Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Protection[a]
61 Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer!
2 In despair and far from home
I call to you!
Take me to a safe refuge,
3 for you are my protector,
my strong defense against my enemies.
4 Let me live in your sanctuary all my life;
let me find safety under your wings.
5 You have heard my promises, O God,
and you have given me what belongs to those who honor you.
6 Add many years to the king's life;
let him live on and on!
7 May he rule forever in your presence, O God;
protect him with your constant love and faithfulness.
8 So I will always sing praises to you,
as I offer you daily what I have promised.
Confidence in God's Protection[b]
62 I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
2 He alone protects and saves me;
he is my defender,
and I shall never be defeated.
3 How much longer will all of you attack someone
who is no stronger than a broken-down fence?
4 You only want to bring him down from his place of honor;
you take pleasure in lies.
You speak words of blessing,
but in your heart you curse him.
5 I depend on God alone;
I put my hope in him.
6 He alone protects and saves me;
he is my defender,
and I shall never be defeated.
7 My salvation and honor depend on God;
he is my strong protector;
he is my shelter.
8 Trust in God at all times, my people.
Tell him all your troubles,
for he is our refuge.
9 Human beings are all like a puff of breath;
great and small alike are worthless.
Put them on the scales, and they weigh nothing;
they are lighter than a mere breath.
10 Don't put your trust in violence;
don't hope to gain anything by robbery;
even if your riches increase,
don't depend on them.
11 More than once I have heard God say
that power belongs to him
12 (A)and that his love is constant.
You yourself, O Lord, reward everyone according to their deeds.
A National Song of Triumph[a]
68 God rises up and scatters his enemies.
Those who hate him run away in defeat.
2 As smoke is blown away, so he drives them off;
as wax melts in front of the fire,
so do the wicked perish in God's presence.
3 But the righteous are glad and rejoice in his presence;
they are happy and shout for joy.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
prepare a way for him who rides on the clouds.[b]
His name is the Lord—be glad in his presence!
5 God, who lives in his sacred Temple,
cares for orphans and protects widows.
6 He gives the lonely a home to live in
and leads prisoners out into happy freedom,
but rebels will have to live in a desolate land.
7 O God, when you led your people,
when you marched across the desert,
8 (A)the earth shook, and the sky poured down rain,
because of the coming of the God of Sinai,[c]
the coming of the God of Israel.
9 You caused abundant rain to fall
and restored your worn-out land;
10 your people made their home there;
in your goodness you provided for the poor.
11 The Lord gave the command,
and many women carried the news:
12 “Kings and their armies are running away!”
The women at home divided what was captured:
13 figures of doves covered with silver,
whose wings glittered with fine gold.
(Why did some of you stay among the sheep pens on the day of battle?)
14 When Almighty God scattered the kings on Mount Zalmon,
he caused snow to fall there.
15 What a mighty mountain is Bashan,
a mountain of many peaks!
16 Why from your mighty peaks do you look with scorn
on the mountain[d] on which God chose to live?
The Lord will live there forever!
17 With his many thousands of mighty chariots
the Lord comes from Sinai[e] into the holy place.
18 (B)He goes up to the heights,
taking many captives with him;
he receives gifts from rebellious people.
The Lord God will live there.
19 Praise the Lord,
who carries our burdens day after day;
he is the God who saves us.
20 Our God is a God who saves;
he is the Lord, our Lord,
who rescues us from death.
21 God will surely break the heads of his enemies,
of those who persist in their sinful ways.
22 The Lord has said, “I will bring your enemies back from Bashan;
I will bring them back from the depths of the ocean,
23 so that you may wade in their blood,
and your dogs may lap up as much as they want.”
24 O God, your march of triumph is seen by all,
the procession of God, my king, into his sanctuary.
25 The singers are in front, the musicians are behind,
in between are the young women beating the tambourines.
26 “Praise God in the meeting of his people;
praise the Lord, all you descendants of Jacob!”
27 First comes Benjamin, the smallest tribe,
then the leaders of Judah with their group,
followed by the leaders of Zebulun and Naphtali.
28 Show your power, O God,
the power you have used on our behalf
29 from your Temple in Jerusalem,
where kings bring gifts to you.
30 Rebuke Egypt, that wild animal in the reeds;
rebuke the nations, that herd of bulls with their calves,
until they all bow down and offer you their silver.
Scatter those people who love to make war![f]
31 Ambassadors[g] will come from Egypt;
the Ethiopians[h] will raise their hands in prayer to God.
32 Sing to God, kingdoms of the world,
sing praise to the Lord,
33 to him who rides in the sky,
the ancient sky.
Listen to him shout with a mighty roar.
34 Proclaim God's power;
his majesty is over Israel,
his might is in the skies.
35 How awesome is God as he comes from his sanctuary—
the God of Israel!
He gives strength and power to his people.
Praise God!
43 How beautiful is the bright, clear sky above us!
What a glorious sight it is!
2 The sun, when it appears, proclaims as it rises
how marvelous a thing it is, made by the Most High.
3 At noon it dries up the land;
no one can stand its blazing heat.
4 The setting sun sets fire to the hilltops,
like a metal furnace glowing from the heat.[a]
It sends out fiery rays,
blinding the eyes with its brightness.
5 The Lord, who made it, is great;
it speeds on its way at his command.
6 There is also the moon, marking the passage of time,[b]
an eternal sign of the changing seasons.
7 The moon determines the holy days.
Its light grows full and then grows dim.
8 The month is named after the moon,
marvelous to watch as it grows fuller each night,
a signal light for the heavenly armies,
shining out in the dome of the sky.
9 The shining stars make the night sky lovely,
brilliant ornaments in the Lord's high heavens.
10 They stay in the places assigned to them by the Holy One
and never relax their dutiful watch.
11 Look at the rainbow and praise its Creator!
How magnificent, how radiant, its beauty!
12 Like a bow bent by the hands of the Most High,
it spans the horizon in a circle of glory.
13 He commands, and snow begins to fall;
lightning strikes to carry out his judgments.
14 The storerooms of the sky are thrown open,
and the clouds roll out like flying birds.
15 With his power he forms great masses of clouds
and shatters the ice into hailstones.
16-17 He speaks, and thunder twists the earth in pain;
the mountains are shaken by his strength.[c]
Whenever he wishes, the south wind blows,
whirlwinds come, and windstorms from the north.
He sends the snow fluttering down like birds,
like locusts lighting on the ground.
18 We marvel at its beautiful whiteness,
and in fascination we watch it fall.
19 He sprinkles frost over the ground like salt,
and it freezes into thorny flowers of ice.[d]
20 He sends the cold north wind blowing
and the water hardens into ice;
every lake and pond freezes over,
putting on a coat of icy armor.
21 He scorches the wilderness hills with drought,
and the grass turns brown from its heat;
22 but a cloudy mist restores it all to life
as the weather cools and dew appears.
The Harvest of the Earth
14 (A)Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was what looked like a human being, with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 (B)Then another angel came out from the temple and cried out in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, because the time has come; the earth is ripe for the harvest!” 16 Then the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth's harvest was reaped.
17 Then I saw another angel come out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.
18 Then another angel, who is in charge of the fire, came from the altar. He shouted in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sickle, and cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because the grapes are ripe!” 19 So the angel swung his sickle on the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw them into the wine press of God's furious anger. 20 (C)The grapes were squeezed out in the wine press outside the city, and blood came out of the wine press in a flood two hundred miles long and about five feet deep.
The Angels with the Last Plagues
15 Then I saw in the sky another mysterious sight, great and amazing. There were seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last ones, because they are the final expression of God's anger.
2 Then I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. I also saw those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and over the one whose name is represented by a number. They were standing by the sea of glass, holding harps that God had given them 3 (D)and singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Lord God Almighty,
how great and wonderful are your deeds!
King of the nations,[a]
how right and true are your ways!
4 (E)Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord?
Who will refuse to declare your greatness?
You alone are holy.
All the nations will come
and worship you,
because your just actions are seen by all.”
5 (F)After this I saw the temple in heaven open, with the Sacred Tent in it. 6 The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, dressed in clean shining linen and with gold bands tied around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 (G)The temple was filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one could go into the temple until the seven plagues brought by the seven angels had come to an end.
Turn from Your Sins or Die
13 At that time some people were there who told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices to God. 2 Jesus answered them, “Because those Galileans were killed in that way, do you think it proves that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No indeed! And I tell you that if you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did. 4 What about those eighteen people in Siloam who were killed when the tower fell on them? Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem? 5 No indeed! And I tell you that if you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did.”
The Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree
6 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a man who had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. He went looking for figs on it but found none. 7 So he said to his gardener, ‘Look, for three years I have been coming here looking for figs on this fig tree, and I haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it go on using up the soil?’ 8 But the gardener answered, ‘Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig around it and put in some fertilizer. 9 Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down.’”
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.