Book of Common Prayer
50 The mighty God, the Lord, has summoned all mankind from east to west!
2 God’s glory-light shines from the beautiful Temple[a] on Mount Zion. 3 He comes with the noise of thunder,[b] surrounded by devastating fire; a great storm rages round about him. 4 He has come to judge his people. To heaven and earth he shouts, 5 “Gather together my own people who by their sacrifice upon my altar have promised to obey me.”[c] 6 God will judge them with complete fairness, for all heaven declares that he is just.
7 O my people, listen! For I am your God. Listen! Here are my charges against you: 8 I have no complaint about the sacrifices you bring to my altar, for you bring them regularly. 9 But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks and goats that I really want from you. 10-11 For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! 12 If I were hungry, I would not mention it to you—for all the world is mine and everything in it. 13 No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. 14-15 What I want from you is your true thanks; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory.
16 But God says to evil men: Recite my laws no longer and stop claiming my promises, 17 for you have refused my discipline, disregarding my laws. 18 You see a thief and help him, and spend your time with evil and immoral men. 19 You curse and lie, and vile language streams from your mouths. 20 You slander your own brother. 21 I remained silent—you thought I didn’t care—but now your time of punishment has come, and I list all the above charges against you. 22 This is the last chance for all of you who have forgotten God, before I tear you apart—and no one can help you then.
23 But true praise is a worthy sacrifice; this really honors me. Those who walk my paths will receive salvation from the Lord.
59 Written by David at the time King Saul set guards at his home to capture and kill him. (1 Samuel 19:11)
O my God, save me from my enemies. Protect me from these who have come to destroy me. 2 Preserve me from these criminals, these murderers. 3 They lurk in ambush for my life. Strong men are out there waiting. And not, O Lord, because I’ve done them wrong. 4 Yet they prepare to kill me. Lord, waken! See what is happening! Help me! 5 (And O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, God of Israel, arise and punish the heathen nations surrounding us.) Do not spare these evil, treacherous men. 6 At evening they come to spy, slinking around like dogs that prowl the city. 7 I hear them shouting insults and cursing God, for “No one will hear us,” they think. 8 Lord, laugh at them! (And scoff at these surrounding nations too.)
9 O God my Strength! I will sing your praises, for you are my place of safety. 10 My God is changeless in his love for me, and he will come and help me. He will let me see my wish come true upon my enemies. 11 Don’t kill them—for my people soon forget such lessons—but stagger them with your power and bring them to their knees. Bring them to the dust, O Lord our shield. 12-13 They are proud, cursing liars. Angrily destroy them. Wipe them out. (And let the nations find out, too, that God rules in Israel and will reign throughout the world.) 14-15 Let these evil men slink back at evening and prowl the city all night before they are satisfied, howling like dogs and searching for food.
16 But as for me, I will sing each morning about your power and mercy. For you have been my high tower of refuge, a place of safety in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, to you I sing my praises; for you are my high tower of safety, my God of mercy.
60 Written by David at the time he was at war with Syria, with the outcome still uncertain; this was when Joab, captain of his forces, slaughtered twelve thousand men of Edom in Salt Valley.
O God, you have rejected us and broken our defenses; you have become angry and deserted us. Lord, restore us again to your favor. 2 You have caused this nation to tremble in fear; you have torn it apart. Lord, heal it now, for it is shaken to its depths. 3 You have been very hard on us and made us reel beneath your blows.
4-5 But you have given us a banner to rally to; all who love truth will rally to it;[a] then you can deliver your beloved people. Use your strong right arm to rescue us. 6-7 God has promised to help us. He has vowed it by his holiness! No wonder I exult! “Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Manasseh—still are mine!” he says. “Judah shall continue to produce kings, and Ephraim great warriors. 8 Moab shall become my lowly servant, and Edom my slave. And I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”
9-10 Who will bring me in triumph into Edom’s strong cities? God will! He who cast us off! He who abandoned us to our foes! 11 Yes, Lord, help us against our enemies, for man’s help is useless.
12 With God’s help we shall do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.
93 Jehovah is King! He is robed in majesty and strength. The world is his throne.[a]
2 O Lord, you have reigned from prehistoric times, from the everlasting past. 3 The mighty oceans thunder your praise. 4 You are mightier than all the breakers pounding on the seashores of the world! 5 Your royal decrees cannot be changed. Holiness is forever the keynote of your reign.
96 Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing it everywhere around the world! 2 Sing out his praises! Bless his name. Each day tell someone that he saves.
3 Publish his glorious acts throughout the earth. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. 4 For the Lord is great beyond description and greatly to be praised. Worship only him among the gods! 5 For the gods of other nations are merely idols, but our God made the heavens! 6 Honor and majesty surround him; strength and beauty are in his Temple.
7 O nations of the world, confess that God alone is glorious and strong. 8 Give him the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come to worship him.[a] 9 Worship the Lord with the beauty of holy lives.[b] Let the earth tremble before him. 10 Tell the nations that Jehovah reigns! He rules the world. His power can never be overthrown. He will judge all nations fairly.
11 Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the vastness of the roaring seas demonstrate his glory. 12 Praise him for the growing fields, for they display his greatness. Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise. 13 For the Lord is coming to judge the earth; he will judge the nations fairly and with truth!
29 Job continues:
31 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a girl. 2-3 I know full well that Almighty God above sends calamity on those who do. 4 He sees everything I do and every step I take.
5 “If I have lied and deceived— 6 but God knows that I am innocent— 7-8 or if I have stepped off God’s pathway, or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen, or if I am guilty of any other sin, then let someone else reap the crops I have sown and let all that I have planted be rooted out.
9 “Or if I have longed for another man’s wife, 10 then may I die, and may my wife be in another man’s home and someone else become her husband. 11 For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. 12 It is a devastating fire that destroys to hell and would root out all I have planted.
13 “If I have been unfair to my servants, 14 how could I face God? What could I say when he questioned me about it? 15 For God made me and made my servant too. He created us both.
16 “If I have hurt the poor, or caused widows to weep, 17 or refused food to hungry orphans— 18 (but we have always cared for orphans in our home, treating them as our own children)— 19-20 or if I have seen anyone freezing and not given him clothing or fleece from my sheep to keep him warm, 21 or if I have taken advantage of an orphan because I thought I could get away with it— 22 if I have done any of these things, then let my arm be torn from its socket! Let my shoulder be wrenched out of place! 23 Rather that than face the judgment sent by God; that I dread more than anything else. For if the majesty of God opposes me, what hope is there?
15 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers that unless they adhered to the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision, they could not be saved. 2 Paul and Barnabas argued and discussed this with them at length, and finally the believers sent them to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local men, to talk to the apostles and elders there about this question. 3 After the entire congregation had escorted them out of the city, the delegates went on to Jerusalem, stopping along the way in the cities of Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers, telling them—much to everyone’s joy—that the Gentiles, too, were being converted.
4 Arriving in Jerusalem, they met with the church leaders—all the apostles and elders were present—and Paul and Barnabas reported on what God had been doing through their ministry. 5 But then some of the men who had been Pharisees before their conversion stood to their feet and declared that all Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow all the Jewish customs and ceremonies.
6 So the apostles and church elders set a further meeting to decide this question.
7 At the meeting, after long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you long ago to preach the Good News to the Gentiles so that they also could believe. 8 God, who knows men’s hearts, confirmed the fact that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he gave him to us. 9 He made no distinction between them and us, for he cleansed their lives through faith, just as he did ours. 10 And now are you going to correct God by burdening the Gentiles with a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? 11 Don’t you believe that all are saved the same way, by the free gift of the Lord Jesus?”
17 When they arrived at Bethany, they were told that Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was only a couple of miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the Jewish leaders had come to pay their respects and to console Martha and Mary on their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Sir, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 And even now it’s not too late, for I know that God will bring my brother back to life again, if you will only ask him to.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will come back to life again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “when everyone else does, on Resurrection Day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. 26 He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Master,” she told him. “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one we have so long awaited.”
28 Then she left him and returned to Mary and, calling her aside from the mourners, told her, “He is here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary went to him at once.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.