Book of Common Prayer
145 With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord.
I will keep your statutes.(A)
146 I cry to you; save me,
that I may observe your decrees.
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I put my hope in your words.(B)
148 My eyes are awake before each watch of the night,
that I may meditate on your promise.
149 In your steadfast love hear my voice;
O Lord, in your justice preserve my life.(C)
150 Those who persecute me with evil purpose draw near;
they are far from your law.
151 Yet you are near, O Lord,
and all your commandments are true.(D)
152 Long ago I learned from your decrees
that you have established them forever.(E)
153 Look on my misery and rescue me,
for I do not forget your law.(F)
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise.(G)
155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.(H)
156 Great is your mercy, O Lord;
be gracious to me[a] according to your justice.(I)
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
yet I do not swerve from your decrees.(J)
158 I look at the faithless with disgust
because they do not keep your commands.(K)
159 Consider how I love your precepts;
be gracious to me[b] according to your steadfast love.(L)
160 The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.(M)
161 Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.(N)
162 I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil.(O)
163 I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous ordinances.(P)
165 Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble.(Q)
166 I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
and I fulfill your commandments.(R)
167 My soul keeps your decrees;
I love them exceedingly.
168 I keep your precepts and decrees,
for all my ways are before you.(S)
169 Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word.(T)
170 Let my supplication come before you;
deliver me according to your promise.(U)
171 My lips will pour forth praise,
because you teach me your statutes.(V)
172 My tongue will sing of your promise,
for all your commandments are right.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.(W)
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight.
175 Let me live that I may praise you,
and let your ordinances help me.(X)
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.(Y)
Psalm 128
The Happy Home of the Faithful
A Song of Ascents.
1 Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways.(A)
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.(B)
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.(C)
4 Thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.
5 The Lord bless you from Zion.
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.(D)
6 May you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!(E)
Psalm 129
Prayer for the Downfall of Israel’s Enemies
A Song of Ascents.
1 Often have they attacked me from my youth
—let Israel now say—(F)
2 often have they attacked me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.(G)
3 The plowers plowed on my back;
they made their furrows long.
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.(H)
5 May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward.(I)
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops
that withers before it grows up,(J)
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands
or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”(K)
Psalm 130
Waiting for Divine Redemption
A Song of Ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.(L)
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!(M)
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?(N)
4 But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.(O)
Balaam’s First Oracle
41 On the next day Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal, and from there he could see part of the people of Israel.[a](A) 23 1
4 Then God met Balaam, and Balaam[c] said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”(E) 5 The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.”(F) 6 So he returned to Balak,[d] who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab. 7 Then Balaam[e] uttered his oracle, saying,
“Balak has brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, denounce Israel!’(G)
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?(H)
9 For from the top of the crags I see him;
from the hills I behold him.
Here is a people living alone
and not reckoning itself among the nations!(I)
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number the dust cloud[f] of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”(J)
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.”(K) 12 He answered, “Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?”(L)
13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.
The Inner Conflict
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.[a] 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.(A) 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.(B) 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,(C) 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.(D) 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away.(A) 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.(B) 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.(C) 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’(D) 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”(E)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[a]
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?(F)
43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.(G) 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”[b]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.(H)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.