Book of Common Prayer
145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will keep Your statutes [I will hear, receive, love, and obey them].
146 I cried to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
147 I anticipated the dawning of the morning and cried [in childlike prayer]; I hoped in Your word.
148 My eyes anticipate the night watches and I am awake before the cry of the watchman, that I may meditate on Your word.
149 Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love; O Lord, quicken me and give me life according to Your [righteous] decrees.
150 They draw near who follow after wrong thinking and persecute me with wickedness; they are far from Your law.
151 You are near, O Lord [nearer to me than my foes], and all Your commandments are truth.
152 Of old have I known Your testimonies, and for a long time, [therefore it is a thoroughly established conviction] that You have founded them forever.(A)
153 Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me and give me life according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not nor hunger for Your statutes.
156 Great are Your tender mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord; give me life according to Your ordinances.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not swerve from Your testimonies.
158 I behold the treacherous and am grieved and loathe them, because they do not respect Your law [neither hearing, receiving, loving, nor obeying it].
159 Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me and give life to me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness!
160 The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.
161 Princes pursue and persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words [dreading violation of them far more than the force of prince or potentate].(B)
162 I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood, but Your law do I love.
164 Seven times a day and all day long do I praise You because of Your righteous decrees.
165 Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble.(C)
166 I am hoping and waiting [eagerly] for Your salvation, O Lord, and I do Your commandments.(D)
167 Your testimonies have I kept [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]; I love them exceedingly!
168 I have observed Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are [fully known] before You.
169 Let my mournful cry and supplication come [near] before You, O Lord; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension) according to Your word [of assurance and promise].
170 Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word!
171 My lips shall pour forth praise [with thanksgiving and renewed trust] when You teach me Your statutes.
172 My tongue shall sing [praise for the fulfillment] of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.
173 Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.
174 I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.
175 Let me live that I may praise You, and let Your decrees help me.
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek, inquire for, and demand Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.(E)
Psalm 128
A Song of [a]Ascents.
1 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is everyone who fears, reveres, and worships the Lord, who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments.(A)
2 For you shall eat [the fruit] of the labor of your hands; happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) shall you be, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your children shall be like olive plants round about your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you out of Zion [His sanctuary], and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life;
6 Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 129
A Song of [b]Ascents.
1 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up—let Israel now say—
2 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.
4 The Lord is [uncompromisingly] righteous; He has cut asunder the thick cords by which the wicked [enslaved us].
5 Let them all be put to shame and turned backward who hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
7 With which the mower fills not his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his bosom—
8 While those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!
Psalm 130
A Song of [c]Ascents.
1 Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?(B)
4 But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.(C)
5 I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope.
6 I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is mercy and loving-kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.
30 Therefore prophesy against them all these words and say to them: The Lord shall roar from on high and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall roar mightily against His fold and pasture. He shall give a shout like those who tread grapes [in the winepress, but His shout will be] against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 A noise will come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy and an indictment against the nations; He will enter into judgment with all mankind; as for the wicked, He will give them to the sword, says the Lord.
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirling tempest will rise from the uttermost parts of the earth.
33 And those slain by the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried; their [dead bodies] shall be dung upon the ground.(A)
34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and roll in ashes, you principal ones of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you shall fall and be dashed into pieces like a choice vessel.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal ones of the flock any means of escape.
36 A voice! The cry of the shepherds and the wailing of the principal ones of the flock! For the Lord is laying waste and destroying their pasture.
37 And the peaceable folds are devastated and brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has left His shelter like the lion; for their land has become a waste and an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressor and because of [the Lord’s] fierce anger.
14 But how are people to call upon Him Whom they have not believed [in Whom they have no faith, on Whom they have no reliance]? And how are they to believe in Him [adhere to, trust in, and rely upon Him] of Whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
15 And how can men [be expected to] preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings! [How welcome is the coming of those who preach the good news of His good things!](A)
16 But they have not all heeded the Gospel; for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed (had faith in) what he has heard from us?(B)
17 So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
18 But I ask, Have they not heard? Indeed they have; [for the Scripture says] Their voice [that of nature bearing God’s message] has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the far bounds of the world.(C)
19 Again I ask, Did Israel not understand? [Did the Jews have no warning that the Gospel was to go forth to the Gentiles, to all the earth?] First, there is Moses who says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.(D)
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek Me; I have shown (revealed) Myself to those who did not [consciously] ask for Me.(E)
21 But of Israel he says, All day long I have stretched out My hands to a people unyielding and disobedient and self-willed [to a faultfinding, contrary, and contradicting people].(F)
10 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way (elsewhere, from some other quarter) is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 The watchman opens the door for this man, and the sheep listen to his voice and heed it; and he calls his own sheep by name and brings (leads) them out.
4 When he has brought his own sheep outside, he walks on before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5 They will never [on any account] follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers or recognize their call.
6 Jesus used this parable (illustration) with them, but they did not understand what He was talking about.
7 So Jesus said again, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that I Myself am the Door [a]for the sheep.
8 All others who came [as such] before Me are thieves and robbers, but the [true] sheep did not listen to and obey them.
9 I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture.
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [b]overflows).
11 I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His [own] life for the sheep.(A)
12 But the hired servant (he who merely serves for wages) who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming, deserts the flock and runs away. And the wolf chases and snatches them and scatters [the flock].
13 Now the hireling flees because he merely serves for wages and is not himself concerned about the sheep [cares nothing for them].
14 I am the Good Shepherd; and I know and recognize My own, and My own know and recognize Me—
15 Even as [truly as] the Father knows Me and I also know the Father—and I am giving My [very own] life and laying it down on behalf of the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring and [c]impel those also; and they will listen to My voice and heed My call, and so there will be [they will become] one flock under one Shepherd.(B)
17 For this [reason] the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life—to take it back again.
18 No one takes it away from Me. On the contrary, I lay it down voluntarily. [I put it from Myself.] I am authorized and have power to lay it down (to resign it) and I am authorized and have power to take it back again. These are the instructions (orders) which I have received [as My charge] from My Father.
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