Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A Song of [a]Ascents.
1 In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He answered me.
2 Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.
3 What shall be given to you? Or what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?—
4 Sharp arrows of a [mighty] warrior, with [glowing] coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me that I sojourn with Meshech, that I dwell beside the tents of Kedar [as if among notoriously barbarous people]!(A)
6 My life has too long had its dwelling with him who hates peace.
7 I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 121
A Song of [b]Ascents.
1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills [around Jerusalem, to sacred Mount Zion and Mount Moriah]—From whence shall my help come?(B)
2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber.(C)
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield].(D)
6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.(E)
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.(F)
Psalm 122
A Song of [c]Ascents. Of David.
1 I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!(G)
2 Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!—
3 Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compacted together—
4 To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For there the thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]!
7 May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces!
8 For my brethren and companions’ sake, I will now say, Peace be within you!
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek, inquire for, and require your good.
Psalm 123
A Song of [d]Ascents.
1 Unto You do I lift up my eyes, O You Who are enthroned in heaven.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy and loving-kindness for us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on and loving-kindness for us, for we are exceedingly satiated with contempt.
4 Our life is exceedingly filled with the scorning and scoffing of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud (irresponsible tyrants who disregard God’s law).
Psalm 124
A Song of [e]Ascents. Of David.
1 If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side—now may Israel say—
2 If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side when men rose up against us,
3 Then they would have quickly swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;
4 Then the waters would have overwhelmed us and swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;
5 Then the proud waters would have gone over us.
6 Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
7 We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 125
A Song of [f]Ascents.
1 Those who trust in, lean on, and confidently hope in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever.
2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the [uncompromisingly] righteous, lest the righteous (God’s people) stretch forth their hands to iniquity and apostasy.
4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are right [with You and all people] in their hearts.
5 As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways [of indifference to God], the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 126
A Song of [g]Ascents.
1 When the Lord brought back the captives [who returned] to Zion, we were like those who dream [it seemed so unreal].(H)
2 Then were our mouths filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing. Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.
3 The Lord has done great things for us! We are glad!
4 Turn to freedom our captivity and restore our fortunes, O Lord, as the streams in the South (the Negeb) [are restored by the torrents].
5 They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing.
6 He who goes forth bearing seed and weeping [at needing his precious supply of grain for sowing] shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalm 127
A Song of [h]Ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.(I)
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of [anxious] toil—for He gives [blessings] to His beloved in sleep.
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.(J)
4 As arrows are in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy, blessed, and fortunate is the man whose quiver is filled with them! They will not be put to shame when they speak with their adversaries [in gatherings] at the [city’s] gate.
9 Then Absalom [unavoidably] met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and Absalom’s head caught fast [in a fork] of the oak; and the mule under him ran away, leaving him hanging between the heavens and the earth.
10 A certain man saw it and told Joab, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.
11 Joab said to the man, You saw him! Why did you not strike him down to the ground? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a girdle.
12 The man told Joab, Though I should receive 1,000 pieces of silver, yet I would not put forth my hand against the king’s son. For in our hearing the king charged you, Abishai, and Ittai, Have a care, whoever you be, for the young man Absalom.
13 Otherwise, if I had dealt falsely against his life—for nothing is hidden from the king—you yourself would have taken sides against me.
14 Joab said, I will not tarry thus with you. He took three darts in his hand and thrust them into the body of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
15 And ten young men, Joab’s armor-bearers, surrounded and struck Absalom and killed him.
16 Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained and spared them.
17 They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the forest and raised a very great heap of stones upon him. And all Israel fled, everyone to his own home.
18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had reared up for himself a pillar which is in the King’s Valley, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
12 Now when daylight came, the Jews formed a plot and bound themselves by an oath and under a curse neither to eat nor drink till they had done away with Paul.
13 There were more than forty [men of them], who formed this conspiracy [swearing together this oath and curse].
14 And they went to the chief priests and elders, saying, We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath and under a curse not to taste any food until we have slain Paul.
15 So now you, along with the council (Sanhedrin), give notice to the commandant to bring [Paul] down to you, as if you were going to investigate his case more accurately. But we [ourselves] are ready to slay him before he comes near.
16 But the son of Paul’s sister heard of their intended attack, and he went and got into the barracks and told Paul.
17 Then Paul, calling in one of the centurions, said, Take this young man to the commandant, for he has something to report to him.
18 So he took him and conducted him to the commandant and said, Paul the prisoner called me to him and requested me to conduct this young man to you, for he has something to report to you.
19 The commandant took him by the hand, and going aside with him, asked privately, What is it that you have to report to me?
20 And he replied, The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council (Sanhedrin) tomorrow, as if [they were] intending to examine him more exactly.
21 But do not yield to their persuasion, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush waiting for him, having bound themselves by an oath and under a curse neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him; and even now they are all ready, [just] waiting for your promise.
22 So the commandant sent the youth away, charging him, Do not disclose to anyone that you have given me this information.
23 Then summoning two of the centurions, he said, Have two hundred footmen ready by the third hour of the night (about 9:00 p.m.) to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen.
24 Also provide beasts for mounts for Paul to ride, and bring him in safety to Felix the governor.
27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And when Jesus was walking about in the [[a]courts and porches of the] temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him,
28 And they kept saying to Him, By what [sort of] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do them?
29 Jesus told them, I will ask you a question. Answer Me, and then I will tell you by what [sort of] authority I do these things.
30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me.
31 And they reasoned and argued with one another, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why then did you not believe him?
32 But [on the other hand] can we say, From men? For they were afraid of the people, because everybody considered and held John actually to be a prophet.
33 So they replied to Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus said to them, Neither am I going to tell you what [sort of] authority I have for doing these things.
12 And [Jesus] started to speak to them in parables [with comparisons and illustrations]. A man planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and let it out [for rent] to vinedressers and went into another country.
2 When the season came, he sent a bond servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3 But they took him and beat him and sent him away without anything.
4 Again he sent to them another bond servant, and they stoned him and wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully [sending him away with insults].
5 And he sent another, and that one they killed; then many others—some they beat, and some they put to death.
6 He had still one left [to send], a beloved son; last of all he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son.
7 But those tenants said to one another, Here is the heir; come on, let us put him to death, and [then] the inheritance will be ours.
8 And they took him and killed him, and threw [his body] outside the vineyard.
9 Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you not even read this [passage of] Scripture: The very Stone which [[b]after putting It to the test] the builders rejected has become the Head of the corner [Cornerstone];
11 This is from the Lord and is His doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?(A)
12 And they were trying to get hold of Him, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that He spoke this parable with reference to and against them. So they left Him and departed.(B)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation