Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 137

¹ By the rivers of Babylon, there we [captives] sat down, yes, we wept when we [earnestly] remembered Zion [the city of our God imprinted on our hearts].

² On the willow trees in the midst of [Babylon] we hung our harps.

³ For there they who led us captive required of us a song with words, and our tormentors and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

⁴ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill [with the harp].

⁶ Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I remember you not, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy!^(A)

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, that they said in the day of Jerusalem’s fall, Down, down to the ground with her!

⁸ O Daughter of Babylon [you devastator, you!], who [ought to be and] shall be destroyed, happy and blessed shall he be who requites you as you have served us.^(B)

⁹ Happy and blessed shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!

Psalm 144

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Blessed be the Lord, my Rock and my keen and firm Strength, Who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight—

² My Steadfast Love and my Fortress, my High Tower and my Deliverer, my Shield and He in Whom I trust and take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

³ Lord, what is man that You take notice of him? Or [the] son of man that You take account of him?^(A)

⁴ Man is like vanity and a breath; his days are as a shadow that passes away.

⁵ Bow Your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

⁶ Cast forth lightning and scatter [my enemies]; send out Your arrows and embarrass and frustrate them.

⁷ Stretch forth Your hand from above; rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, from the hands of hostile aliens (tribes around us)

⁸ Whose mouths speak deceit and whose right hands are right hands [raised in taking] fraudulent oaths.

⁹ I will sing a new song to You, O God; upon a harp, an instrument of ten strings, will I offer praises to You.

¹⁰ You are He Who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David His servant from the hurtful sword [of evil].

¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me out of the power of [hostile] alien [tribes] whose mouths speak deceit and whose right hands are right hands [raised in taking] fraudulent oaths.

¹² When our sons shall be as plants grown large in their youth and our daughters as sculptured corner pillars hewn like those of a palace;

¹³ When our garners are full, affording all manner of store, and our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our pastures;

¹⁴ When our oxen are well loaded; when there is no invasion [of hostile armies] and no going forth [against besiegers—when there is no murder or manslaughter] and no outcry in our streets;

¹⁵ Happy and blessed are the people who are in such a case; yes, happy (blessed, fortunate, prosperous, to be envied) are the people whose God is the Lord!

Psalm 104

¹ Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with honor and majesty—

² [You are the One] Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain or a tent,

³ Who lays the beams of the upper room of His abode in the waters [above the firmament], Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind,

⁴ Who makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His ministers.^(A)

⁵ You laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.^(B)

⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.^(C)

⁷ At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.

⁸ The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which You appointed for them.

⁹ You have set a boundary [for the waters] which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to deluge the earth.

¹⁰ He sends forth springs into the valleys; their waters run among the mountains.

¹¹ They give drink to every [wild] beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst there.

¹² Beside them the birds of the heavens have their nests; they sing among the branches.^(D)

¹³ He waters the mountains from His upper rooms; the earth is satisfied and abounds with the fruit of His works.

¹⁴ He causes vegetation to grow for the cattle, and all that the earth produces for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth—

¹⁵ And wine that gladdens the heart of man, to make his face shine more than oil, and bread to support, refresh, and strengthen man’s heart.

¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly and are filled with sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted,

¹⁷ Where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the conies and badgers.

¹⁹ [The Lord] appointed the moon for the seasons; the sun knows [the exact time of] its setting.

²⁰ You [O Lord] make darkness and it becomes night, in which creeps forth every wild beast of the forest.

²¹ The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God.

²² When the sun arises, they withdraw themselves and lie down in their dens.

²³ Man goes forth to his work and remains at his task until evening.

²⁴ O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.

²⁵ Yonder is the sea, great and wide, in which are swarms of innumerable creeping things, creatures both small and great.

²⁶ There go the ships of the sea, and Leviathan (the sea monster), which You have formed to sport in it.

²⁷ These all wait and are dependent upon You, that You may give them their food in due season.

²⁸ When You give it to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, and they are filled with good things.

²⁹ When You hide Your face, they are troubled and dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

³⁰ When You send forth Your Spirit and give them breath, they are created, and You replenish the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works—

³² Who looks on the earth, and it quakes and trembles, Who touches the mountains, and they smoke!

³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

³⁴ May my meditation be sweet to Him; as for me, I will rejoice in the Lord.

³⁵ Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

²² The Lord formed and brought me [Wisdom] forth at the beginning of His way, before His acts of old.

²³ I [Wisdom] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth existed.^(A)

²⁴ When there were no deeps, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains laden with water.

²⁵ Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth,^(B)

²⁶ While as yet He had not made the land or the fields or the first of the dust of the earth.

²⁷ When He prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and stretched out the firmament over it,

²⁸ When He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep,

²⁹ When He gave to the sea its limit and His decree that the waters should not transgress [across the boundaries set by] His command, when He appointed the foundations of the earth—^(C)

³⁰ Then I [Wisdom] was ^[a]beside Him as a master and director of the work; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always,^(D)

³¹ Rejoicing in His inhabited earth and delighting in the sons of men.^(E)

³² Now therefore listen to me, O you sons; for blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who keep my ways.^(F)

³³ Hear instruction and be wise, and do not refuse or neglect it.

³⁴ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵ For whoever finds me [Wisdom] finds life and draws forth and obtains favor from the Lord.

³⁶ But he who misses me or sins against me wrongs and injures himself; all who hate me love and court death.

1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

² To Timothy, [my] beloved child: Grace (favor and spiritual blessing), mercy, and [heart] peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord!

³ I thank God Whom I worship with a pure conscience, ^[a]in the spirit of my fathers, when without ceasing I remember you night and day in my prayers,

⁴ And when, as I recall your tears, I yearn to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

⁵ I am calling up memories of your sincere and unqualified faith (the ^[b]leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), [a faith] that first lived permanently in [the heart of] your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am [fully] persuaded, [dwells] in you also.

⁶ That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [^[c]with those of the elders at your ordination].

⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

⁸ Do not blush or be ashamed then, to testify to and for our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for His sake, but [^[d]with me] take your share of the suffering [to which the preaching] of the Gospel [may expose you, and do it] in the power of God.

⁹ [For it is He] Who delivered and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness [to a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness]; [He did it] not because of anything of merit that we have done, but because of and to further His own purpose and grace (unmerited favor) which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began [eternal ages ago].

¹⁰ [It is that purpose and grace] which He now has made known and has fully disclosed and made real [to us] through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who annulled death and made it of no effect and brought life and immortality (immunity from eternal death) to light through the Gospel.

¹¹ For [the proclaiming of] this [Gospel] I was appointed a herald (preacher) and an apostle (special messenger) and a teacher of the Gentiles.

¹² And this is why I am suffering as I do. Still I am not ashamed, for I know (perceive, have knowledge of, and am acquainted with) Him Whom I have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on), and I am [positively] persuaded that He is able to guard and keep that which has been entrusted to me and which ^[e]I have committed [to Him] until that day.

¹³ Hold fast and follow the pattern of wholesome and sound teaching which you have heard from me, in [all] the faith and love which are [for us] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the Feast were some Greeks.

²¹ These came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and they made this request, Sir, we desire to see Jesus.

²² Philip came and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip together [went] and told Jesus.

²³ And Jesus answered them, The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted.

²⁴ I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest.

²⁵ Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.]

²⁶ If anyone serves Me, he must continue to follow Me [^[a]to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying] and wherever I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.