Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 120
A Man of Peace
Heading
A song of the ascents.[a]
A Man of Peace
1 In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
2 Lord, save my life from lying lips.
Save me from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he give to you?
What more will he add to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharpened arrows with hot coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I am an alien in Meshek,
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 For too long my soul[b] has dwelt with those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 121
Help From the Lord
Heading
A song for the ascents.
Help From the Lord, Israel’s Watchman
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains.
Where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot stumble.
He who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Yes, he who watches over Israel will not slumber.
He will not sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you.
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will watch to keep you from all harm.[c]
He will watch over your life.[d]
8 The Lord will watch over your going and your coming
from now to eternity.
Psalm 122
The Peace of Jerusalem
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Peace of Jerusalem
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is a well-built city that is firmly joined together,[e]
4 a city to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,[f]
as a testimony to Israel,
to give praise to the name of the Lord.
5 That is where the thrones for judgment sit,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 May there be peace within your fortifications,
prosperity within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
now I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek good for you.
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
Psalm 124
The Lord Is on Our Side
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Lord Is on Our Side
1 Unless it was the Lord who was for us—
let Israel say—
2 unless it was the Lord who was for us
when people[g] rose against us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger burned against us.
4 Then the waters would have submerged us.
The torrent would have swept our lives away.
5 Then the wild waters would have swept us away.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped with our lives
like a bird out of the fowlers’ snare.
The snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 125
Mount Zion Cannot Be Shaken
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken
1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion.
It cannot be shaken. It will stand forever.
2 As Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains,
so the Lord surrounds his people from now to eternity.
3 No, the scepter of wickedness will not rest
on the land assigned to the righteous,
so that the righteous do not reach out their hands toward evil.
4 Do good, O Lord, for the good
and for those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But those who turn to their crooked ways—
the Lord will send them away with the evildoers.
Peace be on Israel.
Psalm 126
The Return of the Captives
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Captives Return
1 When the Lord restored the captives to Zion,[h]
we were like dreamers.
2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us.
We are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the dry gulches of the Negev.
5 Those who sow with weeping will reap with joyful shouts.
6 The one who walks along weeping, carrying a bag of seed to sow,
will come back again with joyful shouts, carrying his sheaves.
Psalm 127
The Lord Builds the House
Heading
A song of the ascents. By Solomon.
The Lord Builds the House
1 If the Lord does not build the house,
it is useless for the builders to work hard over it.
If the Lord does not watch over the city,
it is useless for the watchman to stand guard.
2 It is useless for you to get up early and to work late,
worrying about bread to eat,
because God grants sleep to the one he loves.[i]
3 Indeed, children are a heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward from him.
4 Sons born during one’s youth are like arrows
in the hand of a warrior.
5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they dispute with enemies at the city gate.[j]
Saul Saves Jabesh Gilead
11 Nahash[a] the Ammonite went and set up camp against Jabesh Gilead. So all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” 2 Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you: I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you in order to dishonor all Israel.”
3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days, so that we can send messengers throughout all the borders of Israel. Then, if there is no one to rescue us, we will come out to you.” 4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people, all the people cried out and wept loudly.
5 Just then Saul came in from the field, following the oxen. Saul asked, “What has upset the people? Why are they weeping?” So they told him about the words of the men of Jabesh.
6 When Saul heard those words, the Spirit of God rushed upon him with power, and his anger burned intensely. 7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them to pieces and sent the pieces throughout all the borders of Israel in the hands of messengers who said, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not turn out to follow Saul and Samuel.” The dread of the Lord fell on the people, and they turned out as one man. 8 Saul counted them in Bezek. The men of Israel totaled three hundred thousand and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9 They said to the messengers who had come, “Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’”
The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, and they were very happy. 10 So the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you can do with us whatever seems good to you.”
11 On the next day, Saul split the army into three divisions. They broke into the middle of the Ammonite camp during the last watch before morning and struck them down until the heat of the day. Those who survived were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who was it who said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Hand those men over to us, so we can put them to death!”
13 But Saul said, “No one shall be put to death today, because today the Lord has rescued Israel.”
14 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come! Let’s go to Gilgal and confirm the kingship there.” 15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and they made Saul king in the presence of the Lord there at Gilgal. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the Lord, and Saul and all the men of Israel held a great celebration there.
8 Saul agreed with putting Stephen to death.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen, and they mourned deeply for him.
3 But Saul was trying to destroy the church by going into one house after another, dragging off both men and women, and putting them in prison.
The Word of God Spreads in Samaria
4 So those believers who were scattered went around proclaiming the gospel message. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching the Christ to them. 6 With one mind, the crowds paid close attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the miraculous signs he was doing. 7 Unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
9 Now there was a man by the name of Simon, who had been practicing magic arts[a] in the city. He amazed the people of Samaria while claiming that he was someone great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called ‘Great.’” 11 They paid attention to him, because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic arts. 12 But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
13 Then even Simon himself believed. After he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip. As he observed the signs and great miracles that were taking place, he was amazed.
The Guards Mock Jesus
63 The men who were holding Jesus in custody mocked him while they were beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” 65 And they went on saying many other blasphemous things against him.
Jewish Court
66 As soon as it was day, the council of the elders of the people met together, both the chief priests and experts in the law. They brought him into their Sanhedrin and said, 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.”
But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, 68 and if I ask you, you will not answer me or release me.[a] 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”[b]
70 They all said, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He said to them, “I am what you are saying.”
71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? For we ourselves have heard it from his own mouth!”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.