Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 97
97 The Lord rules! Let the earth rejoice!
Let all the islands celebrate!
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround God.
His throne is built on righteousness and justice.
3 Fire proceeds before him,
burning up his enemies on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees it and trembles!
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of the whole world!
6 Heaven has proclaimed God’s righteousness,
and all nations have seen his glory.
7 All those who worship images,
those who are proud of idols,
are put to shame.
All gods bow down to the Lord!
8 Zion has heard and celebrates,
the towns[a] of Judah rejoice,
because of your acts of justice, Lord,
9 because you, Lord, are the Most High
over all the earth,
because you are so superior to all other gods.
10 Those of you who love the Lord, hate evil!
God guards the lives of his faithful ones,
delivering them from the power of the wicked.
11 Light is planted like seed for the righteous person;
joy too for those whose heart is right.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, righteous ones!
Give thanks to his holy name!
Psalm 99
99 The Lord rules—
the nations shake!
He sits enthroned on the winged heavenly creatures—
the earth quakes!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them thank your great and awesome name.
He is holy!
4 Strong king[a] who loves justice,
you are the one who established what is fair.
You worked justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Magnify the Lord, our God!
Bow low at his footstool!
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel too among those who called on his name.
They cried out to the Lord, and he himself answered them—
7 he spoke to them from a pillar of cloud.
They kept the laws and the rules God gave to them.
8 Lord our God, you answered them.
To them you were a God who forgives
but also the one who avenged their wrong deeds.
9 Magnify the Lord our God!
Bow low at his holy mountain
because the Lord our God is holy!
Psalm 100
A psalm of thanks.
100 Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with celebration!
Come before him with shouts of joy!
3 Know that the Lord is God—
he made us; we belong to him.[b]
We are his people,
the sheep of his own pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanks;
enter his courtyards with praise!
Thank him! Bless his name!
5 Because the Lord is good,
his loyal love lasts forever;
his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.
Psalm 94
94 Lord, avenging God—
avenging God, show yourself!
2 Rise up, judge of the earth!
Pay back the arrogant exactly what they deserve!
3 How long will the wicked—oh, Lord!—
how long will the wicked win?
4 They spew arrogant words;
all the evildoers are bragging.
5 They crush your own people, Lord!
They abuse your very own possession.
6 They kill widows and immigrants;
they murder orphans,
7 saying all the while,
“The Lord can’t see it;
Jacob’s God doesn’t know
what’s going on!”
8 You ignorant people better learn quickly.
You fools—when will you get some sense?
9 The one who made the ear,
can’t he hear?
The one who formed the eye,
can’t he see?
10 The one who disciplines nations,
can’t he punish?
The one who teaches humans,
doesn’t he know?[a]
11 The Lord does indeed know human thoughts,
knows that they are nothing but a puff of air.
12 The people you discipline, Lord, are truly happy—
the ones you teach from your Instruction—
13 giving them relief from troubling times
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 The Lord will not reject his people;
he will not abandon his very own possession.
15 No, but justice will once again meet up with righteousness,
and all whose heart is right will follow after.
16 Who will stand up for me against the wicked?
Who will help me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord hadn’t helped me,
I[b] would live instantly in total silence.
18 Whenever I feel my foot slipping,
your faithful love steadies me, Lord.
19 When my anxieties multiply,
your comforting calms me down.
20 Can a wicked ruler be your ally;
one who wreaks havoc by means of the law?
21 The wicked gang up against the lives of the righteous.
They condemn innocent blood.
22 But the Lord is my fortress;
my God is my rock of refuge.
23 He will repay them for their wickedness,
completely destroy them because of their evil.
Yes, the Lord our God will completely destroy them.
Psalm 95
95 Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord!
Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come before him with thanks!
Let’s shout songs of joy to him!
3 The Lord is a great God,
the great king over all other gods.
4 The earth’s depths are in his hands;
the mountain heights belong to him;
5 the sea, which he made, is his
along with the dry ground,
which his own hands formed.
6 Come, let’s worship and bow down!
Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker!
7 He is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep in his hands.
If only you would listen to his voice right now!
8 “Don’t harden your hearts
like you did at Meribah,
like you did when you were at Massah,
in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me
and scrutinized me,
even though they had already seen my acts.
10 For forty years I despised that generation;
I said, ‘These people have twisted hearts.
They don’t know my ways.’
11 So in anger I swore:
‘They will never enter my place of rest!’”
Hezekiah rules
29 Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah; she was Zechariah’s daughter. 2 He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his ancestor David had done. 3 In the very first year of his rule, during the first month, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Lord’s temple, having repaired them.
Hezekiah’s Passover
30 Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh as well, inviting them to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel. 2 The king, his officials, and the entire Jerusalem congregation had decided to celebrate Passover in the second month.[a] 3 They had been unable to celebrate it at the usual time because the priests had failed to make themselves holy in sufficient numbers, and the people hadn’t gathered at Jerusalem. 4 Since the plan seemed good to the king and the entire congregation, 5 they made arrangements to circulate an announcement throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel, because they hadn’t often kept it as written. 6 Under the authority of the king, runners took letters from the king and his officials throughout all Israel and Judah, which read:
People of Israel! Return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped capture by the Assyrian kings. 7 Don’t be like your ancestors and relatives, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror as you can see for yourselves. 8 So don’t be stubborn like your ancestors. Surrender to the Lord! Come to God’s sanctuary, which he has made holy forever, and serve the Lord your God so that he won’t be angry with you any longer. 9 When you return to the Lord, your relatives and your children will receive mercy from their captors and be allowed to return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate. He won’t withdraw his presence from you if you return to him.
10 So the runners went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, all the way to Zebulun. But they were laughed at and made fun of. 11 Even so, some people from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun were submissive and came to Jerusalem. 12 Moreover, God’s power was at work in Judah, unifying them to do what the king and his officials had ordered by the Lord’s command.
13 A huge crowd gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month. A very large congregation gathered. 14 First, they removed the altars in Jerusalem, and hauled off the incense altars and dumped them in the Kidron Valley. 15 They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed of themselves, the priests and the Levites made themselves holy and brought entirely burned offerings to the Lord’s temple. 16 They now took their places as laid out in the Instruction from Moses the man of God, and the priests splashed the blood they received from the Levites against the altar. 17 Since many in the congregation hadn’t made themselves holy, the Levites slaughtered the Passover lambs, making them holy to the Lord for all who weren’t ceremonially clean. 18 This included most of those who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—people who hadn’t purified themselves and so hadn’t eaten the Passover meal in the prescribed way. But Hezekiah prayed for them: “May the good Lord forgive 19 everyone who has decided to seek the true God, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, even though they aren’t ceremonially clean by sanctuary standards.” 20 The Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. 21 So the Israelites in Jerusalem joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, with the Levites and the priests praising the Lord every day, accompanied by the Lord’s mighty instruments. 22 Hezekiah congratulated all the Levites who had performed so skillfully for the Lord. They feasted throughout the seven days of the festival, sacrificing well-being offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
23 Then the whole congregation agreed to celebrate another seven days, which they joyfully did. 24 Judah’s King Hezekiah contributed one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the congregation, while the officials provided another thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep, and great numbers of priests made themselves holy. 25 Then the whole congregation of Judah rejoiced, as did the priests and the Levites, the whole congregation from Israel, the immigrants who had come from the land of Israel, and those who lived in Judah. 26 There was great joy in Jerusalem. Nothing like this had taken place in Jerusalem since the days of Israel’s King Solomon, David’s son. 27 Then the levitical priests blessed the people, and their voice was heard when their prayer reached God’s holy dwelling in heaven.
32 I want you to be free from concerns. A man who isn’t married is concerned about the Lord’s concerns—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the world’s concerns—how he can please his wife. 34 His attention is divided. A woman who isn’t married or who is a virgin is concerned about the Lord’s concerns so that she can be dedicated to God in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the world’s concerns—how she can please her husband. 35 I’m saying this for your own advantage. It’s not to restrict you but rather to promote effective and consistent service to the Lord without distraction.
36 If someone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward an unmarried woman whom he knows, and if he has strong feelings and it seems like the right thing to do, he should do what he wants—he’s not sinning—they should get married. 37 But if a man stands firm in his decision, and doesn’t feel the pressure, but has his own will under control, he does right if he decides in his own heart not to marry the woman. 38 Therefore, the one who marries the unmarried woman does right, and the one who doesn’t get married will do even better. 39 A woman is obligated to stay in her marriage as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she wants, only it should be a believer in the Lord. 40 But in my opinion, she will be happier if she stays the way she is. And I think that I have God’s Spirit too.
Judging
7 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you. 3 Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? 5 You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye. 6 Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will stomp on the pearls, then turn around and attack you.
Asking, seeking, knocking
7 “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened. 9 Who among you will give your children a stone when they ask for bread? 10 Or give them a snake when they ask for fish? 11 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. 12 Therefore, you should treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you; this is the Law and the Prophets.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible