Book of Common Prayer
Qoph
145 I called to You wholeheartedly: “Answer me, O Eternal One!”
I will respect, I will follow Your statutes.
146 I cried out to You: “Rescue me,
and I will live according to Your decrees.”
147 I wake before the dawn and call for help;
I hope in Your words.
148 My eyes do not shut before each watch of the night
so that I can fix my mind on Your word.
149 Listen to my voice, in keeping with Your unfailing love.
Preserve my life, O Eternal One, according to Your just rulings.
150 Those who wish me harm are moving closer to me;
they are far away from Your teaching.
151 But You are near me, O Eternal One,
and all You have commanded is true.
152 I learned a long time ago
that You established Your decrees to last forever.
Resh
153 Give attention to my misery and rescue me
because I have not forgotten Your teaching.
154 Fight for me, and set me free;
give me life in keeping with Your promise.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked
because they do not live in pursuit of Your precepts.
156 Your mercies are tender and great, O Eternal One;
grant me life in keeping with Your ordinances.
157 I have many oppressors and foes;
still I do not swerve from Your decrees.
158 I observe the faithless and detest them
because they turn away from Your word.
159 Reflect, O God, on how I love Your precepts;
give me life, O Eternal One, in keeping with Your unfailing love.
160 The entirety of Your word is truth,
and every one of Your right rulings will surely last forever.
Shin
161 Princes persecute me without reason,
but my heart remains true and is awed by Your words.
162 I celebrate because of Your promise,
like someone who discovers great treasure.
163 I despise and abhor lies,
but I love Your law.
164 Seven times every day I praise You
because of Your right rulings.
165 Those who love Your law have an abundance of peace,
and nothing along their paths can cause them to stumble.
166 I wait for Your salvation, O Eternal One,
and I live out Your commands.
167 My soul is faithful to Your decrees,
and my love for them is extraordinary.
168 I live according to Your precepts and decrees
because everything I do is right before Your eyes.
Tav
169 Let my cry come before You, O Eternal One.
Grant me understanding in keeping with Your word.
170 Let my plea come before You;
liberate me in keeping with Your word.
171 Praise will pour from my lips
because You help me learn what You require.
172 My tongue will sing of Your word
because every command of Yours is right.
173 Let Your hand be poised to help me
because I have chosen to live by Your precepts.
174 I long for Your salvation, O Eternal One.
Meanwhile, Your teaching brings me great joy.
175 Let my soul live on so that I may praise You,
and let Your precepts guide me.
176 I have wandered down the wrong path like a lost sheep; come find me, Your servant,
because I do not forget Your commands.
Psalm 128
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Those who stand in awe of the Eternal—
who follow wherever He leads, committed in their hearts—experience His blessings!
2 God will use your hard work to provide you food.
You will prosper in your labor, and it will go well for you.
3 Your wife will be like a healthy vine producing plenty of fruit,
a spring of life in your home.
Your children will be like young olive shoots;
you will watch them bud and bloom around your table.
4 Such are the blessings the Eternal lavishes
on those who stand in awe of Him!
5 May the Eternal continue to pour out His love on you,
showering down blessings from His holy mountain, Zion.
May you see Jerusalem prosper
all your days.
6 May you have the privilege of seeing your grandchildren as they grow.
May peace flourish in Israel!
Psalm 129
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 “This is not the first time my enemies assaulted me;
they have often attacked me since I was young.”
So let Israel now proclaim,
2 “This is not the first time my enemies assaulted me;
they have attacked me since I was young,
and yet they have not been able to overpower me.
3 The plowers plowed over me;
they plowed their furrows deep and long down my back.”
4 The Eternal is just.
He’s severed the bindings of the wicked so they can’t hurt me anymore.
5 May all who despise Zion
hang their heads in shame.
May all who despise Zion recoil and run away.
6 Let them grow like grass upon rooftops
that withers and dies in the sun long before it has time to grow,
7 Unfit to be harvested by the worker,
not worthy of the effort to carry off to the binder.
8 Unwanted, uncared for—no passersby to greet them, no one to say,
“May the favor of the Eternal be upon you;
We bless you in His name.”
Psalm 130
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 From the depths of disaster I appeal to You, O Eternal One:
2 Lord, hear my cry!
Attune Your ears to my humble prayer!
3 If You, Eternal One, recorded each offense,
Lord, who on earth could stand innocent?
4 But with You forgiveness exists;
that’s why true respect of You might flow.
5 So I wait for the Eternal—my soul awaits rescue—
and I put my hope in His transforming word.
6 My soul waits for the Lord to break into the world
more than night watchmen expect the break of day,
even more than night watchmen expect the break of day.
7 O Israel, ground your hope in the Eternal.
For in the Eternal lives the most loyal love,
and with Him comes the most abundant redemption.
8 He will ransom Israel
from all the sinful acts that stole you away.
41 The next day, Balak led Balaam up to a high place of Baal worship, an altar dedicated to pagan lords.[a] Looking down from there, they could see a section of the Israelite camp.
23 Balaam (to Balak): This is what I need from you. Build seven altars here, and then get seven bulls and seven rams ready to sacrifice.
2 Balak did just as Balaam had asked him to do. Then together they offered a bull and a ram on each of the seven altars.
Balaam (to Balak): 3 You stay here, close to these burnt offerings. I’m going to go a little ways away, in case the Eternal wants to meet just with me. Whatever He lets me know, I’ll be sure to pass on to you.
So Balaam went over to an exposed area on the heights, 4 and God met Balaam there.
Balaam (to the Lord): I made seven altars and set an offering of a bull and a ram on each one.
Eternal One (giving Balaam the right words to say): 5 Go back to Balak and recite what I’ve told you.
6 So Balaam walked back down and over to where Balak stood waiting next to the burnt offerings, along with the officials of Moab. 7 Balaam recited His words.
Balaam: The king of Moab got me to come here, all the way from my home in Aram.
Balak summoned me from the eastern mountains.
“Come, curse Jacob for me!”
“Come, denounce Israel!”
8 But I ask you, how can I curse any whom God has not cursed
or denounce whomever the Eternal has not denounced?
9 Here on the heights, from the rocky places where I stand,
I can see them; from these hills I observe them below.
And what do I see but a unique and solitary people
who do not have a place among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or even a fourth of their number?
It’s impossible to count even one quarter of Israel.
Let me die as one who has done what is right.
Let my end be like his!
Balak (to Balaam): 11 What are you doing to me? I brought you all the way out here to curse these people—my enemies—yet what have you done? You’ve blessed them!
Balaam: 12 But don’t you agree that I have to be very careful to make sure I say only and exactly what the Eternal has given me to say?
13 So did the good law bring about my death? Absolutely not! It was sin that killed me, not the law. It’s the nature of sin to produce death through what is good and exploit the commandments to multiply sin’s vile effects. 14 This is what we know: the law comes from the spiritual realm. My problem is that I am of the fallen human realm, owned by sin, which tries to keep me in its service.
God gives Israel the law as part of His covenant promises. The law does a great deal for His people; mainly it sets them apart from all other nations of the world and gives them a blueprint for God’s will. But, according to Paul, the law cannot fix everything that is wrong with this broken world. Although the law is perfectly suited for bringing sin to the surface and exposing it, the law cannot free people from the power of sin and its evil twin, death.
15 Listen, I can’t explain my actions. Here’s why: I am not able to do the things I want; and at the same time, I do the things I despise. 16 If I am doing the things I have already decided not to do, I am agreeing with the law regarding what is good. 17 But now I am no longer the one acting—I’ve lost control—sin has taken up residence in me and is wreaking havoc. 18 I know that in me, that is, in my fallen human nature, there is nothing good. I can will myself to do something good, but that does not help me carry it out. 19 I can determine that I am going to do good, but I don’t do it; instead, I end up living out the evil that I decided not to do. 20 If I end up doing the exact thing I pledged not to do, I am no longer doing it because sin has taken up residence in me.
21 Here’s an important principle I’ve discovered: regardless of my desire to do the right thing, it is clear that evil is never far away. 22 For deep down I am in happy agreement with God’s law; 23 but the rest of me does not concur. I see a very different principle at work in my bodily members, and it is at war with my mind; I have become a prisoner in this war to the rule of sin in my body. 24 I am absolutely miserable! Is there anyone who can free me from this body where sin and death reign so supremely? 25 I am thankful to God for the freedom that comes through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! So on the one hand, I devotedly serve God’s law with my mind; but on the other hand, with my flesh, I serve the principle of sin.
33 Here is another story: A landowner planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, fitted it with a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard and left town. 34 When harvesttime came, the landowner sent his servants to collect rent—in the form of grapes—from his tenants. 35 The tenants attacked these rent-collecting servants. They killed one, stoned another, and beat a third. 36 The dismayed landowner sent another band of servants to try to collect his due, a larger group of servants this time, but the tenants did the same thing—capturing, beating, killing. 37 Finally the landowner sent his son to the tenants, thinking, “They will at least respect my son.” 38 But the tenants knew the son was the best way to get to the landowner, so when they saw the son approaching they said,
Tenants: This is the landowner’s heir apparent! Let’s kill him and take his inheritance.
39 And so they did; they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 What do you think the landowner will do when he comes and sees those tenants?
Chief Priests and Elders: 41 He will eviscerate them, to be sure! Then he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will pay him at harvesttime.
Jesus: 42 I wonder if any of you has ever opened your own psalter:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
This is the work of the Eternal One,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.[a]
43 Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. [44 He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.][b]
Jesus has just confronted the spiritual leaders of the land with hard reality. They have two choices: they can believe Him and repent, or they can disbelieve Him and call His stories rabble-rousing and craziness. In their minds, the cost of believing is just too high. Everything they have—their positions and standings in the community, their worldviews, their own images of themselves—is at stake. But they can’t openly condemn this popular teacher of the people.
45 And so the chief priests and the Pharisees, the teachers and the elders, knew that when Jesus told these stories He was speaking about them. 46 Not believing, they looked for a way to arrest Him—a stealthy way, though. They were afraid to make too bold a move against Him because all the people believed He was a prophet.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.