Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
For the music leader. According to “Lotus Blossoms.” A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen!
You, the one who leads Joseph as if he were a sheep.
You, who are enthroned upon the winged heavenly creatures.
Show yourself 2 before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh!
Wake up your power!
Come to save us!
3 Restore us, God!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
4 Lord God of heavenly forces,
how long will you fume against your people’s prayer?
5 You’ve fed them bread made of tears;
you’ve given them tears to drink three times over!
6 You’ve put us at odds with our neighbors;
our enemies make fun of us.
7 Restore us, God of heavenly forces!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade;
the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
11 It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.[a]
12 So why have you now torn down its walls
so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
13 so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
so that the bugs can feed on it?
14 Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
15 this root that you planted with your strong hand,
this son whom you secured as your very own.
16 It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
They die at the rebuke coming from you.
17 Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
with the one whom you secured as your own—
18 then we will not turn away from you!
Revive us so that we can call on your name.
19 Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
Psalm 77
For the music leader. According to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm.
77 I cry out loud to God—
out loud to God so that he can hear me!
2 During the day when I’m in trouble I look for my Lord.
At night my hands are still outstretched and don’t grow numb;
my whole being[a] refuses to be comforted.
3 I remember God and I moan.
I complain, and my spirit grows tired. Selah
4 You’ve kept my eyelids from closing.
I’m so upset I can’t even speak.
5 I think about days long past;
I remember years that seem an eternity in the past.
6 I meditate with my heart at night;[b]
I complain, and my spirit keeps searching:
7 “Will my Lord reject me forever?
Will he never be pleased again?
8 Has his faithful love come to a complete end?
Is his promise over for future generations?
9 Has God forgotten how to be gracious?
Has he angrily stopped up his compassion?” Selah
10 It’s my misfortune, I thought,
that the strong hand of the Most High is different now.
11 But I will remember the Lord’s deeds;
yes, I will remember your wondrous acts from times long past.
12 I will meditate on all your works;
I will ponder your deeds.
13 God, your way is holiness!
Who is as great a god as you, God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have demonstrated your strength among all peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people;
redeemed the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 The waters saw you, God—
the waters saw you and reeled!
Even the deep depths shook!
17 The clouds poured water,
the skies cracked thunder;
your arrows were flying all around!
18 The crash of your thunder was in the swirling storm;
lightning lit up the whole world;
the earth shook and quaked.
19 Your way went straight through the sea;
your pathways went right through the mighty waters.
But your footprints left no trace!
20 You led your people like sheep
under the care of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 79
A psalm of Asaph.
79 The nations have come into your inheritance, God!
They’ve defiled your holy temple.
They’ve made Jerusalem a bunch of ruins.
2 They’ve left your servants’ bodies
as food for the birds;
they’ve left the flesh of your faithful
to the wild animals of the earth.
3 They’ve poured out the blood of the faithful
like water all around Jerusalem,
and there’s no one left to bury them.
4 We’ve become a joke to our neighbors,
nothing but objects of ridicule
and disapproval to those around us.
5 How long will you rage, Lord? Forever?
How long will your anger burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations
who don’t know you,
on the kingdoms
that haven’t called on your name.
7 They’ve devoured Jacob
and demolished his pasture.
8 Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations;
let your compassion hurry to meet us
because we’ve been brought so low.
9 God of our salvation, help us
for the glory of your name!
Deliver us and cover our sins
for the sake of your name!
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where’s their God now?”
Let vengeance for the spilled blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our very eyes!
11 Let the prisoners’ groaning reach you.
With your powerful arm
spare those who are destined to die.
12 Pay back our neighbors seven times over,
right where it hurts,
for the insults they used on you, Lord.
13 We are, after all, your people
and the sheep of your very own pasture.
We will give you thanks forever;
we will proclaim your praises
from one generation to the next.
Jacob and Esau are born
19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. 20 Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean and the sister of Laban the Aramean, from Paddan-aram. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, since she was unable to have children. The Lord was moved by his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 But the boys pushed against each other inside of her, and she said, “If this is what it’s like, why did it happen to me?”[a]
So she went to ask the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb;
two different peoples will emerge from your body.
One people will be stronger than the other;
the older will serve the younger.”
24 When she reached the end of her pregnancy, she discovered that she had twins. 25 The first came out red all over, clothed with hair, and she named him Esau. 26 Immediately afterward, his brother came out gripping Esau’s heel, and she named him Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.
Jacob acquires the oldest son’s rights
27 When the young men grew up, Esau became an outdoorsman who knew how to hunt, and Jacob became a quiet man who stayed at home. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 Once when Jacob was boiling stew, Esau came in from the field hungry 30 and said to Jacob, “I’m starving! Let me devour some of this red stuff.” That’s why his name is Edom.[b]
31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright[c] today.”
32 Esau said, “Since I’m going to die anyway, what good is my birthright to me?”
33 Jacob said, “Give me your word today.” And he did. He sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 So Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. He ate, drank, got up, and left, showing just how little he thought of his birthright.
Our acts of service and sacrifice
13 Keep loving each other like family. 2 Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. 3 Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place. 4 Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery. 5 Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.[a] 6 This is why we can confidently say,
The Lord is my helper,
and I won’t be afraid.
What can people do to me?[b]
7 Remember your leaders who spoke God’s word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
9 Don’t be misled by the many strange teachings out there. It’s a good thing for the heart to be strengthened by grace rather than by food. Food doesn’t help those who live in this context. 10 We have an altar, and those who serve as priests in the meeting tent don’t have the right to eat from it. 11 The blood of the animals is carried into the holy of holies by the high priest as an offering for sin, and their bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy with his own blood.
13 So now, let’s go to him outside the camp, bearing his shame. 14 We don’t have a permanent city here, but rather we are looking for the city that is still to come.
15 So let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through him, which is the fruit from our lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices.
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted,
“All who are thirsty should come to me!
38 All who believe in me should drink!
As the scriptures said concerning me,[a]
Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”
39 Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified.
40 When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? 42 Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” 43 So the crowd was divided over Jesus. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him.
45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.”
47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!”
50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, 51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”
52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible