Book of Common Prayer
Qoph
145 I called to You wholeheartedly: “Answer me, O Eternal One!”
I will respect, I will follow Your statutes.
146 I cried out to You: “Rescue me,
and I will live according to Your decrees.”
147 I wake before the dawn and call for help;
I hope in Your words.
148 My eyes do not shut before each watch of the night
so that I can fix my mind on Your word.
149 Listen to my voice, in keeping with Your unfailing love.
Preserve my life, O Eternal One, according to Your just rulings.
150 Those who wish me harm are moving closer to me;
they are far away from Your teaching.
151 But You are near me, O Eternal One,
and all You have commanded is true.
152 I learned a long time ago
that You established Your decrees to last forever.
Resh
153 Give attention to my misery and rescue me
because I have not forgotten Your teaching.
154 Fight for me, and set me free;
give me life in keeping with Your promise.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked
because they do not live in pursuit of Your precepts.
156 Your mercies are tender and great, O Eternal One;
grant me life in keeping with Your ordinances.
157 I have many oppressors and foes;
still I do not swerve from Your decrees.
158 I observe the faithless and detest them
because they turn away from Your word.
159 Reflect, O God, on how I love Your precepts;
give me life, O Eternal One, in keeping with Your unfailing love.
160 The entirety of Your word is truth,
and every one of Your right rulings will surely last forever.
Shin
161 Princes persecute me without reason,
but my heart remains true and is awed by Your words.
162 I celebrate because of Your promise,
like someone who discovers great treasure.
163 I despise and abhor lies,
but I love Your law.
164 Seven times every day I praise You
because of Your right rulings.
165 Those who love Your law have an abundance of peace,
and nothing along their paths can cause them to stumble.
166 I wait for Your salvation, O Eternal One,
and I live out Your commands.
167 My soul is faithful to Your decrees,
and my love for them is extraordinary.
168 I live according to Your precepts and decrees
because everything I do is right before Your eyes.
Tav
169 Let my cry come before You, O Eternal One.
Grant me understanding in keeping with Your word.
170 Let my plea come before You;
liberate me in keeping with Your word.
171 Praise will pour from my lips
because You help me learn what You require.
172 My tongue will sing of Your word
because every command of Yours is right.
173 Let Your hand be poised to help me
because I have chosen to live by Your precepts.
174 I long for Your salvation, O Eternal One.
Meanwhile, Your teaching brings me great joy.
175 Let my soul live on so that I may praise You,
and let Your precepts guide me.
176 I have wandered down the wrong path like a lost sheep; come find me, Your servant,
because I do not forget Your commands.
Psalm 128
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Those who stand in awe of the Eternal—
who follow wherever He leads, committed in their hearts—experience His blessings!
2 God will use your hard work to provide you food.
You will prosper in your labor, and it will go well for you.
3 Your wife will be like a healthy vine producing plenty of fruit,
a spring of life in your home.
Your children will be like young olive shoots;
you will watch them bud and bloom around your table.
4 Such are the blessings the Eternal lavishes
on those who stand in awe of Him!
5 May the Eternal continue to pour out His love on you,
showering down blessings from His holy mountain, Zion.
May you see Jerusalem prosper
all your days.
6 May you have the privilege of seeing your grandchildren as they grow.
May peace flourish in Israel!
Psalm 129
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 “This is not the first time my enemies assaulted me;
they have often attacked me since I was young.”
So let Israel now proclaim,
2 “This is not the first time my enemies assaulted me;
they have attacked me since I was young,
and yet they have not been able to overpower me.
3 The plowers plowed over me;
they plowed their furrows deep and long down my back.”
4 The Eternal is just.
He’s severed the bindings of the wicked so they can’t hurt me anymore.
5 May all who despise Zion
hang their heads in shame.
May all who despise Zion recoil and run away.
6 Let them grow like grass upon rooftops
that withers and dies in the sun long before it has time to grow,
7 Unfit to be harvested by the worker,
not worthy of the effort to carry off to the binder.
8 Unwanted, uncared for—no passersby to greet them, no one to say,
“May the favor of the Eternal be upon you;
We bless you in His name.”
Psalm 130
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 From the depths of disaster I appeal to You, O Eternal One:
2 Lord, hear my cry!
Attune Your ears to my humble prayer!
3 If You, Eternal One, recorded each offense,
Lord, who on earth could stand innocent?
4 But with You forgiveness exists;
that’s why true respect of You might flow.
5 So I wait for the Eternal—my soul awaits rescue—
and I put my hope in His transforming word.
6 My soul waits for the Lord to break into the world
more than night watchmen expect the break of day,
even more than night watchmen expect the break of day.
7 O Israel, ground your hope in the Eternal.
For in the Eternal lives the most loyal love,
and with Him comes the most abundant redemption.
8 He will ransom Israel
from all the sinful acts that stole you away.
The historical books of the Hebrew Bible often have sections where great religious leaders make a final speech. This is a summing-up of their lives and often a prophetic warning about the future. Call it “foreshadowing,” if you will, because everyone who hears this story knows that everything Samuel predicts comes true. As long as the people and their king serve only the Lord, they prosper; but if they and their king turn away from that faith, they suffer. As those who read the books of Samuel know, the people of Israel turn away from God; and eventually, great empires come and lay waste to the land.
12 Samuel (to the Israelites): I have listened to your voice and all you have said, and I have given you a king to rule over you. 2 He is now your ruler and will walk before you. I have grown old and gray, but my sons still live among you. I have led you since I was a young man, but those days are over.
3 Here I am. Speak up in front of the Eternal One and in front of His anointed king if you have the same grievances against me as you have against my sons. Have I ever taken an ox from you? A donkey? Have I ever cheated any of you? Threatened any of you? Have any of you given me a bribe to make me change my judgment? [If any of this is true, say so,][a] I will make it right.
Samuel asks his listeners to affirm that he has acted with integrity as their leader. Money has not swayed him, nor has personal emotion; he has done what is good in the sight of God. (Maybe, like Eli before him, his sons are a mess, but that’s another matter.) The people take seriously what he has to say next for two reasons: they trust Samuel, and they fear God.
Today some leaders taint religion by acting as Samuel’s sons did. Their personal greed, desire for political power, or unwillingness to put God first make some think that religion itself is a sham. Faithful leaders can still be found, but Samuel’s example suggests that it’s a good idea to question the actions of our leaders before we let them tell us what they think God wants from us.
People: 4 No, you have never cheated us, you have never threatened us, and you have never taken anything from anyone.
Samuel: 5 Then let the Eternal One, who witnesses against you, and His anointed king, who bears witness today, see that you have found me innocent of any wrongdoing against you.
People: He is our witness.
Samuel: 6 The Eternal One is our witness, the One who first raised Moses and Aaron to be leaders of the people, the One who brought your ancestors here out of the oppression of Egypt.
16 Stand ready, for the Eternal One is going to show you a great sight. 17 It is the wheat harvest now, and is this not the time after the early rains? But I will call upon the Eternal to send thunder and rain so you will realize the depths of your sin before God because you demanded a king to rule over you.
18 Samuel prayed to the Eternal. He sent thunder and rain to pelt the fields that day, and the people were afraid of Him and of Samuel.
People (to Samuel): 19 Pray to the Eternal One your God on behalf of your servants so we will not die for adding to all the weight of our sin the evil of demanding our own king.
Samuel: 20 Don’t be frightened. It is true that you have done evil, but never stop following the Eternal One. Serve Him completely, 21 and do not follow empty things that do not have the power to benefit or save you. They are worthless. 22 For the sake of His reputation, He will not cast away His chosen people. Before you ever chose Him, the Eternal One chose you as His own because it pleased Him.
23 As for me, the last thing I would ever do is to stop praying for you. That would be a sin against the Eternal One on my part. I will always try to teach you to live and act in a way that is good and proper in His eyes. 24 Make this your one purpose: to revere Him and serve Him faithfully with complete devotion because He has done great things for you. 25 But if you continue in your evil ways against Him, you and your king will be swept off the face of the earth.
14 Meanwhile word had reached the Lord’s emissaries[a] in Jerusalem that the message of God was welcomed in Samaria—a land of half-breeds and heretics in the minds of many Judeans. They sent Peter and John 15 to pray for the Samaritans. They were especially eager to see if the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit 16 because until this point they had been baptized[b] in the name of the Lord Jesus but had not experienced the Holy Spirit. 17 When Peter and John laid hands on the people, the Holy Spirit did indeed come upon them all.
18 Simon watched all this closely. He saw the Holy Spirit coming to the people when the apostles laid hands on them. So he came to Peter and John and offered them money.
Simon: 19 I want to purchase this ability to confer the Holy Spirit on people through the laying on of my hands.
Peter: 20 May your silver rot right along with you, Simon! To think the Holy Spirit is some kind of magic that can be procured with money! 21 You aren’t even close to being ready for this kind of ministry; your heart is not right with God. 22 You need to turn from your past, and you need to pray that the Lord will forgive the evil intent of your heart. 23 I can see deep bitterness has poisoned you, and wickedness has locked you in chains.
Simon: 24 Please—you must pray to the Lord for me. I don’t want these terrible things to be true of me.
25 Peter and John preached to and talked with the Samaritans about the message of the Lord; and then they returned to Jerusalem, stopping in many other Samaritan villages along the way to proclaim the good news.
23 So the whole council got up and took Jesus to Pilate. 2 They brought accusations against Him.
Sanhedrin: We have observed this man leading our nation astray. He even forbade us to pay our taxes to Caesar. He claims to be the Anointed One and a King Himself.
Pilate: 3 Are You the King of the Jews?
Jesus: It’s as you say.
Pilate (to the chief priest and crowd): 4 I find this man guilty of no crime.
Sanhedrin (growing more intense): 5 He has been stirring up discontent among the people all over Judea. He started up in Galilee, and now He’s brought His brand of trouble all the way to Jerusalem!
Pilate: 6 Just a minute. Is this man a Galilean?
7 When Pilate learned that Jesus was indeed Galilean—which meant He was officially under Herod’s jurisdiction—Pilate sent Him over to Herod, who was currently in Jerusalem. 8 Herod was fascinated to meet Jesus for he had heard about Him for a long time. He was hoping he might be treated to a miracle or two. 9 He interrogated Jesus for quite a while, but Jesus remained silent, refusing to answer his questions. 10 Meanwhile the chief priests and religious scholars had plenty to say—angrily hurling accusations at Jesus.
11 Eventually Herod and his soldiers began to insult Jesus, mocking and degrading Him. They put expensive clothing on Him and sent Him back to Pilate. 12 This ended a long-standing rift between Herod and Pilate; they became friends from that day forward.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.