Book of Common Prayer
God's Chosen King
2 (A)Why do the nations plan rebellion?
Why do people make their useless plots?
2 Their kings revolt,
their rulers plot together against the Lord
and against the king he chose.
3 “Let us free ourselves from their rule,” they say;
“let us throw off their control.”
4 From his throne in heaven the Lord laughs
and mocks their feeble plans.
5 Then he warns them in anger
and terrifies them with his fury.
6 “On Zion,[a] my sacred hill,” he says,
“I have installed my king.”
7 (B)“I will announce,” says the king, “what the Lord has declared.
He said to me: ‘You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask, and I will give you all the nations;
the whole earth will be yours.
9 (C)You will break them with an iron rod;
you will shatter them in pieces like a clay pot.’”
10 Now listen to this warning, you kings;
learn this lesson, you rulers of the world:
11 Serve the Lord with fear;
tremble 12 and bow down to him;[b]
or else his anger will be quickly aroused,
and you will suddenly die.
Happy are all who go to him for protection.
A Prayer for the Nation's Welfare[a]
85 Lord, you have been merciful to your land;
you have made Israel prosperous again.
2 You have forgiven your people's sins
and pardoned all their wrongs.
3 You stopped being angry with them
and held back your furious rage.
4 Bring us back, O God our savior,
and stop being displeased with us!
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will your anger never cease?
6 Make us strong again,
and we, your people, will praise you.
7 Show us your constant love, O Lord,
and give us your saving help.
8 I am listening to what the Lord God is saying;
he promises peace to us, his own people,
if we do not go back to our foolish ways.
9 Surely he is ready to save those who honor him,
and his saving presence will remain in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will embrace.
11 Human loyalty will reach up from the earth,
and God's righteousness will look down from heaven.
12 The Lord will make us prosperous,
and our land will produce rich harvests.
13 Righteousness will go before the Lord
and prepare the path for him.
The Lord and His Chosen King[a]
110 (A)The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies under your feet.”
2 From Zion the Lord will extend your royal power.
“Rule over your enemies,” he says.
3 On the day you fight your enemies,
your people will volunteer.
Like the dew of early morning
your young men will come to you on the sacred hills.[b]
4 (B)The Lord made a solemn promise and will not take it back:
“You will be a priest forever
in the priestly order of Melchizedek.”[c]
5 The Lord is at your right side;
when he becomes angry, he will defeat kings.
6 He will pass judgment on the nations
and fill the battlefield with corpses;
he will defeat kings all over the earth.
7 The king will drink from the stream by the road,
and strengthened, he will stand victorious.
In Praise of the Temple
132 Lord, do not forget David
and all the hardships he endured.
2 Remember, Lord, what he promised,
the vow he made to you, the Mighty God of Jacob:
3 “I will not go home or go to bed;
4 I will not rest or sleep,
5 until I provide a place for the Lord,
a home for the Mighty God of Jacob.”
6 (A)In Bethlehem we heard about the Covenant Box,
and we found it in the fields of Jearim.
7 We said, “Let us go to the Lord's house;
let us worship before his throne.”
8 Come to the Temple, Lord, with the Covenant Box,
the symbol of your power,
and stay here forever.
9 May your priests do always what is right;
may your people shout for joy!
10 You made a promise to your servant David;
do not reject your chosen king, Lord.
11 (B)You made a solemn promise to David—
a promise you will not take back:
“I will make one of your sons king,
and he will rule after you.
12 If your sons are true to my covenant
and to the commands I give them,
their sons, also, will succeed you for all time as kings.”
13 The Lord has chosen Zion;
he wants to make it his home:
14 “This is where I will live forever;
this is where I want to rule.
15 I will richly provide Zion with all she needs;
I will satisfy her poor with food.
16 I will bless her priests in all they do,
and her people will sing and shout for joy.
17 (C)Here I will make one of David's descendants a great king;
here I will preserve the rule of my chosen king.
18 I will cover his enemies with shame,
but his kingdom will prosper and flourish.”
The Lord's Universal Reign of Peace(A)
4 In days to come
the mountain where the Temple stands
will be the highest one of all,
towering above all the hills.
Many nations will come streaming to it,
2 and their people will say,
“Let us go up the hill of the Lord,[a]
to the Temple of Israel's God.
He will teach us what he wants us to do;
we will walk in the paths he has chosen.
For the Lord's teaching comes from Jerusalem;
from Zion he speaks to his people.”
3 (B)He will settle disputes among the nations,
among the great powers near and far.
They will hammer their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will never again go to war,
never prepare for battle again.
4 (C)Everyone will live in peace
among their own vineyards and fig trees,
and no one will make them afraid.
The Lord Almighty has promised this.
5 Each nation worships and obeys its own god, but we will worship and obey the Lord our God forever and ever.
God Promises a Ruler from Bethlehem
2 (A)The Lord says, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you I will bring a ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times.”
3 So the Lord will abandon his people to their enemies until the woman who is to give birth has her son. Then those Israelites who are in exile will be reunited with their own people. 4 When he comes, he will rule his people with the strength that comes from the Lord and with the majesty of the Lord God himself. His people will live in safety because people all over the earth will acknowledge his greatness,
God Is Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.
11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. 12 (A)No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13 We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us. 16 And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us.
God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.
He Who Comes from Heaven
31 He who comes from above is greater than all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly matters, but he who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He tells what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his message. 33 But whoever accepts his message confirms by this that God is truthful. 34 The one whom God has sent speaks God's words, because God gives him the fullness of his Spirit. 35 (A)The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not have life, but will remain under God's punishment.
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.