Old/New Testament
How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song?
137 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows[a] there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 (A)How shall we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
(B)let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my (C)tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the (D)Edomites
(E)the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, (F)“Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, (G)doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who (H)repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and (I)dashes them against the rock!
Give Thanks to the Lord
Of David.
138 (J)I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before (K)the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down (L)toward your (M)holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.[b]
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.[c]
4 (N)All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
5 and they shall sing of (O)the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 (P)For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
7 (Q)Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you (R)preserve my life;
you (S)stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your (T)right hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will (U)fulfill his purpose for me;
(V)your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake (W)the work of your hands.
Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
139 O Lord, you have (X)searched me and known me!
2 You (Y)know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you (Z)discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, (AA)you know it altogether.
5 You (AB)hem me in, behind and before,
and (AC)lay your hand upon me.
6 (AD)Such knowledge is (AE)too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 (AF)Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where (AG)shall I flee from your presence?
8 (AH)If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
(AI)If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall (AJ)lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, (AK)“Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 (AL)even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you (AM)formed my inward parts;
you (AN)knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[d]
(AO)Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 (AP)My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in (AQ)the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your (AR)book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your (AS)thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 (AT)If I would count them, they are more than (AU)the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would (AV)slay the wicked, O God!
O (AW)men of blood, (AX)depart from me!
20 They (AY)speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies (AZ)take your name in vain.[e]
21 (BA)Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not (BB)loathe those who (BC)rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have (A)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, (B)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 (C)If I give away all I have, and (D)if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 (E)Love is patient and (F)kind; love (G)does not envy or boast; it (H)is not arrogant 5 or rude. It (I)does not insist on its own way; it (J)is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it (K)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but (L)rejoices with the truth. 7 (M)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, (N)endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For (O)we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but (P)when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For (Q)now we see in a mirror dimly, but (R)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as (S)I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.