Book of Common Prayer
God the King
93 The Lord is king.
He is clothed with majesty and strength.
The earth is set firmly in place
and cannot be moved.
2 Your throne, O Lord, has been firm from the beginning,
and you existed before time began.
3 The ocean depths raise their voice, O Lord;
they raise their voice and roar.
4 The Lord rules supreme in heaven,
greater than the roar of the ocean,
more powerful than the waves of the sea.
5 Your laws are eternal, Lord,
and your Temple is holy indeed,
forever and ever.
God the Supreme King(A)
96 Sing a new song to the Lord!
Sing to the Lord, all the world!
2 Sing to the Lord, and praise him!
Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.
3 Proclaim his glory to the nations,
his mighty deeds to all peoples.
4 The Lord is great and is to be highly praised;
he is to be honored more than all the gods.
5 The gods of all other nations are only idols,
but the Lord created the heavens.
6 Glory and majesty surround him;
power and beauty fill his Temple.
7 (B)Praise the Lord, all people on earth;
praise his glory and might.
8 Praise the Lord's glorious name;
bring an offering and come into his Temple.
9 Bow down before the Holy One when he appears;[a]
tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say to all the nations, “The Lord is king!
The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with justice.”
11 Be glad, earth and sky!
Roar, sea, and every creature in you;
12 be glad, fields, and everything in you!
The trees in the woods will shout for joy
13 when the Lord comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the peoples of the world
with justice and fairness.
(A)In Praise of God's Goodness[a]
34 I will always thank the Lord;
I will never stop praising him.
2 I will praise him for what he has done;
may all who are oppressed listen and be glad!
3 Proclaim with me the Lord's greatness;
let us praise his name together!
4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me;
he freed me from all my fears.
5 The oppressed look to him and are glad;
they will never be disappointed.
6 The helpless call to him, and he answers;
he saves them from all their troubles.
7 His angel guards those who honor the Lord
and rescues them from danger.
8 (B)Find out for yourself how good the Lord is.
Happy are those who find safety with him.
9 Honor the Lord, all his people;
those who obey him have all they need.
10 Even lions go hungry for lack of food,
but those who obey the Lord lack nothing good.
11 Come, my young friends, and listen to me,
and I will teach you to honor the Lord.
12 (C)Would you like to enjoy life?
Do you want long life and happiness?
13 Then keep from speaking evil
and from telling lies.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
strive for peace with all your heart.
15 The Lord watches over the righteous
and listens to their cries;
16 but he opposes those who do evil,
so that when they die, they are soon forgotten.
17 The righteous call to the Lord, and he listens;
he rescues them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who are discouraged;
he saves those who have lost all hope.
19 Good people suffer many troubles,
but the Lord saves them from them all;
20 (D)the Lord preserves them completely;
not one of their bones is broken.
21 Evil will kill the wicked;
those who hate the righteous will be punished.
22 The Lord will save his people;
those who go to him for protection will be spared.
The Judges
11 (A)Then there were the judges, each of them famous in their own right, who never fell into idolatry and never abandoned the Lord. 12 May their memory be honored! May these whom we honor spring from the grave to new life in their descendants!
Samuel
13 (B)Samuel was loved by the Lord. As the Lord's prophet he established the kingdom and appointed rulers for the people. 14 He judged the nation in accordance with the Law of the Lord, and the Lord protected Israel. 15 Because Samuel was faithful, he was accepted as a true prophet. People trusted him as a seer because of his words. 16 When his enemies were threatening him from every side, he called upon the mighty Lord and offered him a young lamb as a sacrifice. 17 Then the Lord thundered from heaven with a mighty roar 18 and destroyed all the enemy[a] rulers of Philistia. 19 When Samuel was about to die, he gave assurances before the Lord and the anointed king that he had never taken anyone's property, not even so much as a pair of shoes, and no one contradicted him. 20 Even after he died, he prophesied to King Saul how he would die. Out of the grave he spoke as a prophet, to blot out his people's wickedness.
The Angels with the Last Plagues
15 Then I saw in the sky another mysterious sight, great and amazing. There were seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last ones, because they are the final expression of God's anger.
2 Then I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. I also saw those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and over the one whose name is represented by a number. They were standing by the sea of glass, holding harps that God had given them 3 (A)and singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Lord God Almighty,
how great and wonderful are your deeds!
King of the nations,[a]
how right and true are your ways!
4 (B)Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord?
Who will refuse to declare your greatness?
You alone are holy.
All the nations will come
and worship you,
because your just actions are seen by all.”
5 (C)After this I saw the temple in heaven open, with the Sacred Tent in it. 6 The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, dressed in clean shining linen and with gold bands tied around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 (D)The temple was filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one could go into the temple until the seven plagues brought by the seven angels had come to an end.
Who Is the Greatest? (A)
18 (B)At that time the disciples came to Jesus, asking, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
2 So Jesus called a child to come and stand in front of them, 3 (C)and said, “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. 4 The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child. 5 And whoever welcomes in my name one such child as this, welcomes me.
Temptations to Sin(D)
6 “If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose his faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around his neck and be drowned in the deep sea. 7 How terrible for the world that there are things that make people lose their faith! Such things will always happen—but how terrible for the one who causes them!
8 (E)“If your hand or your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off and throw it away! It is better for you to enter life without a hand or a foot than to keep both hands and both feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 (F)And if your eye makes you lose your faith, take it out and throw it away! It is better for you to enter life with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep(G)
10 (H)“See that you don't despise any of these little ones. Their angels in heaven, I tell you, are always in the presence of my Father in heaven. 11 [a]
12 “What do you think a man does who has one hundred sheep and one of them gets lost? He will leave the other ninety-nine grazing on the hillside and go and look for the lost sheep. 13 When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. 14 In just the same way your[b] Father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost.
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.