Book of Common Prayer
97 Yahweh reigns!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the multitude of islands be glad!
2 Clouds and darkness are around him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him,
and burns up his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world.
The earth sees, and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh,
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness.
All the peoples have seen his glory.
7 Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images,
who boast in their idols.
Worship him, all you gods![a]
8 Zion heard and was glad.
The daughters of Judah rejoiced
because of your judgments, Yahweh.
9 For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth.
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love Yahweh, hate evil!
He preserves the souls of his saints.
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people!
Give thanks to his holy Name.
99 Yahweh reigns! Let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned among the cherubim.
Let the earth be moved.
2 Yahweh is great in Zion.
He is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name.
He is Holy!
4 The King’s strength also loves justice.
You establish equity.
You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt Yahweh our God.
Worship at his footstool.
He is Holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who call on his name.
They called on Yahweh, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud.
They kept his testimonies,
the statute that he gave them.
8 You answered them, Yahweh our God.
You are a God who forgave them,
although you took vengeance for their doings.
9 Exalt Yahweh, our God.
Worship at his holy hill,
for Yahweh, our God, is holy!
A Psalm of thanksgiving.
100 Shout for joy to Yahweh, all you lands!
2 Serve Yahweh with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing.
3 Know that Yahweh, he is God.
It is he who has made us, and we are his.
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, and bless his name.
5 For Yahweh is good.
His loving kindness endures forever,
his faithfulness to all generations.
94 Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs,
you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out.
2 Rise up, you judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud what they deserve.
3 Yahweh, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked triumph?
4 They pour out arrogant words.
All the evildoers boast.
5 They break your people in pieces, Yahweh,
and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the alien,
and murder the fatherless.
7 They say, “Yah will not see,
neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
8 Consider, you senseless among the people;
you fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear?
He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish?
He who teaches man knows.
11 Yahweh knows the thoughts of man,
that they are futile.
12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah,
and teach out of your law,
13 that you may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For Yahweh won’t reject his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance.
15 For judgment will return to righteousness.
All the upright in heart shall follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?
17 Unless Yahweh had been my help,
my soul would have soon lived in silence.
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
Your loving kindness, Yahweh, held me up.
19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me,
your comforts delight my soul.
20 Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you,
which brings about mischief by statute?
21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood.
22 But Yahweh has been my high tower,
my God, the rock of my refuge.
23 He has brought on them their own iniquity,
and will cut them off in their own wickedness.
Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.
95 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving.
Let’s extol him with songs!
3 For Yahweh is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are also his.
5 The sea is his, and he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let’s worship and bow down.
Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,
7 for he is our God.
We are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep in his care.
Today, oh that you would hear his voice!
8 Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tempted me,
tested me, and saw my work.
10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation,
and said, “They are a people who err in their heart.
They have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They won’t enter into my rest.”
3 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music.
2 Yahweh, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh.
Renew your work in the middle of the years.
In the middle of the years make it known.
In wrath, you remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
His glory covered the heavens,
and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendor is like the sunrise.
Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.
5 Plague went before him,
and pestilence followed his feet.
6 He stood, and shook the earth.
He looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains were crumbled.
The age-old hills collapsed.
His ways are eternal.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction.
The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled.
8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your wrath against the sea,
that you rode on your horses,
on your chariots of salvation?
9 You uncovered your bow.
You called for your sworn arrows. Selah.
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid.
The storm of waters passed by.
The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky
at the light of your arrows as they went,
at the shining of your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the land in wrath.
You threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the land of wickedness.
You stripped them head to foot. Selah.
14 You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears.
They came as a whirlwind to scatter me,
gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning mighty waters.
16 I heard, and my body trembled.
My lips quivered at the voice.
Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place
because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble,
for the coming up of the people who invade us.
17 For even though the fig tree doesn’t flourish,
nor fruit be in the vines,
the labor of the olive fails,
the fields yield no food,
the flocks are cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in Yahweh.
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
3 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also. 3 Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 4 Behold,[a] the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 5 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 6 And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.[b] 7 For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; 8 but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God. 10 Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
17 He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
6 The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 But who is there among you, having a servant plowing or keeping sheep, that will say when he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down at the table’? 8 Wouldn’t he rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded? I think not. 10 Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’”
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