Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A song for those journeying to worship.
The Songs for the Journey to Worship (Psalms 120–134) celebrate the journey to Jerusalem to worship in God’s temple. Centuries before these psalms were composed, the Lord chose to make His earthly home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and directed David’s son to build His house. King Solomon built the first temple and dedicated it to God in an elaborate ceremony that brought Israel together on the holy mountain (1 Kings 8). Now, clearly, the wise king believed that the one True God was present everywhere in the world, but he knew that Jerusalem was a special place, a sacred space picked by God. Solomon understood what we seem to have forgotten: those created in God’s image long to encounter God in His holiness. And if we try to make every place holy, then no place is holy because holy means “set apart,” “distinct,” “special.” So we need sacredness in our lives: sacred times, places, and people in our search for wholeness, for shalom. For centuries God’s faithful people of the first and second covenants have gone on pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem. Often these songs have gone with them, for they desire to draw close to God and to walk in the steps of those who have passed the faith along.
1 When I was in deep trouble, I called out to the Eternal,
and He answered my call.
2 I prayed: “Protect me, Eternal,
from lips that lie
and tongues poisoned with deceit.”
3 Liars, what will be your prize?
And what will come your way,
O you tongues poisoned with deceit?
4 Here’s what you can expect: the archers’ arrows honed sharp
as well as the red-hot coals of the broom wood.
5 Sorrow is mine, for I am a foreigner wandering in Meshech;
I am a stranger drifting among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has roamed much too long
among people who despise peace.
7 I am for peace; I ask for peace,
but even as I open my mouth,
they are ready to fight.
Psalm 121
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I look up at the vast size of the mountains—
from where will my help come in times of trouble?
2 The Eternal Creator of heaven and earth and these mountains
will send the help I need.
3 He holds you firmly in place;
He will not let you fall.
He who keeps you will never take His eyes off you and never drift off to sleep.
4 What a relief! The One who watches over Israel
never leaves for rest or sleep.
5 The Eternal keeps you safe,
so close to Him that His shadow is a cooling shade to you.
6 Neither bright light of sun
nor dim light of moon will harm you.
7 The Eternal will keep you safe
from all of life’s evils,
8 From your first breath to the last breath you breathe,
from this day and forever.
Psalm 122
A song [of David][a] for those journeying to worship.
This is a Davidic psalm celebrating the grandeur and significance of Jerusalem and its temple. It is ironic that Jerusalem means “city of peace” since more battles have been fought over it than over any other city.
1 I was so happy when my fellow pilgrims said,
“Let’s go to the house of the Eternal!”
2 We have made the journey, and now we are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem! What a magnificent city!
Buildings so close together, so compact.
4 God’s people belong here. Every tribe of the Eternal
makes its way to Jerusalem—
Just as God decreed for Israel
to come together and give thanks to the Eternal.
5 In Jerusalem, justice is the order of the day because there sit the judges
and kings, the descendants of David.
6 Ask heaven to grant peace to Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 O Jerusalem, may His peace fill this entire city!
May this citadel be quiet and at ease!”
8 It’s because of people—my family, friends, and acquaintances—
that I say, “May peace permeate you.”
9 And because the house of Eternal One, our God, is here, know this:
I will always seek your good!
Psalm 123
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I raise my eyes to fix my gaze on You,
for Your throne resides in the heavens.
2 Just as the eyes of servants
closely watch the hand of their masters,
Just as a maid carefully observes
the slightest gesture of her mistress,
In the same way we look to You, Eternal One,
waiting for our God to pour out His mercy upon us.
3 O Eternal One, show us Your mercy. We beg You.
We are not strangers to contempt and pain.
4 We have suffered more than our share
of ridicule and contempt from self-appointed critics who live easy lives
and pompously display their own importance.
Psalm 124
A song of David for those journeying to worship.
1 If the Eternal had not been with us—
sing, Israel, sing—
2 If He had not been with us
when the villains came for us,
3 When their anger flamed around us,
they would have swallowed us up alive!
4 Their hatred was like a flood:
the waters were rising and would have engulfed us;
the streams were rushing past and would have overcome us.
5 The furious waters would have broken over us.
Battered and overwhelmed, we surely would have drowned!
6 Blessed be the Eternal
who did not leave us
to be torn by their fangs!
7 Our souls cry out: “We escaped with our lives like a bird
from the fowler’s snare!
The snare was broken,
and we escaped with our lives!”
8 Our help has come in the name of the Eternal,
the Maker of heaven and earth!
Psalm 125
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 All who have faith in the Eternal stand as Mount Zion:
unmoved, enduring, eternal.
2 Just as the mountains around Jerusalem embrace her,
the Eternal, too, wraps around those who belong to Him—
for this moment and for every moment to come.
3 For wickedness will not get the upper hand;
it shall not rule the land where righteous people live
Lest good people go bad
and do what is wrong.
4 Be good, Eternal One, to those who are good,
to those who are filled with integrity.
5 The Eternal will send all the wicked away
along with those who pervert what’s good and twist it in their own crooked way.
May peace be with Israel.
Psalm 126
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Remember when the Eternal brought back the exiles to Zion?
It was as if we were dreaming—
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter;
our tongues were spilling over into song.
The word went out across the prairies and deserts,
across the hills, over the oceans wide, from nation to nation:
“The Eternal has done remarkable things for them.”
3 We shook our heads. All of us were stunned—the Eternal has done remarkable things for us.
We were beyond happy, beyond joyful.
4 And now, Eternal One, some are held captive and poor.
Release them, and restore our fortunes
as the dry riverbeds of the South spring to life when the rains come at last.
5 Those who walk the fields to sow, casting their seed in tears,
will one day tread those same long rows, amazed by what’s appeared.
6 Those who weep as they walk
and plant with sighs
Will return singing with joy,
when they bring home the harvest.
Psalm 127
A song of Solomon for those journeying to worship.
Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon, underscoring the futility of human endeavor apart from God. It is similar in tone and theme to other wisdom literature.
1 Unless the Eternal builds the house,
those who labor to raise it will have worked for nothing.
Unless the Eternal stands watch over the city,
those who guard it have wasted their time.
2 God provides for His own.
It is pointless to get up early,
work hard, and go to bed late
Anxiously laboring for food to eat;
for God provides for those He loves, even while they are sleeping.
3 Know this: children are a gift from the Eternal;
the fruit of the womb is His reward.
4 Your sons born in your youth are a protection,
like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
5 Happy is the man who has
his quiver full, for they will help and protect him when he is old.
He will not be humiliated when he is accused at the gate,
for his sons will stand with him against his enemies.
5 Not long after, Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh.
Moses and Aaron: The Eternal, Israel’s God, has a message for you: “Release My people, so that they may go and celebrate a feast in My honor in the desert.”
Pharaoh: 2 And who is this god you call “the Eternal One” that I should heed His message and release His people Israel? I do not know any god by that name, and furthermore I do not intend to release Israel.
Moses and Aaron: 3 The God of the Hebrews has visited us. We ask that you allow us to travel three days’ distance into the desert to sacrifice to the Eternal our God. Otherwise, He may become angry and come after us with disease or sword.
Pharaoh: 4 Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting people from their work? Stop wasting time, and get back to your labor!
5 Look, there are vast numbers of people in this land who should be working; instead they are all idle because of you.
6 That same day, Pharaoh gave instructions to the slave drivers who were over the people and their supervisors.
Pharaoh: 7 Don’t supply the people with any more straw to make bricks as you have been doing. Let them go out and find their own straw. 8 But I still want you to expect the same number of bricks from them as before. Even though the task will be harder, do not lessen their load! They are lazy and are asking for time off, saying, “Release us so that we can go sacrifice to our God in the desert and feast in His honor.” 9 Therefore, make the work so heavy that the men don’t have the energy to do anything but work; perhaps then they won’t be distracted by these lies!
Slave Drivers and Supervisors (to the people): 10 Pharaoh has a message for you: “I am not going to supply you with any more straw. 11 You must go out and get it for yourselves—wherever you can find it—but you must produce the same number of bricks as before. Your workload will not be reduced.”
12 The people quickly and desperately spread out across the land of Egypt looking for dry stalks of grain to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers pushed them hard.
Slave Drivers: Hurry, you must meet your quotas. You must produce the same number of bricks as you did before when we provided you with straw.
14 Plus they beat and interrogated the supervisors of the Israelites, the Hebrews whom the slave drivers had appointed over the workers.
Slave Drivers: Why are you lagging behind? Why haven’t you met your quotas of bricks yesterday or today as you did before?
15 The supervisors of the Israelites were unable to meet the demands and so they appealed to Pharaoh.
Supervisors (pleading with Pharaoh): Why are you treating your servants this way? 16 No more straw is being provided to your servants, yet the slave drivers keep yelling at us, “Make bricks!” And then your servants are beaten; it is your people who are at fault here, not us.
Pharaoh: 17 No. It is you. You are lazy! You are all so very lazy! You try to escape your work by making up excuses, saying, “Please release us so that we may go sacrifice to the Eternal.” 18 Leave me now, and get back to work, you indolent whiners! You will not be provided any straw, and you must make the same number of bricks as before.
19 The supervisors of the Israelites knew they were in deep trouble when they were told, “You are not to lessen the workload. You must still make the same number of bricks every day as you did before.” 20 After the supervisors left Pharaoh, they went directly to Moses and Aaron who were already waiting for them.
Supervisors (to Moses and Aaron): 21 May the Eternal see and judge what you have done. Now because of you Pharaoh and all who serve him look on us as if we were some kind of disgusting odor. You might as well have put the sword in their hands they will use to kill us.
22 Moses went back to meet with the Eternal One.
Moses: Eternal, these are Your people. Why have You brought so much trouble on them? And why have You sent me here? 23 Ever since I approached Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done more harm to them than ever before. And You have done absolutely nothing to rescue Your people.
6 The Eternal One spoke to Moses.
Eternal One: Now you will see what I have in store for Pharaoh. When Pharaoh sees the power of My hand, he will not only send My people from this land, he will drive them out.
20 Brothers and sisters, don’t think like children. Be innocent of malice but mature in understanding. 21 In the law, it states:
“I will send My message to this people
with strange languages and foreign lips.
And even when that happens,
they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord.[a]
22 So speaking in unknown languages is not a sign to the believing but a miracle to the unbelieving; prophecy, though, is not a sign to the unbelieving but for the believing. 23 Imagine what would happen if the entire church gathered together speaking in different languages, one foreign to the next. Then people who have never heard of such a thing or unbelieving people walk up on all that’s going on. Would they not think each and every one of you were raving lunatics? 24 But let’s say an outsider or unbeliever walks in on a different scene: all are speaking for God with great power and insight in a language they know. What then? Well, the outsider would come under the conviction of his own sins and be called to accountability by the words of all the prophets. 25 The very secrets of his heart would be revealed, and right there—mystified—he would fall on his face in worship to God, proclaiming all the while that God most certainly dwells among you.
26 What should you do then, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each person has a vital role because each has gifts. One person might have a song, another a lesson to teach, still another a revelation from God. One person might speak in an unknown language, another will offer the interpretation, but all of this should be done to strengthen the life and faith of the community. 27 But if any do speak in an exotic language, limit it to two or three people at the most, and have them speak one at a time, while another interprets for the rest. 28 If there is not an interpreter present, then the one should stay silent during the gathering, speaking only to himself and God. 29 Have two to three prophets speak, and let others with discerning gifts evaluate the messages they hear. 30 Now if in the course of things a message comes to another who is seated, then the first one speaking should be silent until this new message can be spoken. 31 To avoid confusion and create a space where all can learn and be encouraged, let only one prophet speak at a time without interruption. 32 You see, the prophetic spirits are under the control of the prophets 33 because God is the author of order, not confusion. This is how it is in all gatherings of the saints.
39 So, my dear brothers and sisters, passionately desire to prophesy; but don’t ban the gift of speaking in unknown languages. 40 Just maintain the proper order in all things.
42 But if anyone turns even the smallest of My followers away from Me, it would be better for him if someone had hung a millstone around his neck and flung him into the deepest part of the sea.
43 If your hand turns you away from the things of God, then you should cut it off. It’s better to come into eternal life maimed than to have two hands and be flung into hell— [44 where the worm will not die and the fire will not be smothered.][a]
45 If your foot trips you on the path, you should cut it off. It’s better to come into eternal life crawling than to have two feet and be flung into hell— [46 where the worm will not die and the fire will not be smothered.][b]
47 And if your eye keeps you from seeing clearly, then you should pull it out. It’s better to come into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be flung into hell, 48 where the worm will not die and the fire will not be smothered.[c] 49 Everyone will be salted with fire[, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt].[d] 50 Salt is a good thing; but if it has lost its zest, how can it be seasoned again? You should have salt within yourselves and peace with one another.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.