Book of Common Prayer
87 1-2 High on his holy mountain stands Jerusalem,[a] the city of God, the city he loves more than any other!
3 O city of God, what wondrous tales are told of you! 4 Nowadays when I mention among my friends the names of Egypt and Babylonia, Philistia and Tyre, or even distant Ethiopia, someone boasts that he was born in one or another of those countries. 5 But someday the highest honor will be to be a native of Jerusalem! For the God above all gods will personally bless this city. 6 When he registers her citizens, he will place a check mark beside the names of those who were born here. 7 And in the festivals they’ll sing, “All my heart is in Jerusalem.”
90 A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! 2 Before the mountains were created, before the earth was formed, you are God without beginning or end.
3 You speak, and man turns back to dust. 4 A thousand years are but as yesterday to you! They are like a single hour![a] 5-6 We glide along the tides of time as swiftly as a racing river and vanish as quickly as a dream. We are like grass that is green in the morning but mowed down and withered before the evening shadows fall. 7 We die beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your wrath. 8 You spread out our sins before you—our secret sins—and see them all. 9 No wonder the years are long and heavy here beneath your wrath. All our days are filled with sighing.
10 Seventy years are given us! And some may even live to eighty. But even the best of these years are often empty and filled with pain; soon they disappear, and we are gone. 11 Who can realize the terrors of your anger? Which of us can fear you as he should?
12 Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.
13 O Jehovah, come and bless us! How long will you delay? Turn away your anger from us. 14 Satisfy us in our earliest[b] youth with your loving-kindness, giving us constant joy to the end of our lives. 15 Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. 16 Let us see your miracles again; let our children see glorious things, the kind you used to do, 17 and let the Lord our God favor us and give us success. May he give permanence to all we do.
136 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his loving-kindness continues forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 4 Praise him who alone does mighty miracles, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 5 Praise him who made the heavens, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 6 Praise him who planted the water within the earth,[a] for his loving-kindness continues forever. 7 Praise him who made the heavenly lights, for his loving-kindness continues forever: 8 the sun to rule the day, for his loving-kindness continues forever; 9 and the moon and stars at night, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 10 Praise the God who smote the firstborn of Egypt, for his loving-kindness to Israel[b] continues forever.
11-12 He brought them out with mighty power and upraised fist to strike their enemies, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever. 13 Praise the Lord who opened the Red Sea to make a path before them, for his loving-kindness continues forever, 14 and led them safely through, for his loving-kindness continues forever— 15 but drowned Pharaoh’s army in the sea, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever.
16 Praise him who led his people through the wilderness, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 17 Praise him who saved his people from the power of mighty kings, for his loving-kindness continues forever, 18 and killed famous kings who were their enemies, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever: 19 Sihon, king of Amorites—for God’s loving-kindness to Israel continues forever— 20 and Og, king of Bashan—for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever. 21 God gave the land of these kings to Israel as a gift forever, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever; 22 yes, a permanent gift to his servant Israel, for his loving-kindness continues forever.
23 He remembered our utter weakness, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 24 And saved us from our foes, for his loving-kindness continues forever.
25 He gives food to every living thing, for his loving-kindness continues forever. 26 Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven, for his loving-kindness continues forever.
29 Jacob traveled on, finally arriving in the land of the East. 2 He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying beside a well in an open field, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well. 3 (The custom was that the stone was not removed until all the flocks were there. After watering them, the stone was rolled back over the mouth of the well again.) 4 Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them where they lived.
“At Haran,” they said.
5 “Do you know a fellow there named Laban, the son of Nahor?”
“We sure do.”
6 “How is he?”
“He’s well and prosperous. Look, there comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
7 “Why don’t you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?” Jacob asked. “They’ll be hungry if you stop so early in the day!”
8 “We don’t roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here,” they replied.
9 As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 And because she was his cousin—the daughter of his mother’s brother—and because the sheep were his uncle’s, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle’s flock. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and started crying! 12-13 He explained about being her cousin on her father’s side, and that he was her Aunt Rebekah’s son. She quickly ran and told her father, Laban, and as soon as he heard of Jacob’s arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly and brought him home. Then Jacob told him his story.
14 “Just think, my very own flesh and blood,” Laban exclaimed.
After Jacob had been there about a month, 15 Laban said to him one day, “Just because we are relatives is no reason for you to work for me without pay. How much do you want?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters, Leah, the older, and her younger sister, Rachel. 17 Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely, and in every way a beauty. 18 Well, Jacob was in love with Rachel. So he told her father, “I’ll work for you seven years if you’ll give me Rachel as my wife.”
19 “Agreed!” Laban replied. “I’d rather give her to you than to someone outside the family.”
20 So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But they seemed to him but a few days, he was so much in love.
14 Give a warm welcome to any brother who wants to join you, even though his faith is weak. Don’t criticize him for having different ideas from yours about what is right and wrong.[a] 2 For instance, don’t argue with him about whether or not to eat meat that has been offered to idols. You may believe there is no harm in this, but the faith of others is weaker; they think it is wrong and will go without any meat at all and eat vegetables rather than eat that kind of meat. 3 Those who think it is all right to eat such meat must not look down on those who won’t. And if you are one of those who won’t, don’t find fault with those who do. For God has accepted them to be his children. 4 They are God’s servants, not yours. They are responsible to him, not to you. Let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. And God is able to make them do as they should.
5 Some think that Christians should observe the Jewish holidays as special days to worship God, but others say it is wrong and foolish to go to all that trouble, for every day alike belongs to God. On questions of this kind everyone must decide for himself. 6 If you have special days for worshiping the Lord, you are trying to honor him; you are doing a good thing. So is the person who eats meat that has been offered to idols; he is thankful to the Lord for it; he is doing right. And the person who won’t touch such meat, he, too, is anxious to please the Lord, and is thankful. 7 We are not our own bosses to live or die as we ourselves might choose. 8 Living or dying we follow the Lord. Either way we are his. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose, so that he can be our Lord both while we live and when we die.
10 You have no right to criticize your brother or look down on him. Remember, each of us will stand personally before the Judgment Seat of God. 11 For it is written, “As I live,” says the Lord, “every knee shall bow to me and every tongue confess to God.” 12 Yes, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 So don’t criticize each other anymore. Try instead to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.
14 As for myself, I am perfectly sure on the authority of the Lord Jesus that there is nothing really wrong with eating meat that has been offered to idols. But if someone believes it is wrong, then he shouldn’t do it because for him it is wrong. 15 And if your brother is bothered by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you go ahead and eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. 16 Don’t do anything that will cause criticism against yourself even though you know that what you do is right.
17 For, after all, the important thing for us as Christians is not what we eat or drink but stirring up goodness and peace and joy from the Holy Spirit. 18 If you let Christ be Lord in these affairs, God will be glad; and so will others. 19 In this way aim for harmony in the church, and try to build each other up.
20 Don’t undo the work of God for a chunk of meat. Remember, there is nothing wrong with the meat, but it is wrong to eat it if it makes another stumble. 21 The right thing to do is to quit eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything else that offends your brother or makes him sin. 22 You may know that there is nothing wrong with what you do, even from God’s point of view, but keep it to yourself; don’t flaunt your faith in front of others who might be hurt by it. In this situation, happy is the man who does not sin by doing what he knows is right. 23 But anyone who believes that something he wants to do is wrong shouldn’t do it. He sins if he does, for he thinks it is wrong, and so for him it is wrong. Anything that is done apart from what he feels is right is sin.
47 Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to the words of God. Since you don’t, it proves you aren’t his children.”
48 “You Samaritan! Foreigner! Devil!” the Jewish leaders snarled. “Didn’t we say all along you were possessed by a demon?”
49 “No,” Jesus said, “I have no demon in me. For I honor my Father—and you dishonor me. 50 And though I have no wish to make myself great, God wants this for me and judges those who reject me.[a] 51 With all the earnestness I have I tell you this—no one who obeys me shall ever die!”
52 The leaders of the Jews said, “Now we know you are possessed by a demon. Even Abraham and the mightiest prophets died, and yet you say that obeying you will keep a man from dying! 53 So you are greater than our father Abraham, who died? And greater than the prophets, who died? Who do you think you are?” 54 Then Jesus told them this: “If I am merely boasting about myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father—and you claim him as your God—who is saying these glorious things about me. 55 But you do not even know him. I do. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But it is true—I know him and fully obey him. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He knew I was coming and was glad.”
57 The Jewish leaders: “You aren’t even fifty years old—sure, you’ve seen Abraham!”
58 Jesus: “The absolute truth is that I was in existence before Abraham was ever born!”
59 At that point the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill him. But Jesus was hidden from them, and walked past them and left the Temple.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.