Book of Common Prayer

137 By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat, yes, we wept,
when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows^[a] in her midst,
we hung up our lyres.
³ For there our captors asked of us
words of a song,
and our tormentors^[b] asked of us jubilation,
“Sing for us from a song of Zion.”
⁴ How could we sing the song of Yahweh
in a foreign land?^[c]
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget.^[d]
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if do not I exalt Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
⁷ Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom
the day of Jerusalem,
the ones who said, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare
to its foundation!”
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated,
happy shall be he who pays back to you
what you paid out to us.^[e]
9 Happy shall be he who seizes
and smashes your children
against the rock.

144 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,
the one who trains my hands for battle,
my fingers for war—
² my loyal love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, and one in whom I take refuge,
the one who subdues peoples^[b] under me.
³ O Yahweh, what is humankind that you take knowledge of him,
or the son of man that you take thought of him?
⁴ Humankind is like a breath,
his days like a passing shadow.
⁵ O Yahweh, bow the heavens and come down;
touch the mountains so that they smoke.
⁶ Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
dispatch your arrows and rout them.
⁷ Stretch out your hands from on high;
Rescue me and deliver me from many waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
⁸ whose mouth speaks falsely,
and their right hand is a false right hand.
⁹ O God, I will sing a new song to you.
With a lyre of ten strings I will sing praise to you,
¹⁰ who gives victory to kings,
who rescues David his servant
from the evil sword.
¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks falsely,
and whose right hand is a false right hand,
¹² that our sons may be like plants,
full grown in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars,
carved in the style of a palace,
¹³ that our granaries may be full,
providing produce of all kinds,^[c]
that our sheep may produce by the thousands,
by the tens of thousands in our open fields,
¹⁴ that our cattle may be pregnant;
that there be no breach in our walls,
and no going out in exile,
and no outcry in our plazas.
¹⁵ Blessed are the people who have it thus.
Blessed are the people whose God is Yahweh.

104 Bless Yahweh, O my soul.
O Yahweh my God, you are very great.
You clothe yourself with splendor and majesty,
² you who cover yourself with light as with a garment,
who stretch out the heavens like a tent curtain,
³ the one who sets beams in the waters for his upper chambers,
who makes clouds his chariot,
who rides^[a] on the wings of the wind,
⁴ who makes his messengers the winds,
his attendants a flame of fire.
⁵ He established the earth on her foundations,
so that it will not be moved forever and ever.
⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment.
The waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they ran off.
⁸ They ascended the mountains and drained though the valleys
to the place that you established^[b] for them.
⁹ You set a boundary that they may not cross over,
so that they would not return to cover the earth.
¹⁰ You are the one who sends forth springs into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
¹¹ They give drink for every beast of the field.
The wild donkeys quench^[c] their thirst.
¹² Along them the birds of the heavens abide.
From among the branches they sing.^[d]
13 You are the one who waters^[e] the mountains
from his upper chambers.
The earth is full^[f] with the fruit of your labors:
¹⁴ who causes grass to grow for the cattle
and herbs for the service of humankind,
to bring forth food from the earth,
¹⁵ and wine that makes glad the heart of man,
so that their faces shine from oil,
and bread that strengthens the heart of man.
¹⁶ The trees of Yahweh drink their fill,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted,
¹⁷ where birds make their nest.
The stork has its home in the fir trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.
¹⁹ He made the moon for appointed times;
the sun knows its time for setting.
²⁰ You make darkness, and it is night,
when^[g] all the animals of the forest creep about.
²¹ The young lions are roaring for the prey
and seeking their food from God.
²² When the sun rises, they gather together
and lie down in their dens.
²³ Humankind goes out to its work,
and to its labor until evening.
²⁴ How many are your works, O Yahweh;
all of them you have done in wisdom.
The earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ This is the great and wide^[h] sea,
in which are moving animals without number,
living things small and great.
²⁶ There the ships sail.
Leviathan is there that you formed to play with.^[i]
27 They all wait for you
to give them their food at the proper time.^[j]
28 You give to them; they gather it.
You open your hand, they are filled with what is good.
²⁹ You hide your face, they are terrified.
You take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
³⁰ You send forth your Spirit,^[k] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
³¹ May the glory of Yahweh endure forever.
May Yahweh be glad in his works,
³² the one who looks at the earth and it quakes,
and touches the mountains and they smoke.
³³ I will sing to Yahweh throughout my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I remain alive.^[l]
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him.
I will be glad in Yahweh.
³⁵ Let sinners perish completely from the earth,
and the wicked not remain alive.^[m]
Bless Yahweh, O my soul.
Praise Yah.^[n]

²² “Yahweh possessed^[a] me, the first of his ways,
    before his acts of old.^[b]
23 From eternity, I was set up from the first,
    from the beginning^[c] of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no depths, I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs of abounding^[d] water.
²⁵ Before mountains had been shaped,
    before hills, I was brought forth.
²⁶ When he had not yet made earth and fields,
    or the first dust of the world,
²⁷ when he established^[e] the heavens, there I was,
    when he drew^[f] a circle upon the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he made^[g] skies from above,
    when he founded fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he assigned^[h] his limits to the sea,
    that waters shall not transgress his command,^[i]
    when he marked^[j] the foundations of the earth,
³⁰ I was beside^[k] him, a master workman,
    and I was delighting day by day,
    rejoicing before him always,^[l]
31 rejoicing in the world of his earth,
    and my delight was with the children of humankind.

³² “And now, children, listen to me;
    happy are those who will keep my ways.
³³ Hear teaching and be wise;
    do not neglect it.
³⁴ Happy is the person who listens to me,
    in order to keep watch at my doors day by day,
    in order to guard the frames of my entrances.
³⁵ For he who finds me is he who finds^[m] life,
    and he obtains favor from Yahweh.
³⁶ But he who misses me injures himself.^[n]
    All those who hate me love death.”