Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 63
A song of David while in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O True God, You are my God, the One whom I trust.
I seek You with every fiber of my being.
In this dry and weary land with no water in sight,
my soul is dry and longs for You.
My body aches for You, for Your presence.
2 I have seen You in Your sanctuary
and have been awed by Your power and glory.
3 Your steadfast love is better than life itself,
so my lips will give You all my praise.
4 I will bless You with every breath of my life;
I will lift up my hands in praise to Your name.
5 My soul overflows with satisfaction, as when I feast on foods rich in marrow and fat;
with excitement in my heart and joy on my lips, I offer You praise.
6 Often at night I lie in bed and remember You,
meditating on Your greatness till morning smiles through my window.
7 You have been my constant helper;
therefore, I sing for joy under the protection of Your wings.
8 My soul clings to You;
Your right hand reaches down and holds me up.
9 But as for those who try to destroy my life,
they will descend into eternal shadows, deep beneath the earth.
10 They will fall by the sword,
and wild dogs will feast on their corpses.
11 But the king will find his joy in the True God;
all who make pledges and invoke His name will celebrate,
while the mindless prattle of cheaters and deceivers will be silenced.
Psalm 98
A song.
1 Compose a new song, and sing it to the Eternal
because of the unbelievable things He has done;
He has won the victory
with the skill of His right hand and strength of His holy arm.
2 The Eternal has made it clear that He saves,
and He has shown the nations that He does what is right.
3 He has been true to His promises;
fresh in His mind is His unfailing love
for all of Israel.
Even the ends of the earth have witnessed how our God saves.
This hymn invites all the people on earth and creation itself to join in singing a new song of “beautiful noise” celebrating God’s justice and victories.
4 Raise your voices; make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
Let your joy explode into song and praise;
5 Make music to the Eternal with the harp;
sing a beautiful melody with the harp and chorus.
6 With trumpets and horns,
fill the air with joyful sounds to the King, the Eternal.
7 Let the sea rumble and roar, and all the creatures it holds shout praise;
let the whole world and all those who live in it join the celebration.
8 Let the rivers applaud
and the mountains join in joyful song
9 In the presence of the Eternal because He is coming
to judge the earth.
He is coming,
and His judgment will be what is right for the world
and just to all people.
Psalm 103
A song of David.
1 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal
with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—
praise His holy name.
2 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;
sing a song from a grateful heart;
sing and never forget all the good He has done.
3 Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.
More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.
4 He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.
He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.
5 When your soul is famished and withering,
He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.
He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.
6 When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,
the Eternal is just;
He makes the wrongs right.
7 He showed Moses His ways;
He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.
8 The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.
When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.
When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;
9 He will not constantly criticize,
nor will He hold a grudge forever.
10 Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
11 Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
12 You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
13 An earthly father expresses love for his children;
it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
14 For He knows what we are made of;
He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.
15 The children of Adam are like grass;
their days are few;
they flourish for a time like flowers in a meadow.
16 As the wind blows over the field and the bloom is gone,
it doesn’t take much to blow us out of the memory of that place.
17 But the unfailing love of the Eternal is always and eternal
for those who reverently run after Him.
He extends His justice on and on to future generations,
18 To those who will keep His bond of love
and remember to walk in the guidance of His commands.
19 The Eternal has established His throne up in the heavens.
He rules over every seen and unseen realm and creature.
20 Adore Him! Give Him praise, you heavenly messengers,
you powerful creatures who listen to
and act on His every word.
21 Give praise to the Eternal, all armies of heaven—
you servants who stand ready to do His will.
22 Give praise to the Eternal, all that He has made
in all corners of His creation.
O my soul, come, praise the Eternal!
6 Cry out in terror!—the time is coming;
the day of the Eternal is nearly here,
Violence and destruction as only God-All-Powerful can wreak.
7-8 This is why all hands will shake and tremble;
every heart will flutter and melt.
People will be paralyzed with fear, weakened with terror.
Taut and shaking, they’ll be overcome like a woman in labor.
They’ll look to each other dumbfounded,
their faces flushed with fear.
9 See here! The fury of God has been building and is too great to stop;
the day of the Eternal is nearly here.
It will come down in all its cruelty, fury, and fiery anger,
to make the land a wasteland, to wipe out all who failed God.
So complete, so persistent are the nation’s sins that even the lights of heaven go out.
10 For the stars that define the constellations in the heavens
will fail to give their light.
The sun will go dark even when it’s high in the sky;
the moon will not shine.[a]
11 Eternal One: I will turn the world’s wrongdoings back on itself.
I will punish those who act wickedly.
I will stop the arrogant musings of the proud and pompous,
and make them puny and weak.
12 People will be a rarity in the land,
like great chunks of gold from Ophir.
13 Like nothing you’ve ever dreamed,
the heavens will tremble and the earth itself will rock out of place,
When the fury of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, is unleashed
and the power of God’s anger is loosed.
The Bible is a brutally honest book. It contains stories of liars, murderers, and adulterers; and these are the good guys. If we read the Bible looking only for positive role models, we’ll be quickly disappointed. But if we are honest with ourselves and confess our own faults, we will find in Scripture, particularly in the First Testament, that we have much in common with many broken saints of the past. But we must not stay broken. We must follow their path to transformation through repentance and faith. Repentance means a change of heart, a change of mind, and ultimately a change of how we live. God’s grace comes to us and enables us to turn away from sin and to turn back to Him.
18 You have not come to the place that can be touched (as Israel did at Mount Sinai)—to a mountain crowned with blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and a windstorm— 19 or to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of a voice—a voice and message so harsh that the people begged not to hear another word. 20 (They could not bear the command that was given: that if even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned. 21 The sight was so terrible that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”)[a]
22 No, instead you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to heavenly messengers unnumbered, to a joyful feast, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn registered as heaven’s citizens, to God the righteous Judge of all, and to the spirits of all the righteous who have been perfected. 24 You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant between God and humanity, and to His sprinkled blood, which speaks a greater word than the blood of Abel crying out from the earth.
25 See that you don’t turn away from the One who is speaking; for if the ones who heard and refused the One who spoke on earth faced punishment, then how much more will we suffer if we turn away from the One speaking from heaven— 26 the One whose voice in earlier times shook the earth now makes another promise: “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens”?[b] 27 The phrase, “Yet once more,” means that those things that can be shaken will be removed and taken away, namely, the first creation. As a result, those things that remain cannot be shaken. 28 Therefore, let us all be thankful that we are a part of an unshakable Kingdom and offer to God worship that pleases Him and reflects the awe and reverence we have toward Him, 29 for He is like a fierce fire that consumes everything.[c]
Jesus makes the point clear: stay connected to Him, and have no reason to fear. Jesus doesn’t mean that at the instant someone has faith, fear simply vanishes or only good things happen in that person’s life. In fact, the blessings that come with eternal life often have nothing to do with present or future circumstances, but they have everything to do with the individual’s connections to God and others. That is John’s message to his listeners. God came to earth embodied in flesh, and then He reached His greatest acclaim through a torturous death. If this is all true, then believers will find strength and beauty in places never imagined. Abiding in Jesus the Anointed is the good life, regardless of the external circumstances.
22 Not long after, Jesus and His disciples traveled to the Judean countryside where they could enjoy one another’s company and ritually cleanse new followers through baptism.[a] 23-24 About the same time, Jesus’ cousin John—the wandering prophet who had not yet been imprisoned—was upriver at Aenon near Salim baptizing scores of people in the abundant waters there. 25 John’s activities raised questions about the nature of purification among his followers and a religious leader, 26 so they approached him with their questions.
John’s Followers: Teacher, the One who was with you earlier on the other side of the Jordan, the One whom you have been pointing to, is baptizing[b] the multitudes who are coming to Him.
John the Baptist: 27 Apart from the gifts that come from heaven, no one can receive anything at all. 28 I have said it many times, and you have heard me—I am not the Anointed One; I am the one who comes before Him. 29 If you are confused, consider this: the groom is the one with the bride. The best man takes his place close by and listens for him. When he hears the voice of the groom, he is swept up in the joy of the moment. So hear me. My joy could not be more complete. 30 He, the groom, must take center stage; and I, the best man, must step to His side.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.