Book of Common Prayer

118 Oh, thank the Lord, for he’s so good! His loving-kindness is forever.

² Let the congregation of Israel praise him with these same words: “His loving-kindness is forever.” ³ And let the priests of Aaron chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.” ⁴ Let the Gentile converts chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.”

⁵ In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me. ⁶ He is for me! How can I be afraid? What can mere man do to me? ⁷ The Lord is on my side; he will help me. Let those who hate me beware.

⁸ It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in men. ⁹ It is better to take refuge in him than in the mightiest king!

¹⁰ Though all the nations of the world attack me, I will march out behind his banner and destroy them. ¹¹ Yes, they surround and attack me; but with his flag flying above me I will cut them off. ¹² They swarm around me like bees; they blaze against me like a roaring flame. Yet beneath his flag I shall destroy them. ¹³ You did your best to kill me, O my enemy, but the Lord helped me. ¹⁴ He is my strength and song in the heat of battle, and now he has given me the victory. ^15-16 Songs of joy at the news of our rescue are sung in the homes of the godly. The strong arm of the Lord has done glorious things! ¹⁷ I shall not die but live to tell of all his deeds. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me but not handed me over to death.

¹⁹ Open the gates of the Temple^[a]—I will go in and give him my thanks. ²⁰ Those gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. ²¹ O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.

²² The stone rejected by the builders has now become the capstone of the arch!^{[b] 23} This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see! ²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. ²⁵ O Lord, please help us. Save us. Give us success. ²⁶ Blessed is the one who is coming, the one sent by the Lord.^[c] We bless you from the Temple.

^27-28 Jehovah God is our light. I present to him my sacrifice upon the altar, for you are my God, and I shall give you this thanks and this praise. ²⁹ Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is so good! For his loving-kindness is forever.

145 ^1-2 I will praise you, my God and King, and bless your name each day and forever.

³ Great is Jehovah! Greatly praise him! His greatness is beyond discovery! ⁴ Let each generation tell its children what glorious things he does. ⁵ I will meditate about your glory, splendor, majesty, and miracles. ⁶ Your awe-inspiring deeds shall be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. ⁷ Everyone will tell about how good you are and sing about your righteousness.

⁸ Jehovah is kind and merciful, slow to get angry, full of love. ⁹ He is good to everyone, and his compassion is intertwined with everything he does. ¹⁰ All living things shall thank you, Lord, and your people will bless you. ¹¹ They will talk together about the glory of your kingdom and mention examples of your power. ¹² They will tell about your miracles and about the majesty and glory of your reign. ¹³ For your kingdom never ends. You rule generation after generation.

¹⁴ The Lord lifts the fallen and those bent beneath their loads. ¹⁵ The eyes of all mankind look up to you for help; you give them their food as they need it. ¹⁶ You constantly satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is fair in everything he does and full of kindness. ¹⁸ He is close to all who call on him sincerely. ¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who reverence and trust him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. ²⁰ He protects all those who love him, but destroys the wicked.

²¹ I will praise the Lord and call on all men everywhere to bless his holy name forever and forever.

⁴ “I alone am God, your Lord, and have been ever since I brought you out from Egypt. You have no God but me, for there is no other Savior. ⁵ I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land. ⁶ But when you had eaten and were satisfied, then you became proud and forgot me. ⁷ So I will come upon you like a lion, or a leopard lurking along the road. ⁸ I will rip you to pieces like a bear whose cubs have been taken away, and like a lion I will devour you.

⁹ “O Israel, if I destroy you, who can save you? ¹⁰ Where is your king? Why don’t you call on him for help? Where are all the leaders of the land? You asked for them, now let them save you! ¹¹ I gave you kings in my anger, and I took them away^[a] in my wrath. ¹² Ephraim’s sins are harvested and stored away for punishment.

¹³ “New birth is offered him, but he is like a child resisting in the womb—how stubborn! how foolish! ¹⁴ Shall I ransom him from hell? Shall I redeem him from Death? O Death, bring forth your terrors for his tasting! O Grave, demonstrate your plagues! For I will not relent!

⁶ Yet when I am among mature Christians I do speak with words of great wisdom, but not the kind that comes from here on earth, and not the kind that appeals to the great men of this world, who are doomed to fall. ⁷ Our words are wise because they are from God, telling of God’s wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven. This plan was hidden in former times, though it was made for our benefit before the world began. ⁸ But the great men of the world have not understood it; if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory.

⁹ That is what is meant by the Scriptures which say that no mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. ¹⁰ But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God’s deepest secrets. ¹¹ No one can really know what anyone else is thinking or what he is really like except that person himself. And no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. ¹² And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given us. ¹³ In telling you about these gifts we have even used the very words given to us by the Holy Spirit, not words that we as men might choose. So we use the Holy Spirit’s words to explain the Holy Spirit’s facts.^{[a] 14} But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in. ¹⁵ But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all. ¹⁶ How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer.^[b] But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.

14 When King Herod^[a] heard about Jesus, ² he said to his men, “This must be John the Baptist, come back to life again. That is why he can do these miracles.” ³ For Herod had arrested John and chained him in prison at the demand of^[b] his wife Herodias, his brother Philip’s ex-wife, ⁴ because John had told him it was wrong for him to marry her. ⁵ He would have killed John but was afraid of a riot, for all the people believed John was a prophet.

⁶ But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, ⁷ so he vowed to give her anything she wanted. ⁸ Consequently, at her mother’s urging, the girl asked for John the Baptist’s head on a tray.

⁹ The king was grieved, but because of his oath, and because he didn’t want to back down in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders.

¹⁰ So John was beheaded in the prison, ¹¹ and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.

¹² Then John’s disciples came for his body and buried it, and came to tell Jesus what had happened.