Book of Common Prayer
ק Qoph
145 I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord.
I will obey your statutes.(A)
146 I call to you; save me,
and I will keep your decrees.(B)
147 I rise before dawn and cry out for help;(C)
I put my hope in your word.
148 I am awake through each watch of the night
to meditate on your promise.(D)
149 In keeping with your faithful love, hear my voice.
Lord, give me life in keeping with your justice.(E)
150 Those who pursue evil plans[a](F) come near;
they are far from your instruction.
151 You are near, Lord,(G)
and all your commands are true.(H)
152 Long ago I learned from your decrees
that you have established them forever.(I)
ר Resh
153 Consider my affliction and rescue me,(J)
for I have not forgotten your instruction.(K)
154 Champion my cause and redeem me;(L)
give me life as you promised.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked
because they do not study your statutes.(M)
156 Your compassions are many, Lord;(N)
give me life according to your judgments.
157 My persecutors and foes are many.(O)
I have not turned from your decrees.(P)
158 I have seen the disloyal(Q) and feel disgust(R)
because they do not keep your word.
159 Consider how I love your precepts;
Lord, give me life according to your faithful love.(S)
160 The entirety of your word is truth,
each of your righteous judgments endures forever.(T)
שׂ Sin
161 Princes have persecuted me without cause,
but my heart fears only your word.(U)
162 I rejoice over your promise(V)
like one who finds vast treasure.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood,(W)
but I love your instruction.(X)
164 I praise you seven times a day
for your righteous judgments.(Y)
165 Abundant peace belongs to those(Z)
who love your instruction;
nothing makes them stumble.(AA)
166 Lord, I hope for your salvation(AB)
and carry out your commands.
167 I obey your decrees
and love them greatly.(AC)
168 I obey your precepts and decrees,
for all my ways are before you.(AD)
ת Taw
169 Let my cry reach you, Lord;(AE)
give me understanding according to your word.(AF)
170 Let my plea reach you;(AG)
rescue me according to your promise.(AH)
171 My lips pour out praise,(AI)
for you teach me your statutes.(AJ)
172 My tongue sings about your promise,(AK)
for all your commands are righteous.(AL)
173 May your hand be ready to help me,(AM)
for I have chosen your precepts.(AN)
174 I long for your salvation, Lord,
and your instruction is my delight.(AO)
175 Let me live, and I will praise you;(AP)
may your judgments help me.
176 I wander like a lost sheep;(AQ)
seek your servant,(AR)
for I do not forget your commands.(AS)
Psalm 128
Blessings for Those Who Fear God
A song of ascents.
1 How happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!(A)
2 You will surely eat
what your hands have worked for.(B)
You will be happy,
and it will go well for you.(C)
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house,
your children, like young olive trees
around your table.(D)
4 In this very way
the man who fears the Lord
will be blessed.(E)
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
so that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life(F)
6 and will see your children’s children!
Peace be with Israel.(G)
Psalm 129
Protection of the Oppressed
A song of ascents.
1 Since my youth they have often attacked me—
let Israel say—
2 since my youth they have often attacked me,
but they have not prevailed against me.(H)
3 Plowmen plowed over my back;
they made their furrows long.(I)
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the ropes of the wicked.(J)
5 Let all who hate Zion
be driven back in disgrace.(K)
6 Let them be like grass on the rooftops,
which withers before it grows up[a](L)
7 and can’t even fill the hands of the reaper
or the arms of the one who binds sheaves.(M)
8 Then none who pass by will say,
“May the Lord’s blessing be on you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”(N)
Psalm 130
Awaiting Redemption
A song of ascents.
1 Out of the depths I call to you, Lord!(O)
2 Lord, listen to my voice;
let your ears be attentive
to my cry for help.(P)
3 Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?(Q)
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you may be revered.(R)
41 In the morning, Balak took Balaam and brought him to Bamoth-baal.[a] From there he saw the outskirts of the people’s camp.
Balaam’s Oracles
23 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”(A) 2 So Balak did as Balaam directed, and they offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone. Maybe the Lord will meet with me. I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So he went to a barren hill.
4 God met with him and Balaam said to him, “I have arranged seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5 Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”
6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with all the officials of Moab.
Balaam’s First Oracle
7 Balaam proclaimed his poem:
Balak brought me from Aram;(B)
the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains:
“Come, put a curse on Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel!” (C)
8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed?
How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?
9 I see them from the top of rocky cliffs,
and I watch them from the hills.
There is a people living alone;(D)
it does not consider itself among the nations.
10 Who has counted the dust of Jacob(E)
or numbered even one-fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright;
let the end of my life be like theirs.
11 “What have you done to me?” Balak asked Balaam. “I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you have only blessed them!”
12 He answered, “Shouldn’t I say exactly what the Lord puts in my mouth?” (F)
13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not!(A) But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
The Problem of Sin in Us
14 For we know that the law is spiritual,(B) but I am of the flesh,[a] sold(C) as a slave under sin.(D) 15 For I do not understand what I am doing,(E) because I do not practice what I want to do,(F) but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.(G) For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law:[b](H) When I want to do what is good,[c] evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self[d] I delight in God’s law,(I) 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body,[e](J) waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?(K) 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!(L) So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
The Parable of the Vineyard Owner
33 “Listen(A) to another parable:(B) There was a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.(C) He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.(D) 34 When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.(E) 36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’(F) 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”(G)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[a]
This is what the Lord has done
and it is wonderful in our eyes?[b](H)
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; (I) but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”[c]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,(J) they knew he was speaking about them. 46 Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.(K)
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