Book of Common Prayer
A Welcome for God into the Temple
A song of David.
24 The earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.
The world and all its people belong to him.
2 He built it on the waters.
He set it on the rivers.
3 Who may go up on the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy Temple?
4 Only those with clean hands and pure hearts.
They must not have worshiped idols.
They must not have made promises in the name of a false god.
5 It is they who will receive a blessing from the Lord.
The God who saves them will declare them right.
6 They try to follow God.
They look to the God of Jacob for help. Selah
7 Open up, you gates.
Open wide, you aged doors.
Then the glorious king will come in.
8 Who is this glorious king?
The Lord, strong and mighty.
The Lord, the powerful warrior.
9 Open up, you gates.
Open wide, you aged doors.
Then the glorious king will come in.
10 Who is this glorious king?
The Lord of heaven’s armies—
he is the glorious king. Selah
God in the Thunderstorm
A song of David.
29 Praise the Lord, you angels.
Praise the Lord’s glory and power.
2 Praise the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord because he is holy.
3 The Lord’s voice is heard over the sea.
The glorious God thunders.
The Lord thunders over the great ocean.
4 The Lord’s voice is powerful.
The Lord’s voice is majestic.
5 The Lord’s voice breaks the trees.
The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes the land of Lebanon dance like a calf.
He makes Mount Hermon jump like a baby bull.
7 The Lord’s voice makes the lightning flash.
8 The Lord’s voice shakes the desert.
The Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
9 The Lord’s voice shakes the oaks.
The leaves fall off the trees.
In his Temple everyone says, “Glory to God!”
10 The Lord controls the flood.
The Lord will be King forever.
11 The Lord gives strength to his people.
The Lord blesses his people with peace.
God’s Greatness and Man’s Worth
For the director of music. By the gittith. A song of David.
8 Lord our Master,
your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth!
It brings you praise in heaven above.
2 You have taught children and babies
to sing praises to you.
This is because of your enemies.
And so you silence your enemies
and destroy those who try to get even.
3 I look at the heavens,
which you made with your hands.
I see the moon and stars,
which you created.
4 But why is man important to you?
Why do you take care of human beings?
5 You made man a little lower than the angels.
And you crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You put him in charge of everything you made.
You put all things under his control:
7 all the sheep, the cattle
and the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky,
the fish in the sea,
and everything that lives under water.
9 Lord our Master,
your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth!
Wishing to Be in the Temple
For the director of music. By the gittith. A song of the sons of Korah.
84 Lord of heaven’s armies,
how lovely is your Temple!
2 I want to be in
the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.
My whole being wants
to be with the living God.
3 The sparrows have found a home.
And the swallows have nests.
They raise their young near your altars,
Lord of heaven’s armies, my King and my God.
4 Happy are the people who live at your Temple.
They are always praising you. Selah
5 Happy are those whose strength comes from you.
They want to travel to Jerusalem.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it like a spring.
The autumn rains fill it with pools of water.
7 The people get stronger as they go.
And everyone meets with God in Jerusalem.
8 Lord God of heaven’s armies, hear my prayer.
God of Jacob, listen to me. Selah
9 God, look at our shield.
Be kind to your appointed king.
10 One day in the courtyards of your Temple is better
than a thousand days anywhere else.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the Temple of my God
than live in the homes of the wicked.
11 The Lord God is like our sun and shield.
The Lord gives us kindness and glory.
He does not hold back anything good
from those whose life is innocent.
12 Lord of heaven’s armies,
happy are the people who trust you!
8 Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden. This was during the cool part of the day. And the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man. The Lord said, “Where are you?”
10 The man answered, “I heard you walking in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.”
11 God said to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that tree? I commanded you not to eat from that tree.”
12 The man said, “You gave this woman to me. She gave me fruit from the tree. So I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
She answered, “The snake tricked me. So I ate the fruit.”
14 The Lord God said to the snake,
“Because you did this,
a curse will be put on you.
You will be cursed more than any tame animal or wild animal.
You will crawl on your stomach,
and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will make you and the woman
enemies to each other.
Your descendants and her descendants
will be enemies.
Her child will crush your head.
And you will bite his heel.”
The Woman and the Dragon
12 And then a great wonder appeared in heaven: There was a woman who was clothed with the sun. The moon was under her feet. She had a crown of 12 stars on her head. 2 The woman was pregnant. She cried out with pain because she was about to give birth. 3 Then another wonder appeared in heaven: There was a giant red dragon. He had seven heads with seven crowns on each head. He also had ten horns. 4 The dragon’s tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and threw them down to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was ready to give birth to a baby. He wanted to eat the woman’s baby as soon as it was born. 5 The woman gave birth to a son. He will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. But her child was taken up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman ran away into the desert to a place God prepared for her. There she would be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 Then there was a war in heaven. Michael[a] and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But the dragon was not strong enough. He and his angels lost their place in heaven. 9 He was thrown down out of heaven. (The giant dragon is that old snake called the devil or Satan. He leads the whole world the wrong way.) The dragon with his angels was thrown down to the earth.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have now come.
They have come because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out.
He accused our brothers day and night before our God.
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 He who believes in God’s Son is not judged guilty. He who does not believe has already been judged guilty, because he has not believed in God’s only Son. 19 People are judged by this fact: I am the Light from God that has come into the world. But men did not want light. They wanted darkness because they were doing evil things. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light. He will not come to the light because it will show all the evil things he has done. 21 But he who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that the things he has done were done through God.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.