Book of Common Prayer

¹ By the rivers of Babylon,
    we sat and wept
    when we thought of Zion, our home, so far away.
² On the branches of the willow trees,
    we hung our harps and hid our hearts from the enemy.
³ And the men that surrounded us
    made demands that we clap our hands and sing—
Songs of joy from days gone by,
    songs from Zion, our home.
Such cruel men taunted us—haunted our memories.

⁴ How could we sing a song about the Eternal
    in a land so foreign, while still tormented, brokenhearted, homesick?
    Please don’t make us sing this song.
^5-6 O Jerusalem, even still, don’t escape my memory.
    I treasure you and your songs, even as I hide my harp from the enemy.
And if I can’t remember,
    may I never sing a song again—
    may my hands never play well again—
For what use would it be if I don’t remember Jerusalem
    as my source of joy?

⁷ Remember, Eternal One, how the Edomites, our brothers, the descendants of Esau,
    stood by and watched as Jerusalem fell.
Gloating, they said, “Destroy it;
    tear it down to the ground,” when Jerusalem was being demolished.
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, you are destined for destruction!
    Happy are those who pay you back for how you treated us
    so you will no longer walk so proud.
⁹ Happy are those who dash your children against the rocks
    so you will know how it feels.

³ O Eternal One, what is man, that You even care to know him?
    or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?
⁴ Humans are like a passing breath;
    their time on earth is like a shadow that passes over us during the day and soon is gone.

⁵ Eternal One, stretch out an opening in the heavens, and descend.
    Touch the mountains, and make them smoke.
⁶ Send forth bolts of lightning, and scatter my enemies.
    Shoot Your fiery arrows, and rout the enemy.
⁷ Reach down from Your high place;
    save me out of the great waters;
    rescue me from the grasp of these foreigners
⁸ Who speak only lies
    and don’t have truth in their deeds.

⁹ To You, my God, I will sing a new song;
    I will sing Your sweet praises to the sound of a ten-stringed harp,
¹⁰ For You deliver kings from their enemies
    and You rescue Your servant, David, from the sword of evil.
¹¹ Rescue me,
    and save me from the grasp of these foreigners
Who speak only lies
    and don’t have truth in their deeds.

¹² May our sons be like healthy plants
    as they grow and mature,
And may our daughters be like the corner pillars
    that decorate a palace.
¹³ May our storehouses be full
    with abundant supplies of every crop,
And may the flocks of our fields
    multiply into thousands and tens of thousands!
¹⁴ May our cattle be strong and productive,
    without miscarriage, without loss,
    and may there be no riots or protests in our streets!

¹⁵ Happy are the people for whom all this is true;
    happy are the people whose God is the Eternal!

⁵ You made the earth,
    and You made its frame stable forever.
Never will it be shaken.
⁶ You wrapped it in a gown of waters—
    ancient mountains under layers of sky.
⁷ But when You reprimanded those waters, they fled;
    the thunder of Your voice sent them running away.
^8-9 They hammered out new depths, heaved up new heights,
    and swallowed up whatever You commanded.
At first, they covered the earth,
    but now You have bound them,
    and they know their appointed place.

¹⁰ You send fresh streams that spring up in the valleys,
    in the cracks between hills.
¹¹ Every animal of the open field makes its journey there for drink:
    wild donkeys lap at the brooks’ edges.
¹² Birds build their nests by the streams,
    singing among the branches.
¹³ And the clouds, too, drink up their share,
    raining it back down on the mountains from the upper reaches of Your home,
Sustaining the whole earth with what comes from You.
    And the earth is satisfied.

^14-15 Thus You grow grain for bread, grapes for wine, grass for cattle—
    all of this for us.
And so we have bread to make our bodies strong,
    wine to make our hearts happy,
    oil to make our faces shine.
Every good thing we need, Your earth provides;
    our faces grow flush with Your life in them.
¹⁶ The forests are Yours, Eternal One—stout hardwoods watered deeply, swollen with sap—
    like the great cedars of Lebanon You planted,
¹⁷ Where many birds nest.
    There are fir trees for storks,
¹⁸ High hills for wild goats,
    stony cliffs for rock badgers.
For each place, a resident,
    and for each resident, a home.
¹⁹ The moon strides through her phases, marking seasons as she goes.
    The sun hides at his appointed time,
²⁰ And with the darkness You bring, so comes night—
    when the prowling animals of the forest move about.
²¹ It is then that lions seek the food You, the True God, give them,
    roaring after their prey.
²² At sunrise, they disappear
    and sleep away the day in their dens.
²³ Meanwhile, the people take to the fields and to the shops and to the roads,
    to all the places that people work, until evening when they rest.

²⁴ There is so much here, O Eternal One, so much You have made.
    By the wise way in which You create, riches and creatures fill the earth.
²⁵ Of course, the sea is vast and stretches like the heavens beyond view,
    and numberless creatures inhabit her.
    From the tiny to the great, they swarm beneath her waves.
²⁶ Our ships skim her surface
    while the monsters of the sea play beneath.

²⁷ And all of these look to You
    to give them food when the time is right.
²⁸ When You feed, they gather what You supply.
    When You open Your hand, they are filled with good food.
²⁹ When You withdraw Your presence, they are dismayed.
    When You revoke their breath, the life goes out of them,
    and they become, again, the dust of the earth from which You formed them at the start.
³⁰ When You send out Your breath, life is created,
    and the face of the earth is made beautiful and is renewed.

³¹ May the glorious presence of the Eternal linger among us forever.
    And may He rejoice in the greatness of His own works—
³² He, who rattles the earth with a glance;
    He, who sets mountains to smoking with a touch.
³³ I will sing to the Eternal all of my life;
    I will call my God good as long as I live.

³⁴ May the thoughts of my mind be pleasing to Him,
    for the Eternal has become my happiness.
³⁵ But may those who hate Him, who act against Him,
    disappear from the face of this beautiful planet.
As for the Eternal, call Him good, my soul.
Praise the Eternal!

5 Eternal One: Now, muster your troops O daughter.^[a] You have been besieged,
        and they will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod.

²     But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
        of the clans of Judah, are no poor relation—
    From your people will come a Ruler
        who will be the shepherd of My people, Israel,^[b]
    Whose origins date back to the distant past,
        to the ancient days.

³ So God will abandon Israel
    only until the now-laboring mother gives birth,
And then those of His people who survive
    will be gathered back together with the rest of Israel.
⁴ And he will stand and feed his flock in the power of the Eternal One,
    with the majesty of the name of the Eternal, his True God.
And they will live in safety, for his greatness will extend to the farthest parts of the earth.

¹⁰ Eternal One: When that day comes, I will rip your horses from beneath you
        and destroy your chariots and weapons of war;
¹¹     I will rip the cities from your lands
        and cast down all your fortresses.
¹²     I will tear all magic spells from your hands
        and overthrow your magicians and fortunetellers.
¹³     And I will tear down the images and sacred pillars among you.
        Never again will you worship these gods that your own hands have made.
¹⁴     I will uproot the sacred poles^[a] in your communities
        and tear down your towns.
¹⁵     And with anger and great wrath,
        I will execute My vengeance against all the nations that have disobeyed Me!