Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
Hear, O Shepherd of Israel
Heading
For the choir director. To “Lilies.”[a] A Testimony.[b] By Asaph. A psalm.
Opening Plea
1 O Shepherd of Israel, give ear,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are seated above the cherubim, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might.
Come with salvation for us.
Refrain
3 God, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
The Problem
4 Lord God of Armies, how long will your anger smoke
against the prayer of your people?
5 You make them eat bread with tears,
and you make them drink tears by the quart.[c]
6 You create strife between us and our neighbors,
so our enemies join together in mocking us.
Refrain
7 God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
Past Blessing
8 You brought a vine out from Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and you planted it.
9 You cleared a place for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade,
the cedars of God with its branches.
11 It sent out its boughs to the Sea,[d]
its shoots as far as the River.[e]
Present Judgment
12 Why have you broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
13 A wild boar from the forest tears it up,
and the wild animals[f] feed on it.
Prayer for the King
14 God of Armies, return now!
Look down from heaven and see,
and take care of this vine,
15 the shoot that your right hand has planted,
the son that you made strong for yourself.
16 It is burned with fire like garbage.[g]
Because of the rebuke from your face they perish.
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
on the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself.[h]
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Cause us to live, and we will call on your name.
Refrain
19 Lord God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
so we will be saved.
Psalm 77
Will the Lord Reject Forever?
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For the choir director. According to Jeduthun.[a] By Asaph. A psalm.
The Question
1 With my voice to God—
with my voice I cried out to God,
and he listened to me.
2 In the day when I was distressed I sought the Lord.
At night my hand was stretched out,
and it never grew tired,
but my soul refused to be comforted.
3 God, I remembered and I groaned. Interlude
I pondered, and my spirit became weak.
4 You propped my eyelids open.
I was troubled but did not speak.
5 I thought about the days of long ago, the years long past.
6 During the night I remembered my music.
With my heart I pondered, and my spirit asked,
7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never again show favor?
8 Has his mercy vanished to the end?
Has what he said failed for all generations?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Interlude
Has he really shut up his compassion in anger?”
The Answer
10 Then I said, “This is what hurts me:
the change of the right hand of the Most High.”[b]
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord.[c]
Yes, I will remember your wonderful work from long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your work,
and I will ponder all your deeds.
13 O God, your way is carried out in holiness.
What god is as great as God?
14 You are the God who performs a wonderful deed.
You made known your power among the peoples.
15 With your arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude
16 The waters saw you, O God.
The waters saw you and swirled.
Even the depths were turbulent.
17 The clouds poured down water.
The skies echoed with thunder.
Indeed, your arrows shot back and forth.
18 The sound of your thunder was heard in the tornado.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your route led through the sea.
Your trail went through the mighty waters,
but your footprints were not detected.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 79
They Have Reduced Jerusalem to Rubble
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A psalm by Asaph.
The Destruction and the Disgrace
1 God, the nations have invaded your possession.
They have profaned your holy temple.
They have reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins.
2 They have left the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the sky.
They have given the flesh of your favored ones to the wild animals.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all over Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
4 We are subjected to contempt by our neighbors,
to mockery and ridicule by those around us.
The Prayer for Justice
5 How long, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your jealous anger burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,
7 because they have devoured Jacob,
and they have destroyed his pastureland.[a]
8 Do not charge the guilt of our fathers against us.
Hurry, let your compassion come to meet us,
for we are very weak.
9 God, who saves us, help us for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and make atonement for our sins for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes, display to the nations
vengeance for the poured-out blood of your servants.
11 May the groaning of the prisoner come before you.
According to the great strength of your arm
preserve those doomed to death.
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times as much scorn
as the scorn that they directed at you, Lord.
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation we will recount your praise.
35 When your fellow Israelite[a] becomes so impoverished that he cannot support himself,[b] help him as you would help a resident alien or a temporary resident. Let him retain his right to work for a livelihood among you.[c] 36 You shall not take advance interest or accrued interest from him, but you shall fear your God and let your brother retain his livelihood with you. 37 You shall not lend him your money for advance interest or your food for accrued interest. 38 I am the Lord your God, who freed you from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 When your fellow Israelite becomes so indebted to you that he is sold to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave. 40 He shall remain with you as a hired laborer or a temporary resident. He shall work for you until the year of Jubilee. 41 Then he and his children with him will become free from your authority. He shall return to his family home and to his ancestral landholding, 42 for the Israelites are my servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold in a slave sale. 43 You shall not rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
44 You may buy a male slave or a female slave for yourself from the nations around you. 45 You may also buy some of the children of those who reside as aliens among you and some of their extended families who are born in your land, so that they become your property. 46 You may leave them to your children as inherited property. You may make them work as slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, each of you must not rule over your brother harshly.
47 If a resident alien living among you prospers, and if your brother Israelite becomes so indebted to him that he is sold to that alien living among you or to that alien’s family, 48 the Israelite who has been sold shall have the right to be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone from his immediate family[d] or extended family may redeem him, or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50 Together with his buyer, he shall calculate the elapsed time from the year that he was sold until the year of Jubilee, and the price to redeem him shall be based on that number of years. It shall be calculated as if he were a hired laborer. 51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay the price of redemption proportionally to the years that have passed. 52 If only a few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he shall calculate the redemption in this way: He shall pay the price of his redemption on the basis of his years of work, 53 as if he were a worker hired year by year. You shall see to it that the owner does not rule over him harshly. 54 If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children with him shall become free in the year of Jubilee, 55 because the Israelites are servants who really belong to me. They are my servants whom I freed from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
9 For this reason, from the day we heard about your love, we also have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you might live in a way that is worthy of the Lord. Our goal is that you please him by bearing fruit in every kind of good work and by growing in the knowledge of God, 11 as you are being strengthened with all power because of his glorious might working in you. Then you will have complete endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who qualified us[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
What the Father Did Through Christ
13 The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption,[b] the forgiveness of sins.
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus left the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 A large crowd gathered around him. So he stepped into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen, a sower went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. Immediately the seed sprang up, because the soil was not deep. 6 But when the sun rose, the seed was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it. 8 But some seed fell on good ground and produced grain: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown. 9 Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 The disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered them, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but it has not been given to them. 12 For whoever has will be given even more, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because even though they see, they do not see; and even though they hear, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says,
You will hear clearly, but you will never understand. You will see clearly, but you will never perceive. 15 Because this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are hard of hearing. They have closed their eyes. Otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, turn, and I would heal them.[a]
16 “But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.