Book of Common Prayer
A Lament of Israelites in Exile
137 By the rivers of Babylon we sat down;
there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows near by
we hung up our harps.
3 Those who captured us told us to sing;
they told us to entertain them:
“Sing us a song about Zion.”
4 How can we sing a song to the Lord
in a foreign land?
5 May I never be able to play the harp again
if I forget you, Jerusalem!
6 May I never be able to sing again
if I do not remember you,
if I do not think of you as my greatest joy!
7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
the day Jerusalem was captured.
Remember how they kept saying,
“Tear it down to the ground!”
8 (A)Babylon, you will be destroyed.
Happy are those who pay you back
for what you have done to us—
9 who take your babies
and smash them against a rock.
A King Thanks God for Victory[a]
144 Praise the Lord, my protector!
He trains me for battle
and prepares me for war.
2 He is my protector and defender,
my shelter and savior,
in whom I trust for safety.
He subdues the nations under me.
3 (A)Lord, what are mortals, that you notice them;
mere mortals, that you pay attention to us?
4 We are like a puff of wind;
our days are like a passing shadow.
5 O Lord, tear the sky open and come down;
touch the mountains, and they will pour out smoke.
6 Send flashes of lightning and scatter your enemies;
shoot your arrows and send them running.
7 Reach down from above,
pull me out of the deep water, and rescue me;
save me from the power of foreigners,
8 who never tell the truth
and lie even under oath.
9 I will sing you a new song, O God;
I will play the harp and sing to you.
10 You give victory to kings
and rescue your servant David.
11 Save me from my cruel enemies;
rescue me from the power of foreigners,
who never tell the truth
and lie even under oath.
12 May our sons in their youth
be like plants that grow up strong.
May our daughters be like stately columns
which adorn the corners of a palace.
13 May our barns be filled
with crops of every kind.
May the sheep in our fields
bear young by the tens of thousands.
14 May our cattle reproduce plentifully
without miscarriage or loss.
May there be no cries of distress in our streets.
15 Happy is the nation of whom this is true;
happy are the people whose God is the Lord!
In Praise of the Creator
104 Praise the Lord, my soul!
O Lord, my God, how great you are!
You are clothed with majesty and glory;
2 you cover yourself with light.
You have spread out the heavens like a tent
3 and built your home on the waters above.[a]
You use the clouds as your chariot
and ride on the wings of the wind.
4 (A)You use the winds as your messengers
and flashes of lightning as your servants.
5 You have set the earth firmly on its foundations,
and it will never be moved.
6 You placed the ocean over it like a robe,
and the water covered the mountains.
7 When you rebuked the waters, they fled;
they rushed away when they heard your shout of command.
8 They flowed over the mountains and into the valleys,
to the place you had made for them.
9 You set a boundary they can never pass,
to keep them from covering the earth again.
10 You make springs flow in the valleys,
and rivers run between the hills.
11 They provide water for the wild animals;
there the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 In the trees near by,
the birds make their nests and sing.
13 From the sky you send rain on the hills,
and the earth is filled with your blessings.
14 You make grass grow for the cattle
and plants for us to use,
so that we can grow our crops
15 and produce wine to make us happy,
olive oil to make us cheerful,
and bread to give us strength.
16 The cedars of Lebanon get plenty of rain—
the Lord's own trees, which he planted.
17 There the birds build their nests;
the storks nest in the fir trees.
18 The wild goats live in the high mountains,
and the rock badgers hide in the cliffs.
19 You created the moon to mark the months;
the sun knows the time to set.
20 You made the night, and in the darkness
all the wild animals come out.
21 The young lions roar while they hunt,
looking for the food that God provides.
22 When the sun rises, they go back
and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to do their work
and keep working until evening.
24 Lord, you have made so many things!
How wisely you made them all!
The earth is filled with your creatures.
25 There is the ocean, large and wide,
where countless creatures live,
large and small alike.
26 (B)The ships sail on it, and in it plays Leviathan,
that sea monster which you made.[b]
27 All of them depend on you
to give them food when they need it.
28 You give it to them, and they eat it;
you provide food, and they are satisfied.
29 When you turn away, they are afraid;
when you take away your breath, they die
and go back to the dust from which they came.
30 But when you give them breath,[c] they are created;
you give new life to the earth.
31 May the glory of the Lord last forever!
May the Lord be happy with what he has made!
32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
he touches the mountains, and they pour out smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
as long as I live I will sing praises to my God.
34 May he be pleased with my song,
for my gladness comes from him.
35 May sinners be destroyed from the earth;
may the wicked be no more.
Praise the Lord, my soul!
Praise the Lord!
Boaz Marries Ruth
4 Boaz went to the meeting place at the town gate and sat down there. Then Elimelech's nearest relative, the man whom Boaz had mentioned, came by, and Boaz called to him, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2 Then Boaz got ten of the leaders of the town and asked them to sit down there too. When they were seated, 3 he said to his relative, “Now that Naomi has come back from Moab, she wants to sell the field that belonged to our relative Elimelech, 4 and I think you ought to know about it. Now then, if you want it, buy it in the presence of these men sitting here. But if you don't want it, say so, because the right to buy it belongs first to you and then to me.”
The man said, “I will buy it.”
5 Boaz said, “Very well, if you buy the field from Naomi, then you are also buying Ruth,[a] the Moabite widow, so that the field will stay in the dead man's family.”
6 The man answered, “In that case I will give up my right to buy the field, because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it. You buy it; I would rather not.”
7 (A)Now in those days, to settle a sale or an exchange of property, it was the custom for the seller to take off his sandal and give it to the buyer. In this way the Israelites showed that the matter was settled.
8 So when the man said to Boaz, “You buy it,” he took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz.[b] 9 Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the others there, “You are all witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon. 10 (B)In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man's family, and his family line will continue among his people and in his hometown. You are witnesses to this today.”
11 (C)The leaders and the others said, “Yes, we are witnesses. May the Lord make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem. 12 (D)May the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman make your family like the family of Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.”
Boaz and His Descendants
13 So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The Lord blessed her, and she became pregnant and had a son. 14 The women said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord! He has given you a grandson today to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel! 15 Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age.” 16 Naomi took the child, held him close,[c] and took care of him.
17 The women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed. They told everyone, “A son has been born to Naomi!”
Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
13 (A)The scripture says, “I spoke because I believed.” In the same spirit of faith we also speak because we believe. 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus to life, will also raise us up with Jesus and take us, together with you, into his presence. 15 All this is for your sake; and as God's grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.
Living by Faith
16 For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. 17 And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. 18 For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.
5 (B)For we know that when this tent we live in—our body here on earth—is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever. 2 And now we sigh, so great is our desire that our home which comes from heaven should be put on over us; 3 by being clothed with it we shall not be without a body. 4 While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life. 5 God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
6 So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord's home. 7 For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight. 8 We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord. 9 More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there. 10 (C)For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.
Teaching about Charity
6 (A)“Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 3 But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. 4 Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.
Teaching about Prayer(B)
5 (C)“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 6 But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.
7 (D)“When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. 9 This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven:
May your holy name be honored;
10 may your Kingdom come;
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need.[a]
12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
13 Do not bring us to hard testing,
but keep us safe from the Evil One.’[b]
14 (E)“If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.
Teaching about Fasting
16 “And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.