Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 131
My Heart Is Not Proud
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A song of the ascents. By David.
Like a Satisfied Baby
1 Lord, my heart is not haughty,
and my eyes are not proud.
So I do not intrude into great matters
or into things too wonderful for me.
2 Instead I have soothed and quieted my soul.
As a nursed child rests with its mother,
like a nursed[a] child my soul rests with me.
3 Wait confidently, O Israel, for the Lord
from now to eternity.
Psalm 132
Remember David and His Son
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A song of the ascents.
David’s Oath
1 Remember for David’s sake, O Lord, all his afflictions.
2 Remember how he swore to the Lord.
He made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 “I will not enter my own house.[b]
I will not get into my own bed.[c]
4 I will not allow my eyes to sleep
or my eyelids to slumber,
5 until I find a place for the Lord,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Israel’s Response
6 Yes, we heard about it in Ephrathah.
We found it in the fields of Ja’ar.
7 Let us go to his dwelling place.
Let us bow down at his footstool.
8 Arise, O Lord, come to your resting place,
you and the ark of your strength.
9 May your priests be clothed with righteousness.
May your favored ones shout for joy.
10 For the sake of David your servant,
do not reject the face of your Anointed One.[d]
The Lord’s Oath
11 The Lord swore to David
a truth from which he will not turn back:
“From the fruit of your body
I will place kings on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
and my testimonies that I teach them,
then their sons will sit on your throne forever.”
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion.
He has desired it for his dwelling.
14 “This is my resting place forever.
Here I will live, for I have desired it.
15 I will bless her greatly with food.
I will satisfy Zion’s poor with bread.
16 I will clothe her priests with salvation,
and her favored ones will shout for joy.
17 There I will make a horn shoot up for David.
I will set up a lamp for my Anointed One.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but on him his crown will be beautiful.”
Psalm 133
Pleasant Unity
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A song of the ascents. By David.
Pleasant Unity
1 Look, how good and how pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew from Hermon
running down on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commands this blessing: life to eternity.
Psalm 134
The Pilgrims’ Blessing
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A song of the ascents.
The People
1 Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand in the house of the Lord at night.
2 Lift up your hands toward the sanctuary
and bless the Lord.
The Priests
3 May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
Psalm 135
Israel, Praise the Lord
Introduction
1 Praise the Lord.[e]
Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise him, you servants of the Lord,
2 who stand in the house of the Lord,
in the courtyards of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord,[f] for the Lord is good.
Make music to his name, for it is pleasant.
4 Yes, the Lord chose Jacob for himself.
He chose Israel as his special treasure.
The Superiority of the Lord
5 Yes, I know that the Lord is great.
Our Lord is greater than all gods.
6 The Lord does whatever he pleases
in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and in all the depths.
7 He makes clouds rise from the end of the earth.
He sends lightning for the rainstorm.
He releases the wind from his storehouses.
8 He is the one who struck down
the firstborn of Egypt, both men and animals.
9 Egypt! He sent warning signs into your midst,
against Pharaoh and against all his officials.
10 He is the one who struck down many nations.
He killed mighty kings—
11 Sihon king of the Amorites,
and Og king of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms of Canaan.
12 He gave their land as a possession,
a possession to Israel, his people.
13 Lord, your name stands forever.
Lord, your reputation remains through all generations.
14 For the Lord will judge in favor of his people.
He will have pity on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
16 They have a mouth, but they cannot speak.
They have eyes, but they cannot see.
17 They have ears, but cannot hear.
There is not even any breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them will be like them.
So will all who trust in them.
Conclusion
19 House of Israel, bless the Lord.
House of Aaron, bless the Lord.
20 House of Levi, bless the Lord.
You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord.
21 The Lord, who dwells in Jerusalem, will be blessed from Zion.
Praise the Lord.
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some of the food, and dip your piece of bread into the sour wine.”[a] So she sat down beside the reapers, and Boaz heaped up a serving of roasted grain for her. She ate until she was full and had some left over.
15 When she got up to glean, Boaz ordered his workers, “She may glean even among our sheaves. You are not to humiliate her in any way. 16 In fact, you can even pull out some stalks from the piles for her, and you can drop them on purpose so that she can glean them, and do not rebuke her at all.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed what she had gleaned. It amounted to almost a bushel[b] of barley.
18 When she picked it up and went into town, her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Ruth also took what she had left over from her meal and gave it to Naomi.
19 Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May the man who took notice of you be blessed!”
So she told her mother-in-law in whose field she had worked: “The name of the man in whose field I worked today is Boaz.”
20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose faithfulness[c] has not forsaken[d] the living and the dead!”
Naomi also said to her, “This man is related to us. He is even one of our family’s redeemers.”[e]
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stick close to my workers until they have finished all of the harvest on the land that belongs to me.’”
22 Then Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you can go out with his young women, so that you will not be molested by men in some other field.”
23 So Ruth stuck close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the completion of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God. 6 He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament[a] (not of letter, but of spirit).[b] For the letter kills, but the spirit[c] gives life.
The Ministry of the Spirit
7 If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look directly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (though it was fading), 8 how will the ministry of the spirit[d] not be much more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory. 10 In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it. 11 Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!
12 Therefore, since we have this kind of hope, we act with great boldness. 13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the Israelites could not continue to look at the end of the radiance, as it was fading away. 14 In spite of this, their minds were hardened. Yes, up to the present day, the same veil remains when the Old Testament is read. It has not been removed because it is taken away only in Christ. 15 Instead, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 But all of us who reflect the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face are being transformed into his own image, from one degree of glory to another. This too is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’[a] 28 but I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Divorce
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[b] 32 But I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to be regarded as an adulteress. And whoever marries the divorced woman is regarded as an adulterer.
Oaths
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’[c] 34 But I tell you, do not swear at all: not by heaven, because it is God’s throne; 35 and not by earth, because it is his footstool; and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your own head, since you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Instead, let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no.’ Whatever goes beyond these is from the Evil One.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.