Book of Common Prayer

¹⁴⁵ I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will keep Your statutes [I will hear, receive, love, and obey them].

¹⁴⁶ I cried to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].

¹⁴⁷ I anticipated the dawning of the morning and cried [in childlike prayer]; I hoped in Your word.

¹⁴⁸ My eyes anticipate the night watches and I am awake before the cry of the watchman, that I may meditate on Your word.

¹⁴⁹ Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love; O Lord, quicken me and give me life according to Your [righteous] decrees.

¹⁵⁰ They draw near who follow after wrong thinking and persecute me with wickedness; they are far from Your law.

¹⁵¹ You are near, O Lord [nearer to me than my foes], and all Your commandments are truth.

¹⁵² Of old have I known Your testimonies, and for a long time, [therefore it is a thoroughly established conviction] that You have founded them forever.^(A)

¹⁵³ Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.

¹⁵⁴ Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me and give me life according to Your word.

¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not nor hunger for Your statutes.

¹⁵⁶ Great are Your tender mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord; give me life according to Your ordinances.

¹⁵⁷ Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not swerve from Your testimonies.

¹⁵⁸ I behold the treacherous and am grieved and loathe them, because they do not respect Your law [neither hearing, receiving, loving, nor obeying it].

¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me and give life to me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness!

¹⁶⁰ The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.

¹⁶¹ Princes pursue and persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words [dreading violation of them far more than the force of prince or potentate].^(B)

¹⁶² I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great spoil.

¹⁶³ I hate and abhor falsehood, but Your law do I love.

¹⁶⁴ Seven times a day and all day long do I praise You because of Your righteous decrees.

¹⁶⁵ Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble.^(C)

¹⁶⁶ I am hoping and waiting [eagerly] for Your salvation, O Lord, and I do Your commandments.^(D)

¹⁶⁷ Your testimonies have I kept [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]; I love them exceedingly!

¹⁶⁸ I have observed Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are [fully known] before You.

¹⁸ And the Lord gave me [Jeremiah] knowledge of it [their plot], and I knew it; then You [O Lord] showed me their doings.

¹⁹ But I was like a tame lamb that is brought to the slaughter; I did not know that they had devised inventions and schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

²⁰ But, O Lord of hosts, Who judges rightly and justly, Who tests the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have revealed and committed my cause [rolling it upon You].

²¹ Therefore thus says the Lord about the men of Anathoth [Jeremiah’s hometown], who seek your life [Jeremiah] and say, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that you die not by our hands—

²² Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and their daughters will die by famine;

²³ And there will be no remnant [of the conspirators] left, for I will bring evil and calamity upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.

¹⁶ Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; be ^[a]wary and wise as serpents, and be innocent (harmless, guileless, and ^[b]without falsity) as doves.^(A)

¹⁷ Be on guard against men [whose ^[c]way or nature is to act in opposition to God]; for they will deliver you up to councils and flog you in their synagogues,

¹⁸ And you will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness to bear testimony before them and to the Gentiles (the nations).

¹⁹ But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious about how or what you are to speak; for what you are to say will be given you in that very hour and ^[d]moment,

²⁰ For it is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹ Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will take a stand against their parents and will have them put to death.

²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake, but he who perseveres and endures to the end will be saved [^[e]from spiritual disease and death in the world to come].

Psalm 112

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who fears (reveres and worships) the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.^(A)

² His [spiritual] offspring shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

³ Prosperity and welfare are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

⁴ Light arises in the darkness for the upright, gracious, compassionate, and just [who are in right standing with God].

⁵ It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.^(B)

⁶ He will not be moved forever; the [uncompromisingly] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God) shall be in everlasting remembrance.^(C)

⁷ He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is firmly fixed, trusting (leaning on and being confident) in the Lord.

⁸ His heart is established and steady, he will not be afraid while he waits to see his desire established upon his adversaries.

⁹ He has distributed freely [he has given to the poor and needy]; his righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) endures forever; his horn shall be exalted in honor.^(D)

¹⁰ The wicked man will see it and be grieved and angered, he will gnash his teeth and disappear [in despair]; the desire of the wicked shall perish and come to nothing.

Psalm 125

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Those who trust in, lean on, and confidently hope in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever.

² As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever.

³ For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the [uncompromisingly] righteous, lest the righteous (God’s people) stretch forth their hands to iniquity and apostasy.

⁴ Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are right [with You and all people] in their hearts.

⁵ As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways [of indifference to God], the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!

¹² So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,^(A)

¹³ And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.

¹⁴ Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

¹⁵ Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it—

¹⁶ That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.^(B)

¹⁷ For you understand that later on, when he wanted [to regain title to] his inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected (disqualified and set aside), for he could find no opportunity to repair by repentance [what he had done, no chance to recall the choice he had made], although he sought for it carefully with [bitter] tears.^(C)

¹⁸ For you have not come [as did the Israelites in the wilderness] to a [material] mountain that can be touched, [a mountain] that is ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm,

¹⁹ And to the blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them.^(D)

²⁰ For they could not bear the command that was given: If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.^(E)

²¹ In fact, so awful and terrifying was the [phenomenal] sight that Moses said, I am terrified (aghast and trembling with fear).^(F)

²² But rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering,

²³ And to the church (assembly) of the Firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect,

²⁴ And to Jesus, the Mediator (Go-between, Agent) of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks [of mercy], a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance].^(G)