Book of Common Prayer
The music leader must use special music.
This is a song that David wrote.
The sky at night[a]
8 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
The sky above shows how great you are.
2 You have taught children and babies to praise you.
You do that to show your enemies how strong you are.
Anyone who turns against you has to be quiet.
Your cruel enemies can do nothing!
3 You made the skies with your own hands.
When I look up, I see the moon and the stars.
You have put them all in their right place.
4 So why do you even think about men and women?
Why do you take care of humans?
5 You have made their place a little below God himself.[b]
You have given them honour, like kings.
6 You have chosen them to rule everything that you have made.
You have put everything under their authority.
7-8 Yes! Humans rule them all:
Farm animals and wild animals,
birds, fish and all the things that swim in the sea.
9 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
God rules the earth!
47 People from every nation,
clap your hands together.
Shout aloud to God,
with the sound of happy songs.
2 The Lord, the Most High God, is wonderful.
He is the great King
who rules over the whole earth.
3 He has won the battle against our enemies,
and those nations are now under our power.
4 He chose a special land to belong to us.
Jacob's descendants are proud of that land.
They are his own people that he loves.
Selah.
5 God has gone up to sit on his throne,
while the people shout aloud.
The Lord has gone up there,
while the trumpets make a loud noise.
6 Sing to praise God! Yes, sing!
Sing to praise our king! Sing!
7 God is the King who rules over the whole earth!
So sing a special song to praise him!
8 God rules over the nations.
God is sitting on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations have met together.
They have joined with the people who serve Abraham's God.[a]
God has authority over all the world's rulers
and their armies.
Everyone should praise him,
for he is great!
This is a song that David wrote.
The great King[a]
24 The whole earth belongs to the Lord.
Everybody who lives in the world
and all the things in it belong to him.
2 The Lord built the foundation of the earth.
He built it on the seas and the rivers.[b]
3 Who may climb up the hill of the Lord?[c]
Who can stand in his holy place?[d]
4 Only the person who does what is right,
and who has pure thoughts.
He does not worship idols
and he does not make false promises.
5 The Lord will bless people who are like that.
God will save them.
He will say that they are not guilty of wrong things.
6 People like that come to God.
They want to please him.
They like to pray to the God of Jacob.
Selah.
7 Old gates of the city, wake up!
Open now, to leave a wide path!
Then the great king will come in.
8 Who is this great king?
He is the Lord,
who is strong and powerful.
He is the Lord,
who wins against his enemies.
9 Be ready, you old gates of the city!
Be ready to open wide!
Then the great king will come in.
10 Who is this great king?
He is the Almighty Lord.
Yes, he is the great king!
Selah.
Sing a new song![a]
96 Sing a new song to praise the Lord!
All the world,
sing to praise the Lord!
2 Sing to praise the Lord's great name!
Every day, tell people the message
that he has rescued us.
3 Tell the other nations that he is very great.
Tell all of them
about the great things that he has done.
4 Yes, the Lord is great!
Everyone should praise him as he deserves.
People should respect him with fear,
more than all other gods.
5 All the other nations' gods are useless idols.
But the Lord made the heavens.
6 We see that he is a very great king.
His holy home is full of his power and his beauty.
7 You people of other nations,
recognize that the Lord is great and powerful.
8 Agree that the Lord's name is great.
Bring a gift to offer to him in his temple.
9 Worship the Lord,
who is beautiful and holy.
Everyone on earth must shake with fear in front of him.
10 Tell all the nations,
‘The Lord rules as King!’
He has fixed the world in its place,
so that nothing can shake it.
He will judge all the people of the world fairly.
11 The earth and the sky
should be happy!
The sea and everything in it
should shout aloud!
12 The fields and all their crops should shout with joy!
Then all the trees in the forests will also sing
because they are so happy!
13 They will sing to praise the Lord,
for he will come to judge the earth.
He is a fair judge.
He will judge all the people of the world with his truth.
God gives Ezekiel visions
1 It was the 30th year.[a] God spoke to me on the fifth day of the fourth month.[b] I was among the prisoners from Judah at the side of the Kebar river.[c] At that time the skies opened and I saw visions from God.
2 King Jehoiachin of Judah had been a prisoner in Babylon for five years. On the fifth day of the month, 3 the Lord spoke to Ezekiel, the priest.[d] He was the son of Buzi. He was standing beside the River Kebar in Babylon. While Ezekiel was there, the Lord came to him with power.
4 As I looked, I saw a great storm that was coming from the north. It was a large cloud, with bright lightning. Light shone all around the cloud. It was like a fire that had bright metal in the centre of it. 5 I could see something like four living things in the middle of the fire. Each of them had the shape of a human. 6 But each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight. Their feet were like the feet of young cows. They shone like bright bronze. 8 They had human hands under their wings on the four sides. Each of these four living things had faces and wings that were like this: 9 Their wings touched each other. All the living things moved forward together. They did not turn as they moved.
10 This is what their faces looked like: Each of the living things had four faces. There was a human face at the front. There was a lion's face on the right side. There was a bull's face on the left side. Each of them also had the face of an eagle. 11 Their wings waved up above them. Two wings of each living thing touched the wings of the living things on each side of them. Each living thing covered its body with its other two wings. 12 The living things each moved forward, in the direction that the spirit wanted them to go. They did not turn as they moved.
13 In the middle of the living things was a fire. It looked like coals that were burning, or like bright flames. The fire moved around among the living things. It shone brightly, with lightning coming out from it. 14 The living things moved around very quickly, as fast as lightning.
24 When they moved, I could hear the sound of their wings. They made a noise like lots of water that pours along a river. It was also like the voice of the Almighty God, or the noise of a great army. When the living things stopped moving, they put their wings down at their sides.
25 While they stood with their wings down at their sides, I heard a voice. It came from above the roof over their heads. 26 Above the roof, there was something that looked like a throne. It was made of a blue jewel called sapphire. On the throne, high above, I saw something that looked like the shape of a man. 27 The top part of his body shone like a fire with bright metal in the centre of it. The lower part of his body looked like flames of fire. All around the human shape, there was a very bright light. 28 It shone with the colours of a rainbow in the clouds when there is rain. This bright light showed the glory of the Lord, who was there.
When I saw this, I bent down low with my face on the ground. I heard a voice that was speaking to me.
Jesus became human like us, to save us
5 We are speaking about the new world that will come. God did not choose angels to rule over that world. 6 No! Instead, someone wrote this somewhere in the Bible:
‘Lord God, why do you even think about people?
You take care of men and women,
even though they seem to be so small.
7 For a short time, you made them less important than the angels
But then you made them great and powerful, like kings.
8 You caused them to rule over everything.’[a]
It says that God has caused people to rule over everything. That means that there is nothing that people do not have authority over. But at this time, we do not yet see that people rule over everything. 9 But we do see Jesus![b] God made him less important than the angels for a short time. And now God has made him the great and powerful king. God did this because Jesus died as a sacrifice on behalf of all people. His death showed that God is very kind.
10 It was right that God should bring Jesus back to heaven as king. All things belong to God, and he causes all things to continue. God wanted many people to become his children. He wanted them to live with him in heaven. Jesus made this possible because he died with much pain as a sacrifice. 11 Jesus is the one who makes people clean in front of God. Jesus himself and all the people that he makes clean have the same Father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call all those people his brothers and sisters. 12 He says this to God:
‘I will tell my brothers and sisters that you are great.
When your people meet together,
I will stand with them,
and I will praise you with songs.’[c]
13 He also says this:
‘I will trust God completely.’
He says this too:
‘I stand here with the children that God has given me.’[d]
14 So, those people who become God's children are human. They have human bodies. Because of that, Jesus himself became human like us. In that way, when he died he was able to destroy the Devil. It is the Devil who has power over death. 15 Before, we were like slaves all our lives because we were afraid of death. But now, Jesus' death makes us free. 16 It is clear that Jesus did not come to help the angels. He came to help people who are from Abraham's family.[e]
17 Because of that, it was necessary for Jesus to become completely like us, his brothers and sisters. He had to become God's servant on our behalf, like God's most important priest. In that way, he could serve God well and be kind to us. He died as a sacrifice so that God could forgive us for our sins. 18 While Jesus lived on earth, the Devil tried to make him do wrong things. This caused Jesus to have much pain and trouble. But because of that, he can now help us not to do wrong things.
Jesus appears to his apostles
16 After this, the 11 disciples went to Galilee. They went to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they arrived at the place, they saw Jesus. Then they went down on their knees and they worshipped him. But some of the disciples were not sure that it really was Jesus. 18 Jesus went near to them and he said to them, ‘God has given me authority over everyone and everything. I have all authority in heaven and in this world. 19 So you must go to people in every country of the world. Teach them how to become my disciples. Baptize them by the authority of God the Father, his Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will be with you until the end of time.’
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