Book of Common Prayer
137 Weeping, we sat beside the rivers of Babylon thinking of Jerusalem. 2 We have put away our lyres, hanging them upon the branches of the willow trees, 3-4 for how can we sing? Yet our captors, our tormentors, demand that we sing for them the happy songs of Zion! 5-6 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp. If I fail to love her more than my highest joy, let me never sing again.
7 O Jehovah, do not forget what these Edomites did on that day when the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. “Raze her to the ground!” they yelled. 8 O Babylon, evil beast, you shall be destroyed. Blessed is the man who destroys you as you have destroyed us. 9 Blessed is the man who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks![a]
144 Bless the Lord who is my immovable Rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle. 2 He is always kind and loving to me; he is my fortress, my tower of strength and safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield. He subdues my people under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that you even notice him? Why bother at all with the human race?[a] 4 For man is but a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bend down the heavens, Lord, and come. The mountains smoke beneath your touch.
6 Let loose your lightning bolts, your arrows, Lord, upon your enemies, and scatter them.
7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me; deliver me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies. 8 Their mouths are filled with lies; they swear to the truth of what is false.
9 I will sing you a new song, O God, with a ten-stringed harp. 10 For you grant victory to kings! You are the one who will rescue your servant David from the fatal sword. 11 Save me! Deliver me from these enemies, these liars, these treacherous men.
12-15 Here is my description of[b] a truly happy land where Jehovah is God:
Sons vigorous and tall as growing plants.
Daughters of graceful beauty like the pillars of a palace wall.
Barns full to the brim with crops of every kind.
Sheep by the thousands out in our fields.
Oxen loaded down with produce.
No enemy attacking the walls, but peace everywhere.
No crime in our streets.
Yes, happy are those whose God is Jehovah.
104 1-2 I bless the Lord: O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty and light! You stretched out the starry curtain of the heavens, 3 and hollowed out the surface of the earth to form the seas. The clouds are his chariots. He rides upon the wings of the wind. 4 The angels[a] are his messengers—his servants of fire!
5 You bound the world together so that it would never fall apart. 6 You clothed the earth with floods of waters covering up the mountains. 7-8 You spoke, and at the sound of your shout the water collected into its vast ocean beds, and mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed. 9 And then you set a boundary for the seas so that they would never again cover the earth.
10 He placed springs in the valleys and streams that gush from the mountains. 11 They give water for all the animals to drink. There the wild donkeys quench their thirst, 12 and the birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. 13 He sends rain upon the mountains and fills the earth with fruit. 14 The tender grass grows up at his command to feed the cattle, and there are fruit trees, vegetables, and grain for man to cultivate, 15 and wine to make him glad, and olive oil as lotion for his skin, and bread to give him strength. 16 The Lord planted the cedars of Lebanon. They are tall and flourishing. 17 There the birds make their nests, the storks in the firs. 18 High in the mountains are pastures for the wild goats, and rock badgers burrow in among the rocks and find protection there.
19 He assigned the moon to mark the months and the sun to mark the days. 20 He sends the night and darkness, when all the forest folk come out. 21 Then the young lions roar for their food, but they are dependent on the Lord. 22 At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest, 23 and men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again. 24 O Lord, what a variety you have made! And in wisdom you have made them all! The earth is full of your riches.
25 There before me lies the mighty ocean, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small. 26 And look! See the ships! And over there, the whale you made to play in the sea. 27 Every one of these depends on you to give them daily food. 28 You supply it, and they gather it. You open wide your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied with all your bountiful provision.
29 But if you turn away from them, then all is lost. And when you gather up their breath, they die and turn again to dust.
30 Then you send your Spirit, and new life is born[b] to replenish all the living of the earth. 31 Praise God forever! How he must rejoice in all his work! 32 The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains burst into flame at his touch.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise God to my last breath! 34 May he be pleased by all these thoughts about him, for he is the source of all my joy. 35 Let all sinners perish—all who refuse to praise him. But I will praise him. Hallelujah!
16 Saul’s lookouts in Gibeah saw a strange sight—the vast army of the Philistines began to melt away in all directions.
17 “Find out who isn’t here,” Saul ordered. And when they had checked, they found that Jonathan and his bodyguard were gone. 18 “Bring the Ark of God,” Saul shouted to Ahijah. (For the Ark was among the people of Israel at that time.) 19 But while Saul was talking to the priest, the shouting and the tumult in the camp of the Philistines grew louder and louder. “Quick! What does God say?” Saul demanded.
20 Then Saul and his six hundred men rushed out to the battle and found the Philistines killing each other, and there was terrible confusion everywhere. 21 And now the Hebrews who had been drafted into the Philistine army revolted and joined with the Israelis. 22 Finally even the men hiding in the hills joined the chase when they saw that the Philistines were running away. 23 So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle continued out beyond Beth-aven.
24-25 Saul had declared, “A curse upon anyone who eats anything before evening—before I have full revenge on my enemies.” So no one ate anything all day, even though they found honeycomb on the ground in the forest, 26 for they all feared Saul’s curse. 27 Jonathan, however, had not heard his father’s command; so he dipped a stick into a honeycomb, and when he had eaten the honey he felt much better. 28 Then someone told him that his father had laid a curse upon anyone who ate food that day, and everyone was weary and faint as a result.
29 “That’s ridiculous!” Jonathan exclaimed. “A command like that only hurts us. See how much better I feel now that I have eaten this little bit of honey. 30 If the people had been allowed to eat freely from the food they found among our enemies, think how many more we could have slaughtered!”
10 Now there was in Damascus a believer named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord!” he replied.
11 And the Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street and find the house of a man named Judas and ask there for Paul of Tarsus. He is praying to me right now, for 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him so that he can see again!”
13 “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I have heard about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And we hear that he has arrest warrants with him from the chief priests, authorizing him to arrest every believer in Damascus!”
15 But the Lord said, “Go and do what I say. For Paul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the nations and before kings, as well as to the people of Israel. 16 And I will show him how much he must suffer for me.”
17 So Ananias went over and found Paul and laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Paul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit and get your sight back.”
18 Instantly (it was as though scales fell from his eyes) Paul could see and was immediately baptized. 19 Then he ate and was strengthened.
He stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days
32-33 Two others, criminals, were led out to be executed with him at a place called “The Skull.” There all three were crucified—Jesus on the center cross, and the two criminals on either side.
34 “Father, forgive these people,” Jesus said, “for they don’t know what they are doing.”
And the soldiers gambled for his clothing, throwing dice for each piece. 35 The crowd watched. And the Jewish leaders laughed and scoffed. “He was so good at helping others,” they said, “let’s see him save himself if he is really God’s Chosen One, the Messiah.”
36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink—of sour wine. 37 And they called to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
38 A signboard was nailed to the cross above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”
40-41 But the other criminal protested. “Don’t you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done one thing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 And Jesus replied, “Today you will be with me in Paradise. This is a solemn promise.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.