.
39 Again, they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
40 He pours contempt upon princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
41 Yet he sets the poor on high from affliction and makes his families like a flock.
42 The righteous shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43 Who is wise and will observe these things and shall understand the mercies of the LORD?
A Song or Psalm of David.
1 ¶ O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise; this is my glory.
2 Awake, psaltery and harp; I will awake the dawn.
3 I will praise thee, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy truth reaches unto the heavens.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth;
6 ¶ that thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.
7 God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead shall be mine; Manasseh shall be mine; Ephraim also shall be the strength of my head; Judah shall be my lawgiver;
9 Moab shall be my washpot; over Edom I will cast my shoe; over Philistia I will triumph.
10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
11 Surely thou, O God, who had cast us off and did not, O God, go forth with our hosts.
12 Give us help from trouble; for the salvation of man is deception.
13 Through God we shall do valiantly, for he shall tread down our enemies again.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Do not hold thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken of me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.
4 They have responded to my love by becoming my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 ¶ Set thou the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few, and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be no one to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy but persecuted the man who is poor in spirit and destitute and broken in heart, that he might slay him.
17 As he loved the curse, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in the blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with the curse like as with his garment, and it entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward from the LORD of those who spoke falsely against me and of those that speak evil against my soul.
21 ¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God; O save me according to thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, O LORD, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy slave rejoice.
29 Let those who speak evil against me falsely be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor in spirit to save his soul from those that judge him.
4 ¶ Let us reckon men as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover, it is required in stewards that each one be found faithful.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by man’s judgment; I do not even judge my own self.
4 For although I have nothing on my conscience, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judges me is the Lord.
5 Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each one have praise of God.
6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that in us ye might not learn above that which is written, lest because of one, some of you become puffed up against others.
7 ¶ For who makes thee to judge? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, what dost thou glory of, as if thou hadst not received it?
8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye reign as kings without us, and I wish ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9 For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are ill clad and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place
12 and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;
13 being blasphemed, we intreat; we are made as the filth of this world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
14 ¶ I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn you, as to my beloved sons.
15 For though ye may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet ye shall not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Therefore, I beseech you that ye imitate me.
17 ¶ For this cause I have sent Timothy unto you, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which are in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every congregation. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}
18 Now some are puffed up as though I will never come to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and will know not the words of those who are puffed up, but the virtue.
20 For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in virtue.
21 What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod or in charity and in the spirit of meekness?
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