Book of Common Prayer
In Praise of the Lord
117 (A)Praise the Lord, all nations!
Praise him, all peoples!
2 His love for us is strong,
and his faithfulness is eternal.
Praise the Lord!
A Prayer of Thanks for Victory
118 (B)Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good,
and his love is eternal.
2 Let the people of Israel say,
“His love is eternal.”
3 Let the priests of God say,
“His love is eternal.”
4 Let all who worship him say,
“His love is eternal.”
5 In my distress I called to the Lord;
he answered me and set me free.
6 (C)The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid;
what can anyone do to me?
7 It is the Lord who helps me,
and I will see my enemies defeated.
8 It is better to trust in the Lord
than to depend on people.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord
than to depend on human leaders.
10 Many enemies were around me;
but I destroyed them by the power of the Lord!
11 They were around me on every side;
but I destroyed them by the power of the Lord!
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they burned out as quickly as a brush fire;
by the power of the Lord I destroyed them.
13 I was fiercely attacked and was being defeated,
but the Lord helped me.
14 (D)The Lord makes me powerful and strong;
he has saved me.
15 Listen to the glad shouts of victory in the tents of God's people:
“The Lord's mighty power has done it!
16 His power has brought us victory—
his mighty power in battle!”
17 I will not die; instead, I will live
and proclaim what the Lord has done.
18 He has punished me severely,
but he has not let me die.
19 Open to me the gates of the Temple;
I will go in and give thanks to the Lord!
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
only the righteous can come in.
21 I praise you, Lord, because you heard me,
because you have given me victory.
22 (E)The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all.
23 This was done by the Lord;
what a wonderful sight it is!
24 This is the day of the Lord's victory;
let us be happy, let us celebrate!
25 (F)Save us, Lord, save us!
Give us success, O Lord!
26 (G)May God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
From the Temple of the Lord we bless you.
27 The Lord is God; he has been good to us.
With branches in your hands, start the festival
and march around the altar.
28 You are my God, and I give you thanks;
I will proclaim your greatness.
29 Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good,
and his love is eternal.
The Happiness of a Good Person
112 Praise the Lord!
Happy is the person who honors the Lord,
who takes pleasure in obeying his commands.
2 The good man's children will be powerful in the land;
his descendants will be blessed.
3 His family will be wealthy and rich,
and he will be prosperous forever.
4 Light shines in the darkness for good people,
for those who are merciful, kind, and just.
5 Happy is the person who is generous with his loans,
who runs his business honestly.
6 A good person will never fail;
he will always be remembered.
7 He is not afraid of receiving bad news;
his faith is strong, and he trusts in the Lord.
8 He is not worried or afraid;
he is certain to see his enemies defeated.
9 (A)He gives generously to the needy,
and his kindness never fails;
he will be powerful and respected.
10 The wicked see this and are angry;
they glare in hate and disappear;
their hopes are gone forever.
In Praise of the Lord's Goodness
113 Praise the Lord!
You servants of the Lord,
praise his name!
2 May his name be praised,
now and forever.
3 From the east to the west
praise the name of the Lord!
4 The Lord rules over all nations;
his glory is above the heavens.
5 There is no one like the Lord our God.
He lives in the heights above,
6 but he bends down
to see the heavens and the earth.
7 He raises the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from their misery
8 and makes them companions of princes,
the princes of his people.
9 He honors the childless wife in her home;
he makes her happy by giving her children.
Praise the Lord!
Water from the Rock(A)
17 (B)The whole Israelite community left the desert of Sin, moving from one place to another at the command of the Lord. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there to drink. 2 They complained to Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses answered, “Why are you complaining? Why are you putting the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
4 Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord and said, “What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The Lord said to Moses, “Take some of the leaders of Israel with you, and go on ahead of the people. Take along the stick with which you struck the Nile. 6 I will stand before you on a rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moses did so in the presence of the leaders of Israel.
7 The place was named Massah and Meribah,[a] because the Israelites complained and put the Lord to the test when they asked, “Is the Lord with us or not?”
The Person and Work of Christ
15 (A)Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. 16 For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. 17 Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. 18 (B)He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. 19 For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. 20 (C)Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood[a] on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.
21 At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought. 22 But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. 23 You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant—this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.
Streams of Life-Giving Water
37 (A)On the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, “Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and 38 (B)whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.’”[a] 39 Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory.
Division among the People
40 Some of the people in the crowd heard him say this and said, “This man is really the Prophet!”[b]
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah!”
But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee! 42 (C)The scripture says that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David and will be born in Bethlehem, the town where David lived.” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
The Unbelief of the Jewish Authorities
45 When the guards went back, the chief priests and Pharisees asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
46 The guards answered, “Nobody has ever talked the way this man does!”
47 “Did he fool you, too?” the Pharisees asked them. 48 “Have you ever known one of the authorities or one Pharisee to believe in him? 49 This crowd does not know the Law of Moses, so they are under God's curse!”
50 (D)One of the Pharisees there was Nicodemus, the man who had gone to see Jesus before. He said to the others, 51 “According to our Law we cannot condemn people before hearing them and finding out what they have done.”
52 “Well,” they answered, “are you also from Galilee? Study the Scriptures and you will learn that no prophet ever comes
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.