Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Lilies, a Testimony.” A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You Who lead Joseph like a flock; You Who sit enthroned upon the cherubim [of the ark of the covenant], shine forth
2 Before [a]Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh! Stir up Your might, and come to save us!
3 Restore us again, O God; and cause Your face to shine [in pleasure and approval on us], and we shall be saved!
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and You have given them tears to drink in large measure.
6 You make us a strife and scorn to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us again, O God of hosts; and cause Your face to shine [upon us with favor as of old], and we shall be saved!
8 You brought a vine [Israel] out of Egypt; You drove out the [heathen] nations and planted it [in Canaan].
9 You prepared room before it, and it took deep root and it filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs of it were like the great cedars [cedars of God].
11 [Israel] sent out its boughs to the [Mediterranean] Sea and its branches to the [Euphrates] River.(A)
12 Why have You broken down its hedges and walls so that all who pass by pluck from its fruit?
13 The boar out of the wood wastes it and the wild beast of the field feeds on it.
14 Turn again, we beseech You, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and see, visit, and have regard for this vine!
15 [Protect and maintain] the stock which Your right hand planted, and the branch (the son) that You have reared and made strong for Yourself.
16 They have burned it with fire, it is cut down; may they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself.
18 Then will we not depart from You; revive us (give us life) and we will call upon Your name.
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; cause Your face to shine [in pleasure, approval, and favor on us], and we shall be saved!
Psalm 77
To the Chief Musician; after the manner of Jeduthun [one of David’s three chief musicians, founder of an official musical family]. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 I will cry to God with my voice, even to God with my voice, and He will give ear and hearken to me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek (inquire of and desperately require) the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out [in prayer] without slacking up; I refuse to be comforted.
3 I [earnestly] remember God; I am disquieted and I groan; I muse in prayer, and my spirit faints [overwhelmed]. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
4 You hold my eyes from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old, the years of bygone times [of prosperity].
6 I call to remembrance my song in the night; with my heart I meditate and my spirit searches diligently:
7 Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more?
8 Have His mercy and loving-kindness ceased forever? Have His promises ended for all time?
9 Has God [deliberately] abandoned or forgotten His graciousness? Has He in anger shut up His compassion? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
10 And I say, This [apparent desertion of Israel by God] is my appointed lot and trial, but I will recall the years of the right hand of the Most High [in loving-kindness extended toward us], for this is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High changes.
11 I will [earnestly] recall the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will [earnestly] remember the wonders [You performed for our fathers] of old.
12 I will meditate also upon all Your works and consider all Your [mighty] deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary [in holiness, away from sin and guilt]. Who is a great God like our God?
14 You are the God Who does wonders; You have demonstrated Your power among the peoples.
15 You have with Your [mighty] arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
16 When the waters [at the Red Sea and the Jordan] saw You, O God, they were afraid; the deep shuddered also, for [all] the waters saw You.
17 The clouds poured down water, the skies sent out a sound [of rumbling thunder]; Your arrows went forth [in forked lightning].
18 The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightnings illumined the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way [in delivering Your people] was through the sea, and Your paths through the great waters, yet Your footsteps were not traceable, but were obliterated.
20 You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 79
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 O God, the nations have come into [the land of Your people] Your inheritance; Your sacred temple have they defiled; they have made Jerusalem heaps of ruins.
2 The dead bodies of Your servants they have given as food to the birds of the heavens, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
3 Their blood they have poured out like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.
4 [Because of such humiliation] we have become a taunt and reproach to our neighbors, a mocking and derision to those who are round about us.
5 How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever? Shall Your jealousy [which cannot endure a divided allegiance] burn like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath on the Gentile nations who do not acknowledge You, and upon the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.(A)
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling and his pasture.
8 O do not [earnestly] remember against us the iniquities and guilt of our forefathers! Let Your compassion and tender mercy speedily come to meet us, for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name! Deliver us, forgive us, and purge away our sins for Your name’s sake.
10 Why should the Gentile nations say, Where is their God? Let vengeance for the blood of Your servants which is poured out be known among the nations in our sight [not delaying until some future generation].
11 Let the groaning and sighing of the prisoner come before You; according to the greatness of Your power and Your arm spare those who are appointed to die!
12 And return into the bosom of our neighbors sevenfold the taunts with which they have taunted and scoffed at You, O Lord!
13 Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will give You thanks forever; we will show forth and publish Your praise from generation to generation.
5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, accepted [and acceptable], because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2 The Syrians had gone out in bands and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3 She said to her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.
4 [Naaman] went in and told his king, Thus and thus said the maid from Israel.
5 And the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel. It said, When this letter comes to you, I will with it have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of leprosy.
7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? Just consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, asking, Why have you rent your clothes? Let Naaman come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at Elisha’s door.
10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.
11 But Naaman was angry and went away and said, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near and said to him, My father, if the prophet had bid you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, Wash and be clean?
14 Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, as the man of God had said, and his flesh was restored like that of a little child, and he was clean.
15 Then Naaman returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and stood before him. He said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. So now accept a gift from your servant.
16 Elisha said, As the Lord lives, before Whom I stand, I will accept none. He urged him to take it, but Elisha refused.
17 Naaman said, Then, I pray you, let there be given to me, your servant, two mules’ burden of earth. For your servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but only to the Lord.
18 In this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master [the king] goes into the house of [his god] Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this thing.
19 Elisha said to him, Go in peace. So Naaman departed from him a little way.
8 [[a]You behave as if] you are already filled and think you have enough [you are full and content, feeling no need of anything more]! Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts and graces]! [Without any counsel or instruction from us, in your conceit], you have ascended your thrones and come into your kingdom without including us! And would that it were true and that you did reign, so that we might be sharing the kingdom with you!
9 For it seems to me that God has made an exhibit of us apostles, exposing us to view last [of all, like men in a triumphal procession who are] sentenced to death [and displayed at the end of the line]. For we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world’s amphitheater] with both men and angels [as spectators].
10 We are [looked upon as] fools on account of Christ and for His sake, but you are [supposedly] so amazingly wise and prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are [so very] strong! You are highly esteemed, but we are in disrepute and contempt!
11 To this hour we have gone both hungry and thirsty; we [[b]habitually] wear but one undergarment [and shiver in the cold]; we are roughly knocked about and wander around homeless.
12 And we still toil unto weariness [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When men revile us [[c]wound us with an accursed sting], we bless them. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure it.
13 When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the earth].
14 I do not write this to shame you, but to warn and counsel you as my beloved children.
15 After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).
16 So I urge and implore you, be imitators of me.
17 For this very cause I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, who will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conduct and way of life in Christ, such as I teach everywhere in each of the churches.
18 Some of you have become conceited and arrogant and pretentious, counting on my not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you [and] shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will perceive and understand not what the talk of these puffed up and arrogant spirits amount to, but their force ([d]the moral power and excellence of soul they really possess).
20 For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power ([e]moral power and excellence of soul).
21 Now which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of correction, or with love and in a spirit of gentleness?
21 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be [a]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court.(A)
22 But I say to you that everyone who continues to be [b]angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be [c]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be [d]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You [e]cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be [f]liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire.
23 So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you,
24 Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.
25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
26 Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation