Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
Hear, O Shepherd of Israel
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For the choir director. To “Lilies.”[a] A Testimony.[b] By Asaph. A psalm.
Opening Plea
1 O Shepherd of Israel, give ear,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are seated above the cherubim, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might.
Come with salvation for us.
Refrain
3 God, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
The Problem
4 Lord God of Armies, how long will your anger smoke
against the prayer of your people?
5 You make them eat bread with tears,
and you make them drink tears by the quart.[c]
6 You create strife between us and our neighbors,
so our enemies join together in mocking us.
Refrain
7 God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
Past Blessing
8 You brought a vine out from Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and you planted it.
9 You cleared a place for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade,
the cedars of God with its branches.
11 It sent out its boughs to the Sea,[d]
its shoots as far as the River.[e]
Present Judgment
12 Why have you broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
13 A wild boar from the forest tears it up,
and the wild animals[f] feed on it.
Prayer for the King
14 God of Armies, return now!
Look down from heaven and see,
and take care of this vine,
15 the shoot that your right hand has planted,
the son that you made strong for yourself.
16 It is burned with fire like garbage.[g]
Because of the rebuke from your face they perish.
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
on the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself.[h]
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Cause us to live, and we will call on your name.
Refrain
19 Lord God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
Psalm 77
Will the Lord Reject Forever?
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For the choir director. According to Jeduthun.[a] By Asaph. A psalm.
The Question
1 With my voice to God—
with my voice I cried out to God,
and he listened to me.
2 In the day when I was distressed I sought the Lord.
At night my hand was stretched out,
and it never grew tired,
but my soul refused to be comforted.
3 God, I remembered and I groaned. Interlude
I pondered, and my spirit became weak.
4 You propped my eyelids open.
I was troubled but did not speak.
5 I thought about the days of long ago, the years long past.
6 During the night I remembered my music.
With my heart I pondered, and my spirit asked,
7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never again show favor?
8 Has his mercy vanished to the end?
Has what he said failed for all generations?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Interlude
Has he really shut up his compassion in anger?”
The Answer
10 Then I said, “This is what hurts me:
the change of the right hand of the Most High.”[b]
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord.[c]
Yes, I will remember your wonderful work from long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your work,
and I will ponder all your deeds.
13 O God, your way is carried out in holiness.
What god is as great as God?
14 You are the God who performs a wonderful deed.
You made known your power among the peoples.
15 With your arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude
16 The waters saw you, O God.
The waters saw you and swirled.
Even the depths were turbulent.
17 The clouds poured down water.
The skies echoed with thunder.
Indeed, your arrows shot back and forth.
18 The sound of your thunder was heard in the tornado.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your route led through the sea.
Your trail went through the mighty waters,
but your footprints were not detected.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 79
They Have Reduced Jerusalem to Rubble
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A psalm by Asaph.
The Destruction and the Disgrace
1 God, the nations have invaded your possession.
They have profaned your holy temple.
They have reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins.
2 They have left the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the sky.
They have given the flesh of your favored ones to the wild animals.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all over Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
4 We are subjected to contempt by our neighbors,
to mockery and ridicule by those around us.
The Prayer for Justice
5 How long, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your jealous anger burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,
7 because they have devoured Jacob,
and they have destroyed his pastureland.[a]
8 Do not charge the guilt of our fathers against us.
Hurry, let your compassion come to meet us,
for we are very weak.
9 God, who saves us, help us for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and make atonement for our sins for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes, display to the nations
vengeance for the poured-out blood of your servants.
11 May the groaning of the prisoner come before you.
According to the great strength of your arm
preserve those doomed to death.
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times as much scorn
as the scorn that they directed at you, Lord.
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation we will recount your praise.
Worship and the Reading of the Law
9 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month, the Israelites gathered together. They were fasting and wearing sackcloth, and they had dirt on their faces.[a] 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and the guilt of their ancestors. 3 They stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and for another quarter they confessed their sins and worshipped the Lord their God.
4 Then Jeshua and Bani,[b] Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani stood on the stairs for the Levites and cried out in a loud voice to the Lord their God. 5 The Levites Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said,
“Stand up! Bless the Lord your God,
who is from eternity to eternity.
May they bless your glorious Name,
which is more exalted than all other blessing and praise.
6 You are the Lord—you alone.
You made the heavens—
the highest heavens and their entire army,
the earth and everything that is on it,
the seas and all that is in them.
You sustain life in all of them,
and the army of heaven worships you.
7 You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram.
You brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans,
and you gave him the name Abraham.
8 You found his heart to be faithful before you.
You made the covenant with him
to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Amorites and the Perizzites,
and the Jebusites and the Girgashites.[c]
You kept your word, because you are righteous.
9 You saw the oppression of our ancestors in Egypt.
You heard their cry at the Red Sea.
10 You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
against all his officials,
and against all the people of his land,
because you knew that they were acting arrogantly against Israel.
You made a name for yourself, as it remains to this day.
11 You split the sea in front of them,
and they passed through the middle of it on dry ground.
You threw their pursuers into the depths like a stone into mighty waters.
12 With a pillar of cloud you led them by day
and with a pillar of fire by night,
which lit up for them the way they were to travel.
13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven.
You gave them upright judgments and true laws,
good statutes and commandments.
14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath.
You gave them commandments, statutes,
and the Law, by the hand of your servant Moses.
15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,
and you made water come out of a rock for their thirst.
Then you told them to go and take possession of the land
that you swore to give them.
16 But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly.
They became stiff-necked and would not listen to your commands.
17 So they refused to listen,
and they did not remember your wonders that you did for them.
They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader
in order to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But you are a God who is forgiving, merciful, and compassionate,
slow to anger, abounding in mercy.
So you did not abandon them.
18 However, they made a cast metal calf for themselves and said,
“This is your god who brought you up from Egypt,”
and they committed great blasphemies.
19 But in your abundant compassion, you did not abandon them in the wilderness.
By day the pillar of cloud did not depart from above them
or stop leading them on their way.
By night the pillar of fire did not stop lighting the way that they should go.
20 You gave them your good Spirit to give them insight.
So you did not withhold your manna from their mouth,
and you gave them water for their thirst.
21 You sustained them for forty years in the wilderness.
They did not lack anything.
Their clothing did not wear out,
and their feet did not swell.
22 You gave them kingdoms and peoples,
and you divided their whole territory among them.
They took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon,
and also the land of Og, the king of Bashan.
23 You made their children as numerous as the stars of heaven.
You brought them to the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess.
24 Their children came and possessed the land,
and you subdued the Canaanite inhabitants of the land before them.
You gave their kings and the peoples of the land into their hand
to do with them as they pleased.
25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land.
They possessed houses full of all kinds of good things,
hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards,
and fruit trees in abundance.
They ate and were satisfied.
They became fat and delighted in your great goodness.
Babylon Has Fallen
18 After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was given light by his glory. 2 He called out with a loud voice, saying:
Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the Great.
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
and a prison for every unclean spirit,
and a prison for every unclean bird,[a]
and a prison for every unclean and hated beast.
3 For all the nations have drunk from[b] the wine of her adulterous desire,
and the kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth became rich from the abundance of her luxury.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven say:
Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
and so that you will not receive any of her plagues,
5 because her sins have reached heaven
and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Pay her back even as she has paid.
Pay her back double for what she has done.
In the cup that she mixed, mix her a double portion.
7 As much glory and luxury as she gave herself,
give that much torture and grief to her,
because in her heart she says:
I sit as a queen,
I am not a widow, and
I will never mourn.
8 For this reason her plagues will come on a single day:
death, mourning, and famine,
and she will be burned in fire,
because the Lord God, who judges her, is powerful.
Commandments and Traditions
15 Then the Pharisees and experts in the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For example, God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[a] and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother should be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if someone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might have received from me has been dedicated as a gift to God,’[c] 6 that man does not need to honor his father or his mother.[d] And so you set aside the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
9 They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they are doctrines.”[e]
10 Then he summoned the crowd and said to them, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into the mouth does not make a person unclean, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”
12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard this saying?”
13 He answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. 14 Let them go. They are blind guides of the blind.[f] And if the blind are guiding the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter replied and said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 Jesus said, “Do you still not understand? 17 Do you not understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated into the latrine? 18 But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. That is what defiles a person. 19 To be sure, out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies. 20 These are the things that defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.