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    Psalm 86  
     
1
  Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, 
    for I am poor and in misery.
     
2
  Preserve my soul, for I am faithful; 
    save your servant, for I put my trust in you.
     
3
  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; 
    I call upon you all the day long.
     
4
  Gladden the soul of your servant, 
    for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
     
5
  For you, Lord, are good and forgiving, 
    abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
     
6
  Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer 
    and listen to the voice of my supplication.
     
7
  In the day of my distress I will call upon you, 
    for you will answer me.
     
     
8
  Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, 
    nor any works like yours.
     
9
  All nations you have made shall come and worship you, O Lord, 
    and shall glorify your name.
     
10
  For you are great and do wonderful things; 
    you alone are God.
     
11
  Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; 
    knit my heart to you, that I may fear your name.
     
12
  I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, 
    and glorify your name for evermore;
     
13
  For great is your steadfast love towards me, 
    for you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.
     
14
  O God, the proud rise up against me
    and a ruthless horde seek after my life; 
    they have not set you before their eyes.
     
15
  But you, Lord, are gracious and full of compassion, 
    slow to anger and full of kindness and truth.
     
16
  Turn to me and have mercy upon me; 
    give your strength to your servant
    and save the child of your handmaid.
     
17
  Show me a token of your favour,
    that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed; 
    because you, O Lord, have helped and comforted me.
     
    Psalm 87  
     
1
  His foundation is on the holy mountains. 
    The Lord loves the gates of Zion
    more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
     
2
  Glorious things are spoken of you, 
    Zion, city of our God.
     
3
  I record Egypt and Babylon as those who know me; 
    behold Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia:
    in Zion were they born.
     
4
  And of Zion it shall be said, 'Each one was born in her, 
    and the Most High himself has established her.'
     
5
  The Lord will record as he writes up the peoples, 
    'This one also was born there.'
     
6
  And as they dance they shall sing, 
    'All my fresh springs are in you.'
     
    Psalm 88  
     
1
  O Lord, God of my salvation, 
    I have cried day and night before you.
     
2
  Let my prayer come into your presence; 
    incline your ear to my cry.
     
3
  For my soul is full of troubles; 
    my life draws near to the land of death.
     
4
  I am counted as one gone down to the Pit; 
    I am like one that has no strength,
     
5
  Lost among the dead, 
    like the slain who lie in the grave,
     
6
  Whom you remember no more, 
    for they are cut off from your hand.
     
7
  You have laid me in the lowest pit, 
    in a place of darkness in the abyss.
     
8
  Your anger lies heavy upon me, 
    and you have afflicted me with all your waves.
     
9
  You have put my friends far from me 
    and made me to be abhorred by them.
     
10
  I am so fast in prison that I cannot get free; 
    my eyes fail from all my trouble.
     
11
  Lord, I have called daily upon you; 
    I have stretched out my hands to you.
     
12
  Do you work wonders for the dead? 
    Will the shades stand up and praise you?
     
13
  Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave, 
    your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
     
14
  Shall your wonders be known in the dark 
    or your righteous deeds in the land where all is forgotten?
     
15
  But as for me, O Lord, I will cry to you; 
    early in the morning my prayer shall come before you.
     
16
  Lord, why have you rejected my soul? 
    Why have you hidden your face from me?
     
17
  I have been wretched and at the point of death from my youth; 
    I suffer your terrors and am no more seen.
     
18
  Your wrath sweeps over me; 
    your horrors are come to destroy me;
     
19
  All day long they come about me like water; 
    they close me in on every side.
     
20
  Lover and friend have you put far from me 
    and hid my companions out of my sight.
     
    Psalm 89  
     
1
  My song shall be always of the loving-kindness of the Lord: 
    with my mouth will I proclaim your faithfulness
    throughout all generations.
     
2
  I will declare that your love is established for ever; 
    you have set your faithfulness as firm as the heavens.
     
3
  For you said: 'I have made a covenant with my chosen one; 
    I have sworn an oath to David my servant:
     
4
  ' "Your seed will I establish for ever 
    and build up your throne for all generations." '
     
     
5
  The heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, 
    and your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones;
     
6
  For who among the clouds can be compared to the Lord? 
    Who is like the Lord among the host of heaven?
     
7
  A God feared in the council of the holy ones, 
    great and terrible above all those round about him.
     
8
  Who is like you, Lord God of hosts? 
    Mighty Lord, your faithfulness is all around you.
     
9
  You rule the raging of the sea; 
    you still its waves when they arise.
     
10
  You crushed Rahab with a deadly wound 
    and scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
     
11
  Yours are the heavens; the earth also is yours; 
    you established the world and all that fills it.
     
12
  You created the north and the south; 
    Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.
     
13
  You have a mighty arm; 
    strong is your hand and high is your right hand.
     
14
  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; 
    steadfast love and faithfulness go before your face.
     
15
  Happy are the people who know the shout of triumph: 
    they walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance.
     
16
  In your name they rejoice all the day long 
    and are exalted in your righteousness.
     
17
  For you are the glory of their strength, 
    and in your favour you lift up our heads.
     
18
  Truly the Lord is our shield; 
    the Holy One of Israel is our king.
     
     
19
  You spoke once in a vision and said to your faithful people: 
    'I have set a youth above the mighty;
    I have raised a young man over the people.
     
20
  'I have found David my servant; 
    with my holy oil have I anointed him.
     
21
  'My hand shall hold him fast 
    and my arm shall strengthen him.
     
22
  'No enemy shall deceive him, 
    nor any wicked person afflict him.
     
23
  'I will strike down his foes before his face 
    and beat down those that hate him.
     
24
  'My truth also and my steadfast love shall be with him, 
    and in my name shall his head be exalted.
     
25
  'I will set his dominion upon the sea 
    and his right hand upon the rivers.
     
26
  'He shall call to me, "You are my Father, 
    my God, and the rock of my salvation;"
     
27
  'And I will make him my firstborn, 
    the most high above the kings of the earth.
     
28
  'The love I have pledged to him will I keep for ever, 
    and my covenant will stand fast with him.
     
29
  'His seed also will I make to endure for ever 
    and his throne as the days of heaven.
     
30
  'But if his children forsake my law 
    and cease to walk in my judgements,
     
31
  'If they break my statutes 
    and do not keep my commandments,
     
32
  'I will punish their offences with a rod 
    and their sin with scourges.
     
33
  'But I will not take from him my steadfast love 
    nor suffer my truth to fail.
     
34
  'My covenant will I not break 
    nor alter what has gone out of my lips.
     
35
  'Once for all have I sworn by my holiness 
    that I will not prove false to David.
     
36
  'His seed shall endure for ever 
    and his throne as the sun before me;
     
37
  'It shall stand fast for ever as the moon, 
    the enduring witness in the heavens.'
     
     
38
  But you have cast off and rejected your anointed; 
    you have shown fierce anger against him.
     
39
  You have broken the covenant with your servant, 
    and have cast his crown to the dust.
     
40
  You have broken down all his walls 
    and laid his strongholds in ruins.
     
41
  All who pass by despoil him, 
    and he has become the scorn of his neighbours.
     
42
  You have exalted the right hand of his foes 
    and made all his enemies rejoice.
     
43
  You have turned back the edge of his sword 
    and have not upheld him in battle.
     
44
  You have made an end of his radiance 
    and cast his throne to the ground.
     
45
  You have cut short the days of his youth 
    and have covered him with shame.
     
46
  How long will you hide yourself so utterly, O Lord? 
    How long shall your anger burn like fire?
     
47
  Remember how short my time is, 
    how frail you have made all mortal flesh.
     
48
  Which of the living shall not see death, 
    and shall deliver their soul from the power of darkness?
     
49
  Where, O Lord, is your steadfast love of old, 
    which you swore to David in your faithfulness?
     
50
  Remember, O Lord, how your servant is scorned, 
    how I bear in my bosom the taunts of many peoples,
     
51
  While your enemies mock, O Lord, 
    while they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
     
52
  Blessed be the Lord for evermore. 
    Amen and Amen.
     
    Psalm 90  
     
1
  Lord, you have been our refuge 
    from one generation to another.
     
2
  Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or the earth and the world were formed, 
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
     
3
  You turn us back to dust and say: 
    'Turn back, O children of earth.'
     
4
  For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, 
    which passes like a watch in the night.
     
5
  You sweep them away like a dream; 
    they fade away suddenly like the grass.
     
6
  In the morning it is green and flourishes; 
    in the evening it is dried up and withered.
     
7
  For we consume away in your displeasure; 
    we are afraid at your wrathful indignation.
     
8
  You have set our misdeeds before you 
    and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
     
9
  When you are angry, all our days are gone; 
    our years come to an end like a sigh.
     
10
  The days of our life are three score years and ten,
    or if our strength endures, even four score; 
    yet the sum of them is but labour and sorrow,
    for they soon pass away and we are gone.
     
11
  Who regards the power of your wrath 
    and your indignation like those who fear you?
     
12
  So teach us to number our days 
    that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
     
     
13
  Turn again, O Lord; how long will you delay? 
    Have compassion on your servants.
     
14
  Satisfy us with your loving-kindness in the morning, 
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
     
15
  Give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us, 
    and for the years in which we have seen adversity.
     
16
  Show your servants your works, 
    and let your glory be over their children.
     
17
  May the gracious favour of the Lord our God be upon us; 
    prosper our handiwork; O prosper the work of our hands.
     
© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2000-2004
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