Book of Common Prayer
97 Jehovah is King! Let all the earth rejoice! Tell the farthest islands to be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes forth before him and burns up all his foes. 4 His lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens declare his perfect righteousness; every nation sees his glory.
7 Let those who worship idols be disgraced—all who brag about their worthless gods—for every god must bow to him! 8-9 Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah have heard of your justice, Lord, and are glad that you reign in majesty over the entire earth and are far greater than these other gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he protects the lives of his people and rescues them from the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the godly and joy for the good. 12 May all who are godly be happy in the Lord and crown him,[a] our holy God.
99 Jehovah is King! Let the nations tremble! He is enthroned between the Guardian Angels. Let the whole earth shake.
2 Jehovah sits in majesty in Zion, supreme above all rulers of the earth. 3 Let them reverence your great and holy name.
4 This mighty King is determined to give justice. Fairness is the touchstone of everything he does. He gives justice throughout Israel. 5 Exalt the Lord our holy God! Bow low before his feet.
6 When Moses and Aaron and Samuel, his prophet, cried to him for help, he answered them. 7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud, and they followed his instructions. 8 O Jehovah our God! You answered them and forgave their sins, yet punished them when they went wrong.
9 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for he is holy.
100 Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! 2 Obey him gladly; come before him, singing with joy.
3 Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Go through his open gates with great thanksgiving; enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.
94 1-2 Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs, let your glory shine out. Arise and judge the earth; sentence the proud to the penalties they deserve. 3 Lord, how long shall the wicked be allowed to triumph and exult? 4 Hear their insolence! See their arrogance! How these men of evil boast! 5 See them oppressing your people, O Lord, afflicting those you love. 6-7 They murder widows, immigrants, and orphans, for “The Lord isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, he[a] doesn’t care.”
8 Fools! 9 Is God deaf and blind—he who makes ears and eyes? 10 He punishes the nations—won’t he also punish you? He knows everything—doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
11 The Lord is fully aware of how limited and futile the thoughts of mankind are, 12-13 so he helps us by punishing us. This makes us follow his paths and gives us respite from our enemies while God traps them and destroys them. 14 The Lord will not forsake his people, for they are his prize. 15 Judgment will again be just, and all the upright will rejoice.
16 Who will protect me from the wicked? Who will be my shield? 17 I would have died unless the Lord had helped me. 18 I screamed, “I’m slipping, Lord!” and he was kind and saved me.
19 Lord, when doubts fill my mind, when my heart is in turmoil, quiet me and give me renewed hope and cheer. 20 Will you permit a corrupt government to rule under your protection—a government permitting wrong to defeat right? 21-22 Do you approve of those who condemn the innocent to death? No! The Lord my God is my fortress—the mighty Rock where I can hide. 23 God has made the sins of evil men to boomerang upon them! He will destroy them by their own plans. Jehovah our God will cut them off.
95 Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord! Give a joyous shout in honor of the Rock of our salvation!
2 Come before him with thankful hearts. Let us sing him psalms of praise. 3 For the Lord is a great God, the great King of[b] all gods. 4 He controls the formation of the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains; all are his. 5 He made the sea and formed the land; they too are his. 6 Come, kneel before the Lord our Maker, 7 for he is our God. We are his sheep, and he is our Shepherd. Oh, that you would hear him calling you today and come to him!
8 Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness[c] at Meribah and Massah. 9 For there your fathers doubted me, though they had seen so many of my miracles before. My patience was severely tried by their complaints. 10 “For forty years I watched them in disgust,” the Lord God says. “They were a nation whose thoughts and heart were far away from me. They refused to accept my laws. 11 Therefore, in mighty wrath I swore that they would never enter the Promised Land, the place of rest I planned for them.”
14 When General Joab realized how much the king was longing to see Absalom, 2-3 he sent for a woman of Tekoa who had a reputation for great wisdom and told her to ask for an appointment with the king. He told her what to say to him.
“Pretend you are in mourning,” Joab instructed her. “Wear mourning clothes, and dishevel your hair as though you have been in deep sorrow for a long time.”
4 When the woman approached the king, she fell face downward on the floor in front of him, and cried out, “O king! Help me!”
5-6 “What’s the trouble?” he asked.
“I am a widow,” she replied, “and my two sons had a fight out in the field, and since no one was there to part them, one of them was killed. 7 Now the rest of the family is demanding that I surrender my other son to them to be executed for murdering his brother. But if I do that, I will have no one left, and my husband’s name will be destroyed from the face of the earth.”
8 “Leave it with me,” the king told her. “I’ll see to it that no one touches him.”
9 “Oh, thank you, my lord,” she replied. “And I’ll take the responsibility if you are criticized for helping me like this.”
10 “Don’t worry about that!” the king replied. “If anyone objects, bring him to me; I can assure you he will never complain again!”
11 Then she said, “Please swear to me by God that you won’t let anyone harm my son. I want no more bloodshed.”
“I vow by God,” he replied, “that not a hair of your son’s head shall be disturbed!”
12 “Please let me ask one more thing of you!” she said.
“Go ahead,” he replied. “Speak!”
13 “Why don’t you do as much for all the people of God as you have promised to do for me?” she asked. “You have convicted yourself in making this decision, because you have refused to bring home your own banished son. 14 All of us must die eventually; our lives are like water that is poured out on the ground—it can’t be gathered up again. But God will bless you with a longer life if you will find a way to bring your son back from his exile.[a] 15-16 But I have come to plead with you for my son because my life and my son’s life have been threatened, and I said to myself, ‘Perhaps the king will listen to me and rescue us from those who would end our existence in Israel. 17 Yes, the king will give us peace again.’ I know that you are like an angel of God and can discern good from evil. May God be with you.”
18 “I want to know one thing,” the king replied.
“Yes, my lord?” she asked.
19 “Did Joab send you here?”
And the woman replied, “How can I deny it? Yes, Joab sent me and told me what to say. 20 He did it in order to place the matter before you in a different light. But you are as wise as an angel of God, and you know everything that happens!”
21 After parting from the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara. 2 There we boarded a ship sailing for the Syrian province of Phoenicia. 3 We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship unloaded. 4 We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These disciples warned Paul—the Holy Spirit prophesying through them—not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 At the end of the week when we returned to the ship, the entire congregation including wives and children walked down to the beach with us where we prayed and said our farewells. 6 Then we went aboard, and they returned home.
7 The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the believers but stayed only one day. 8 Then we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the first seven deacons.[a] 9 He had four unmarried[b] daughters who had the gift of prophecy.
10 During our stay of several days, a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea 11 and visited us. He took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem and turned over to the Romans.’” 12 Hearing this, all of us—the local believers and his traveling companions—begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
13 But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When it was clear that he wouldn’t be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”
10 Then he left Capernaum[a] and went southward to the Judean borders and into the area east of the Jordan River. And as always there were the crowds; and as usual he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and asked him, “Do you permit divorce?” Of course they were trying to trap him.
3 “What did Moses say about divorce?” Jesus asked them.
4 “He said it was all right,” they replied. “He said that all a man has to do is write his wife a letter of dismissal.”
5 “And why did he say that?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you why—it was a concession to your hardhearted wickedness. 6-7 But it certainly isn’t God’s way. For from the very first he made man and woman to be joined together permanently in marriage; therefore a man is to leave his father and mother, 8 and he and his wife are united so that they are no longer two, but one. 9 And no man may separate what God has joined together.”
10 Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again.
11 He told them, “When a man divorces his wife to marry someone else, he commits adultery against her. 12 And if a wife divorces her husband and remarries, she, too, commits adultery.”
13 Once when some mothers[b] were bringing their children to Jesus to bless them, the disciples shooed them away, telling them not to bother him.
14 But when Jesus saw what was happening he was very much displeased with his disciples and said to them, “Let the children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. Don’t send them away! 15 I tell you as seriously as I know how that anyone who refuses to come to God as a little child will never be allowed into his Kingdom.”
16 Then he took the children into his arms and placed his hands on their heads and he blessed them.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.