Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 137
Beside the Rivers of Babylon
Sorrow for Jerusalem
1 Beside the rivers[a] of Babylon,
there we sat, and, yes, we wept as we remembered Zion.
2 There we hung up our lyres on the willows,
3 because there our captors asked us for words of a song,
and our tormentors asked for a happy song:
“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!”
Zeal for Zion
4 How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget how to play music.[b]
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.
Zeal for God’s Vengeance
7 Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the descendants of Edom[c] who said,
“Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
how blessed is the one who repays you
with the same deeds you did against us.
9 How blessed is the one who seizes your children
and dashes them against the cliff.
Psalm 144
A Prayer for the Nation
Heading
By David.
Praise
1 Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for battle,
my fingers for war.
2 He shows me mercy.
He is my stronghold, my high fortress.
He is my deliverer and my shield,
so I take refuge in him.
He subdues peoples[a] under me.
Need
3 Lord, what is man that you notice him,
the son of man that you consider him?
4 Man is like a breath.[b]
His days are like a passing shadow.
Petition
5 Lord, rip open your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains so that they smoke.
6 Send out lightning and scatter them.
Shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high.
Rescue me and snatch me from the mighty waters,
from the hand of foreigners 8 whose mouths speak lies,
who raise their right hands to a false oath.[c]
Praise
9 God, I will sing a new song to you.
On the ten-stringed harp I will make music to you,
10 to you who gives victory to kings,
to you who delivers David his servant from the evil sword.
Petition
11 Rescue me and snatch me from the hand of foreigners
whose mouths speak lies,
who raise their right hands to a false oath.
The Results of Victory
12 Then our sons in their youth will be like full-grown plants.
Our daughters will be like corner pillars carved to decorate a palace.
13 Our storehouses will be filled with produce of every kind.
Our flocks will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our countryside.
14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
There will be no breaking through our walls,
no exile into captivity,
no cry of distress in our city squares.
15 How blessed are the people for whom this is so.
How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
Psalm 104
Bless the Lord, Who Creates Wonders
Introduction
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
Day One—Light
2 He wears light like a robe.
Day Two—the Sky
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy.
3 He lays beams on the waters to support his upper chambers.
He makes clouds his chariot.
He travels on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes his messengers[a] winds.
His ministers are blazing fire.
Day Three—the Waters and Plants
5 He placed the earth firmly on its foundations.
It cannot be moved forever and ever.
6 You covered it with the deep as a garment.
The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled.
At the sound of your thunder they hurried away.
8 The waters surged up the mountains.
They went down into the valleys,[b]
to the place that you prepared for them.
9 You set a boundary that they cannot cross.
They will not return to cover the earth.
10 He makes springs flow into streams
that run between the mountains.
11 They give water to every wild animal.
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky live by the streams.
From among the branches they send out their song.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers.
The earth is filled with the fruit he produces.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants that people use[c] to produce food from the earth.
15 Also wine that makes people’s hearts glad,
olive oil to make their face shine,
and bread that sustains their lives.[d]
16 The trees of the Lord have everything they need.
He planted the cedars of Lebanon,
17 where birds make their nests.
The stork has its home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats.
The crags are a refuge for the rock badgers.
Day Four—the Lights
19 The moon marks off the months and seasons.
The sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, and it becomes night.
During it all the animals in the forest move about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey.
They are seeking their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they gather together.
They return to their dens and lie down.
23 Man goes out to his work.
He continues his labor until evening.
Days Five and Six—Animals and Man
24 How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and very wide.
In it creatures swarm beyond number—
living things, the small with the large.
26 There the ships go back and forth,
and the leviathan[e] that you formed to play in it.
27 All of them wait hopefully for you to give them their food in its time.
28 You give it to them. They gather it up.
You open your hand. They are satisfied with good things.
29 You hide your face. They are terrified.
You take away their breath.
They breathe their last and return to their dust.
30 You send your Spirit—they are created.
You renew the face of the earth.
Closing Benediction and Prayer
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever.
May the Lord rejoice in his works.
32 He looks at the earth and it trembles.
He touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord throughout my life.
I will make music to my God as long as I last.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
35 May sinners come to an end on the earth,
and the wicked—may they be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord![f]
The Example of the Rekabites
35 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. 2 “Go to the house of the Rekabites, and bring them into one of the rooms in the House of the Lord, and give them wine to drink.”
3 So I took Ja’azaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along with his brothers and all his sons—the whole house of the Rekabites— 4 and I brought them into the House of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials that was above the room of Ma’asaiah son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. 5 I set bowls of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rekabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”
6 But they said, “We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rekab commanded us: ‘You are not to drink wine, neither you nor your descendants, not ever. 7 Also, you are not to build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards, or own any of these things. You must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time on the land where you live as nomads.’ 8 We have obeyed what Jonadab son of Rekab, our ancestor, commanded us. We have never drunk wine—we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. 9 We have never built houses to live in. We have no vineyards, fields, or crops. 10 We have lived in tents, and we have obeyed everything that Jonadab our ancestor commanded us. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, we said, ‘Come on, we have to go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.’ That is why we are living in Jerusalem.”
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
13 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Go ask the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem: Will you learn a lesson and obey my words? declares the Lord. 14 Jonadab son of Rekab commanded his sons not to drink wine, and this command has been kept. To this day they drink no wine, for they have obeyed their ancestor’s command. But I keep speaking to you, again and again, and you have not obeyed me. 15 I have sent my servants the prophets to you again and again. They told you to turn from your evil ways, to reform your actions, and to stop following other gods in order to serve them. Then you would live on the land I have given to you and your fathers. But you have not paid attention or listened to me. 16 The sons of Jonadab son of Rekab have kept this command which their father gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.
17 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Watch this. I am going to bring down on Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem every disaster I have pronounced against them. I have spoken to them, but they have not listened. I have called them, but they have not answered.
18 Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites, “The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his instructions and done everything he commanded you, 19 the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says that Jonadab will never fail to have a man to serve me.”
27 You are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it. 28 And God appointed in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then miracles, healing gifts, helpful acts, leadership abilities, kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? 30 Do all have healing gifts? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly seek the greater gifts. And now, I am going to show you a more excellent way.
Love Matters More Than the Other Gifts
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
35 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.
Pray for Workers
36 When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.”
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
10 Jesus called his twelve disciples to himself and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.