Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A Man of Peace
Heading
A song of the ascents.[a]
A Man of Peace
1 In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
2 Lord, save my life from lying lips.
Save me from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he give to you?
What more will he add to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharpened arrows with hot coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I am an alien in Meshek,
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 For too long my soul[b] has dwelt with those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 121
Help From the Lord
Heading
A song for the ascents.
Help From the Lord, Israel’s Watchman
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains.
Where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot stumble.
He who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Yes, he who watches over Israel will not slumber.
He will not sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you.
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will watch to keep you from all harm.[c]
He will watch over your life.[d]
8 The Lord will watch over your going and your coming
from now to eternity.
Psalm 122
The Peace of Jerusalem
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Peace of Jerusalem
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is a well-built city that is firmly joined together,[e]
4 a city to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,[f]
as a testimony to Israel,
to give praise to the name of the Lord.
5 That is where the thrones for judgment sit,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 May there be peace within your fortifications,
prosperity within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
now I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek good for you.
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
Psalm 124
The Lord Is on Our Side
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Lord Is on Our Side
1 Unless it was the Lord who was for us—
let Israel say—
2 unless it was the Lord who was for us
when people[g] rose against us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger burned against us.
4 Then the waters would have submerged us.
The torrent would have swept our lives away.
5 Then the wild waters would have swept us away.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped with our lives
like a bird out of the fowlers’ snare.
The snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 125
Mount Zion Cannot Be Shaken
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken
1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion.
It cannot be shaken. It will stand forever.
2 As Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains,
so the Lord surrounds his people from now to eternity.
3 No, the scepter of wickedness will not rest
on the land assigned to the righteous,
so that the righteous do not reach out their hands toward evil.
4 Do good, O Lord, for the good
and for those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But those who turn to their crooked ways—
the Lord will send them away with the evildoers.
Peace be on Israel.
Psalm 126
The Return of the Captives
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Captives Return
1 When the Lord restored the captives to Zion,[h]
we were like dreamers.
2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us.
We are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the dry gulches of the Negev.
5 Those who sow with weeping will reap with joyful shouts.
6 The one who walks along weeping, carrying a bag of seed to sow,
will come back again with joyful shouts, carrying his sheaves.
Psalm 127
The Lord Builds the House
Heading
A song of the ascents. By Solomon.
The Lord Builds the House
1 If the Lord does not build the house,
it is useless for the builders to work hard over it.
If the Lord does not watch over the city,
it is useless for the watchman to stand guard.
2 It is useless for you to get up early and to work late,
worrying about bread to eat,
because God grants sleep to the one he loves.[i]
3 Indeed, children are a heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward from him.
4 Sons born during one’s youth are like arrows
in the hand of a warrior.
5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they dispute with enemies at the city gate.[j]
The Rejection of the Good Shepherd
4 This is what the Lord, my God, said.
Shepherd the flock which is to be slaughtered. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held accountable, and those who sell them say, “Bless the Lord! I have become rich!” Their own shepherds show them no compassion, 6 because I will no longer show compassion to the people of the land, declares the Lord.
Look, I will bring it about that each one of them will fall into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. They will crush the land, and I will rescue no one from their hands.
7 So I[a] shepherded the flock which is to be slaughtered, especially the most afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. One I called Favor and the other Union. Then I shepherded the flock. 8 I removed three shepherds in one month. I grew very impatient with the flock, and they really detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not shepherd you. Whatever is dying, let it die. Whatever is being destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”
10 I took my staff, Favor, and I broke it in two, to cancel my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was cancelled on that day, and the most miserable of the flock, who were watching me, knew that this was the word of the Lord.
12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages. But if it does not, withhold them.” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my wages.
13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, this magnificent price at which they valued me.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I threw them into the House of the Lord, to the potter.
14 Then I broke my second staff, Union, to break the brotherhood between the house of Judah and the house of Israel.
A Foolish Shepherd
15 Then the Lord said to me:
Take up once again the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
16 Watch closely. I myself am going to raise up a shepherd in the land, one who will pay no attention to those who are being lost, who will not search for the scattered, who will not heal the injured, who will not nourish those who remain standing, but who nevertheless will devour the meat of the fat sheep and even tear off their hoofs.
17 Woe to my worthless shepherd,
the one who deserts the flock.
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm wither away to nothing,
and his right eye become completely blind.
10 In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. But let each person be careful how he builds on it. 11 In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each person’s work will become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is. 14 If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.
16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in[a] you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this world, let him become a fool so that he may become wise. 19 To be sure, the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”[b] 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise; he knows that it is worthless.”[c] 21 Therefore let no one boast about men. For all things belong to you— 22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection Again
31 He took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, 33 flog him, and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
34 They did not understand any of these things. What he said was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was said.
Blind Bartimaeus
35 As he approached Jericho, a blind man sat by the road, begging. 36 When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by. 38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Those who were at the front of the crowd rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, I want to see again.”
42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.”
43 Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw this, gave praise to God.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.