Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
Hear, O Shepherd of Israel
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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.
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Warnings and Descriptions of the Locust Plague
2 Hear this, you elders.
Listen, all of you who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
4 What the grasshoppers have left, the swarming locusts have eaten.
What the swarming locusts have left, the young locusts have eaten.
What the young locusts have left, the mature locusts have eaten.[a]
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail,[b] all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine[c] that has been snatched from your mouth.
6 A nation has come up into my land, powerful and without number.
It has teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.
7 It has devastated my vines and shredded my fig trees.
It has completely stripped off their bark and thrown it aside,
so that their branches are bare and white.
8 Grieve like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,
who grieves for the husband[d] of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister in the presence of the Lord.
10 The fields are devastated. The soil mourns.
The grain is devastated.
The new wine has run dry. The olive oil runs out.
11 Hang your heads, you farmers.
Wail, you vine growers, for the wheat and for the barley,
because the grain harvest has died in the field.
12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered.
The pomegranate, the date palm, and the apple tree—
all the trees in the countryside have dried up,
and joy has dried up for all the people.
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and lament.
Wail, you who minister in front of the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God,
because the grain offerings and drink offerings
are being held back from the house of your God.
15 “The merchants who sold those things and were made rich by Babylon will stand far away out of terror at her torment. They are going to weep and mourn, 16 saying:
Woe, woe to the great city that was clothed in fine linen
and purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,
17 because such great wealth was made a wasteland in a single hour.
“Every ship captain and all the ocean travelers and the sailors and those who make their living on the sea stood far away 18 and cried out when they saw the smoke rise from her burning. They said, ‘Who is like the great city?’ 19 They threw dust on their heads and cried out as they wept and mourned, saying:
Woe, woe to the great city
by whom all who have ships on the sea were made rich from her treasures,
because she was made a wasteland in a single hour.
20 Rejoice over her, heaven,
also you saints, apostles, and prophets,
because God has judged her for the judgment you received from her.”
21 A mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and, as he threw it into the sea, he said:
This is the way Babylon, the great city,
will be overthrown with violence and
will never again be found.
22 The sound of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters,
will never be heard in you again.
No craftsman of any trade
will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
will never be heard in you again.
23 The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again,
because your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
because your witchcraft led all the nations astray,
24 and the blood of prophets and saints was found in this city,[a]
along with the blood of all those who were slain on the earth.
12 He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors, so that perhaps they may also return the favor and pay you back.
13 “But when you make a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. Certainly, you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15 When one of those at the table with him heard these things, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will feast in the kingdom of God!”
16 Jesus said to him, “A certain man made a great banquet and invited many people. 17 When it was time for the banquet, he sent out his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses.
“The first one told him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to go and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’
19 “Another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, and so I am unable to attend.’
21 “The servant arrived and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
22 “The servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’
23 “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and urge them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 Yes, I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.