Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 97[a]
Divine King and Universal Judge
1 The Lord is King;[b] let the earth exult;
let the distant isles rejoice.
2 [c]Clouds and darkness[d] surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire[e] precedes him,
consuming his enemies on every side.
4 His flashes of lightnwing illumine the world;
the earth sees this and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,[f]
and all the nations behold his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame,
those who boast of their worthless idols;
bow down before him, all you gods.[g]
8 Zion hears and rejoices,
and the cities[h] of Judah exult
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 [i]Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he protects the souls of his faithful ones
and rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 [j]Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name.
Psalm 99[a]
God, King of Justice and Holiness
1 The Lord is King;[b]
let the nations tremble.
He sits enthroned on the cherubim;
let the earth quake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name:[c]
holy is he!
4 Mighty King, you love justice,
and you have established fairness;
in Jacob[d] you have brought about
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord, our God,
and worship at his footstool;
holy is he![e]
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
and Samuel was among those who invoked his name;
they cried out to the Lord,
and he answered them.[f]
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;[g]
they obeyed his decrees and the law he gave them.
8 O Lord, our God,
you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but you punished their wrongdoings.[h]
9 Exalt the Lord, our God,
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord, our God, is holy.[i]
Psalm 100[j]
Processional Entrance Hymn
1 A psalm of thanksgiving.[k]
Acclaim the Lord[l] with joy, all the earth;
2 serve the Lord[m] with gladness;
enter his presence with songs of joy.
3 Proclaim that the Lord is God.[n]
He made us and we are his possession;
we are his people, the flock he shepherds.
4 Offer thanksgiving as you enter his gates,[o]
sing hymns of praise as you approach his courts;
give thanks to him and bless his name,
5 for the Lord is good.
His kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness is constant to all generations.[p]
Psalm 94[a]
God, Judge, and Avenger
1 O Lord, you are an avenging God;[b]
shine forth, O God of vengeance.
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
repay[c] the arrogant as they deserve.
3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be triumphant?[d]
4 [e]Their mouths pour forth their arrogant words
as these evildoers never cease to boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
and they oppress your heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the foreigner
and put the orphan to death.
7 They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob[f] pays no attention.”
8 [g]Try to comprehend, you senseless people.
You fools, when will you gain some wisdom?[h]
9 Does the one who made the ear not hear?
Does the one who fashioned the eye not see?[i]
10 Does the one who guides the nations[j] not punish?
Does the one who instructs people lack knowledge?
11 The Lord is well aware of our thoughts[k]
and how foolish they are.
12 [l]Blessed[m] is the man you admonish, O Lord,
the man you teach by means of your law,
13 giving him respite in times of misfortune
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not abandon his people
or forsake his heritage.[n]
15 Judgment will again be based on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart[o] will uphold it.
16 [p]Who will stand up for me against the wicked?
Who will defend me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not come to my aid,
I would long ago have been consigned to the kingdom of silence.[q]
18 When I realized that my foot was slipping,
your kindness,[r] O Lord, raised me up.
19 When my anxious thoughts multiplied,
your comfort filled my soul with joy.[s]
20 [t]Can evil rulers have you as an ally,
those who make use of the law to oppress the helpless?[u]
21 They conspire against the righteous[v]
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has been my stronghold,[w]
my God, the rock in whom I find refuge.
23 He will repay the wicked for their iniquity
and destroy them for their evil deeds;
the Lord, our God, will destroy them.
Psalm 95[x]
A Call To Praise and Obey God
1 [y]Come, let us sing with jubilation to the Lord;
let us cry out to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with our songs.
3 [z]For the Lord is the great God,
the King who surpasses all other gods.[aa]
4 In his hands are the depths of the earth,
and the peaks of the mountains are his.
5 To him belongs the sea, for he created it,
and also the dry land[ab] that his hands have molded.
6 Come forth! Let us bow down to worship him;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.[ac]
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds,[ad]
the flock he protects.
If only you would listen to his voice today:
8 “Harden not your hearts as you did at Meribah,[ae]
as on the day of Massah in the wilderness.
9 It was there that your ancestors sought to tempt me;
they put me to the test
even though they had witnessed my works.[af]
10 “For forty years[ag] I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not know my ways.’
11 Therefore, in my anger I swore,
‘They will never enter my rest.’ ”[ah]
Chapter 13
The Angel and Manoah.[a] 1 The Israelites once again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord delivered them over into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, named Manoah, who was a Danite. His wife was barren and childless. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and childless, but you will conceive and have a son. 4 Make sure you do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat any unclean thing, 5 for you will conceive and have a son. No razor is ever to touch his head, for he will be a Nazirite,[b] one dedicated to God from the womb. He will begin the deliverance of Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.”
6 The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has visited me. He looked like an angel of God, truly wondrous. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and have a son. Do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat anything unclean, for from the womb until the day he dies he will be a Nazirite of God.’ ”
8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent to us visit us again so that he might teach us how to raise the child who is to be born.”
9 God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God visited the woman again when she was out in the fields, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. 10 The woman quickly ran to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who appeared to me the other day is here.”
11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He answered, “I am.” 12 Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, how should we treat the child?” 13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Your wife must do the things I said to her. 14 She cannot eat any of the products of the vine nor drink any strong drink nor eat anything unclean. She is to do everything that I commanded her to do.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Would you please stay here until we prepare a kid goat for you?”
27 When they had brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin. The high priest questioned them, saying, 28 “Did we not give you strict orders not to teach in this name? Yet, despite that, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you appear determined to hold us responsible for that man’s death.”
29 Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus after you had put him to death by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as leader and Savior so that he might grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
33 When they heard this, they became enraged, and they wanted to put them to death. 34 However, one member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel who was a teacher of the law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the apostles be sent outside for a little while.
35 Then he addressed them, “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas[a] appeared. He claimed to be someone important, and about four hundred men decided to follow him. He was killed, and all of his followers disbanded, and everything came to naught. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census. He also convinced people to follow him, but he too was killed and his followers were dispersed.
38 “Therefore, I advise you to keep away from these men and let them go. If this movement is human in origin, it will fail. 39 If, however, it comes from God, you will never be able to overcome them, but may find yourselves fighting against God.”
His words persuaded them. 40 After they summoned the apostles once again, they had them scourged. Then, ordering them not to speak in the name of Jesus, they released them. 41 They left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer humiliation for the sake of the name.[b] 42 And every day, both in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming Jesus as the Christ.
22 Final Witness of John the Baptist.[a] After this, Jesus went with his disciples into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them and baptized. 23 John was also baptizing at Aenon[b] near Salem, because there was an abundance of water there, and people were coming to be baptized. 24 At that time, John had not yet been imprisoned.
25 Now a dispute about ceremonial washings arose between a certain Jew and the disciples of John. 26 Therefore, they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him.” 27 John replied,
“No one can receive anything
except what has been given to him from heaven.
28 You yourselves can testify that I said,
‘I am not the Christ.
I have been sent before him.’
29 “It is the bridegroom who has the bride,
but the friend of the bridegroom
who stands by and listens for him
rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
This joy of mine
is complete.
30 He must increase;
I must decrease.
He Who Comes from Above[c]
31 “The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly
and speaks of earthly things.
The one who comes from heaven is above all.
32 He bears witness to the things he has seen and heard,
yet no one accepts his testimony.
33 “Whoever accepts his testimony
attests that God speaks the truth.
34 For the one whom God has sent
speaks the words of God,
for God gives him the Spirit without measure.[d]
35 The Father loves the Son,
and he has entrusted everything into his hand.
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;
whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God rests upon him.”
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