Book of Common Prayer

24 The earth belongs to God! Everything in all the world is his! ² He is the one who pushed the oceans back to let dry land appear.^[a]

³ Who may climb the mountain of the Lord and enter where he lives? Who may stand before the Lord? ⁴ Only those with pure hands and hearts, who do not practice dishonesty and lying. ⁵ They will receive God’s own goodness^[b] as their blessing from him, planted in their lives by God himself, their Savior. ⁶ These are the ones who are allowed to stand before the Lord and worship the God of Jacob.

⁷ Open up, O ancient gates, and let the King of Glory in. ⁸ Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, invincible in battle. ⁹ Yes, open wide the gates and let the King of Glory in.

¹⁰ Who is this King of Glory? The Commander of all of heaven’s armies!

29 Praise the Lord, you angels of his; praise his glory and his strength. ² Praise him for his majestic glory, the glory of his name. Come before him clothed in sacred garments.

³ The voice of the Lord echoes from the clouds. The God of glory thunders through the skies. ⁴ So powerful is his voice; so full of majesty. ^5-6 It breaks down the cedars. It splits the giant trees of Lebanon. It shakes Mount Lebanon and Mount Sirion. They leap and skip before him like young calves! ⁷ The voice of the Lord thunders through the lightning. ⁸ It resounds through the deserts and shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. ⁹ The voice of the Lord spins and topples the mighty oaks.^[a] It strips the forests bare. They whirl and sway beneath the blast. But in his Temple all are praising, “Glory, glory to the Lord.”

¹⁰ At the Flood the Lord showed his control of all creation. Now he continues to unveil his power. ¹¹ He will give his people strength. He will bless them with peace.

8 O Lord our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows the heavens. ² You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!

³ When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have made— ⁴ I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!

⁵ And yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels^[a] and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head.

⁶ You have put him in charge of everything you made; everything is put under his authority: ⁷ all sheep and oxen, and wild animals too, ⁸ the birds and fish, and all the life in the sea. ⁹ O Jehovah, our Lord, the majesty and glory of your name fills the earth.

84 How lovely is your Temple, O Lord of the armies of heaven.

² I long, yes, faint with longing to be able to enter your courtyard and come near to the Living God. ³ Even the sparrows and swallows are welcome to come and nest among your altars and there have their young, O Lord of heaven’s armies, my King and my God! ⁴ How happy are those who can live in your Temple, singing your praises.

⁵ Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who want above all else to follow your steps. ⁶ When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of springs where pools of blessing and refreshment collect after rains! ⁷ They will grow constantly in strength, and each of them is invited to meet with the Lord in Zion.

⁸ O Jehovah, God of the heavenly armies, hear my prayer! Listen, God of Israel. ⁹ O God, our Defender and our Shield, have mercy on the one you have anointed as your king.^[a]

¹⁰ A single day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a doorman of the Temple of my God than live in palaces^[b] of wickedness. ¹¹ For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths.^[c]

¹² O Lord of the armies of heaven, blessed are those who trust in you.

²⁷ Now here is what I am trying to say: All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. ²⁸ Here is a list of some of the parts he has placed in his Church, which is his body:

²⁹ Is everyone an apostle? Of course not. Is everyone a preacher? No. Are all teachers? Does everyone have the power to do miracles? ³⁰ Can everyone heal the sick? Of course not. Does God give all of us the ability to speak in languages we’ve never learned? Can just anyone understand and translate what those are saying who have that gift of foreign speech? ³¹ No, but try your best to have the more important of these gifts.

First, however, let me tell you about something else that is better than any of them!

13 If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise. ² If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. ³ If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.

⁴ Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, ⁵ never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. ⁶ It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. ⁷ If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.

⁸ All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge—these gifts will disappear. ⁹ Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor. ¹⁰ But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.

¹¹ It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things. ¹² In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.

¹³ There are three things that remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

²¹ Then Peter came to him and asked, “Sir, how often should I forgive a brother who sins against me? Seven times?”

²² “No!” Jesus replied, “seventy times seven!

²³ “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date. ²⁴ In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him $10 million!$10 million, literally, “10,000 talents.” Approximately £3 million. ²⁵ He couldn’t pay, so the king ordered him sold for the debt, also his wife and children and everything he had.

²⁶ “But the man fell down before the king, his face in the dust, and said, ‘Oh, sir, be patient with me and I will pay it all.’

²⁷ “Then the king was filled with pity for him and released him and forgave his debt.

²⁸ “But when the man left the king, he went to a man who owed him $2,000$2,000, approximately £700. and grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

²⁹ “The man fell down before him and begged him to give him a little time. ‘Be patient and I will pay it,’ he pled.

³⁰ “But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and jailed until the debt would be paid in full.

³¹ “Then the man’s friends went to the king and told him what had happened. ³² And the king called before him the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil-hearted wretch! Here I forgave you all that tremendous debt, just because you asked me to— ³³ shouldn’t you have mercy on others, just as I had mercy on you?’

³⁴ “Then the angry king sent the man to the torture chamber until he had paid every last penny due. ³⁵ So shall my heavenly Father do to you if you refuse to truly forgive your brothers.”