Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A Man of Peace
Heading
A song of the ascents.[a]
A Man of Peace
1 In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
2 Lord, save my life from lying lips.
Save me from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he give to you?
What more will he add to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharpened arrows with hot coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I am an alien in Meshek,
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 For too long my soul[b] has dwelt with those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 121
Help From the Lord
Heading
A song for the ascents.
Help From the Lord, Israel’s Watchman
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains.
Where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot stumble.
He who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Yes, he who watches over Israel will not slumber.
He will not sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you.
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will watch to keep you from all harm.[c]
He will watch over your life.[d]
8 The Lord will watch over your going and your coming
from now to eternity.
Psalm 122
The Peace of Jerusalem
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Peace of Jerusalem
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is a well-built city that is firmly joined together,[e]
4 a city to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,[f]
as a testimony to Israel,
to give praise to the name of the Lord.
5 That is where the thrones for judgment sit,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 May there be peace within your fortifications,
prosperity within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
now I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek good for you.
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
Psalm 124
The Lord Is on Our Side
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Lord Is on Our Side
1 Unless it was the Lord who was for us—
let Israel say—
2 unless it was the Lord who was for us
when people[g] rose against us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger burned against us.
4 Then the waters would have submerged us.
The torrent would have swept our lives away.
5 Then the wild waters would have swept us away.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped with our lives
like a bird out of the fowlers’ snare.
The snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 125
Mount Zion Cannot Be Shaken
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken
1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion.
It cannot be shaken. It will stand forever.
2 As Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains,
so the Lord surrounds his people from now to eternity.
3 No, the scepter of wickedness will not rest
on the land assigned to the righteous,
so that the righteous do not reach out their hands toward evil.
4 Do good, O Lord, for the good
and for those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But those who turn to their crooked ways—
the Lord will send them away with the evildoers.
Peace be on Israel.
Psalm 126
The Return of the Captives
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Captives Return
1 When the Lord restored the captives to Zion,[h]
we were like dreamers.
2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy.
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 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the dry gulches of the Negev.
5 Those who sow with weeping will reap with joyful shouts.
6 The one who walks along weeping, carrying a bag of seed to sow,
will come back again with joyful shouts, carrying his sheaves.
Psalm 127
The Lord Builds the House
Heading
A song of the ascents. By Solomon.
The Lord Builds the House
1 If the Lord does not build the house,
it is useless for the builders to work hard over it.
If the Lord does not watch over the city,
it is useless for the watchman to stand guard.
2 It is useless for you to get up early and to work late,
worrying about bread to eat,
because God grants sleep to the one he loves.[i]
3 Indeed, children are a heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward from him.
4 Sons born during one’s youth are like arrows
in the hand of a warrior.
5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they dispute with enemies at the city gate.[j]
An Address to Sons:
Your Parents Teach You Wisdom
4 Listen, you sons, to a father’s discipline.
Pay attention so that you will gain discernment,
2 because I have given you good instruction.
Do not abandon my teaching.
3 When I was a son living with my father,
a tender and only child with my mother,
4 he used to instruct me and say to me,
“Cling to my words with all your heart.
Obey my commands so that you may live.
5 Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding.
Do not forget,
and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not abandon it, and it will watch over you.
Love it and it will guard you.”
7 The beginning of wisdom is to obtain Wisdom.
Give up everything you have, in order to gain Understanding.
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you.
She will honor you when you embrace her.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head.
She will present you with a beautiful crown.
Fifth Address to a Son:
The Difference Between the Wicked and the Righteous
10 Listen, my son, and accept my words,
so that the years of your life will be many.
11 I have instructed you in the way of wisdom.
I have led you along straight paths.[a]
12 When you walk, your stride will not be hindered.
Even if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to discipline. Do not let go.
Guard it, because it is your life.
14 Do not travel on the path of the wicked.
Do not walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it! Do not travel on it!
Turn away from it. Pass it by.
16 For they cannot sleep
unless they have been doing wrong,
and they are robbed of sleep
unless they are making someone stumble,
17 because wickedness is the food they eat,
and violence is the wine they drink.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until it is day.
19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness.
They never know where they will stumble.
Sixth Address to a Son:
Advice for a Righteous Life
20 My son, pay attention to my words.
Open your ears to what I say.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight.
Keep them deep in your heart,
22 because they are life for those who find them
and healing for the entire body.[b]
23 Above all else, guard your heart carefully,
because your life flows from it.
24 Turn your mouth away from perverted speech,
and keep devious lips far away from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Let your gaze[c] be directly in front of you.
26 Make a level pathway for your feet,
and all your ways will be secure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left.
Turn your feet away from evil.
God Is Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. 9 This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We also have come to know and trust the love that God has for us.
God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 17 In this way his love has been brought to its goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like Jesus.[a] 18 There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in love.
19 We love[b] because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,[c] love God, whom he has not seen? 21 This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.
30 Now Jesus had not yet gone into the village, but was still where Martha met him. 31 The Jews who were with Mary in the house consoling her saw that she got up quickly and left. So they followed her, supposing[a] she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.
34 He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone.
Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.