Book of Common Prayer
Qoph
145 Lord, I call to you with all my heart.
Answer me, and I will obey your laws.
146 I call to you.
Save me, and I will obey your rules.
147 I get up early in the morning to pray to you.
I trust what you say.
148 Late into the night I stay awake
to think about your word.
149 I know your love is true, so listen to me.
Lord, you always do what is right, so let me live.
150 Here come those who have evil plans to hurt me.
They live far away from your teachings.
151 But you are near me, Lord,
and all your commands can be trusted.
152 Long ago, I learned from your rules
that you made them to last forever.
Resh
153 Look at my suffering and rescue me.
I have not forgotten your teachings.
154 Argue my case, and set me free.
Let me live, as you promised.
155 The wicked have no hope of being saved,
because they don’t follow your laws.
156 Lord, you are very kind.
You always do what is right, so let me live.
157 I have many enemies trying to hurt me,
but I have not stopped following your rules.
158 I look at those traitors and hate what I see,
because they refuse to do what you say.
159 See how much I love your instructions!
Lord, I know your love is true, so let me live.
160 Every word you say can be trusted.
Your laws are fair and will last forever.
Shin
161 Powerful leaders attack me for no reason,
but the only thing I fear is your command.
162 Your word makes me happy,
like someone who has found a great treasure.
163 I hate lies; they make me sick!
But I love your teachings.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
because your laws are fair.
165 Those who love your teachings will find true peace.
Nothing can make them fall.
166 Lord, I am waiting for you to save me.
I obey your commands.
167 I follow your rules.
I love them very much.
168 I obey all your instructions and rules,
because you know everything I do.
Taw
169 Lord, listen to my cry for help.
Make me wise, as you promised.
170 Listen to my prayer.
Save me, as you promised.
171 I will burst into songs of praise,
because you have taught me your laws.
172 Let my voice sing about your word,
because all your commands are good.
173 I have chosen to follow your instructions,
so reach out and help me!
174 Lord, I want you to save me.
Your teachings make me happy.
175 Let me live to praise you.
Let me find the help I need in your laws.
176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep.
Come and find me.
I am your servant,
and I have not forgotten your commands.
A song for going up to the Temple.
128 Great blessings belong to those who fear and respect the Lord
and live the way he wants.
2 You will get what you work for.
You will enjoy the Lord’s blessings, and all will go well for you.
3 At home, your wife will have many children, like a vine full of grapes.
The children around your table will be like an orchard full of olive trees.
4 Yes, the Lord will really bless those who respect him.
5 May the Lord bless you from Mount Zion.
May you enjoy the blessings of Jerusalem all your life.
6 And may you live to see your grandchildren.
Let Israel always enjoy peace!
A song for going up to the Temple.
129 All my life enemies have attacked me.
Say it again, Israel.
2 All my life enemies have attacked me,
but they have never defeated me.
3 They beat me until I had deep cuts.
My back looked like a freshly plowed field.
4 But the Lord does what is right;
he cut the ropes and set me free from those wicked people.
5 May those who hate Zion be put to shame.
May they be stopped and chased away.
6 They will be like grass on a flat roof
that dies before it has time to grow.
7 The one who goes to harvest it
will not find enough to cut and stack.
8 May no one walking by those wicked people ever say,
“May the Lord bless you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”
A song for going up to the Temple.
130 Lord, I am in deep trouble,
so I am calling to you for help.
2 My Lord, listen to me.
Listen to my cry for help.
3 Lord, if you punished people for all their sins,
no one would be left alive.
4 But you forgive people,
so they fear and respect you.
5 I am waiting for the Lord to help me.
My soul waits for him.
I trust what he says.
6 I am waiting for my Lord,
like a guard waiting and waiting for the morning to come.
7 Israel, trust in the Lord.
The Lord is the one who is faithful and true.
He saves us again and again,
8 and he is the one who will save the people of Israel from all their sins.
41 The next morning Balak took Balaam to the town of Bamoth Baal. From there they could see part of the Israelite camp.
Balaam’s First Message
23 Balaam said, “Build seven altars here. And prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 2 Balak did what Balaam asked. Then Balak and Balaam killed a ram and a bull on each of the altars.
3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here near this altar. I will go to another place. Then the Lord will come to me, and he will tell me what I must say.” Then Balaam went away to a higher place.
4 God came to Balaam at that place, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars. And I have killed a bull and a ram as a sacrifice on each altar.”
5 Then the Lord gave Balaam a message for Balak and said, “Go back to Balak and say the things that I have given you to say.”
6 So Balaam went back to Balak. Balak was still standing near the altar, and all the leaders of Moab were standing there with them. 7 Then Balaam spoke, and this was his message:
“Balak, the king of Moab,
brought me here from the eastern mountains of Aram.
Balak said to me,
‘Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, speak against the Israelites.’
8 But God is not against them,
so I cannot speak against them either!
The Lord has not asked for bad things to happen to these people.
So I cannot do that either.
9 I see these people from the mountain.
I see them from the high hills.
They live alone.
They are not part of another nation.
10 Who can count Jacob’s people?
They are as many as the grains of dust.
No one can count even a fourth of the Israelites.
Let me die like a good man.
Let my life end as happy as theirs!”
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them!”
12 But Balaam answered, “I must say the things that the Lord tells me to say.”
13 Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No, it was sin that used the good command to bring me death. This shows how terrible sin really is. It can use a good command to produce a result that shows sin at its very worst.
The War Inside Us
14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am so human. Sin rules me as if I were its slave. 15 I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate. 16 And if I don’t want to do what I do, that means I agree that the law is good. 17 But I am not really the one doing the evil. It is sin living in me that does it. 18 Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it. 19 I don’t do the good that I want to do. I do the evil that I don’t want to do. 20 So if I do what I don’t want to do, then I am not really the one doing it. It is the sin living in me that does it.
21 So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. 22 In my mind I am happy with God’s law. 23 But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner. 24 What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? 25 I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.
God Sends His Son(A)
33 “Listen to this story: There was a man who owned a vineyard. He put a wall around the field and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the land to some farmers and then left on a trip. 34 Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the grapes.
35 “But the farmers grabbed the servants and beat one. They killed another one and then stoned to death a third servant. 36 So the man sent some other servants to the farmers. He sent more servants than he sent the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to them that they did the first time. 37 So the man decided to send his son to the farmers. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’
38 “But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son. This vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ 39 So the farmers took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40 “So what will the owner of the vineyard do to these farmers when he comes?”
41 The Jewish priests and leaders said, “He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the land to other farmers, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders refused to accept
became the cornerstone.
The Lord did this,
and it is wonderful to us.’ (B)
43 “So I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you. It will be given to people who do what God wants in his kingdom. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken. And it will crush anyone it falls on.”[a]
45 When the leading priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew that Jesus was talking about them. 46 They wanted to find a way to arrest Jesus. But they were afraid to do anything, because the people believed that Jesus was a prophet.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International