Book of Common Prayer
Qoph: I Will Obey
145 I call with all my heart.
Answer me, O Lord.
I will guard your statutes.
146 I call to you. Save me,
and I will keep your testimonies.
147 I get up before dawn, and I cry for help.
I wait confidently for your word.
148 My eyes look forward to the night watches
when I can meditate on your sayings.
149 Hear my voice according to your mercy.
Lord, give me life based on your judgments.
150 Those who pursue evil plans are near,
but they are far from your law.
151 You are near, O Lord,
and all your commandments are truth.
152 Long ago I knew from your testimonies
that you established them to endure forever.
Resh: I Have Not Forgotten
153 See my affliction and deliver me,
because I have not forgotten your law.
154 Argue my case and redeem me.
Give me life according to your saying.
155 Salvation is far away from the wicked,
because they do not pursue your statutes.
156 Your compassions are many, O Lord.
Give me life according to your judgments.
157 Many are my persecutors and my foes,
but I have not turned from your testimonies.
158 I look at the hypocrites and I loathe them,
because they do not keep your saying.
159 See how I love your precepts.
Lord, according to your mercy, give me life.
160 The sum of your word is truth.
All your righteous judgment is eternal.
Sin/Shin: I Wait for Salvation
161 Officials persecute me without cause,
but my heart trembles at your word.
162 I rejoice over your sayings,
like one who finds much plunder.
163 I hate and detest falsehood,
but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous judgments.
165 Great peace belongs to those who love your law,
and nothing is a stumbling block for them.
166 I wait for your salvation, O Lord,
and I obey your commandments.
167 My soul keeps your testimonies.
I love them greatly.
168 I keep your precepts and your testimonies,
because all my ways are before you.
Tav: Seek Your Servant
169 May my loud cry come before you, Lord.
Give me understanding through your word.
170 May my plea for mercy come before you.
Deliver me according to your saying.
171 May my lips overflow with praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
172 May my tongue sing of your saying,
because all your commandments are righteousness.
173 May your hand be ready to help me,
because I have chosen your precepts.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight.
175 Let my soul live and praise you,
and may your judgments help me.
176 I have strayed like a perishing sheep.
Seek your servant,
because I have not forgotten your commandments.
Psalm 128
A Blessed Family
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Promise
1 How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
everyone who is walking in his ways.
2 Yes, you will eat the food you worked for.
How blessed you are! It will go well for you!
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner rooms of your house.
Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Look! This is how blessed the man is who fears the Lord!
Prayer
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
so that you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
all the days of your life,
6 and you see your children’s children.
Peace be on Israel.
Psalm 129
No Blessing
Heading
A song of the ascents.
They Have Greatly Afflicted Me
1 Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth—
let Israel say—
2 greatly they have afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not been able to defeat me.
3 On my back plowmen have plowed.
They made their furrows long.
They Will Be Suppressed by God
4 The Lord is righteous.
He has cut the ropes of the wicked to pieces.
5 Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and turned back.
6 Let them be like grass on the roof,
which withers even before it is pulled up.
7 The reaper cannot fill his hand with it.
The one who binds sheaves cannot fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by never say,
“The blessing of the Lord be with you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”
Psalm 130
Out of the Depths
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Out of the Depths
1 Out of the depths I have called to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to the sound of my cry for mercy.
3 If you, Lord,[a] kept a record of guilt,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is pardon,
so you are feared.
5 I wait for the Lord. My soul waits,
and in his word I have put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, wait confidently for the Lord,
because with the Lord there is mercy.
With him there is abundant redemption.
8 So he himself will redeem Israel from all its guilt.
Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake
8 The Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Give us a warning sign,’ then you are to tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’”
10 Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. They did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 But then Pharaoh also called for his wise men and sorcerers. Those magicians[a] of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. 12 They each threw down their staffs, and those staffs became snakes. However, Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 But Pharaoh’s heart was hard,[b] and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
The First Plague: Blood
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding.[c] He refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning. When he goes out by the water, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.
16 “You are to tell him: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you. He says, “Let my people go so that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But look, until now you have not listened. 17 So this is what the Lord says: “In this way, you will know that I am the Lord.” Look! With the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water in the Nile, and it will be turned to blood. 18 The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink water from the Nile.’”
19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over its rivers, its streams, its ponds, and all the reservoirs—and they will become blood. There will be blood in the entire land of Egypt, even in containers made of wood and stone.’”
20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and his officials, Aaron lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile. All the water in the Nile was turned to blood. 21 The fish that were in the river died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians were not able to drink water from the Nile. There was blood in the entire land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. So Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had told them. 23 Pharaoh turned and went to his palace. He did not take to heart even this. 24 All the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, because they were not able to drink the water from the Nile.
14 But thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ and reveals the fragrance of his knowledge through us in every place. 15 Yes, we are the fragrance of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To some we are the odor of death that is a prelude to death, to the others the fragrance of life that is a prelude to life. And who is qualified for these things? 17 To be sure, we are not like many who peddle the word of God for profit. Instead, in Christ we speak with sincerity in the sight of God, as men from God.
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God. 6 He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament[a] (not of letter, but of spirit).[b] For the letter kills, but the spirit[c] gives life.
Marriage and Divorce
10 Jesus got up and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him again and, as he usually did, he taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 He replied, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”[a]
5 But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts. 6 But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.[b] 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.[c] So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 In the house his disciples asked him about this again. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Loves Little Children
13 Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said, “Let the little children come to me! Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.