Book of Common Prayer
137 Weeping, we sat beside the rivers of Babylon thinking of Jerusalem. 2 We have put away our lyres, hanging them upon the branches of the willow trees, 3-4 for how can we sing? Yet our captors, our tormentors, demand that we sing for them the happy songs of Zion! 5-6 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp. If I fail to love her more than my highest joy, let me never sing again.
7 O Jehovah, do not forget what these Edomites did on that day when the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. “Raze her to the ground!” they yelled. 8 O Babylon, evil beast, you shall be destroyed. Blessed is the man who destroys you as you have destroyed us. 9 Blessed is the man who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks![a]
144 Bless the Lord who is my immovable Rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle. 2 He is always kind and loving to me; he is my fortress, my tower of strength and safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield. He subdues my people under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that you even notice him? Why bother at all with the human race?[a] 4 For man is but a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bend down the heavens, Lord, and come. The mountains smoke beneath your touch.
6 Let loose your lightning bolts, your arrows, Lord, upon your enemies, and scatter them.
7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me; deliver me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies. 8 Their mouths are filled with lies; they swear to the truth of what is false.
9 I will sing you a new song, O God, with a ten-stringed harp. 10 For you grant victory to kings! You are the one who will rescue your servant David from the fatal sword. 11 Save me! Deliver me from these enemies, these liars, these treacherous men.
12-15 Here is my description of[b] a truly happy land where Jehovah is God:
Sons vigorous and tall as growing plants.
Daughters of graceful beauty like the pillars of a palace wall.
Barns full to the brim with crops of every kind.
Sheep by the thousands out in our fields.
Oxen loaded down with produce.
No enemy attacking the walls, but peace everywhere.
No crime in our streets.
Yes, happy are those whose God is Jehovah.
104 1-2 I bless the Lord: O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty and light! You stretched out the starry curtain of the heavens, 3 and hollowed out the surface of the earth to form the seas. The clouds are his chariots. He rides upon the wings of the wind. 4 The angels[a] are his messengers—his servants of fire!
5 You bound the world together so that it would never fall apart. 6 You clothed the earth with floods of waters covering up the mountains. 7-8 You spoke, and at the sound of your shout the water collected into its vast ocean beds, and mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed. 9 And then you set a boundary for the seas so that they would never again cover the earth.
10 He placed springs in the valleys and streams that gush from the mountains. 11 They give water for all the animals to drink. There the wild donkeys quench their thirst, 12 and the birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. 13 He sends rain upon the mountains and fills the earth with fruit. 14 The tender grass grows up at his command to feed the cattle, and there are fruit trees, vegetables, and grain for man to cultivate, 15 and wine to make him glad, and olive oil as lotion for his skin, and bread to give him strength. 16 The Lord planted the cedars of Lebanon. They are tall and flourishing. 17 There the birds make their nests, the storks in the firs. 18 High in the mountains are pastures for the wild goats, and rock badgers burrow in among the rocks and find protection there.
19 He assigned the moon to mark the months and the sun to mark the days. 20 He sends the night and darkness, when all the forest folk come out. 21 Then the young lions roar for their food, but they are dependent on the Lord. 22 At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest, 23 and men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again. 24 O Lord, what a variety you have made! And in wisdom you have made them all! The earth is full of your riches.
25 There before me lies the mighty ocean, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small. 26 And look! See the ships! And over there, the whale you made to play in the sea. 27 Every one of these depends on you to give them daily food. 28 You supply it, and they gather it. You open wide your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied with all your bountiful provision.
29 But if you turn away from them, then all is lost. And when you gather up their breath, they die and turn again to dust.
30 Then you send your Spirit, and new life is born[b] to replenish all the living of the earth. 31 Praise God forever! How he must rejoice in all his work! 32 The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains burst into flame at his touch.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise God to my last breath! 34 May he be pleased by all these thoughts about him, for he is the source of all my joy. 35 Let all sinners perish—all who refuse to praise him. But I will praise him. Hallelujah!
22 The Lord formed me in the beginning, before he created anything else.[a] 23 From ages past, I am. I existed before the earth began. 24 I lived before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their waters onto the earth, 25 before the mountains and the hills were made. 26 Yes, I was born before God made the earth and fields and the first handfuls of soil.
27-29 “I was there when he established the heavens and formed the great springs in the depths of the oceans. I was there when he set the limits of the seas and gave them his instructions not to spread beyond their boundaries. I was there when he made the blueprint for the earth and oceans. 30 I was the craftsman at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence. 31 And how happy I was with what he created—his wide world and all his family of mankind! 32 And so, young men, listen to me, for how happy are all who follow my instructions.
33 “Listen to my counsel—oh, don’t refuse it—and be wise. 34 Happy is the man who is so anxious to be with me that he watches for me daily at my gates, or waits for me outside my home! 35 For whoever finds me finds life and wins approval from the Lord. 36 But the one who misses me has injured himself irreparably. Those who refuse me show that they love death.”
1 From: Paul, Jesus Christ’s missionary, sent out by God to tell men and women everywhere about the eternal life he has promised them through faith in Jesus Christ.
2 To: Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord shower you with his kindness, mercy, and peace.
3 How I thank God for you, Timothy. I pray for you every day, and many times during the long nights I beg my God to bless you richly. He is my fathers’ God and mine, and my only purpose in life is to please him.
4 How I long to see you again. How happy I would be, for I remember your tears as we left each other.
5 I know how much you trust the Lord, just as your mother Eunice and your grandmother Lois do; and I feel sure you are still trusting him as much as ever.
6 This being so, I want to remind you to stir into flame the strength and boldness[a] that is in you, that entered into you when I laid my hands upon your head and blessed you. 7 For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, and to love them and enjoy being with them.
8 If you will stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord or to let them know that I am your friend even though I am here in jail for Christ’s sake. You will be ready to suffer with me for the Lord, for he will give you strength in suffering.
9 It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work not because we deserved it but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, who broke the power of death and showed us the way of everlasting life through trusting him. 11 And God has chosen me to be his missionary, to preach to the Gentiles and teach them.
12 That is why I am suffering here in jail, and I am certainly not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to safely guard all that I have given him until the day of his return.
13 Hold tightly to the pattern of truth I taught you, especially concerning the faith and love Christ Jesus offers you.[b] 14 Guard well the splendid, God-given ability you received as a gift from the Holy Spirit who lives within you.
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover 21 paid a visit to Philip,[a] who was from Bethsaida, and said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” 22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23-24 Jesus replied that the time had come for him to return to his glory in heaven, and that “I must fall and die like a kernel of wheat that falls into the furrows of the earth. Unless I die I will be alone—a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 If you love your life down here—you will lose it. If you despise your life down here—you will exchange it for eternal glory.
26 “If these Greeks[b] want to be my disciples, tell them to come and follow me, for my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.