Book of Common Prayer
A song by David for going up to worship.
131 O Lord, my heart is not conceited.
My eyes do not look down on others.
I am not involved in things too big or too difficult for me.
2 Instead, I have kept my soul calm and quiet.
My soul is content as a weaned child is content in its mother’s arms.
3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord now and forever.
A song for going up to worship.
132 O Lord, remember David and all the hardships he endured.
2 Remember how he swore an oath to the Lord
and made this vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 “I will not step inside my house,
4 get into my bed, shut my eyes, or close my eyelids
5 until I find a place for the Lord,
a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 Now, we have heard about the ark ⌞of the promise⌟ being in Ephrathah.
We have found it in Jaar.
7 Let’s go to his dwelling place.
Let’s worship at his footstool.
8 O Lord, arise, and come to your resting place
with the ark of your power.
9 Clothe your priests with righteousness.
Let your godly ones sing with joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
do not reject your anointed one.
11 The Lord swore an oath to David.
This is a truth he will not take back:
“I will set one of your own descendants on your throne.
12 If your sons are faithful to my promise [a]
and my written instructions that I will teach them,
then their descendants will also sit on your throne forever.”
13 The Lord has chosen Zion.
He wants it for his home.
14 “This will be my resting place forever.
Here I will sit enthroned because I want Zion.
15 I will certainly bless all that Zion needs.
I will satisfy its needy people with food.
16 I will clothe its priests with salvation.
Then its godly ones will sing joyfully.
17 There I will make a horn sprout up for David.
I will prepare a lamp for my anointed one.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but the crown on my anointed one will shine.”
A song by David for going up to worship.
133 See how good and pleasant it is
when brothers and sisters live together in harmony!
2 It is like fine, scented oil on the head,
running down the beard—down Aaron’s beard—
running over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like dew on ⌞Mount⌟ Hermon,
dew which comes down on Zion’s mountains.
That is where the Lord promised
the blessing of eternal life.
A song for going up to worship.
134 Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
all who stand in the house of the Lord night after night.
2 Lift your hands toward the holy place, and praise the Lord.
3 May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
135 Hallelujah!
Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise him, you servants of the Lord
2 who are standing in the house of the Lord,
in the courtyards of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord because he is good.
Make music to praise his name because his name is beautiful.
4 The Lord chose Jacob to be his own
and chose Israel to be his own special treasure.
5 I know that the Lord is great,
that our Lord is greater than all the false gods.
6 The Lord does whatever he wants in heaven or on earth,
on the seas or in all the depths of the oceans.
7 He is the one who makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth,
who makes lightning for the thunderstorms,
and who brings wind out of his storerooms.
8 He is the one who killed every firstborn male in Egypt.
He killed humans and animals alike.
9 He sent miraculous signs and amazing things into the heart of Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his officials.
10 He is the one who defeated many nations and killed mighty kings:
11 King Sihon of the Amorites,
King Og of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms in Canaan.
12 He gave their land as an inheritance,
an inheritance to his people Israel.
13 O Lord, your name endures forever.
O Lord, you will be remembered throughout every generation.
14 The Lord will provide justice for his people
and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are made of silver and gold.
They were made by human hands.[b]
16 They have mouths, but they cannot speak.
They have eyes, but they cannot see.
17 They have ears, but they cannot hear.
They cannot breathe.
18 Those who make idols end up like them.
So does everyone who trusts them.
19 Descendants of Israel, praise the Lord.
Descendants of Aaron, praise the Lord.
20 Descendants of Levi, praise the Lord.
You people who fear the Lord, praise the Lord.
21 Thank the Lord in Zion.
Thank the one who lives in Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
7 My son,
pay attention to my words.
Treasure my commands that are within you.
2 Obey my commands so that you may live.
Follow my teachings just as you protect the pupil of your eye.
3 Tie them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Give the name “my relative” to understanding
5 in order to guard yourself from an adulterous woman,
from a loose woman with her smooth talk.
6 From a window in my house I looked through my screen.
7 I was looking at gullible people
when I saw a young man without much sense among youths
8 He was crossing a street near her corner
and walking toward her house
9 in the twilight,
in the evening,
in the dark hours of the night.
10 A woman with an ulterior motive meets him.
She is dressed as a prostitute.
11 She is loud and rebellious.
Her feet will not stay at home.
12 One moment she is out on the street,
the next she is at the curb,
on the prowl at every corner.
13 She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him,
14 “I have some sacrificial meat.
Today I kept my vows.
15 That’s why I came to meet you.
Eagerly, I looked for you,
and I’ve found you.
16 I’ve made my bed,
with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.
17 I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning.
Let’s enjoy making love,
19 because my husband’s not home.
He has gone on a long trip.
20 He took lots of money with him.
He won’t be home for a couple of weeks.”
21 With all her seductive charms, she persuades him.
With her smooth lips, she makes him give in.
22 He immediately follows her
like a steer on its way to be slaughtered,
like a ram hobbling into captivity
23 until an arrow pierces his heart,
like a bird darting into a trap.
He does not realize that it will cost him his life.
24 Now, sons,
listen to me.
Pay attention to the words from my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart be turned to her ways.
Do not wander onto her paths,
26 because she has brought down many victims,
and she has killed all too many.
27 Her home is the way to hell
and leads to the darkest vaults of death.
Conclusion
13 I’ve written this to those who believe in the Son of God so that they will know that they have eternal life.
14 We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval. 15 We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for.
16 If you see another believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, you should pray that God would give that person life. This is true for those who commit sins that don’t lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I’m not telling you to pray about that. 17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that don’t lead to death.
18 We know that those who have been born from God don’t go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one can’t harm them.
19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from false gods.
55 The Jewish Passover was near. Many people came from the countryside to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 As they stood in the temple courtyard, they looked for Jesus and asked each other, “Do you think that he’ll avoid coming to the festival?” 57 (The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where Jesus was should tell them so that they could arrest him.)
Mary Prepares Jesus’ Body for the Tomb(A)
12 Six days before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany. Lazarus, whom Jesus had brought back to life, lived there. 2 Dinner was prepared for Jesus in Bethany. Martha served the dinner, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus.
3 Mary took a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Then she dried his feet with her hair. The fragrance of the perfume filled the house.
4 One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray him, asked, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for a high price and the money given to the poor?” 6 (Judas didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the moneybag and carried the contributions.) 7 Jesus said to Judas, “Leave her alone! She has done this to prepare me for the day I will be placed in a tomb. 8 You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you.”
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