Book of Common Prayer
Praise for God’s Kindness
113 Praise the Lord!
Praise him, you servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord.
2 The Lord’s name should be praised
now and forever.
3 The Lord’s name should be praised
from where the sun rises to where it sets.
4 The Lord is supreme over all the nations.
His glory reaches to the skies.
5 No one is like the Lord our God.
He rules from heaven.
6 He bends down to look
at the skies and the earth.
7 The Lord lifts the poor from the dirt.
He takes the helpless from the ashes.
8 And he seats them with princes,
the princes of his people.
9 He gives children to the woman who has none.
He makes her a happy mother.
Praise the Lord!
Happy People in Jerusalem
A song for going up to worship. Of David.
122 I was happy when they said to me,
“Let’s go to the Temple of the Lord.”
2 Jerusalem, we are standing
at your gates.
3 Jerusalem is built as a city
where friends can come together.
4 The people from the tribes go up there.
The tribes belong to the Lord.
It is the rule to praise
the Lord at Jerusalem.
5 There the descendants of David
set their thrones to judge the people.
6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem:
“May those who love her be safe.
7 May there be peace within her walls
and safety within her strong towers.”
8 To help my relatives and friends,
I repeat, “Let Jerusalem have peace.”
9 For the sake of the Temple of the Lord our God,
I wish good for her.
20 So Hannah became pregnant, and in time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel.[a] She said, “His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.”
Hannah Gives Samuel to God
21 Every year Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. He went to keep the promise he had made to God. He brought his whole family with him. So once again he went up to Shiloh. 22 But Hannah did not go with him. She told him, “When the boy is old enough to eat solid food, I will take him to Shiloh. Then I will give him to the Lord. He will become a Nazirite. He will always live there at Shiloh.”
23 Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, said to her, “Do what you think is best. You may stay home until the boy is old enough to eat. May the Lord do what you have said.” So Hannah stayed at home to nurse her son until he was old enough to eat.
24 When Samuel was old enough to eat, Hannah took him to the Tent of the Lord at Shiloh. She also took a three-year-old bull, one-half bushel of flour and a leather bag filled with wine. 25 They killed the bull for the sacrifice. Then Hannah brought Samuel to Eli. 26 She said to Eli, “As surely as you live, my master, I am the same woman who stood near you praying to the Lord. 27 I prayed for this child. The Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me. 28 Now I give him back to the Lord. He will belong to the Lord all his life.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
14 The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them. 15 The Spirit that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us children of God. And with that Spirit we say, “Father, dear Father.”[a] 16 And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say that we are God’s children. 17 If we are God’s children, then we will receive the blessings God has for us. We will receive these things from God together with Christ. But we must suffer as Christ suffered, and then we will have glory as Christ has glory.
Our Future Glory
18 We have sufferings now. But the sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us. 19 Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole world wants very much for that to happen. 20 Everything that God made was changed to become useless. This was not by its own wish. It happened because God wanted it. But there was this hope: 21 that everything God made would be set free from ruin. There was hope that everything God made would have the freedom and glory that belong to God’s children.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.