Book of Common Prayer
A song of David written when he was in the desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I am searching so hard to find you.
Body and soul, I thirst for you
in this dry and weary land without water.
2 Yes, I have seen you in your Temple.[a]
I have seen your strength and glory.
3 Your faithful love is better than life,
so my lips praise you.
4 By my life, I will praise you.
In your name, I lift my hands in prayer.
5 When I sit down to satisfy my hunger,
my joyful lips hunger to praise you!
6 I remember you while lying on my bed.
I think about you in the middle of the night.
7 That is because you are the one who helps me.
It makes me happy to be under your protection!
8 I stay close to you,
and you hold me with your powerful arm.
9 Those who are trying to kill me will be destroyed.
They will go down to their graves.
10 They will be killed with swords.
Wild dogs will eat their dead bodies.
11 But the king will be happy with his God,
and those who promised to obey him will praise him when he defeats those liars.
A song of praise.
98 Sing a new song[a] to the Lord,
because he has done amazing things!
His powerful and holy right arm[b]
has brought him another victory.
2 The Lord showed the nations his power to save.
He showed them his goodness.
3 He has kept his promise of love and loyalty to the people of Israel.
People everywhere have seen our God’s power to save.
4 Everyone on earth, shout with joy to the Lord.
Start singing happy songs of praise!
5 Praise the Lord with harps.
Yes, praise him with music from the harps.
6 Blow the pipes and horns,
and shout for joy to the Lord our King!
7 Let the sea and everything in it,
the earth and all who live in it shout his praise!
8 Rivers, clap your hands!
All together now, mountains sing out!
9 Sing before the Lord
because he is coming to judge the world.
He will rule the world fairly.
He will rule the people with goodness.
A song of David.
103 My soul, praise the Lord!
Every part of me, praise his holy name!
2 My soul, praise the Lord
and never forget how kind he is!
3 He forgives all our sins
and heals all our sicknesses.
4 He saves us from the grave,
and he gives us love and compassion.
5 He gives us plenty of good things.
He makes us young again,
like an eagle that grows new feathers.
6 The Lord does what is fair.
He brings justice to all who have been hurt by others.
7 He taught his laws to Moses.
He let Israel see the powerful things he can do.
8 The Lord is kind and merciful.
He is patient and full of love.
9 He does not always criticize.
He does not stay angry with us forever.
10 We sinned against him,
but he didn’t give us the punishment we deserved.
11 His love for his followers is
as high above us as heaven is above the earth.
12 And he has taken our sins
as far away from us as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is as kind to his followers
as a father is to his children.
14 He knows all about us.
He knows we are made from dust.
15 He knows our lives are short, that they are like grass.
He knows we are like a little wildflower that grows so quickly,
16 but when the hot wind blows, it dies.
Soon, you cannot even see where the flower was.
17 But the Lord has always loved his followers,
and he will continue to love them forever and ever!
He will be good to all their descendants,
18 to those who are faithful to his agreement
and who remember to obey his commands.
19 The Lord set his throne up in heaven,
and he rules over everything.
20 Angels, praise the Lord!
You angels are the powerful soldiers who obey his commands.
You listen to him and obey his commands.
21 Praise the Lord, all his armies.[a]
You are his servants,
and you do what he wants.
22 Everything the Lord has made should praise him
throughout the world that he rules!
My soul, praise the Lord!
2 At this time Abram was very rich. He had many animals and much silver and gold.
3 Abram continued traveling around. He left the Negev and went back to Bethel. He went to the place between the city of Bethel and Ai,[a] where he and his family had camped before. 4 This was where Abram had built an altar earlier. So he worshiped the Lord there.
Abram and Lot Separate
5 During this time Lot was also traveling with Abram. Lot had many animals and tents. 6 Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together. 7 (The Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in this land at the same time.) The shepherds of Abram and Lot began to argue.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me or between your people and my people. We are all brothers. 9 We should separate. You can choose any place you want. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. At that time the Jordan Valley all the way to Zoar was like the Lord’s Garden. This was good land, like the land of Egypt.) 11 So Lot chose to live in the Jordan Valley. The two men separated, and Lot began traveling east. 12 Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived among the cities in the valley. Lot moved as far as Sodom and made his camp there. 13 The Lord knew that the people of Sodom were very evil sinners.
14 After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look around you. Look north, south, east, west. 15 All this land that you see I will give to you and your people who live after you. This will be your land forever. 16 I will make your people so many that they will be like the dust of the earth. If people could count all the particles of dust on earth, they could count your people. 17 So go. Walk through your land. I now give it to you.”
18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the big trees of Mamre. This was near the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to honor the Lord.
The Other Apostles Accepted Paul
2 After 14 years I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me. 2 I went there because God showed me that I should go. I explained to them the message that I tell the non-Jewish people. I also met alone with those who were considered to be the leaders. I wanted to be sure we were in agreement so that my past work and the work I do now would not be wasted.
3 Titus, who was with me, is a Greek. But these leaders still did not force him to be circumcised. 4 We needed to talk about these problems, because some who pretended to be our brothers had come into our group secretly. They came in like spies to find out about the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves, 5 but we did not agree with anything those false brothers wanted. We wanted the truth of the Good News to continue for you.
6 Those men who were considered to be important did not change the Good News message I tell people. (It doesn’t matter to me if they were “important” or not. To God everyone is the same.) 7 But these leaders saw that God had given me a special work, the same as Peter. God gave Peter the work of telling the Good News to the Jews. But God gave me the work of telling the Good News to the non-Jewish people. 8 God gave Peter the power to work as an apostle for the Jewish people. God gave me the power to work as an apostle too, but for those who are not Jews. 9 James, Peter, and John seemed to be the leaders. And they saw that God had given me this special gift of ministry, so they accepted Barnabas and me. They said to us, “We agree that you should go to those who are not Jews, and we will go to the Jews.” 10 They asked us to do only one thing—to remember to help those who are poor. And this was something that I really wanted to do.
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
31 Then Jesus left the area around Tyre and went through Sidon. On his way to Lake Galilee he went through the area of the Ten Towns. 32 While he was there, some people brought a man to him who was deaf and could not talk clearly. The people begged Jesus to put his hand on the man to heal him.
33 Jesus led the man away from the people to be alone with him. He put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spit on a finger and put it on the man’s tongue. 34 Jesus looked up to the sky and with a loud sigh he said, “Ephphatha!” (This means “Open!”) 35 As soon as Jesus did this, the man was able to hear. He was able to use his tongue, and he began to speak clearly.
36 Jesus told the people not to tell anyone about this. But the more he told them not to say anything, the more people they told. 37 They were all completely amazed. They said, “Look at what he has done. It’s all good. He makes deaf people able to hear and gives a new voice to people who could not talk.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International