Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A song for going up to worship.
1 When I was in trouble, I cried out to Yahweh,
and he answered me.
2 O Yahweh, rescue me from lying lips
and from a deceitful tongue.
3 You deceitful tongue, what can Yahweh give you?
What more can he do for you?
4 He will give you a warrior’s sharpened arrows and red-hot coals.
5 How horrible it is to live as a foreigner in Meshech
or to stay in the tents of Kedar.
6 I have lived too long with those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I talk about it,
they only talk about war.
Psalm 121
A song for going up to worship.
1 I look up toward the mountains.
Where can I find help?
2 My help comes from Yahweh,
the maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let you fall.
Your guardian will not fall asleep.
4 Indeed, the Guardian of Israel never rests or sleeps.
5 Yahweh is your guardian.
Yahweh is the shade over your right hand.
6 The sun will not beat down on you during the day,
nor will the moon at night.
7 Yahweh guards you from every evil.
He guards your life.
8 Yahweh guards you as you come and go,
now and forever.
Psalm 122
A song by David for going up to worship.
1 I was glad when they said to me,
“Let’s go to the house of Yahweh.”
2 Our feet are standing inside your gates, Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built to be a city
where the people are united.[a]
4 All of Yah’s tribes go to that city
because it is a law in Israel
to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.
5 The court of justice sits there.
It consists of princes who are David’s descendants.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 May there be peace inside your walls
and prosperity in your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my relatives and friends, let me say,
“May it go well for you!”
9 For the sake of the house of Yahweh our Elohim,
I will seek what is good for you.
Psalm 123
A song for going up to worship.
1 I look up to you,
to the one who sits enthroned in heaven.
2 As servants depend on their masters,
as a maid depends on her mistress,
so we depend on Yahweh our Elohim
until he has pity on us.
3 Have pity on us, O Yahweh.
Have pity on us
because we have suffered more than our share of contempt.
4 We have suffered more than our share of ridicule
from those who are carefree.
We have suffered more than our share of contempt
from those who are arrogant.
Psalm 124
A song by David for going up to worship.
1 “If Yahweh had not been on our side . . .”
(Israel should repeat this.)
2 “If Yahweh had not been on our side when people attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger exploded against us.
4 Then the floodwaters would have swept us away.
An overflowing stream would have washed us away.
5 Then raging water would have washed us away.”
6 Thank Yahweh, who did not let them sink their teeth into us.
7 We escaped like a bird caught in a hunter’s trap.
The trap was broken, and we escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 125
A song for going up to worship.
1 Those who trust Yahweh are like Mount Zion,
which can never be shaken.
It remains firm forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so Yahweh surrounds his people now and forever.
3 A wicked ruler will not be allowed to govern
the land set aside for righteous people.
That is why righteous people do not use their power to do wrong.
4 Do good, O Yahweh, to those who are good,
to those whose motives are decent.
5 But when people become crooked,
Yahweh will lead them away with troublemakers.
Let there be peace in Israel!
Psalm 126
A song for going up to worship.
1 When Yahweh restored the fortunes of Zion,
it was as if we were dreaming.
2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter
and our tongues with joyful songs.
Then the nations said,
“Yahweh has done spectacular things for them.”
3 Yahweh has done spectacular things for us.
We are overjoyed.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Yahweh,
as you restore streams to dry riverbeds in the Negev.
5 Those who cry while they plant
will joyfully sing while they harvest.
6 The person who goes out weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
will come home singing, carrying his bundles of grain.
Psalm 127
A song by Solomon for going up to worship.
1 If Yahweh does not build the house,
it is useless for the builders to work on it.
If Yahweh does not protect a city,
it is useless for the guard to stay alert.
2 It is useless to work hard for the food you eat
by getting up early and going to bed late.
Yahweh gives food to those he loves while they sleep.
3 Children are an inheritance from Yahweh.
They are a reward from him.
4 The children born to a man when he is young
are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
5 Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them.
He will not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the city gate.
Cherish Wisdom
4 Sons,
listen to your father’s discipline,
and pay attention in order to gain understanding.
2 After all, I have taught you well.
Do not abandon my teachings.
3 When I was a boy learning from my father,
when I was a tender and only child of my mother,
4 they used to teach me and say to me,
“Cling to my words wholeheartedly.
Obey my commands so that you may live.
5 Acquire wisdom.
Acquire understanding.
Do not forget.
Do not turn away from the words that I have spoken.
6 Do not abandon wisdom, and it will watch over you.
Love wisdom, and it will protect you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom.
Acquire understanding with all that you have.
8 Cherish wisdom.
It will raise you up.
It will bring you honor when you embrace it.
9 It will give you a graceful garland for your head.
It will hand you a beautiful crown.”
Stay on the Path of Wisdom
10 My son,
listen and accept my words,
and they will multiply the years of your life.
11 I have taught you the way of wisdom.
I have guided you along decent paths.
12 When you walk, your stride will not be hampered.
Even if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Cling to discipline.
Do not relax your grip on it.
Keep it because it is your life.
14 Do not stray onto the path of wicked people.
Do not walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it.
Do not walk near it.
Turn away from it,
and keep on walking.
16 Wicked people cannot sleep
unless they do wrong,
and they are robbed of their sleep
unless they make someone stumble.
17 They eat food obtained through wrongdoing
and drink wine obtained through violence.
18 But the path of righteous people is like the light of dawn
that becomes brighter and brighter until it reaches midday.
19 The way of wicked people is like deep darkness.
They do not know what makes them stumble.
Stay Focused on Wisdom
20 My son,
pay attention to my words.
Open your ears to what I say.
21 Do not lose sight of these things.
Keep them deep within your heart
22 because they are life to those who find them
and they heal the whole body.
23 Guard your heart more than anything else,
because the source of your life flows from it.
24 Remove dishonesty from your mouth.
Put deceptive speech far away from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead
and your sight be focused in front of you.
26 Carefully walk a straight path,
and all your ways will be secure.
27 Do not lean to the right or to the left.
Walk away from evil.
God’s Love Lives in His People
7 Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. 9 God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify to the fact that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God lives in those who declare that Yeshua is the Son of God, and they live in God. 16 We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.
17 God’s love has reached its goal in us. So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, we are exactly like him with regard to love. 18 No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love.
19 We love because God loved us first. 20 Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen. 21 Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.
30 (Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) 31 The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the tomb to cry. 32 When Mary arrived where Yeshua was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Yeshua saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.
34 So Yeshua asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”
They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Yeshua cried. 36 The Jews said, “See how much Yeshua loved him.” 37 But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”
38 Deeply moved again, Yeshua went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance. 39 Yeshua said, “Take the stone away.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told Yeshua, “Lord, there must already be a stench. He’s been dead for four days.”
40 Yeshua said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see God’s glory?” 41 So the stone was moved away from the entrance of the tomb.
Yeshua looked up and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 I’ve known that you always hear me. However, I’ve said this so that the crowd standing around me will believe that you sent me.” 43 After Yeshua had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out. Strips of cloth were wound around his feet and hands, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Yeshua told them, “Free Lazarus, and let him go.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.