Book of Common Prayer
145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will keep Your statutes [I will hear, receive, love, and obey them].
146 I cried to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
147 I anticipated the dawning of the morning and cried [in childlike prayer]; I hoped in Your word.
148 My eyes anticipate the night watches and I am awake before the cry of the watchman, that I may meditate on Your word.
149 Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love; O Lord, quicken me and give me life according to Your [righteous] decrees.
150 They draw near who follow after wrong thinking and persecute me with wickedness; they are far from Your law.
151 You are near, O Lord [nearer to me than my foes], and all Your commandments are truth.
152 Of old have I known Your testimonies, and for a long time, [therefore it is a thoroughly established conviction] that You have founded them forever.(A)
153 Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me and give me life according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not nor hunger for Your statutes.
156 Great are Your tender mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord; give me life according to Your ordinances.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not swerve from Your testimonies.
158 I behold the treacherous and am grieved and loathe them, because they do not respect Your law [neither hearing, receiving, loving, nor obeying it].
159 Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me and give life to me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness!
160 The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.
161 Princes pursue and persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words [dreading violation of them far more than the force of prince or potentate].(B)
162 I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood, but Your law do I love.
164 Seven times a day and all day long do I praise You because of Your righteous decrees.
165 Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble.(C)
166 I am hoping and waiting [eagerly] for Your salvation, O Lord, and I do Your commandments.(D)
167 Your testimonies have I kept [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]; I love them exceedingly!
168 I have observed Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are [fully known] before You.
169 Let my mournful cry and supplication come [near] before You, O Lord; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension) according to Your word [of assurance and promise].
170 Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word!
171 My lips shall pour forth praise [with thanksgiving and renewed trust] when You teach me Your statutes.
172 My tongue shall sing [praise for the fulfillment] of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.
173 Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.
174 I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.
175 Let me live that I may praise You, and let Your decrees help me.
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek, inquire for, and demand Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.(E)
Psalm 128
A Song of [a]Ascents.
1 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is everyone who fears, reveres, and worships the Lord, who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments.(A)
2 For you shall eat [the fruit] of the labor of your hands; happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) shall you be, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your children shall be like olive plants round about your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you out of Zion [His sanctuary], and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life;
6 Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 129
A Song of [b]Ascents.
1 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up—let Israel now say—
2 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.
4 The Lord is [uncompromisingly] righteous; He has cut asunder the thick cords by which the wicked [enslaved us].
5 Let them all be put to shame and turned backward who hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
7 With which the mower fills not his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his bosom—
8 While those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!
Psalm 130
A Song of [c]Ascents.
1 Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?(B)
4 But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.(C)
5 I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope.
6 I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is mercy and loving-kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.
6 My son, if you have become security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger or another,
2 You are snared with the words of your lips, you are caught by the speech of your mouth.
3 Do this now [at once and earnestly], my son, and deliver yourself when you have put yourself into the [a]power of your neighbor; go, bestir and humble yourself, and beg your neighbor [to pay his debt and thereby release you].
4 Give not [unnecessary] sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
5 Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!—(A)
7 Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.
9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?(B)
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep—
11 So will your poverty come like a robber or one who travels [with slowly but surely approaching steps] and your want like an armed man [making you helpless].(C)
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, is he who goes about with a perverse (contrary, wayward) mouth.
13 He winks with his eyes, he speaks by shuffling or tapping with his feet, he makes signs [to mislead and deceive] and teaches with his fingers.
14 Willful and contrary in his heart, he devises trouble, vexation, and evil continually; he lets loose discord and sows it.
15 Therefore upon him shall the crushing weight of calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken, and that without remedy.
16 These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others], a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,(D)
18 A heart that manufactures wicked thoughts and plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 A false witness who breathes out lies [even under oath], and he who sows discord among his brethren.
5 Everyone who believes (adheres to, trusts, and relies on the fact) that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is a born-again child of God; and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him (His offspring).
2 By this we come to know (recognize and understand) that we love the children of God: when we love God and obey His commands (orders, charges)—[when we keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and His teaching].
3 For the [true] love of God is this: that we do His commands [keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and teaching]. And these orders of His are not irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous).
4 For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.
5 Who is it that is victorious over [that conquers] the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact]?
6 This is He Who came by (with) water and blood [[a]His baptism and His death], Jesus Christ (the Messiah)—not by (in) the water only, but by (in) the water and the blood. And it is the [Holy] Spirit Who bears witness, because the [Holy] Spirit is the Truth.
7 So there are three witnesses [b]in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One;
8 and there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree [are in unison; their testimony coincides].
9 If we accept [as we do] the testimony of men [if we are willing to take human authority], the testimony of God is greater (of stronger authority), for this is the testimony of God, even the witness which He has borne regarding His Son.
10 He who believes in the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] has the testimony [possesses this divine attestation] within himself. He who does not believe God [in this way] has made Him out to be and represented Him as a liar, because he has not believed (put his faith in, adhered to, and relied on) the evidence (the testimony) that God has borne regarding His Son.
11 And this is that testimony (that evidence): God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who possesses the Son has that life; he who does not possess the Son of God does not have that life.
45 Upon seeing what Jesus had done, many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Him. [They trusted in Him and adhered to Him and relied on Him.]
46 But some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the council (the Sanhedrin) and said, What are we to do? For this Man performs many signs (evidences, miracles).
48 If we let Him alone to go on like this, everyone will believe in Him and adhere to Him, and the Romans will come and suppress and destroy and take away our [holy] place and our nation [[a]our temple and city and our civil organization].
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, declared, You know nothing at all!
50 Nor do you understand or reason out that it is expedient and better for your own welfare that one man should die on behalf of the people than that the whole nation should perish (be destroyed, ruined).
51 Now he did not say this simply of his own accord [he was not self-moved]; but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation,(A)
52 And not only for the nation but also for the purpose of uniting into one body the children of God who have been scattered far and wide.(B)
53 So from that day on they took counsel and plotted together how they might put Him to death.
54 For that reason Jesus no longer appeared publicly among the Jews, but left there and retired to the district that borders on the wilderness (the desert), to a village called Ephraim, and there He stayed with the disciples.
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