Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120[a]
Prayer of a Returned Exile
1 A song of ascents.[b]
The Lord answered me
when I called in my distress:(A)
2 Lord, deliver my soul from lying lips,
from a treacherous tongue.(B)
3 What will he inflict on you,
O treacherous tongue,
and what more besides?[c]
4 A warrior’s arrows
sharpened with coals of brush wood
5 [e]Alas, I am a foreigner in Meshech,
I live among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long do I live
among those who hate peace.
7 When I speak of peace,
they are for war.(D)
Psalm 121[f]
The Lord My Guardian
1 A song of ascents.
I raise my eyes toward the mountains.[g]
From whence shall come my help?(E)
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.(F)
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;(G)
or your guardian to sleep.
4 Behold, the guardian of Israel
never slumbers nor sleeps.
5 [h]The Lord is your guardian;
the Lord is your shade
at your right hand.(H)
6 By day the sun will not strike you,
nor the moon by night.(I)
7 The Lord will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your soul.(J)
8 The Lord will guard your coming and going
both now and forever.(K)
Psalm 122[i]
A Pilgrim’s Prayer for Jerusalem
1 A song of ascents. Of David.
I
I rejoiced when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”(L)
2 And now our feet are standing
within your gates, Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem, built as a city,
walled round about.[j](M)
4 There the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
As it was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.(N)
5 There are the thrones of justice,
the thrones of the house of David.
II
6 For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
“May those who love you prosper!
7 May peace be within your ramparts,
prosperity within your towers.”(O)
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends I say,
“Peace be with you.”(P)
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God,
I pray for your good.
Psalm 123[k]
Reliance on the Lord
1 A song of ascents.
To you I raise my eyes,
to you enthroned in heaven.(Q)
2 Yes, like the eyes of servants
on the hand of their masters,
Like the eyes of a maid
on the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes are on the Lord our God,
till we are shown favor.
3 Show us favor, Lord, show us favor,
for we have our fill of contempt.(R)
4 Our souls are more than sated
with mockery from the insolent,
with contempt from the arrogant.
Psalm 124[l]
God, the Rescuer of the People
1 A song of ascents. Of David.
Had not the Lord been with us,
let Israel say,(S)
2 Had not the Lord been with us,
when people rose against us,
3 Then they would have swallowed us alive,(T)
for their fury blazed against us.
4 Then the waters would have engulfed us,
the torrent overwhelmed us;(U)
5 then seething water would have drowned us.
6 Blessed is the Lord, who did not leave us
to be torn by their teeth.
7 We escaped with our lives like a bird
from the fowler’s snare;
the snare was broken,
and we escaped.
8 [m]Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.(V)
Psalm 125[n]
Israel’s Protector
1 A song of ascents.
Those trusting in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
unshakable, forever enduring.(W)
2 As mountains surround Jerusalem,
the Lord surrounds his people
both now and forever.(X)
3 The scepter of the wicked will not prevail
in the land allotted to the just,[o]
Lest the just themselves
turn their hands to evil.
4 Do good, Lord, to the good,
to those who are upright of heart.(Y)
5 But those who turn aside to crooked ways
may the Lord send down with the evildoers.(Z)
Peace upon Israel!(AA)
Psalm 126[p]
The Reversal of Zion’s Fortunes
1 A song of ascents.
I
When the Lord restored the captives of Zion,(AB)
we thought we were dreaming.
2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter;
our tongues sang for joy.(AC)
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord had done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
Oh, how happy we were!
4 Restore our captives, Lord,
like the dry stream beds of the Negeb.[q]
II
5 Those who sow in tears
will reap with cries of joy.(AD)
6 Those who go forth weeping,
carrying sacks of seed,
Will return with cries of joy,
carrying their bundled sheaves.
Psalm 127[r]
The Need of God’s Blessing
1 A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
I
Unless the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain who build.
Unless the Lord guard the city,
in vain does the guard keep watch.
2 It is vain for you to rise early
and put off your rest at night,
To eat bread earned by hard toil—
all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.(AE)
II
8 Hence, thus says the Lord of hosts: Since you would not listen to my words, 9 I am about to send for and fetch all the tribes from the north—oracle of the Lord—and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; I will bring them against this land, its inhabitants, and all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of hissing, of everlasting reproach.(A) 10 Among them I will put to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land shall be a ruin and a waste. Seventy years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon;(B) 12 but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt—oracle of the Lord. Their land I will turn into everlasting waste.(C) 13 Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14 They also shall serve many nations and great kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to the works of their hands.(D)
The Cup of Judgment on the Nations. 15 [a]For thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath[b] from my hand and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.(E) 16 They shall drink, and retch, and go mad, because of the sword I will send among them.(F) 17 I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and gave it as drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me:
Chapter 10
1 [a]Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on their behalf is for salvation.(A) 2 I testify with regard to them that they have zeal for God, but it is not discerning.(B) 3 For, in their unawareness of the righteousness that comes from God and their attempt to establish their own [righteousness], they did not submit to the righteousness of God.(C) 4 For Christ is the end[b] of the law for the justification of everyone who has faith.(D)
5 [c]Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from [the] law, “The one who does these things will live by them.”(E) 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says,(F) “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 [d]or ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”(G) 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart”(H)
(that is, the word of faith that we preach), 9 for, if you confess[e] with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(I) 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 For the scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”(J) 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him.(K) 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”(L)
18 Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?” 20 His parents answered and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for himself.” 22 [a](A)His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; question him.”(B)
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give God the praise![b] We know that this man is a sinner.”(C) 25 He replied, “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” 28 They ridiculed him and said, “You are that man’s disciple; we are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.”(D) 30 The man answered and said to them, “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.(E) 32 [c]It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.”(F) 34 They answered and said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.
35 When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.”(G) 38 He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him. 39 [d]Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”(H)
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”(I) 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.(J)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.