Book of Common Prayer
A Song for the King’s Wedding
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” A maskil. A love song of the sons of Korah.
45 Beautiful words fill my mind.
I am speaking of royal things.
My tongue is like the pen of a skilled writer.
2 You are more handsome than anyone.
You are a very good speaker.
God has blessed you forever.
3 Put on your sword, powerful warrior.
Show your glory and majesty.
4 In your majesty win the victory.
Defend what is true and right.
Your power will do amazing things.
5 Your sharp arrows will enter
the hearts of the king’s enemies.
Nations will be defeated before you.
6 God, your throne will last forever and ever.
You will rule your kingdom with fairness.
7 You love right and hate evil.
So God has chosen you to rule those with you.
Your God has given you much joy.
8 Your clothes smell like myrrh, aloes and cassia.
From palaces of ivory
music comes to make you happy.
9 Kings’ daughters are among your honored women.
Your bride stands at your right side
wearing gold from Ophir.
10 Listen to me, daughter. Look and pay attention.
Forget your people and your father’s family.
11 The king loves your beauty.
Because he is your master, you should obey him.
12 People from the city of Tyre have brought a gift.
Wealthy people will want to meet you.
13 The princess is very beautiful.
Her gown is woven with gold.
14 In her beautiful clothes she is brought to the king.
Her bridesmaids follow behind her.
And they are also brought to him.
15 They come with happiness and joy.
They enter the king’s palace.
16 You will have sons to take the place of your ancestors.
You will make them rulers through all the land.
17 I will make your name famous from now on.
People will praise you forever and ever.
God, the King of the World
For the director of music. A song of the sons of Korah.
47 Clap your hands, all you people.
Shout to God with joy.
2 The Lord Most High is wonderful.
He is the great King over all the earth!
3 He defeated nations for us
and put them under our control.
4 He chose the land we would inherit.
We are the children of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah
5 God has risen with a shout of joy.
The Lord has risen as the trumpets sounded.
6 Sing praises to God. Sing praises.
Sing praises to our King. Sing praises.
7 God is King of all the earth.
So sing a song of praise to him.
8 God is King over the nations.
God sits on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations meet
with the people of the God of Abraham.
Even the leaders of the earth belong to God.
He is supreme.
Jerusalem, the City of God
A song of the sons of Korah.
48 The Lord is great; he should be praised
in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
2 It is high and beautiful.
It brings joy to the whole world.
Mount Zion is like the high mountains of the north.
It is the city of the Great King.
3 God is within its palaces.
He is known as its protection.
4 Kings joined together
and came together to attack the city.
5 But when they saw it, they were amazed.
They ran away in fear.
6 Fear took hold of them.
They hurt like a woman having a baby.
7 You destroyed the large trading ships
with an east wind.
8 First we heard.
And now we have seen that
God will always keep his city safe.
It is the city of the Lord of heaven’s armies,
the city of our God. Selah
9 God, we come into your Temple.
There we think about your love.
10 God, your name is known everywhere.
Everywhere on earth people praise you.
Your right hand is full of goodness.
11 Mount Zion is happy.
All the towns of Judah rejoice
because your decisions are fair.
12 Walk around Jerusalem
and count its towers.
13 Notice how strong they are. Look at the palaces.
Then you will be able to tell your children about them.
14 This God is our God forever and ever.
He will guide us from now on.
The Place for Worship
12 These are the commands and laws you must carefully obey in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Obey them as long as you live in the land. 2 You will inherit the lands of these nations. You must completely destroy all the places where they serve their gods. These places are on high mountains and hills and under every green tree. 3 Tear down their altars. Smash their holy stone pillars. Burn their Asherah idols. Cut down their idols. Destroy their names from those places.
4 Don’t worship the Lord your God that way. 5 But look for the place the Lord your God will choose. He will choose a place among your tribes where he is to be worshiped. Go there. 6 Bring to that place your burnt offerings and sacrifices. Bring a tenth of what you gain and your special gifts. Bring what you have promised and the special gifts you want to give the Lord. And bring the first animals born to your herds and flocks.
7 There you will be together with the Lord your God. There you and your families will eat. And you will enjoy all the good things for which you have worked. The Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Do not worship the way we have been doing today. Each person does what he thinks is right. 9 You have not yet come to a resting place. The Lord your God will give you your own land. 10 But you will soon cross the Jordan River. And you will live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to own. And he will give you rest from all your enemies. You will live in safety. 11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. To that place you must bring everything I tell you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your offerings of a tenth of what you gain, your special gifts and all your best things you promised to the Lord. 12 There rejoice before the Lord your God. Everyone should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no land of their own.
3 We do not want anyone to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem for anyone. 4 But in every way we show that we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems. 5 We are beaten and thrown into prison. Men become upset and fight us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. 6 We show that we are servants of God by living a pure life, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show this by the Holy Spirit, by true love, 7 by speaking the truth, and by God’s power. We use our right living to defend ourselves against everything. 8 Some people honor us, but other people shame us. Some people say good things about us, but other people say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. 9 We are not known, but we are well-known. We seem to be dying, but look—we continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. 10 We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. 12 Our feelings of love for you have not stopped. It is you that have stopped your feelings of love for us. 13 I speak to you as if you were my children. Do to us as we have done—open your hearts to us.
Warning About Non-Christians
14 You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. 15 How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a non-believer? 16 The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols. And we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God. And they will be my people.”[a]
17 “Leave those people,
and make yourselves pure, says the Lord.
Touch nothing that is unclean,
and I will accept you.” Isaiah 52:11; Ezekiel 20:34, 41
18 “I will be your father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord All-Powerful.” 2 Samuel 7:14; 7:8
7 Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So we should make ourselves pure—free from anything that makes body or soul unclean. We should try to become perfect in the way we live, because we respect God.
Be Thankful
11 Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Traveling from Galilee to Samaria, 12 he came into a small town. Ten men met him there. These men did not come close to Jesus, because they all had a harmful skin disease. 13 But they called to him, “Jesus! Master! Please help us!”
14 When Jesus saw the men, he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”[a]
While the ten men were going, they were healed. 15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he went back to Jesus. He praised God in a loud voice. 16 Then he bowed down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (This man was a Samaritan.) 17 Jesus asked, “Ten men were healed; where are the other nine? 18 Is this Samaritan the only one who came back to thank God?” 19 Then Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go on your way. You were healed because you believed.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.