Book of Common Prayer
A Song of God’s Majesty and Love
(A)A Praise of David.
145 I will [a]extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 (B)Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And (C)His greatness is [b]unsearchable.
4 (D)One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 [c]I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And [d]on Your wondrous works.
6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
7 They shall [e]utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
8 (E)The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
9 (F)The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
10 (G)All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
And Your saints shall bless You.
11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
13 (H)Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all [f]generations.
14 The Lord upholds all who fall,
And (I)raises up all who are bowed down.
15 (J)The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And (K)You give them their food in due season.
16 You open Your hand
(L)And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
18 (M)The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him (N)in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
20 (O)The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.
Praise to the Sovereign Lord for His Creation and Providence(A)
104 Bless (B)the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
2 Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.
3 (C)He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot,
Who walks on the wings of the wind,
4 Who makes His angels spirits,
His [a]ministers a flame of fire.
5 You who [b]laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever,
6 You (D)covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At Your rebuke they fled;
At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
8 [c]They went up over the mountains;
They went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them.
9 You have (E)set a boundary that they may not pass over,
(F)That they may not return to cover the earth.
10 He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 By them the birds of the heavens have their home;
They sing among the branches.
13 (G)He waters the hills from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with (H)the fruit of Your works.
14 (I)He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth (J)food from the earth,
15 And (K)wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
17 Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the (L)rock[d] badgers.
19 (M)He appointed the moon for seasons;
The (N)sun knows its going down.
20 (O)You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 (P)The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to (Q)his work
And to his labor until the evening.
24 (R)O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your (S)possessions—
25 This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
26 There the ships sail about;
There is that (T)Leviathan[e]
Which You have [f]made to play there.
27 (U)These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
28 What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide Your face, they are troubled;
(V)You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30 (W)You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord (X)rejoice in His works.
32 He looks on the earth, and it (Y)trembles;
(Z)He touches the hills, and they smoke.
33 (AA)I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 May my (AB)meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the Lord.
35 May (AC)sinners be consumed from the earth,
And the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
[g]Praise the Lord!
The Wilderness Way(A)
17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people (B)change their minds when they see war, and (C)return to Egypt.” 18 So God (D)led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.
19 And Moses took the (E)bones of (F)Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, (G)“God will surely [a]visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”
20 So (H)they took their journey from (I)Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. 21 And (J)the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
The Red Sea Crossing
14 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, (K)that they turn and camp before (L)Pi Hahiroth, between (M)Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, (N)‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’ 4 Then (O)I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I (P)will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, (Q)that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
Seeing the Invisible
16 Therefore we (A)do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is (B)being renewed day by day. 17 For (C)our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 (D)while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Assurance of the Resurrection
5 For we know that if (E)our earthly [a]house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house (F)not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this (G)we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our [b]habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, (H)having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, (I)but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also (J)has given us the Spirit as [c]a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For (K)we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, (L)well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 (M)For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, (N)that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?(A)
18 (B)Then some Sadducees, (C)who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying: 19 “Teacher, (D)Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise. 22 So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also. 23 Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore [a]mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but (E)are like angels in heaven. 26 But concerning the dead, that they (F)rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, (G)‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly [b]mistaken.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.