Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 137
Beside the Rivers of Babylon
Sorrow for Jerusalem
1 Beside the rivers[a] of Babylon,
there we sat, and, yes, we wept as we remembered Zion.
2 There we hung up our lyres on the willows,
3 because there our captors asked us for words of a song,
and our tormentors asked for a happy song:
“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!”
Zeal for Zion
4 How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget how to play music.[b]
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.
Zeal for God’s Vengeance
7 Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the descendants of Edom[c] who said,
“Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
how blessed is the one who repays you
with the same deeds you did against us.
9 How blessed is the one who seizes your children
and dashes them against the cliff.
Psalm 144
A Prayer for the Nation
Heading
By David.
Praise
1 Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for battle,
my fingers for war.
2 He shows me mercy.
He is my stronghold, my high fortress.
He is my deliverer and my shield,
so I take refuge in him.
He subdues peoples[a] under me.
Need
3 Lord, what is man that you notice him,
the son of man that you consider him?
4 Man is like a breath.[b]
His days are like a passing shadow.
Petition
5 Lord, rip open your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains so that they smoke.
6 Send out lightning and scatter them.
Shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high.
Rescue me and snatch me from the mighty waters,
from the hand of foreigners 8 whose mouths speak lies,
who raise their right hands to a false oath.[c]
Praise
9 God, I will sing a new song to you.
On the ten-stringed harp I will make music to you,
10 to you who gives victory to kings,
to you who delivers David his servant from the evil sword.
Petition
11 Rescue me and snatch me from the hand of foreigners
whose mouths speak lies,
who raise their right hands to a false oath.
The Results of Victory
12 Then our sons in their youth will be like full-grown plants.
Our daughters will be like corner pillars carved to decorate a palace.
13 Our storehouses will be filled with produce of every kind.
Our flocks will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our countryside.
14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
There will be no breaking through our walls,
no exile into captivity,
no cry of distress in our city squares.
15 How blessed are the people for whom this is so.
How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
Psalm 104
Bless the Lord, Who Creates Wonders
Introduction
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
Day One—Light
2 He wears light like a robe.
Day Two—the Sky
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy.
3 He lays beams on the waters to support his upper chambers.
He makes clouds his chariot.
He travels on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes his messengers[a] winds.
His ministers are blazing fire.
Day Three—the Waters and Plants
5 He placed the earth firmly on its foundations.
It cannot be moved forever and ever.
6 You covered it with the deep as a garment.
The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled.
At the sound of your thunder they hurried away.
8 The waters surged up the mountains.
They went down into the valleys,[b]
to the place that you prepared for them.
9 You set a boundary that they cannot cross.
They will not return to cover the earth.
10 He makes springs flow into streams
that run between the mountains.
11 They give water to every wild animal.
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky live by the streams.
From among the branches they send out their song.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers.
The earth is filled with the fruit he produces.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants that people use[c] to produce food from the earth.
15 Also wine that makes people’s hearts glad,
olive oil to make their face shine,
and bread that sustains their lives.[d]
16 The trees of the Lord have everything they need.
He planted the cedars of Lebanon,
17 where birds make their nests.
The stork has its home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats.
The crags are a refuge for the rock badgers.
Day Four—the Lights
19 The moon marks off the months and seasons.
The sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, and it becomes night.
During it all the animals in the forest move about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey.
They are seeking their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they gather together.
They return to their dens and lie down.
23 Man goes out to his work.
He continues his labor until evening.
Days Five and Six—Animals and Man
24 How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and very wide.
In it creatures swarm beyond number—
living things, the small with the large.
26 There the ships go back and forth,
and the leviathan[e] that you formed to play in it.
27 All of them wait hopefully for you to give them their food in its time.
28 You give it to them. They gather it up.
You open your hand. They are satisfied with good things.
29 You hide your face. They are terrified.
You take away their breath.
They breathe their last and return to their dust.
30 You send your Spirit—they are created.
You renew the face of the earth.
Closing Benediction and Prayer
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever.
May the Lord rejoice in his works.
32 He looks at the earth and it trembles.
He touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord throughout my life.
I will make music to my God as long as I last.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
35 May sinners come to an end on the earth,
and the wicked—may they be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord![f]
12 Balaam said to Balak, “Didn’t I tell the messengers you sent to me, ‘I will say what the Lord says. 13 Even if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go against the command of the Lord by doing anything good or bad of my own will’?[a] 14 Yes, I am going back to my people, but pay attention now—I will tell you what this people will do to your people in days to come.”
Balaam’s Fourth Message
15 Balaam took up his oracle and said:
The declaration of Balaam son of Beor,
the declaration of the man whose eye is open,
16 the declaration of the one who hears the words of God,
who receives knowledge from the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
who is falling down, but his eyes are wide open:
17 I see him, but not now.
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob.
A scepter will rise up out of Israel.
It will smash the foreheads of Moab
and the skulls[b] of all the people of Sheth.
18 Edom will lose its territory to others.
Seir, Israel’s enemy, also will become a possession,
but Israel will display its power.
19 One who comes from Jacob will rule,
and he will destroy the survivors of the city.
Balaam’s Final Messages
20 He looked at Amalek, took up his oracle, and said:
First among the nations was Amalek,
but his end will come to destruction.
21 He looked at the Kenites, took up his oracle, and said:
Permanent is your dwelling place.
Set in stone is your nest.
22 However, you Kenites will be destroyed,
when Ashshur takes you captive.
23 He took up his oracle and said:
Ah, who will live when God does this?
24 But ships will come from the coast of Kittim.
They will oppress Ashshur.
They will oppress Eber.
But they also will come to destruction.[c]
25 Balaam got up and left to return to his place. Balak also went on his way.
Suffering Leads Us to Look Ahead to Heaven
18 For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope 21 that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. 23 And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,[a] groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.
The God of the Living
23 That same day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him a question: 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother should marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’[a] 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one died after he married her, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 It was the same with the second brother, the third, and all the way to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman died. 28 So then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since they all married her?”
29 “You are mistaken,” Jesus replied, “since you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 In fact, in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage. Instead they are like the angels of God in heaven. 31 And concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you never read what was spoken to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’?[b] He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard his answer, they were amazed at his teaching.
Love God and Your Neighbor
34 When they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees met together. 35 One of them who was an expert in the law asked him a question, trying to trap him. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend[e] on these two commandments.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.