Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this psalm when he was in the Judah wilderness.
A morning song[a]
63 God, you are my God.
I want to be near to you.
I need you to give me life,
like a thirsty person in a dry desert.
As a person needs water to live,
that is how I need you.[b]
2 When I have gone into your temple,
I have seen what you are like.
I have seen your great power and your glory.
3 Your faithful love for me is better than life itself.
So I will speak out to praise you.
4 Yes, I will thank you for as long as I live.
I will lift up my hands and I will pray to you.
5 You make me very happy,
better than a feast of good food.
I will sing happy songs to praise you.
6 When I lie on my bed,
I think about you all through the night.
7 You are the one who keeps me safe,
like a bird protects its babies under its wings.
So I sing happy songs.
8 I keep very near to you
and your strong right hand keeps me safe.
9 My enemies are trying to kill me,
but I know that they themselves will die.
They will go down into the deep hole of death.
10 Soldiers will kill them with swords.
Wild dogs will eat their dead bodies.
11 But the king will sing songs to praise God.[c]
Everybody who promises to serve God
will speak aloud to praise him.
But everyone who tells lies
will not be able to say anything!
God rules the world[a]
98 Sing a new song to praise the Lord.
He has done great things.
He has used his own power and his holy strength
to win against his enemies.
2 The Lord has shown everybody
that he has the power to save.
All the nations of the world
can see that he does what is right.
3 He has kept his promise
that he made to the people of Israel.
He has continued to take care of them
with his faithful love.
Everyone who lives everywhere on the earth can see
that God has the power to save people.
4 All people on the earth should shout aloud
to praise the Lord![b]
Sing happy songs to praise him!
5 Make music on your harps to praise him!
Make beautiful music!
6 Make a happy sound with trumpets and horns!
Shout aloud to praise the Lord, your king!
7 The sea and everything that is in it
should shout to praise the Lord!
The earth and all those who live in it
should shout as well!
8 The rivers should clap their hands,
and the mountains should all sing together,
9 to praise the Lord.
He is coming to judge the earth.[c]
He is a fair judge.
He will judge all the people of the world honestly.
This is a song that David wrote.
The love of God[a]
103 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Everything that is in me, praise his holy name!
2 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Never forget all the good things that he has done for you!
3 He forgives all my sins.
He makes me well again when I am ill.
4 He saves me from the deep hole of death's power.
He always loves me and he is kind to me.
That is how he blesses me so much!
5 He gives me many good things for my life here.
So I become strong again, with the strength of a young eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair.
He helps poor people who suffer.
7 He showed Moses how he works to help his people.
He showed the Israelites the great things that he could do.
8 The Lord is kind to people and he forgives them.
He is slow to get angry and his love always continues.
9 He will not always tell us that we are wrong.
He will not always continue to be angry.
10 We should receive much punishment for the bad things that we do.
But the Lord does not punish us so much.
11 For people who worship him, his faithful love is very great.
How far is the sky above the earth? His love is greater than that!
12 How far is the east from the west?
The Lord has taken our sins further away than that!
He no longer says that we are guilty.
13 As a father is kind to his children, the Lord is kind to us.
He is kind to people who worship him.
14 He knows that we are weak humans.
He remembers that he used dust to make us.
15 A person's life is like grass that quickly dies.
He is strong only for a short time, like wild flowers in a field.
16 A hot wind blows over flowers and they die!
Nobody even remembers where they were growing.
17 But the faithful love of the Lord
will always be with people who worship him.
He promises to be kind to their children's children for ever.
18 He continues to love people who obey his covenant.
Those are the people who obey his laws.
19 The Lord rules from his throne in heaven.
He rules as king over everything.
20 You who are the Lord's angels,
you strong angels who do what he tells you to do,
praise the Lord!
21 All of you who belong to his armies in heaven,
his servants who do what he wants,
praise the Lord!
22 Yes, everything that the Lord has made,
in all the places that he rules over,
praise the Lord!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
The Israelites will be strong again
11 The Lord says, ‘When that time comes, I will make David's kingdom strong again. It has become like a broken hut, but I will repair it. I will cause it to become as good and strong as it was when king David ruled. 12 You Israelites will fight the Edomites who still remain. You will win against them and the other nations that once belonged to me.’
That is what the Lord says, and he will do it.
13 The Lord says, ‘The time will come when food will grow very well in your fields. People will need to work quickly to cut down all their crops before they plough the ground to plant again. Lots of grapes will grow on your vines. People will work quickly to make wine from the grapes before they plant new vines. So much juice will pour out of the grapes that it will run down the hills!
14 I will bring the people of Israel, my people, back to their own land. Enemies destroyed their cities, but now my people will build them again. They will live safely in them. My people will plant vines. They will drink wine from their grapes. They will eat the fruit from trees that they have planted in their gardens. 15 And I will plant my people in their own land. That is the land that I have given to them, and nobody will ever pull them out of that land.’
That is what the Lord your God says.
The day when the Lord Jesus will return
2 Our Christian friends, we must explain something now about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return. That is the time when he will bring us all together to be with him. 2 Please do not become easily confused about this. Do not let yourselves become afraid because of false messages about the Lord's return. Some people are telling you that the great day of the Lord's return has already happened.[a] Some of these people say that God's Spirit has shown them a message like that. Other people might say that the message came from us. Or they might say that we wrote it in a letter.[b]
3 Do not let anyone deceive you like that in any way. That day will not happen until certain other things have happened. Before that day, there will be a time when many people will turn against God. Also, the man who is completely against God will appear.[c] God will surely destroy him in the end.
The believers must continue to trust God
13 We always thank God for you, our Christian friends that the Lord loves. We ought to thank God, because he has chosen to save you. God chose you to belong to him, as some of the first people that he would save. You believed God's true message. And God's Spirit makes you separate from things that are bad. 14 We told you God's good news. That is how God called you to come to him. He saved you so that you would join with our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.
15 Because of that, our Christian friends, you must continue to trust Christ. Continue to believe the true things that we taught you. Those are the things that we told you when we were with you. We also wrote about them in our letter to you.
16 We ask our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, our Father, to help you. God has shown that he loves us very much. He has helped us to be brave and strong for all time. We continue to hope for the good things that will come. Yes, God has been very kind to us! 17 We pray that he will continue to help you and make you strong. Then you will always be able to do good things and to say good things.
The Father shows who Jesus really is
30 Then Jesus said, ‘I can do nothing by myself. I hear what the Father says to me. Then, because of what he says, I judge people. So I judge in a way that is fair. I am not trying to do what I want for myself. The Father sent me, and I want to do what he wants. 31 If I say great things about myself, nobody would know that my words are true. 32 But there is someone else who speaks about me. I know that what he says about me is true. 33 You have sent your people to ask John about me. What he has told you about me is true. 34 I do not need any man to speak on my behalf. But I am telling you this to help you. Then God will be able to save you. 35 John was like a light that shone brightly. For a certain time, you enjoyed the light that he gave.
36 But it is not only John who shows who I am. There are other things that show it more strongly. My Father has given work to me so that I could finish it. These are the things that I do, and they show who I am. They show clearly that the Father has sent me. 37 Also, the Father himself has spoken about me. You have never heard his voice. And you have never seen his shape. 38 I am the one that he has sent. You do not receive his message because you do not believe in me. 39 You study carefully what the Bible teaches. You think that those books will give you life with God. And it is true, those books do speak about who I am. 40 But then you refuse to come to me so that you may have life with God!
41 I do not think that it is important for people to praise me. 42 But I know what kind of people you are. I know that you do not really love God. 43 I have come with my Father's authority, but you do not accept me. But if someone else comes with his own authority, then you will accept him. 44 You like to praise each other. That makes you happy. But what about God himself? You do not try to do good things so that he will praise you. That is why you will never believe in me.
45 But I will not have to tell the Father that you are guilty. No, it is Moses who will do that. You think that Moses is the one who will show that you are right. But he is the one who will show that you are guilty. 46 Moses wrote about me. So, if you had really believed Moses, you would believe me. 47 But you do not believe what Moses wrote.[a] So you will never believe what I say.’
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