Book of Common Prayer
137 [Rigidly] righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments and all expressions of Your will.
138 You have commanded and appointed Your testimonies in righteousness and in great faithfulness.
139 My zeal has consumed me and cut me off, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
140 Your word is very pure (tried and well refined); therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small (insignificant) and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.(A)
143 Trouble and anguish have found and taken hold on me, yet Your commandments are my delight.
144 Your righteous testimonies are everlasting and Your decrees are binding to eternity; give me understanding and I shall live [give me discernment and comprehension and I shall not die].
145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will keep Your statutes [I will hear, receive, love, and obey them].
146 I cried to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
147 I anticipated the dawning of the morning and cried [in childlike prayer]; I hoped in Your word.
148 My eyes anticipate the night watches and I am awake before the cry of the watchman, that I may meditate on Your word.
149 Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love; O Lord, quicken me and give me life according to Your [righteous] decrees.
150 They draw near who follow after wrong thinking and persecute me with wickedness; they are far from Your law.
151 You are near, O Lord [nearer to me than my foes], and all Your commandments are truth.
152 Of old have I known Your testimonies, and for a long time, [therefore it is a thoroughly established conviction] that You have founded them forever.(B)
153 Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me and give me life according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not nor hunger for Your statutes.
156 Great are Your tender mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord; give me life according to Your ordinances.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not swerve from Your testimonies.
158 I behold the treacherous and am grieved and loathe them, because they do not respect Your law [neither hearing, receiving, loving, nor obeying it].
159 Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me and give life to me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness!
160 The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.
23 Then Job answered,
2 Even today is my complaint rebellious and bitter; my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!
4 I would lay my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me.
6 Would He plead against me with His great power? No, He would give heed to me.(A)
7 There the righteous [one who is upright and in right standing with God] could reason with Him; so I should be acquitted by my Judge forever.
8 Behold, I go forward [and to the east], but He is not there; I go backward [and to the west], but I cannot perceive Him;
9 On the left hand [and to the north] where He works [I seek Him], but I cannot behold Him; He turns Himself to the right hand [and to the south], but I cannot see Him.
10 But He knows the way that I take [He has concern for it, appreciates, and pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold [pure and luminous].(B)
11 My foot has held fast to His steps; His ways have I kept and not turned aside.
12 I have not gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed and treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
43 The next day Jesus desired and decided to go into Galilee; and He found Philip and said to him, Join Me as My attendant and follow Me.
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the same city as Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip sought and found Nathanael and told him, We have found (discovered) the One Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote about—Jesus from Nazareth, the [legal] son of Joseph!
46 Nathanael answered him, [Nazareth!] Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip replied, Come and see!
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said concerning him, See! Here is an Israelite indeed [a true descendant of Jacob], in whom there is no guile nor deceit nor falsehood nor duplicity!
48 Nathanael said to Jesus, How do You know me? [How is it that You know these things about me?] Jesus answered him, Before [ever] Philip called you, when you were still under the fig tree, I saw you.
49 Nathanael answered, Teacher, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
50 Jesus replied, Because I said to you, I saw you beneath the fig tree, do you believe in and rely on and trust in Me? You shall see greater things than this!
51 Then He said to him, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you all, you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man!(A)
Psalm 139
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.
2 You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off.(A)
3 You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.(B)
5 You have beset me and shut me in—behind and before, and You have laid Your hand upon me.
6 Your [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it.
7 Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there.(C)
9 If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me and the night shall be [the only] light about me,
12 Even the darkness hides nothing from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.(D)
13 For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!(E)
18 If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.
19 If You would [only] slay the wicked, O God, and the men of blood depart from me—(F)
20 Who speak against You wickedly, Your enemies who take Your name in vain!(G)
21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And am I not grieved and do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; they have become my enemies.
23 Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the Feast were some Greeks.
21 These came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and they made this request, Sir, we desire to see Jesus.
22 Philip came and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip together [went] and told Jesus.
23 And Jesus answered them, The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted.
24 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest.
25 Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.]
26 If anyone serves Me, he must continue to follow Me [[a]to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying] and wherever I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
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