Book of Common Prayer
Lament During the Babylonian Exile
137 By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat, yes, we wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows[a] in her midst,
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors asked of us
words of a song,
and our tormentors[b] asked of us jubilation,
“Sing for us from a song of Zion.”
4 How could we sing the song of Yahweh
in a foreign land?[c]
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget.[d]
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if do not I exalt Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
7 Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom
the day of Jerusalem,
the ones who said, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare
to its foundation!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated,
happy shall be he who pays back to you
what you paid out to us.[e]
9 Happy shall be he who seizes
and smashes your children
against the rock.
A Prayer for National Safety
Of David.[a]
144 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,
the one who trains my hands for battle,
my fingers for war—
2 my loyal love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, and one in whom I take refuge,
the one who subdues peoples[b] under me.
3 O Yahweh, what is humankind that you take knowledge of him,
or the son of man that you take thought of him?
4 Humankind is like a breath,
his days like a passing shadow.
5 O Yahweh, bow the heavens and come down;
touch the mountains so that they smoke.
6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
dispatch your arrows and rout them.
7 Stretch out your hands from on high;
Rescue me and deliver me from many waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouth speaks falsely,
and their right hand is a false right hand.
9 O God, I will sing a new song to you.
With a lyre of ten strings I will sing praise to you,
10 who gives victory to kings,
who rescues David his servant
from the evil sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks falsely,
and whose right hand is a false right hand,
12 that our sons may be like plants,
full grown in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars,
carved in the style of a palace,
13 that our granaries may be full,
providing produce of all kinds,[c]
that our sheep may produce by the thousands,
by the tens of thousands in our open fields,
14 that our cattle may be pregnant;
that there be no breach in our walls,
and no going out in exile,
and no outcry in our plazas.
15 Blessed are the people who have it thus.
Blessed are the people whose God is Yahweh.
Praise to Yahweh for His Creation and Providence
104 Bless Yahweh, O my soul.
O Yahweh my God, you are very great.
You clothe yourself with splendor and majesty,
2 you who cover yourself with light as with a garment,
who stretch out the heavens like a tent curtain,
3 the one who sets beams in the waters for his upper chambers,
who makes clouds his chariot,
who rides[a] on the wings of the wind,
4 who makes his messengers the winds,
his attendants a flame of fire.
5 He established the earth on her foundations,
so that it will not be moved forever and ever.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment.
The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they ran off.
8 They ascended the mountains and drained though the valleys
to the place that you established[b] for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not cross over,
so that they would not return to cover the earth.
10 You are the one who sends forth springs into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
11 They give drink for every beast of the field.
The wild donkeys quench[c] their thirst.
12 Along them the birds of the heavens abide.
From among the branches they sing.[d]
13 You are the one who waters[e] the mountains
from his upper chambers.
The earth is full[f] with the fruit of your labors:
14 who causes grass to grow for the cattle
and herbs for the service of humankind,
to bring forth food from the earth,
15 and wine that makes glad the heart of man,
so that their faces shine from oil,
and bread that strengthens the heart of man.
16 The trees of Yahweh drink their fill,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted,
17 where birds make their nest.
The stork has its home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19 He made the moon for appointed times;
the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
when[g] all the animals of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions are roaring for the prey
and seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they gather together
and lie down in their dens.
23 Humankind goes out to its work,
and to its labor until evening.
24 How many are your works, O Yahweh;
all of them you have done in wisdom.
The earth is full of your creatures.
25 This is the great and wide[h] sea,
in which are moving animals without number,
living things small and great.
26 There the ships sail.
Leviathan is there that you formed to play with.[i]
27 They all wait for you
to give them their food at the proper time.[j]
28 You give to them; they gather it.
You open your hand, they are filled with what is good.
29 You hide your face, they are terrified.
You take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 You send forth your Spirit,[k] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of Yahweh endure forever.
May Yahweh be glad in his works,
32 the one who looks at the earth and it quakes,
and touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to Yahweh throughout my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I remain alive.[l]
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him.
I will be glad in Yahweh.
35 Let sinners perish completely from the earth,
and the wicked not remain alive.[m]
Bless Yahweh, O my soul.
Praise Yah.[n]
12 And this will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their[a] flesh will rot while they[b] are standing on their[c] feet; their[d] eyes will rot in their sockets, and their[e] tongues[f] will rot in their mouths.[g] 13 And then[h] on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall[i] on them, and they will seize one another’s hand,[j] and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of another.[k] 14 And Judah also will fight at[l] Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold and silver, and garments in great abundance.[m] 15 Like this plague[n] will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and every kind of animal in those camps.
16 And then[o] every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year[p] to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.[q] 17 And then[r] whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them. 18 And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
20 On that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to Yahweh.” And the cooking pots in the house[s] of Yahweh will be holy like the sacrificial basins[t] before the altar. 21 And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a trader[u] in the house[v] of Yahweh of hosts on that day.
Humility and Unity
2 Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 complete my joy, so that you are in agreement[a], having the same love, united in spirit, having one purpose[b]. 3 Do nothing according to selfish ambition or according to empty conceit, but in humility considering one another better than yourselves, 4 each of you[c] not looking out for your own interests[d], but also each of you for the interests[e] of others.
Christ’s Humiliation and Exaltation
5 Think this in[f] yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider being equal with God something to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself
by[g] taking the form of a slave,
by[h] becoming in the likeness of people.
And being found in appearance like a man,
8 he humbled himself
by[i] becoming obedient to the point of death,
that is, death on a cross.
9 Therefore also God exalted him
and graciously granted him the name above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41 And when he approached and[a] saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known on this day—even you—the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you and your enemies will put up an embankment[b] against you, and will surround you and press you hard from all directions. 44 And they will raze you to the ground, you and your children within you, and will not leave a stone upon a stone within you, because[c] you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
The Cleansing of the Temple
45 And he entered into the temple courts[d] and[e] began to drive out those who were selling, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘And my house will be a house of prayer,’[f] but you have made it a cave of robbers!”
47 And he was teaching every day in the temple courts,[g] and the chief priests and the scribes and the most prominent men of the people were seeking to destroy him. 48 And they did not find anything they could do, because all the people were paying close attention to what they were hearing from him.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software