Book of Common Prayer
45 My heart stirs with good words. I will speak of my works concerning the King. My tongue is as the pen of a swift writer.
2 You are more beautiful than the children of men. Grace is poured in Your lips because God has blessed You forever.
3 Gird Your sword upon Your Thigh, O Most Mighty, Your worship and Your Glory!
4 And prosper with Your Glory! Ride upon the Word of Truth and of humility and of righteousness. So, Your right Hand shall teach You terrible things.
5 Your arrows are sharp to pierce the heart of the king’s enemies. The people shall fall under You.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of Your Kingdom is a scepter of righteousness.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness, because God, even Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows.
8 All Your garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, of the ivory palaces where they have made You glad.
9 King’s daughters were among Your honorable women. Upon Your right hand stood the queen in a vesture of gold of Ophir.
10 Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Also, forget your own people and your father’s house.
11 So shall the King have pleasure in your beauty; for He is your LORD. And reverence Him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre, with the rich of the people, shall do homage before your face with presents.
13 The King’s daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of embroidered gold.
14 She shall be brought to the King in clothing of needlework. The virgins who follow after her (her companions) shall be brought to You.
15 With joy and gladness they shall be brought and shall enter into the King’s palace.
16 Your children shall be in place of your fathers. You shall make them princes through all the Earth.
17 I will make Your Name remembered through all generations. Therefore, the people shall give thanks to You. World without end. To him who excels upon Alamoth: a song committed to the sons of Korah.
47 All people, clap your hands! Sing loud to God with a joyful voice!
2 For the LORD is high and terrible, a great King over all the Earth.
3 He has subdued the people under us and the nations under our feet.
4 He has chosen our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom He loved. Selah.
5 God has gone up with triumph, the LORD with the sound of the trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God! Sing praises! Sing praises to our King! Sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the Earth. Sing praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the heathen. God sits upon His Holy Throne.
9 The princes of the people are gathered to the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the world belong to God. He is greatly exalted! A song or Psalm committed to the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the City of our God, upon His Holy Mountain.
2 Mount Zion (lying northward) is beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole Earth, the City of the Great King.
3 In the palaces thereof, God is known for a refuge.
4 For lo, the kings were gathered and went together.
5 When they saw it, they marveled. They were astonished and suddenly driven back.
6 Fear came upon them there, and sorrow, as upon a woman in childbirth,
7 as when You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the City of the LORD of Hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.
9 In the midst of Your Temple we wait for Your lovingkindness, O God.
10 O God, according to Your Name, so is Your praise to the world’s end. Your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Your judgments!
12 March around Zion and encircle it. Count the towers thereof.
13 Mark well the wall thereof. Behold her towers, so that you may tell your posterity.
14 For this God is our God, forever and ever. He shall be our guide to the death. To him who excels: A Psalm committed to the sons of Korah.
5 Then Haggai, a Prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, a Prophet, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the Name of the God of Israel to them.
2 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, arose and began to build the House of God at Jerusalem, and with them the Prophets of God, who helped them.
3 At the same time, Tattenai came to them (who was captain beyond the River) and Shethar-Boznai and their companions, and said thus to them, “Who has given you commandment to build this House, and to lay the foundations of these walls?”
4 Then we said to them after this manner, “What are the names of the men who build this building?”
5 But the Eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them stop until the matter came to Darius. And then they answered by letters about it.
6 The copy of the letter that Tattenai, captain beyond the River, and Shethar-Boznai and his companions, Persians, (who were beyond the river) sent to King Darius
7 (they sent a letter to him in which it was written): “TO DARIUS the king, all peace.
8 “Be it known to the king that we went into the province of Judea, to the House of the great God, which is built with great stones. And beams are laid in the walls. And this work is wrought speedily and prospers in their hands.
9 “Then asked we those elders, and said to them thus, ‘Who has given you commandment to build this House, and to lay the foundation of these walls?’
10 “We also asked their names so that we might inform you, and so that we might write the names of the men who were their rulers.
11 “But they answered us thus, and said, ‘We are the servants of the God of Heaven and Earth, and build the House that was built of old, many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and founded.
12 ‘But after our fathers had provoked the God of Heaven to wrath, He gave them over into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, the Chaldean. And he destroyed this house and carried the people away captive to Babel.
13 ‘But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babel, King Cyrus made a decree to build this House of God.
14 ‘And the vessels of gold and silver of the House of God which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the Temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babel—Cyrus the king took those out of the temple of Babel and gave them to Sheshbazzar by name, whom he had made captain.
15 ‘And he said to him, “Take these vessels and go your way, and put them in the Temple that is in Jerusalem. And let the House of God be built in its place.”
16 ‘Then, the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the House of God, which is in Jerusalem. And since that time until now, it has been under construction. It is not finished yet.’
17 “Now therefore, if it pleases the king, let there be a search made in the house of the king’s treasures which is there in Babel, to find whether a decree has been made by King Cyrus to build this House of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send his pleasure concerning this.”
4 After this, I looked. And behold, a door was open in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet; talking with me, saying, “Come up here! And I will show you things which must be done hereafter.”
2 And immediately, I was ravished in the Spirit. And behold, a throne was set in Heaven. And One sat upon the throne.
3 And He Who sat looked like a jasper stone, and a sardius. And there was a rainbow around the throne, which looked like an emerald.
4 And around the throne were 24 seats. And upon the seats I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white raiment. And on their heads were crowns of gold.
5 And out of the throne proceeded lightning and thunder and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne (which are the seven spirits of God).
6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four beasts, full of eyes in front and behind.
7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf. And the third beast had a face as a man. And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
8 And each of the four beasts had six wings around him. And they were full of eyes within. And they ceased neither day nor night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! Who was and Who is and Who is to come!”
9 And when those beasts gave glory and honor and thanks to Him Who sat on the throne, Who lives forever and ever,
10 the 24 elders fell down before Him Who sat on the throne and worshipped Him Who lives for evermore; and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power! For You have created all things! And for Your will’s sake they are and have been created!”
13 The same day, Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.
2 And great multitudes gathered to Him, so that He went into a ship and sat down. And the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 “And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. And the birds came and devoured them.
5 “And some fell upon stony ground, where they did not have much earth. And soon they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.
6 “But when the Sun came up, they were burnt up; and for lack of rooting, withered away.
7 “And some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprang up and choked them.
8 But some fell in good ground, and brought forth fruit; one corn a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold.
9 “The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
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