Book of Common Prayer
137 We were sitting by the rivers of Babylon.
We wept when we remembered what had happened to Zion.
2 On the nearby poplar trees
we hung up our harps.
3 Those who held us as prisoners asked us to sing.
Those who enjoyed hurting us ordered us to sing joyful songs.
They said, “Sing one of the songs of Zion to us!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while we are in another land?
5 Jerusalem, if I forget you,
may my right hand never be able to play the harp again.
6 If I don’t remember you,
may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth so I can’t sing.
May it happen if I don’t consider Jerusalem
to be my greatest joy.
7 Lord, remember what the people of Edom did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down!” they cried.
“Tear it down to the ground!”
8 People of Babylon, you are sentenced to be destroyed.
Happy is the person who pays you back
according to what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the person who grabs your babies
and smashes them against the rocks.
A psalm of David.
144 Give praise to the Lord, my Rock.
He trains my hands for war.
He trains my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and is like a fort to me.
He is my place of safety and the God who saves me.
He is like a shield that keeps me safe.
He brings nations under my control.
3 Lord, what are human beings that you take care of them?
What are mere people that you think about them?
4 Their lives don’t last any longer than a breath.
Their days are like a shadow that quickly disappears.
5 Lord, open up your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains, and they will pour out smoke.
6 Send flashes of lightning and scatter my enemies.
Shoot your arrows and chase them away.
7 My enemies are like a mighty flood.
Reach down from heaven and save me.
Save me from outsiders who attack me.
8 They tell all kinds of lies with their mouths.
Even when they make a promise by raising their right hands, they don’t mean it.
9 My God, I will sing a new song to you.
I will make music to you on a lyre that has ten strings.
10 You are the God who helps kings win battles.
You save your servant David.
From death by the sword 11 save me.
Set me free from outsiders who attack me.
They tell all kinds of lies with their mouths.
Even when they make a promise by raising their right hands, they don’t mean it.
12 While our sons are young,
they will be like healthy plants.
Our daughters will be like pillars
that have been made to decorate a palace.
13 Our storerooms will be filled
with every kind of food.
The sheep in our fields will increase by thousands.
They will increase by tens of thousands.
14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
None of our city walls will be broken down.
No one will be carried off as a prisoner.
No cries of pain will be heard in our streets.
15 Blessed is the nation about whom all these things are true.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Book II
Psalms 42–72
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
42 A deer longs for streams of water.
God, I long for you in the same way.
2 I am thirsty for God. I am thirsty for the living God.
When can I go and meet with him?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night.
All day long people say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember what has happened,
I tell God all my troubles.
I remember how I used to walk to the house of God.
The Mighty One guarded my steps.
We shouted with joy and praised God
as we went along with the joyful crowd.
5 My spirit, why are you so sad?
Why are you so upset deep down inside me?
Put your hope in God.
Once again I will have reason to praise him.
He is my Savior and my God.
6 My spirit is very sad deep down inside me.
So I will remember you here where the Jordan River begins.
I will remember you here on the Hermon mountains
and on Mount Mizar.
7 You have sent wave upon wave of trouble over me.
It roars down on me like a waterfall.
All your waves and breakers have rolled over me.
8 During the day the Lord sends his love to me.
During the night I sing about him.
I say a prayer to the God who gives me life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go around in sorrow?
Why am I treated so badly by my enemies?”
10 My body suffers deadly pain
as my enemies make fun of me.
All day long they say to me,
“Where is your God?”
11 My spirit, why are you so sad?
Why are you so upset deep down inside me?
Put your hope in God.
Once again I will have reason to praise him.
He is my Savior and my God.
43 My God, when you hand down your decision, let it be in my favor.
Stand up for me against an unfaithful nation.
Save me from those lying and sinful people.
2 You are God, my place of safety.
Why have you turned your back on me?
Why must I go around in sorrow?
Why am I beaten down by my enemies?
3 Send me your light and your faithful care.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me back to your holy mountain,
to the place where you live.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God.
I will go to God. He is my joy and my delight.
God, you are my God.
I will praise you by playing the lyre.
5 My spirit, why are you so sad?
Why are you so upset deep down inside me?
Put your hope in God.
Once again I will have reason to praise him.
He is my Savior and my God.
27 Here is what the Lord announces. “The days are coming when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah again. I will plant them with children and young animals. 28 I watched over Israel and Judah to pull them up by the roots. I tore them down. I crushed them. I destroyed them. I brought horrible trouble on them. But now I will watch over them to build them up and plant them,” announces the Lord. 29 “In those days people will no longer say,
“ ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes.
But the children have a bitter taste in their mouths.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin. The one who eats sour grapes will taste how bitter they are.
31 “The days are coming,” announces the Lord.
“I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel.
I will also make it with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their people of long ago.
That was when I took them by the hand.
I led them out of Egypt.
But they broke my covenant.
They did it even though I was like a husband to them,”
announces the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with Israel
after that time,” announces the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds.
I will write it on their hearts.
I will be their God.
And they will be my people.
34 They will not need to teach their neighbor anymore.
And they will not need to teach one another anymore.
They will not need to say, ‘Know the Lord.’
That’s because everyone will know me.
From the least important of them to the most important,
all of them will know me,”
announces the Lord.
“I will forgive their evil ways.
I will not remember their sins anymore.”
All Israel Will Be Saved
25 Brothers and sisters, here is a mystery I want you to understand. It will keep you from being proud. Part of Israel has refused to obey God. That will continue until the full number of Gentiles has entered God’s kingdom. 26 In this way all Israel will be saved. It is written,
“The God who saves will come from Mount Zion.
He will remove sin from Jacob’s family.
27 Here is my covenant with them.
I will take away their sins.” (Isaiah 59:20,21; 27:9; Jeremiah 31:33,34)
28 As far as the good news is concerned, the people of Israel are enemies. This is for your good. But as far as God’s choice is concerned, the people of Israel are loved. This is because of God’s promises to the founders of our nation. 29 God does not take back his gifts. He does not change his mind about those he has chosen. 30 At one time you did not obey God. But now you have received mercy because Israel did not obey. 31 In the same way, Israel has not been obeying God. But now they receive mercy because of God’s mercy to you. 32 God has found everyone guilty of not obeying him. So now he can have mercy on everyone.
Praise to God
33 How very rich are God’s wisdom and knowledge!
How he judges is more than we can understand!
The way he deals with people is more than we can know!
34 “Who can ever know what the Lord is thinking?
Or who can ever give him advice?” (Isaiah 40:13)
35 “Has anyone ever given anything to God,
so that God has to pay them back?” (Job 41:11)
36 All things come from him.
All things are directed by him.
All things are for his praise.
May God be given the glory forever! Amen.
28 After she said this, she went back home. She called her sister Mary to one side to talk to her. “The Teacher is here,” Martha said. “He is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Jesus had not yet entered the village. He was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 Some Jews had been comforting Mary in the house. They noticed how quickly she got up and went out. So they followed her. They thought she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 Mary reached the place where Jesus was. When she saw him, she fell at his feet. She said, “Lord, I wish you had been here! Then my brother would not have died.”
33 Jesus saw her crying. He saw that the Jews who had come along with her were crying also. His spirit became very sad, and he was troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “He opened the eyes of the blind man. Couldn’t he have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Once more Jesus felt very sad. He came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone in front of the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad smell. Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see God’s glory?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up. He said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 I know that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here. I said it so they will believe that you sent me.”
43 Then Jesus called in a loud voice. He said, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen. A cloth was around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the clothes he was buried in and let him go.”
Some Jews Believe and Some Don’t
37 Jesus had performed so many signs in front of them. But they still would not believe in him. 38 This happened as Isaiah the prophet had said it would. He had said,
“Lord, who has believed what we’ve been saying?
Who has seen the Lord’s saving power?” (Isaiah 53:1)
39 For this reason, they could not believe. As Isaiah says in another place,
40 “The Lord has blinded their eyes.
He has closed their minds.
So they can’t see with their eyes.
They can’t understand with their minds.
They can’t turn to the Lord. If they could, he would heal them.” (Isaiah 6:10)
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 At the same time that Jesus did those signs, many of the Jewish leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not openly admit they believed. They were afraid they would be thrown out of the synagogue. 43 They loved praise from people more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only. They also believe in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world to be its light. So no one who believes in me will stay in darkness.
47 “I don’t judge a person who hears my words but does not obey them. I didn’t come to judge the world. I came to save the world. 48 But there is a judge for anyone who does not accept me and my words. These words I have spoken will judge them on the last day. 49 I did not speak on my own. The Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have said. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So everything I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
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