Book of Common Prayer
True Worship[a]
50 The Almighty God, the Lord, speaks;
he calls to the whole earth from east to west.
2 God shines from Zion,
the city perfect in its beauty.
3 Our God is coming, but not in silence;
a raging fire is in front of him,
a furious storm around him.
4 He calls heaven and earth as witnesses
to see him judge his people.
5 He says, “Gather my faithful people to me,
those who made a covenant with me by offering a sacrifice.”
6 The heavens proclaim that God is righteous,
that he himself is judge.
7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak;
I will testify against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not reprimand you because of your sacrifices
and the burnt offerings you always bring me.
9 And yet I do not need bulls from your farms
or goats from your flocks;
10 all the animals in the forest are mine
and the cattle on thousands of hills.
11 All the wild birds are mine
and all living things in the fields.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not ask you for food,
for the world and everything in it is mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Let the giving of thanks be your sacrifice to God,[b]
and give the Almighty all that you promised.
15 Call to me when trouble comes;
I will save you,
and you will praise me.”
16 But God says to the wicked,
“Why should you recite my commandments?
Why should you talk about my covenant?
17 You refuse to let me correct you;
you reject my commands.
18 You become the friend of every thief you see,
and you associate with adulterers.
19 “You are always ready to speak evil;
you never hesitate to tell lies.
20 You are ready to accuse your own relatives
and to find fault with them.
21 You have done all this, and I have said nothing,
so you thought that I am like you.
But now I reprimand you
and make the matter plain to you.
22 “Listen to this, you that ignore me,
or I will destroy you,
and there will be no one to save you.
23 Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me,
and I will surely save all who obey me.”
(A)A Prayer for Safety[a]
59 Save me from my enemies, my God;
protect me from those who attack me!
2 Save me from those evil people;
rescue me from those murderers!
3 Look! They are waiting to kill me;
cruel people are gathering against me.
It is not because of any sin or wrong I have done,
4 nor because of any fault of mine, O Lord,
that they hurry to their places.
5 Rise, Lord God Almighty, and come to my aid;
see for yourself, God of Israel!
Wake up and punish the heathen;
show no mercy to evil traitors!
6 They come back in the evening,
snarling like dogs as they go about the city.
7 Listen to their insults and threats.
Their tongues are like swords in their mouths,
yet they think that no one hears them.
8 But you laugh at them, Lord;
you mock all the heathen.
9 I have confidence in your strength;
you are my refuge, O God.
10 My God loves me and will come to me;
he will let me see my enemies defeated.
11 Do not kill them, O God, or my people may forget.
Scatter them by your strength and defeat them,
O Lord, our protector.
12 Sin is on their lips; all their words are sinful;
may they be caught in their pride!
Because they curse and lie,
13 destroy them in your anger;
destroy them completely.
Then everyone will know that God rules in Israel,
that his rule extends over all the earth.
14 My enemies come back in the evening,
snarling like dogs as they go about the city,
15 like dogs roaming about for food
and growling if they do not find enough.
16 But I will sing about your strength;
every morning I will sing aloud of your constant love.
You have been a refuge for me,
a shelter in my time of trouble.
17 I will praise you, my defender.
My refuge is God,
the God who loves me.
(B)A Prayer for Deliverance[b]
60 You have rejected us, God, and defeated us;
you have been angry with us—but now turn back to us.[c]
2 You have made the land tremble, and you have cut it open;
now heal its wounds, because it is falling apart.
3 You have made your people suffer greatly;
we stagger around as though we were drunk.
4 You have warned those who have reverence for you,
so that they might escape destruction.
5 Save us by your might; answer our prayer,
so that the people you love may be rescued.
6 From his sanctuary[d] God has said,
“In triumph I will divide Shechem
and distribute Sukkoth Valley to my people.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh too;
Ephraim is my helmet
and Judah my royal scepter.
8 But I will use Moab as my washbowl,
and I will throw my sandals on Edom,
as a sign that I own it.
Did the Philistines think they would shout in triumph over me?”
9 Who, O God, will take me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have you really rejected us?
Aren't you going to march out with our armies?
11 Help us against the enemy;
human help is worthless.
12 With God on our side we will win;
he will defeat our enemies.
God's Glory and Human Dignity[a]
8 O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Your praise reaches up to the heavens;
2 (A)it is sung by children and babies.
You are safe and secure from all your enemies;
you stop anyone who opposes you.
3 When I look at the sky, which you have made,
at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
4 (B)what are human beings, that you think of them;
mere mortals, that you care for them?
5 (C)Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;[b]
you crowned them with glory and honor.
6 (D)You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation:
7 sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
8 the birds and the fish
and the creatures in the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Longing for God's House[a]
84 How I love your Temple, Lord Almighty!
2 How I want to be there!
I long to be in the Lord's Temple.
With my whole being I sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the sparrows have built a nest,
and the swallows have their own home;
they keep their young near your altars,
Lord Almighty, my king and my God.
4 How happy are those who live in your Temple,
always singing praise to you.
5 How happy are those whose strength comes from you,
who are eager to make the pilgrimage to Mount Zion.
6 As they pass through the dry valley of Baca,
it becomes a place of springs;
the autumn rain fills it with pools.
7 They grow stronger as they go;
they will see the God of gods on Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty.
Listen, O God of Jacob!
9 Bless our king, O God,
the king you have chosen.
10 One day spent in your Temple
is better than a thousand anywhere else;
I would rather stand at the gate of the house of my God
than live in the homes of the wicked.
11 The Lord is our protector and glorious king,
blessing us with kindness and honor.
He does not refuse any good thing
to those who do what is right.
12 Lord Almighty, how happy are those who trust in you!
Injustice in the World
16 In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be. 17 I told myself, “God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because every thing, every action, will happen at its own set time.”[a] 18 I decided that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals. 19 After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either. 20 They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it. 21 How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upward while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground? 22 So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do.[b] There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.
4 Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world. The oppressed were crying, and no one would help them. No one would help them, because their oppressors had power on their side. 2 I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive. 3 But better off than either are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this world.
Law or Faith
3 You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross! 2 Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it? 3 How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power? 4 Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something! 5 Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?
6 (A)Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, “He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” 7 (B)You should realize, then, that the real descendants of Abraham are the people who have faith. 8 (C)The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: “Through you God will bless all people.” 9 Abraham believed and was blessed; so all who believe are blessed as he was.
10 (D)Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!” 11 (E)Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, “Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”[a] 12 (F)But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, “Whoever does everything the Law requires will live.”
13 (G)But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.” 14 Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(A)
13 When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him by land. 14 Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick.
15 That evening his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves.”
16 “They don't have to leave,” answered Jesus. “You yourselves give them something to eat!”
17 “All we have here are five loaves and two fish,” they replied.
18 “Then bring them here to me,” Jesus said. 19 He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over. 21 The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.
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.