Book of Common Prayer
The Great King[a]
24 (A)The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord;
the earth and all who live on it are his.
2 He built it on the deep waters beneath the earth
and laid its foundations in the ocean depths.
3 Who has the right to go up the Lord's hill?[b]
Who may enter his holy Temple?
4 (B)Those who are pure in act and in thought,
who do not worship idols
or make false promises.
5 The Lord will bless them and save them;
God will declare them innocent.
6 Such are the people who come to God,
who come into the presence of the God of Jacob.
7 Fling wide the gates,
open the ancient doors,
and the great king will come in.
8 Who is this great king?
He is the Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, victorious in battle.
9 Fling wide the gates,
open the ancient doors,
and the great king will come in.
10 Who is this great king?
The triumphant Lord—he is the great king!
The Voice of the Lord in the Storm[a]
29 (A)Praise the Lord, you heavenly beings;
praise his glory and power.
2 Praise the Lord's glorious name;
bow down before the Holy One when he appears.[b]
3 The voice of the Lord is heard on the seas;
the glorious God thunders,
and his voice echoes over the ocean.
4 The voice of the Lord is heard
in all its might and majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,
even the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes the mountains of Lebanon jump like calves
and makes Mount Hermon leap like a young bull.
7 The voice of the Lord makes the lightning flash.
8 His voice makes the desert shake;
he shakes the desert of Kadesh.
9 The Lord's voice shakes the oaks[c]
and strips the leaves from the trees
while everyone in his Temple shouts, “Glory to God!”
10 The Lord rules over the deep waters;
he rules as king forever.
11 The Lord gives strength to his people
and blesses them with peace.
God's Glory and Human Dignity[a]
8 O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Your praise reaches up to the heavens;
2 (A)it is sung by children and babies.
You are safe and secure from all your enemies;
you stop anyone who opposes you.
3 When I look at the sky, which you have made,
at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
4 (B)what are human beings, that you think of them;
mere mortals, that you care for them?
5 (C)Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;[b]
you crowned them with glory and honor.
6 (D)You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation:
7 sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
8 the birds and the fish
and the creatures in the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Longing for God's House[a]
84 How I love your Temple, Lord Almighty!
2 How I want to be there!
I long to be in the Lord's Temple.
With my whole being I sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the sparrows have built a nest,
and the swallows have their own home;
they keep their young near your altars,
Lord Almighty, my king and my God.
4 How happy are those who live in your Temple,
always singing praise to you.
5 How happy are those whose strength comes from you,
who are eager to make the pilgrimage to Mount Zion.
6 As they pass through the dry valley of Baca,
it becomes a place of springs;
the autumn rain fills it with pools.
7 They grow stronger as they go;
they will see the God of gods on Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty.
Listen, O God of Jacob!
9 Bless our king, O God,
the king you have chosen.
10 One day spent in your Temple
is better than a thousand anywhere else;
I would rather stand at the gate of the house of my God
than live in the homes of the wicked.
11 The Lord is our protector and glorious king,
blessing us with kindness and honor.
He does not refuse any good thing
to those who do what is right.
12 Lord Almighty, how happy are those who trust in you!
8 That evening they heard the Lord God walking in the garden, and they hid from him among the trees. 9 But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; I was afraid and hid from you, because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” God asked. “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?”
12 The man answered, “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 (A)The Lord God asked the woman, “Why did you do this?”
She replied, “The snake tricked me into eating it.”
God Pronounces Judgment
14 Then the Lord God said to the snake, “You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. 15 (B)I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's[a] heel.”
The Woman and the Dragon
12 Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was soon to give birth, and the pains and suffering of childbirth made her cry out.
3 (A)Another mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and a crown on each of his heads. 4 (B)With his tail he dragged a third of the stars out of the sky and threw them down to the earth. He stood in front of the woman, in order to eat her child as soon as it was born. 5 (C)Then she gave birth to a son, who will rule over all nations with an iron rod. But the child was snatched away and taken to God and his throne. 6 The woman fled to the desert, to a place God had prepared for her, where she will be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 (D)Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; 8 but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. 9 (E)The huge dragon was thrown out—that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.
10 (F)Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now God's salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now his Messiah has shown his authority! For the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven.
16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.
18 Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son. 19 This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. 20 Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.