Book of Common Prayer
A song of David.
145 I will tell of your greatness, my God and King.
I will praise your name forever and ever.
2 I will praise you every day.
I will praise your name forever and ever.
3 The Lord is great and deserves all our praise!
No one can fully understand his greatness!
4 Each generation will praise you
and tell the next generation about the great things you do.
5 Your majesty and glory are wonderful.
I will tell about your miracles.
6 People will tell about the amazing things you do,
and I will tell everyone how great you are.
7 They will talk about your goodness
and sing about your justice.
8 The Lord is kind and merciful,
patient and full of love.
9 The Lord is good to everyone.
He shows his mercy to everything he made.
10 Lord, all you have made will give thanks to you.
Your loyal followers will praise you.
11 They will tell how great your kingdom is.
They will tell how great you are.
12 So others will learn about the mighty things you do,
about the glory of your kingdom—how marvelous it is!
13 Your kingdom will never end,
and you will rule forever.
The Lord can be trusted in all that he says.
He is loyal in all that he does.[a]
14 The Lord lifts up people who have fallen.
He helps those who are in trouble.
15 All living things look to you for their food,
and you give them their food at the right time.
16 You open your hands
and give every living thing all that it needs.
17 Everything the Lord does is good.
Everything he does shows how loyal he is.
18 The Lord is near to everyone
who sincerely calls to him for help.
19 He listens to his followers and does what they want.
He answers their prayers and saves them.
20 The Lord protects everyone who loves him,
but he destroys all who do evil.
21 I will praise the Lord!
Let everyone praise his holy name forever and ever!
104 My soul, praise the Lord!
Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with glory and honor.
2 You wear light like a robe.
You spread out the skies like a curtain.
3 You built your home above them.[a]
You use the thick clouds like a chariot
and ride across the sky on the wings of the wind.
4 You make the winds your messengers
and flames of fire your servants.[b]
5 You built the earth on its foundations,
so it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with water like a blanket.
The water covered even the mountains.
7 But you gave the command, and the water turned back.
You shouted at the water, and it rushed away.
8 The water flowed down from the mountains into the valleys,
to the places you made for it.
9 You set the limits for the seas,
and the water will never again rise to cover the earth.
10 Lord, you cause water to flow from springs into the streams
that flow down between the mountains.
11 The streams provide water for all the wild animals.
Even the wild donkeys come there to drink.
12 Wild birds come to live by the pools;
they sing in the branches of nearby trees.
13 You send rain down on the mountains.
The earth gets everything it needs from what you have made.
14 You make the grass grow to feed the animals.
You provide plants for the crops we grow—
the plants that give us food from the earth.
15 You give us the wine that makes us happy,
the oil that makes our skin soft,[c]
and the food that makes us strong.
16 The great cedar trees of Lebanon belong to the Lord.
He planted them and gives them the water they need.
17 That’s where the birds make their nests,
and the storks live in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are a home for wild goats.
The large rocks are hiding places for rock badgers.
19 Lord, you made the moon to show us when the festivals begin.
And the sun always knows when to set.
20 You made darkness to be the night—
the time when wild animals come out and roam around.
21 Lions roar as they attack,
as if they are asking God for the food he gives them.
22 When the sun rises, they leave
and go back to their dens to rest.
23 Then people go out to do their work,
and they work until evening.
24 Lord, you created so many things!
With your wisdom you made them all.
The earth is full of the living things you made.
25 Look at the ocean, so big and wide!
It is filled with all kinds of sea life.
There are creatures large and small—too many to count!
26 Ships sail over the ocean,
and playing there is Leviathan,[d]
the great sea creature you made.
27 Lord, all living things depend on you.
You give them food at the right time.
28 You give it, and they eat it.
They are filled with good food from your open hands.
29 When you turn away from them,
they become frightened.
When you take away their breath,[e]
they die, and their bodies return to the dust.
30 But when you send out your life-giving breath,[f]
things come alive, and the world is like new again!
31 May the Lord’s glory continue forever!
May the Lord enjoy what he made.
32 He just looks at the earth, and it trembles.
He just touches the mountains, and smoke rises from them.
33 I will sing to the Lord for the rest of my life.
I will sing praises to my God as long as I live.
34 May my words be pleasing to him.
The Lord is the one who makes me happy.
35 I wish sinners would disappear from the earth.
I wish the wicked would be gone forever.
My soul, praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
The Trip Out of Egypt
17 Pharaoh made the people leave Egypt. God did not let the people take the road leading to the land of the Philistines. That road by the Mediterranean Sea is the shortest way, but God said, “If the people go that way they will have to fight. Then they might change their minds and go back to Egypt.” 18 So God led them another way through the desert by the Red Sea.[a] The Israelites were dressed for war when they left Egypt.
Joseph Goes Home
19 Moses carried the bones of Joseph with him. Before Joseph died, he made the Israelites promise to do this for him. He said, “When God saves you, remember to carry my bones with you out of Egypt.”
The Lord Leads His People
20 The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham. Etham was near the desert. 21 The Lord led the way. During the day, he used a tall cloud to lead the people. And during the night, he used a tall column of fire to lead the way. This fire gave them light so that they could also travel at night. 22 The cloud was always with them during the day, and the column of fire was always with them at night.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people to go back to Pi Hahiroth. Tell them to spend the night between Migdol and the Red Sea, near Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think that the Israelites are lost in the desert and that the people will have no place to go. 4 I will make Pharaoh brave, and he will chase you. But I will defeat Pharaoh and his army. This will bring honor to me. Then the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did what he told them.
Living by Faith
16 That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. 17 We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles. 18 So we think about what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.
5 We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a home for us to live in. It will not be the kind of home people build here. It will be a home in heaven that will continue forever. 2 But now we are tired of this body. We want God to give us our heavenly home. 3 It will clothe us and we will not be naked. 4 While we live in this tent, we have burdens and so we complain. I don’t mean that we want to remove this tent, but we want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be covered with life. 5 This is what God himself made us for. And he has given us the Spirit as the first payment to guarantee the life to come.
6 So we always have confidence. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see. 8 So I say that we have confidence. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. 9 Our only goal is to always please the Lord, whether we are living here in this body or there with him. 10 We must all stand before Christ to be judged. Everyone will get what they should. They will be paid for whatever they did—good or bad—when they lived in this earthly body.
Some Sadducees Try to Trick Jesus(A)
18 Then some Sadducees came to Jesus. (Sadducees believe that no one will rise from death.) They asked him a question: 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies and had no children, his brother must marry the woman. Then they will have children for the dead brother.[a] 20 There were seven brothers. The first brother married but died. He had no children. 21 So the second brother married the woman. But he also died and had no children. The same thing happened with the third brother. 22 All seven brothers married the woman and died. None of the brothers had any children with her. And she was the last to die. 23 But all seven brothers had married her. So at the time when people rise from death, whose wife will she be?”
24 Jesus answered, “How could you be so wrong? It’s because you don’t know what the Scriptures say. And you don’t know anything about God’s power. 25 When people rise from death, there will be no marriage. People will not be married to each other. All people will be like angels in heaven. 26 Surely you have read what God said about people rising from death. In the book where Moses wrote about the burning bush,[b] it says that God told Moses this: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[c] 27 So they were not still dead, because he is the God only of living people. You Sadducees are so wrong!”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International