Book of Common Prayer

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!”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

¹¹ Rescue me and snatch me from the hand of foreigners
    whose mouths speak lies,
    who raise their right hands to a false oath.

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.

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul.

² He wears light like a robe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]