Book of Common Prayer
Israelites in Captivity
137 By the rivers in Babylon we sat and cried
when we remembered Jerusalem.
2 On the poplar trees nearby
we hung our harps.
3 Those who captured us asked us to sing.
Our enemies wanted happy songs.
They said, “Sing us a Temple song from Jerusalem!”
4 But we cannot sing songs about the Lord
while we are in this foreign country!
5 Jerusalem, if I forget you,
let my right hand lose its skill.
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you.
Let these things happen if I do not think about Jerusalem
as my greatest joy.
7 Lord, remember what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
They said, “Tear it down!
Tear it down to its foundations!”
8 People of Babylon, you will be destroyed.
The people who pay you back will be happy.
They will punish you for what you did to us.
9 They will grab your babies
and throw them against the rocks.
A Prayer for Victory
Of David.
144 Praise the Lord, my Rock.
He trains me for war.
He trains me for battle.
2 He gives me love and protects me like a strong, walled city.
He is my place of safety and my Savior.
He is my shield and my protection.
He helps me rule my people.
3 Lord, why is man important to you?
Why do you even think about a human being?
4 A man is like a breath.
His life is like a passing shadow.
5 Lord, tear open the sky and come down.
Touch the mountains so they will smoke.
6 Send the lightning and scatter my enemies.
Shoot your arrows and force them away.
7 Reach down from above.
Pull me out of this sea of enemies.
Rescue me from these foreigners.
8 They are liars.
They are dishonest.
9 God, I will sing a new song to you.
I will play to you on the ten-stringed harp.
10 You give victory to kings.
You save your servant David from cruel swords.
11 Save me, rescue me from these foreigners.
They are liars.
They are dishonest.
12 Let our sons in their youth
grow like strong trees.
Let our daughters be
like the decorated stones in the Temple.
13 Let our barns be filled
with crops of all kinds.
Let our sheep in the fields have
thousands and thousands of lambs.
14 Let our cattle be strong.
Let no one break in.
Let there be no war.
Let there be no screams in our streets.
15 Happy are those who are like this.
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.
Book 2
Psalms 42—72
Wishing to Be Near God
For the director of music. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
42 A deer thirsts for a stream of water.
In the same way, I thirst for you, God.
2 I thirst for the living God.
When can I go to meet with him?
3 Day and night, my tears have been my food.
People are always saying,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
I speak with a broken heart.
I used to walk with the crowd.
I led the happy crowd to God’s Temple,
with songs of praise.
5 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so upset?
I should put my hope in God.
I should keep praising him,
My Savior and 6 my God.
I am very sad.
So I remember you while I am in the land where the Jordan River begins.
I will remember you while I am near the Hermon mountains
and on the mountain of Mizar.
7 Troubles have come again and again.
They sound like waterfalls.
Your waves are crashing
all around me.
8 The Lord shows his true love every day.
At night I have a song,
and I pray to my living God.
9 I say to God, my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why am I sad
and troubled by my enemies?”
10 My enemies’ insults make me feel
as if my bones were broken.
They are always saying,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so upset?
I should put my hope in God.
I should keep praising him,
my Savior and my God.
A Prayer for Protection
43 God, defend me.
Argue my case against those who don’t follow you.
Save me from liars and those who do evil.
2 God, you are my strength.
Why have you rejected me?
Why am I sad
and troubled by my enemies?
3 Send me your light and truth.
They will guide me.
Lead me to your holy mountain.
Lead me to where you live.
4 I will go to the altar of God,
to God who is my joy and happiness.
I will praise you with a harp,
God, my God.
5 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so upset?
I should put my hope in God.
I should keep praising him,
my Savior and my God.
27 The Lord says, “The days are coming when I will help the families of Israel and Judah to grow. I will help their children and animals to grow, too. It will be like planting and caring for a plant. 28 In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, but I watched for the time to pull them up. I tore them down. I destroyed them. I brought disaster to them. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong,” says the Lord.
29 “At that time people will no longer say:
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes.
And that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste.’
30 But each person will die for his own sin. The person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth.
The New Agreement
31 “Look, the time is coming,” says the Lord,
“when I will make a new agreement.
It will be with the people of Israel
and the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the agreement
I made with their ancestors.
That was when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of Egypt.
I was a husband to them,
but they broke that agreement,” says the Lord.
33 “I will make this agreement
with the people of Israel,” says the Lord.
“I will put my teachings in their minds.
And I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives
to know the Lord.
This is because all people will know me,
from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.
“I will forgive them for the wicked things they did.
I will not remember their sins anymore.”
25 I want you to understand this secret truth, brothers. This truth will help you understand that you do not know everything. The truth is this: Part of Israel has been made stubborn. But that will change when many non-Jews have come to God. 26 And that is how all Israel will be saved. It is written in the Scriptures:
“The Savior will come from Jerusalem;
he will take away all evil from the family of Jacob.[a]
27 And I will make this agreement with those people
when I take away their sins.” Isaiah 59:20-21; 27:9
28 The Jews refuse to accept the Good News, so they are God’s enemies. This has happened to help you non-Jews. But the Jews are still God’s chosen people, and God loves them very much. He loves them because of the promises he made to their ancestors. 29 God never changes his mind about the people he calls and the things he gives them. 30 At one time you refused to obey God. But now you have received mercy, because those people refused to obey. 31 And now the Jews refuse to obey, because God showed mercy to you. But this happened so that they also can[b] receive mercy from God. 32 All people have refused to obey God. God has given them all over to their stubborn ways, so that God can show mercy to all.
Praise to God
33 Yes, God’s riches are very great! God’s wisdom and knowledge have no end! No one can explain the things God decides. No one can understand God’s ways. 34 As the Scripture says,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been able to give the Lord advice?” Isaiah 40:13
35 “No one has ever given God anything
that he must pay back.” Job 41:11
36 Yes, God made all things. And everything continues through God and for God. To God be the glory forever! Amen.
Jesus Cries
28 After Martha said this, she went back to her sister Mary. She talked to Mary alone. Martha said, “The Teacher is here and he is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus. 30 Jesus had not yet come into the town. He was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews were with Mary in the house, comforting her. They saw Mary stand and leave quickly. They followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to cry there. 32 But Mary went to the place where Jesus was. When she saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 Jesus saw that Mary was crying and that the Jews who came with her were crying, too. Jesus felt very sad in his heart and was deeply troubled. 34 He asked, “Where did you bury him?”
“Come and see, Lord,” they said.
35 Jesus cried.
36 So the Jews said, “See how much he loved him.”
37 But some of them said, “If Jesus healed the eyes of the blind man, why didn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
38 Again Jesus felt very sad in his heart. He came to the tomb. The tomb was a cave with a large stone covering the entrance. 39 Jesus said, “Move the stone away.”
Martha said, “But, Lord, it has been four days since he died. There will be a bad smell.” Martha was the sister of the dead man.
40 Then Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they moved the stone away from the entrance. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I know that you always hear me. But I said these things because of the people here around me. I want them to believe that you sent me.” 43 After Jesus said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with pieces of cloth, and he had a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take the cloth off of him and let him go.”
Some Don’t Believe in Jesus
37 Though Jesus had done many miracles before the people, they still did not believe in him. 38 This was to make clear the full meaning of what Isaiah the prophet said:
“Lord, who believed the things we told them?
Who has seen the Lord’s power?” Isaiah 53:1
39 This is why the people could not believe: Isaiah also said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes.
He has closed their minds.
This is so that they will not see with their eyes
nor understand in their minds.
This is so they will not
come back to me and be forgiven.” Isaiah 6:10
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 But many people believed in Jesus, even many of the leaders. But because of the Pharisees, they did not say that they believed in him. They were afraid that they would be put out of the synagogue. 43 They loved praise from men more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “He who believes in me is really believing in the One who sent me. 45 He who sees me sees the One who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world. I came so that whoever believes in me would not stay in darkness.
47 “If anyone hears my words and does not obey them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who refuses to believe in me and does not accept my words. The word I have taught will be his judge on the last day. 49 The things I taught were not from myself. The Father who sent me told me what to say and what to teach. 50 And I know that eternal life comes from what the Father commands. So whatever I say is what the Father told me to say.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.