Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 102
A Prayer of the afflicted; when he is overwhelmed and faint and pours out his complaint to God.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.
2 Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that [in absorption] I forget to eat my food.
5 By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.
6 I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the waste places.
7 I am sleepless and lie awake [mourning], like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.
8 My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten the ashes [in which I sat] as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines [with the sun]; and I am withered like grass.
12 But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come [the moment designated].(A)
14 For Your servants take [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins] and show pity for her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.(B)
16 When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;
17 He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord.
19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,
20 To hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those who are appointed to death,
21 So that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem
22 When peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to worship and serve the Lord.
23 He has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me low [with sorrow] in the way; He has shortened my days [aging me prematurely].
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose years continue throughout all generations.
25 At the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing You shall change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.
27 But You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.(C)
28 The children of Your servants shall dwell safely and continue, and their descendants shall be established before You.
Book Five
Psalm 107
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary,
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the [Red] Sea in the south.
4 Some wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert track; they found no city for habitation.
5 Hungry and thirsty, they fainted; their lives were near to being extinguished.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them forth by the straight and right way, that they might go to a city where they could establish their homes.
8 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,(A)
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore He bowed down their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled and fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them.(B)
15 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron apart.
17 Some are fools [made ill] because of the way of their transgressions and are afflicted because of their iniquities.
18 They loathe every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.
20 He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction.(C)
21 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!(D)
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and rehearse His deeds with shouts of joy and singing!
23 Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters;
24 These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 [Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight.
27 They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end [all their wisdom has come to nothing].
28 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still.(E)
30 Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven.
31 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the company of the elders.
20 And the Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month. And the people dwelt in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.
2 Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled together against Moses and Aaron.
3 And the people contended with Moses, and said, Would that we had died when our brethren died [in the plague] before the Lord!(A)
4 And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, we and our livestock?
5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of grain or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates. And there is no water to drink.
6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7 And the Lord said to Moses,
8 Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to give forth its water, and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.
9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock and Moses said to them, Hear now, you rebels; must we bring you water out of this rock?
11 And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock [a]twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.
12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in (rely on, cling to) Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Israelites, you therefore [b]shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.(B)
13 These are the waters of Meribah [strife], where the Israelites contended with the Lord and He showed Himself holy among them.
12 Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [[a]no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.
13 [To be sure] sin was in the world before ever the Law was given, but sin is not charged to men’s account where there is no law [to transgress].
14 Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did. Adam was a type (prefigure) of the One Who was to come [in reverse, [b]the former destructive, the Latter saving].(A)
15 But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man’s falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God’s grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and for [the benefit of] many.
16 Nor is the free gift at all to be compared to the effect of that one [man’s] sin. For the sentence [following the trespass] of one [man] brought condemnation, whereas the free gift [following] many transgressions brings justification ([c]an act of righteousness).
17 For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
18 Well then, as one man’s trespass [one man’s false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.
19 For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, [d]heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).
20 But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,
21 So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.
29 And as they were going out of Jericho, a great throng accompanied Him.
30 And behold, two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have pity and mercy on us, [You] Son of David!
31 The crowds reproved them and told them to keep still; but they cried out all the more, Lord, have pity and mercy on us, [You] Son of David!
32 And Jesus stopped and called them, and asked, What do you want Me to do for you?
33 They answered Him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened!
34 And Jesus, in pity, touched their eyes; and instantly they received their sight and followed Him.
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