Book of Common Prayer
In Praise of God the Savior
146 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, my soul!
2 I will praise him as long as I live;
I will sing to my God all my life.
3 Don't put your trust in human leaders;
no human being can save you.
4 When they die, they return to the dust;
on that day all their plans come to an end.
5 Happy are those who have the God of Jacob to help them
and who depend on the Lord their God,
6 (A)the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea,
and all that is in them.
He always keeps his promises;
7 he judges in favor of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free
8 and gives sight to the blind.
He lifts those who have fallen;
he loves his righteous people.
9 He protects the strangers who live in our land;
he helps widows and orphans,
but takes the wicked to their ruin.
10 The Lord is king forever.
Your God, O Zion, will reign for all time.
Praise the Lord!
In Praise of God the Almighty
147 Praise the Lord!
It is good to sing praise to our God;
it is pleasant and right to praise him.
2 The Lord is restoring Jerusalem;
he is bringing back the exiles.
3 He heals the broken-hearted
and bandages their wounds.
4 He has decided the number of the stars
and calls each one by name.
5 Great and mighty is our Lord;
his wisdom cannot be measured.
6 He raises the humble,
but crushes the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing hymns of praise to the Lord;
play music on the harp to our God.
8 He spreads clouds over the sky;
he provides rain for the earth
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives animals their food
and feeds the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in strong horses,
nor his delight in brave soldiers;
11 but he takes pleasure in those who honor him,
in those who trust in his constant love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 He keeps your gates strong;
he blesses your people.
14 He keeps your borders safe
and satisfies you with the finest wheat.
15 He gives a command to the earth,
and what he says is quickly done.
16 He spreads snow like a blanket
and scatters frost like dust.
17 He sends hail like gravel;
no one can endure the cold he sends!
18 Then he gives a command, and the ice melts;
he sends the wind, and the water flows.
19 He gives his message to his people,
his instructions and laws to Israel.
20 He has not done this for other nations;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the Lord!
In Praise of the Lord
111 Praise the Lord!
With all my heart I will thank the Lord
in the assembly of his people.
2 How wonderful are the things the Lord does!
All who are delighted with them want to understand them.
3 All he does is full of honor and majesty;
his righteousness is eternal.
4 The Lord does not let us forget his wonderful actions;
he is kind and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who honor him;
he never forgets his covenant.
6 He has shown his power to his people
by giving them the lands of foreigners.
7 In all he does he is faithful and just;
all his commands are dependable.
8 They last for all time;
they were given in truth and righteousness.
9 He set his people free
and made an eternal covenant with them.
Holy and mighty is he!
10 (A)The way to become wise is to honor the Lord;[a]
he gives sound judgment to all who obey his commands.
He is to be praised forever.
The Happiness of a Good Person
112 Praise the Lord!
Happy is the person who honors the Lord,
who takes pleasure in obeying his commands.
2 The good man's children will be powerful in the land;
his descendants will be blessed.
3 His family will be wealthy and rich,
and he will be prosperous forever.
4 Light shines in the darkness for good people,
for those who are merciful, kind, and just.
5 Happy is the person who is generous with his loans,
who runs his business honestly.
6 A good person will never fail;
he will always be remembered.
7 He is not afraid of receiving bad news;
his faith is strong, and he trusts in the Lord.
8 He is not worried or afraid;
he is certain to see his enemies defeated.
9 (B)He gives generously to the needy,
and his kindness never fails;
he will be powerful and respected.
10 The wicked see this and are angry;
they glare in hate and disappear;
their hopes are gone forever.
In Praise of the Lord's Goodness
113 Praise the Lord!
You servants of the Lord,
praise his name!
2 May his name be praised,
now and forever.
3 From the east to the west
praise the name of the Lord!
4 The Lord rules over all nations;
his glory is above the heavens.
5 There is no one like the Lord our God.
He lives in the heights above,
6 but he bends down
to see the heavens and the earth.
7 He raises the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from their misery
8 and makes them companions of princes,
the princes of his people.
9 He honors the childless wife in her home;
he makes her happy by giving her children.
Praise the Lord!
The Story of Creation
1 In the beginning, when God created the universe,[a] 2 the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God[b] was moving over the water. 3 (A)Then God commanded, “Let there be light”—and light appeared. 4 God was pleased with what he saw. Then he separated the light from the darkness, 5 and he named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.” Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.
6-7 (B)Then God commanded, “Let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two separate places”—and it was done. So God made a dome, and it separated the water under it from the water above it. 8 He named the dome “Sky.” Evening passed and morning came—that was the second day.
9 Then God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear”—and it was done. 10 He named the land “Earth,” and the water which had come together he named “Sea.” And God was pleased with what he saw. 11 Then he commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit”—and it was done. 12 So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw. 13 Evening passed and morning came—that was the third day.
14 Then God commanded, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals[c] begin; 15 they will shine in the sky to give light to the earth”—and it was done. 16 So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars. 17 He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God was pleased with what he saw. 19 Evening passed and morning came—that was the fourth day.
20 Then God commanded, “Let the water be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let the air be filled with birds.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters, all kinds of creatures that live in the water, and all kinds of birds. And God was pleased with what he saw. 22 He blessed them all and told the creatures that live in the water to reproduce and to fill the sea, and he told the birds to increase in number. 23 Evening passed and morning came—that was the fifth day.
24 Then God commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of animal life: domestic and wild, large and small”—and it was done. 25 So God made them all, and he was pleased with what he saw.
26 (C)Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild,[d] large and small.” 27 (D)So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, 28 blessed them, and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals. 29 I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; 30 but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food”—and it was done. 31 God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased. Evening passed and morning came—that was the sixth day.
2 And so the whole universe was completed. 2 (E)By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. 3 He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation[e] and stopped working.
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. 4 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.
Because of his love 5 God[a] had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! 7 (A)For by the blood of Christ[b] we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which he gave to us in such large measure!
In all his wisdom and insight 9 God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.
11 All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning. 12 Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!
13 And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. 14 The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!
The Lamb of God
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’ 31 I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel.”
32 And John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. 33 I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen it,” said John, “and I tell you that he is the Son of 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.