Book of Common Prayer
A Song of Ascents.
120 In my distress, I cried to Yahweh.
He answered me.
2 Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips,
from a deceitful tongue.
3 What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you,
you deceitful tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty,
with coals of juniper.
5 Woe is me, that I live in Meshech,
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has had her dwelling too long
with him who hates peace.
7 I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war.
A Song of Ascents.
121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills.
Where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from Yahweh,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 Yahweh is your keeper.
Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 Yahweh will keep you from all evil.
He will keep your soul.
8 Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in,
from this time forward, and forever more.
A Song of Ascents. By David.
122 I was glad when they said to me,
“Let’s go to Yahweh’s house!”
2 Our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together,
4 where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes,
according to an ordinance for Israel,
to give thanks to Yahweh’s name.
5 For there are set thrones for judgment,
the thrones of David’s house.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Those who love you will prosper.
7 Peace be within your walls,
and prosperity within your palaces.
8 For my brothers’ and companions’ sakes,
I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God,
I will seek your good.
A Song of Ascents.
123 I lift up my eyes to you,
you who sit in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to Yahweh, our God,
until he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease,
with the contempt of the proud.
A Song of Ascents. By David.
124 If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side,
let Israel now say,
2 if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side,
when men rose up against us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their wrath was kindled against us,
4 then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
the stream would have gone over our soul.
5 Then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.
6 Blessed be Yahweh,
who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.
7 Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare.
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in Yahweh’s name,
who made heaven and earth.
A Song of Ascents.
125 Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion,
which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so Yahweh surrounds his people from this time forward and forever more.
3 For the scepter of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous,
so that the righteous won’t use their hands to do evil.
4 Do good, Yahweh, to those who are good,
to those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways,
Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity.
Peace be on Israel.
A Song of Ascents.
126 When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“Yahweh has done great things for them.”
3 Yahweh has done great things for us,
and we are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh,
like the streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing,
will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.
A Song of Ascents. By Solomon.
127 Unless Yahweh builds the house,
they who build it labor in vain.
Unless Yahweh watches over the city,
the watchman guards it in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
to stay up late,
eating the bread of toil,
for he gives sleep to his loved ones.
3 Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh.
The fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man,
so are the children of youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
15 She said, “Behold,[a] your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”
16 Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God[b] my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”
18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. When they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was excited about them, and they asked, “Is this Naomi?”
20 She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi.[c] Call me Mara,[d] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 13 For we write no other things to you than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end— 14 as also you acknowledged us in part—that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
15 In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit, 16 and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea. 17 When I therefore planned this, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?” 18 But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not “Yes and no,” but in him is “Yes.” 20 For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.
21 Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. 15 Neither do you light a lamp and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. 16 Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter[a] or one tiny pen stroke[b] shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
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