Good Friday Service of Seven Words

For the choir director. According to “Doe of the Dawn.”

A psalm by David.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

My groaning does nothing to save me.

²My God, I call out by day, but you do not answer.

I call out by night, but there is no relief for me.

³Yet you are seated as the Holy One, praised by Israel.

⁴In you our fathers trusted.

They trusted and you delivered them.

⁵They cried out to you, and they were rescued.

They trusted in you, and they were not disappointed.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me. They sneer.

They shake their heads.

They say, ⁸“Trust in the Lord.”

“Let the Lord deliver him.

Let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”

⁹But you are the one who brought me out of the belly.

You made me trust when I was at my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰I was cast on you from the womb.

From the belly of my mother you have been my God.

¹¹Do not be distant from me, for distress is near,

and there is no one to help.

¹²Many bulls surround me.

Strong bulls from Bashan encircle me.

¹³Enemies open their mouths wide against me,

like a lion that tears its prey and roars.

¹⁴Like water I am poured out.

All my bones are pulled apart.

My heart has become like wax.

It has melted in the middle of my chest.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like broken pottery,

and my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.

You lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me.

A band of evil men has encircled me.

They have pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷I can count all my bones.

They stare and gloat over me.

¹⁸They divide my garments among them.

For my clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹But you, O Lord, do not be distant.

O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

²⁰Deliver my life from the sword,

my only life from the power of the dog.

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion.

From the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me.

²²I will declare your name to my brothers.

In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

²³You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised nor detested the affliction of the afflicted.

He has not hidden his face from him,

but when he cried out to him, he heard.

²⁵You are the source of my praise in the great congregation.

I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who fear him.

²⁶The poor will eat and be satisfied.

Those who seek him will praise the Lord

—may he live in your hearts forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations will bow down before you.

²⁸For the kingdom belongs to the Lord,

and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the rich of the earth will eat and bow down.

All who go down to the dust will kneel before him

—those who cannot keep themselves alive.

³⁰Descendants will serve him.

For generations people will be told about the Lord.

³¹They will come and proclaim his righteousness

to a people yet to be born

—because he has done it.

or

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our report,

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

²He grew up before him like a shoot

and like a root from dry soil.

He had no attractiveness and no majesty.

We saw him, but nothing about his appearance made us desire him.

³He was despised and rejected by men,

a man who knew grief

and was acquainted with suffering.

Like someone that people cannot bear to look at

he was despised,

and we thought nothing of him.

⁴Surely he was taking up our weaknesses,

and he was carrying our sufferings,

but we thought he was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵But, in fact, he was pierced because of our rebellious deeds.

He was crushed because of our guilt.

The punishment to bring us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶All of us like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way,

but the Lord has laid on him the guilt of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that is silent in the presence of her shearers,

so he did not open his mouth.

⁸He was taken away without protection and without justice.

Who of his generation even cared?

Yes, he was cut off from the land of the living.

Because of the rebellion of my people he was stricken.

⁹They intended to make his grave with the wicked,

but he was with the rich in his death,

because he had done no violence,

and no deceit was in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him.

He made him suffer.

When you make his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.

He will lengthen his days,

and the Lord’s pleasure will succeed in his hand.

¹¹After the anguish of his soul he will see the light of life.

He will provide full satisfaction.

By knowledge of him my just Servant will justify the many,

for he himself carried their guilt.

¹²Therefore I will give him a share among the great,

and with the strong he will share plunder,

because he poured out his life to death,

and he let himself be counted with rebels,

and he himself bore the sin of many,

and he intercedes for the rebels.

²⁶As they led him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country. They placed the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A large crowd of people was following him, including women who were mourning and wailing for him. ²⁸Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹Be sure of this: The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed.’ ³⁰Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ ³¹For if they do these things to the green wood, what will happen to the dry?”

³²Two other men, who were criminals, were led away with Jesus to be executed.

³³When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

They cast lots to divide his garments among them.

³⁸There was also an inscription written above him: “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹One of the criminals hanging there was blaspheming him, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus said to him, “Amen I tell you: Today you will be with me in paradise.”

²⁵Jesus’ mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene were standing near the cross.

²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son!” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother!” And from that time this disciple took her into his own home.

⁴⁵From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. ⁴⁶About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

⁴⁷When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “This fellow is calling for Elijah.”

⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran, took a sponge, and soaked it with sour wine. Then he put it on a stick and gave him a drink. ⁴⁹The rest said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

²⁸After this, knowing that everything had now been finished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I thirst.”

²⁹A jar full of sour wine was sitting there. So they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished!” Then, bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

³³When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

They cast lots to divide his garments among them. ³⁵The people stood watching. The rulers were ridiculing him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, the Chosen One!”

³⁶The soldiers also made fun of him. Coming up to him, they offered him sour wine, ³⁷saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”

³⁸There was also an inscription written above him: “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹One of the criminals hanging there was blaspheming him, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus said to him, “Amen I tell you: Today you will be with me in paradise.”

⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵while the sun was darkened. Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” When he had said this, he breathed his last.