Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of Thanksgiving[a]
138 I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
I sing praise to you before the gods.
2 I face your holy Temple,
bow down, and praise your name
because of your constant love and faithfulness,
because you have shown that your name and your commands are supreme.[b]
3 You answered me when I called to you;
with your strength you strengthened me.
4 All the kings in the world will praise you, Lord,
because they have heard your promises.
5 They will sing about what you have done
and about your great glory.
6 Even though you are so high above,
you care for the lowly,
and the proud cannot hide from you.
7 When I am surrounded by troubles,
you keep me safe.
You oppose my angry enemies
and save me by your power.
8 You will do everything you have promised;
Lord, your love is eternal.
Complete the work that you have begun.
God's Complete Knowledge and Care[c]
139 Lord, you have examined me and you know me.
2 You know everything I do;
from far away you understand all my thoughts.
3 You see me, whether I am working or resting;
you know all my actions.
4 Even before I speak,
you already know what I will say.
5 You are all around me on every side;
you protect me with your power.
6 Your knowledge of me is too deep;
it is beyond my understanding.
7 Where could I go to escape from you?
Where could I get away from your presence?
8 If I went up to heaven, you would be there;
if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
9 If I flew away beyond the east
or lived in the farthest place in the west,
10 you would be there to lead me,
you would be there to help me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
or the light around me to turn into night,
12 but even darkness is not dark for you,
and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You created every part of me;
you put me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because you are to be feared;
all you do is strange and wonderful.
I know it with all my heart.
15 When my bones were being formed,
carefully put together in my mother's womb,
when I was growing there in secret,
you knew that I was there—
16 you saw me before I was born.
The days allotted to me
had all been recorded in your book,
before any of them ever began.
17 (A)O God, how difficult I find your thoughts;[d]
how many of them there are!
18 If I counted them, they would be more than the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
19 O God, how I wish you would kill the wicked!
How I wish violent people would leave me alone!
20 They say wicked things about you;
they speak evil things against your name.[e]
21 O Lord, how I hate those who hate you!
How I despise those who rebel against you!
22 I hate them with a total hatred;
I regard them as my enemies.
23 Examine me, O God, and know my mind;
test me, and discover my thoughts.
In Praise of God the Almighty
147 Praise the Lord!
It is good to sing praise to our God;
it is pleasant and right to praise him.
2 The Lord is restoring Jerusalem;
he is bringing back the exiles.
3 He heals the broken-hearted
and bandages their wounds.
4 He has decided the number of the stars
and calls each one by name.
5 Great and mighty is our Lord;
his wisdom cannot be measured.
6 He raises the humble,
but crushes the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing hymns of praise to the Lord;
play music on the harp to our God.
8 He spreads clouds over the sky;
he provides rain for the earth
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives animals their food
and feeds the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in strong horses,
nor his delight in brave soldiers;
11 but he takes pleasure in those who honor him,
in those who trust in his constant love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 He keeps your gates strong;
he blesses your people.
14 He keeps your borders safe
and satisfies you with the finest wheat.
15 He gives a command to the earth,
and what he says is quickly done.
16 He spreads snow like a blanket
and scatters frost like dust.
17 He sends hail like gravel;
no one can endure the cold he sends!
18 Then he gives a command, and the ice melts;
he sends the wind, and the water flows.
19 He gives his message to his people,
his instructions and laws to Israel.
20 He has not done this for other nations;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the Lord!
God's Punishment of the Rebellious
65 (A)The Lord said, “I was ready to answer my people's prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I was always ready to answer, ‘Here I am; I will help you.’ 2 (B)I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way. 3 They shamelessly keep on making me angry. They offer pagan sacrifices at sacred gardens[a] and burn incense on pagan altars. 4 At night they go to caves and tombs to consult the spirits of the dead. They eat pork and drink broth made from meat offered in pagan sacrifices. 5 And then they say to others, ‘Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!’ I cannot stand people like that—my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.
6 “I have already decided on their punishment, and their sentence is written down. I will not overlook what they have done, but will repay them 7 for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They have burned incense at pagan hill shrines and spoken evil of me. So I will punish them as their past deeds deserve.”
8 The Lord says, “No one destroys good grapes; instead, they make wine with them. Neither will I destroy all my people—I will save those who serve me. 9 I will bless the Israelites who belong to the tribe of Judah, and their descendants will possess my land of mountains. My chosen people, who serve me, will live there.
The Message to Sardis
3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
“This is the message from the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know what you are doing; I know that you have the reputation of being alive, even though you are dead! 2 So wake up, and strengthen what you still have before it dies completely. For I find that what you have done is not yet perfect in the sight of my God. 3 (A)Remember, then, what you were taught and what you heard; obey it and turn from your sins. If you do not wake up, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not even know the time when I will come. 4 But a few of you there in Sardis have kept your clothes clean. You will walk with me, clothed in white, because you are worthy to do so. 5 (B)Those who win the victory will be clothed like this in white, and I will not remove their names from the book of the living. In the presence of my Father and of his angels I will declare openly that they belong to me.
6 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(A)
6 After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias, as it is also called). 2 A large crowd followed him, because they had seen his miracles of healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up a hill and sat down with his disciples. 4 The time for the Passover Festival was near. 5 Jesus looked around and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, so he asked Philip, “Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?” (6 He said this to test Philip; actually he already knew what he would do.)
7 Philip answered, “For everyone to have even a little, it would take more than two hundred silver coins[a] to buy enough bread.”
8 Another one of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother, said, 9 “There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people.”
10 “Make the people sit down,” Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about five thousand men. 11 Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted. 12 When they were all full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces left over; let us not waste a bit.” 13 So they gathered them all and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left over from the five barley loaves which the people had eaten.
14 Seeing this miracle that Jesus had performed, the people there said, “Surely this is the Prophet[b] who was to come into the world!”
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.