Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A song for those journeying to worship.
The Songs for the Journey to Worship (Psalms 120–134) celebrate the journey to Jerusalem to worship in God’s temple. Centuries before these psalms were composed, the Lord chose to make His earthly home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and directed David’s son to build His house. King Solomon built the first temple and dedicated it to God in an elaborate ceremony that brought Israel together on the holy mountain (1 Kings 8). Now, clearly, the wise king believed that the one True God was present everywhere in the world, but he knew that Jerusalem was a special place, a sacred space picked by God. Solomon understood what we seem to have forgotten: those created in God’s image long to encounter God in His holiness. And if we try to make every place holy, then no place is holy because holy means “set apart,” “distinct,” “special.” So we need sacredness in our lives: sacred times, places, and people in our search for wholeness, for shalom. For centuries God’s faithful people of the first and second covenants have gone on pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem. Often these songs have gone with them, for they desire to draw close to God and to walk in the steps of those who have passed the faith along.
1 When I was in deep trouble, I called out to the Eternal,
and He answered my call.
2 I prayed: “Protect me, Eternal,
from lips that lie
and tongues poisoned with deceit.”
3 Liars, what will be your prize?
And what will come your way,
O you tongues poisoned with deceit?
4 Here’s what you can expect: the archers’ arrows honed sharp
as well as the red-hot coals of the broom wood.
5 Sorrow is mine, for I am a foreigner wandering in Meshech;
I am a stranger drifting among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has roamed much too long
among people who despise peace.
7 I am for peace; I ask for peace,
but even as I open my mouth,
they are ready to fight.
Psalm 121
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I look up at the vast size of the mountains—
from where will my help come in times of trouble?
2 The Eternal Creator of heaven and earth and these mountains
will send the help I need.
3 He holds you firmly in place;
He will not let you fall.
He who keeps you will never take His eyes off you and never drift off to sleep.
4 What a relief! The One who watches over Israel
never leaves for rest or sleep.
5 The Eternal keeps you safe,
so close to Him that His shadow is a cooling shade to you.
6 Neither bright light of sun
nor dim light of moon will harm you.
7 The Eternal will keep you safe
from all of life’s evils,
8 From your first breath to the last breath you breathe,
from this day and forever.
Psalm 122
A song [of David][a] for those journeying to worship.
This is a Davidic psalm celebrating the grandeur and significance of Jerusalem and its temple. It is ironic that Jerusalem means “city of peace” since more battles have been fought over it than over any other city.
1 I was so happy when my fellow pilgrims said,
“Let’s go to the house of the Eternal!”
2 We have made the journey, and now we are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem! What a magnificent city!
Buildings so close together, so compact.
4 God’s people belong here. Every tribe of the Eternal
makes its way to Jerusalem—
Just as God decreed for Israel
to come together and give thanks to the Eternal.
5 In Jerusalem, justice is the order of the day because there sit the judges
and kings, the descendants of David.
6 Ask heaven to grant peace to Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 O Jerusalem, may His peace fill this entire city!
May this citadel be quiet and at ease!”
8 It’s because of people—my family, friends, and acquaintances—
that I say, “May peace permeate you.”
9 And because the house of Eternal One, our God, is here, know this:
I will always seek your good!
Psalm 123
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I raise my eyes to fix my gaze on You,
for Your throne resides in the heavens.
2 Just as the eyes of servants
closely watch the hand of their masters,
Just as a maid carefully observes
the slightest gesture of her mistress,
In the same way we look to You, Eternal One,
waiting for our God to pour out His mercy upon us.
3 O Eternal One, show us Your mercy. We beg You.
We are not strangers to contempt and pain.
4 We have suffered more than our share
of ridicule and contempt from self-appointed critics who live easy lives
and pompously display their own importance.
Psalm 124
A song of David for those journeying to worship.
1 If the Eternal had not been with us—
sing, Israel, sing—
2 If He had not been with us
when the villains came for us,
3 When their anger flamed around us,
they would have swallowed us up alive!
4 Their hatred was like a flood:
the waters were rising and would have engulfed us;
the streams were rushing past and would have overcome us.
5 The furious waters would have broken over us.
Battered and overwhelmed, we surely would have drowned!
6 Blessed be the Eternal
who did not leave us
to be torn by their fangs!
7 Our souls cry out: “We escaped with our lives like a bird
from the fowler’s snare!
The snare was broken,
and we escaped with our lives!”
8 Our help has come in the name of the Eternal,
the Maker of heaven and earth!
Psalm 125
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 All who have faith in the Eternal stand as Mount Zion:
unmoved, enduring, eternal.
2 Just as the mountains around Jerusalem embrace her,
the Eternal, too, wraps around those who belong to Him—
for this moment and for every moment to come.
3 For wickedness will not get the upper hand;
it shall not rule the land where righteous people live
Lest good people go bad
and do what is wrong.
4 Be good, Eternal One, to those who are good,
to those who are filled with integrity.
5 The Eternal will send all the wicked away
along with those who pervert what’s good and twist it in their own crooked way.
May peace be with Israel.
Psalm 126
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Remember when the Eternal brought back the exiles to Zion?
It was as if we were dreaming—
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter;
our tongues were spilling over into song.
The word went out across the prairies and deserts,
across the hills, over the oceans wide, from nation to nation:
“The Eternal has done remarkable things for them.”
3 We shook our heads. All of us were stunned—the Eternal has done remarkable things for us.
We were beyond happy, beyond joyful.
4 And now, Eternal One, some are held captive and poor.
Release them, and restore our fortunes
as the dry riverbeds of the South spring to life when the rains come at last.
5 Those who walk the fields to sow, casting their seed in tears,
will one day tread those same long rows, amazed by what’s appeared.
6 Those who weep as they walk
and plant with sighs
Will return singing with joy,
when they bring home the harvest.
Psalm 127
A song of Solomon for those journeying to worship.
Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon, underscoring the futility of human endeavor apart from God. It is similar in tone and theme to other wisdom literature.
1 Unless the Eternal builds the house,
those who labor to raise it will have worked for nothing.
Unless the Eternal stands watch over the city,
those who guard it have wasted their time.
2 God provides for His own.
It is pointless to get up early,
work hard, and go to bed late
Anxiously laboring for food to eat;
for God provides for those He loves, even while they are sleeping.
3 Know this: children are a gift from the Eternal;
the fruit of the womb is His reward.
4 Your sons born in your youth are a protection,
like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
5 Happy is the man who has
his quiver full, for they will help and protect him when he is old.
He will not be humiliated when he is accused at the gate,
for his sons will stand with him against his enemies.
8 Therefore, I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, declare that since you have not heard or obeyed My words, 9 I am about to summon the clans of the north along with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who serves Me. I will use them to punish this land and those of you who live in it. I will also use them against all the surrounding nations of Judah. I will destroy them completely, making them a place of horror, an object of scorn, a land of everlasting ruin. 10 I will silence any hint of laughter and joy, the sweet words of the bride and bridegroom at a wedding, the milling of grain and the lighting of a lamp. 11 It will all end, and this place will be a horrific wasteland. And these nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.
The judgment of God is drawing near. Although Babylon is His instrument of judgment, this empire is not immune to His justice; she, too, will answer to God for her brutal treatment of God’s people. And so the focus of the prophecy shifts from Judah’s pain to the destruction of this now-emerging world power.
Eternal One (to Babylon): 12 When the 70 years of servitude are complete, I will then punish the king of Babylon, his people, and the land of Chaldea for their guilt. I, the Eternal, will make it a land of everlasting ruin. 13 All that I warned would happen to that land—all that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations and is now written in this book—I will do. 14 For the mighty Babylonians will be turned into slaves for many nations and powerful kings; I will repay them according to what they have done and how they have treated My people.
15 This is what the Eternal God of Israel said to me.
Eternal One: Take this cup from My hand and offer it to every nation where I send you. Make them drink deeply from it, for the cup is brimming with My anger. 16 When they drink, they will stumble and lose their minds because I am sending the sword against them.
17 So I took the cup from the Eternal’s hand and did just as He said—I went to the nations where He sent me and made them drink it:
10 My brothers and sisters, I pray constantly to God for the salvation of my people; it is the deep desire of my heart. 2 What I can say about them is that they are enthusiastic about God, but that won’t lead them to Him because their zeal is not based on true knowledge. 3 In their ignorance about how God is working to make things right, they have been trying to establish their own right standing with God through the law. But they are not operating under God’s saving, restorative justice. 4 You see, God’s purpose for the law reaches its climax when the Anointed One arrives; now all who trust in Him can have their lives made right with God.
God’s plan to restore the world disfigured by sin and death reaches its climax with the resurrection of Jesus. When the King enters, all the prophecies, all the hopes, all the longings find in Him their true fulfillment. There may have been earlier fulfillments; but these are only partial fulfillments, signposts along the way to God’s true goal. The goal has been the restoration of people to a holy God. With Jesus, we find the only perfect man with right standing before God. He comes to blaze a path defined by God’s justice, not by our own sense of right and wrong. All men, women, and children who commit their lives to Him will be made right with God and will begin new lives defined by faith and God’s new covenant.
5 Moses made this clear long ago when he wrote about what it takes to have a right relationship with God based on the law: “The person devoted to the law’s commands will live by them.”[a] 6 But a right relationship based on faith sounds like this: “Do not say to yourselves, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’”[b] (that is, to bring down the Anointed One), 7 “or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’”[c] (that is, to bring the Anointed One up from the dead). 8 But what does it actually say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”[d] (that is, the good news we have been called to preach to you). 9 So if you believe deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the pit of death and if you voice your allegiance by confessing the truth that “Jesus is Lord,” then you will be saved! 10 Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation. 11 Because what Isaiah said was true: “The one who trusts in Him will not be disgraced.”[e] 12 Remember that the Lord draws no distinction between Jew and non-Jew—He is Lord over all things, and He pours out His treasures on all who invoke His name 13 because as Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f]
18 Some of the Jews suspected the whole situation was a charade, that this man was never blind. So they summoned the man’s parents to testify about his condition.
Pharisees: 19 Is this man your son? Do you testify that he has been blind from birth? How therefore does he now see?
Parents: 20 We can tell you this much: he is our son, and he was born blind. 21 But his new sight is a complete mystery to us! We do not know the man who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask our son? He is old enough to speak for himself.
22 The man’s parents were a bit evasive because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. It had been rumored that anyone who spoke of Jesus as the Anointed One would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 So they deferred the thorny question to their son, 24 and the Pharisees called on him a second time.
Pharisees: Give God the credit. He’s the One who healed you. All glory belongs to God. We are persuaded this man you speak of is a sinner who defies God.
Formerly Blind Man: 25 If this man is a sinner, I don’t know. I am not qualified to say. I only know one thing: I was blind, and now I see.
Pharisees: 26 What did He do to you? How did He give you sight?
Formerly Blind Man: 27 Listen, I’ve already answered all these questions, and you don’t like my answers. Do you really need me to say it all over again? Are you thinking about joining up with Him and becoming His followers?
Pharisees (berating him): 28 You’re one of His followers, but we follow Moses. 29 We have confidence that God spoke to Moses, but this man you speak of is a mystery; we don’t even know where He comes from.
Formerly Blind Man: 30 Isn’t it ironic that you, our religious leaders, don’t even know where He comes from; yet He gave me sight! 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does respond and work through those who worship Him and do His will. 32 No one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of any person blind from birth. 33 This man must come from God; otherwise, this miracle would not be possible. Only God can do such things.
Pharisees: 34 You were born under a cloud of sin. How can you, of all people, lecture us?
The religious leaders banished him from their presence. 35 Jesus heard what had happened and sought out the man.
Jesus: Do you believe in the Son of Man?
Formerly Blind Man: 36 I want to believe, Lord. Who is He?
Jesus: 37 You have seen His face with your new eyes, and you are talking to Him now.
Formerly Blind Man: 38 Lord, I do believe.
The man bowed low to worship Jesus.
Jesus: 39 I have entered this world to announce a verdict that changes everything. Now those without sight may begin to see, and those who see may become blind.
Some Pharisees (who overheard Jesus): 40 Surely we are not blind, are we?
Jesus: 41 If you were blind, you would be without sin. But because you claim you can see, your sin is ever present.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.