Book of Common Prayer

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!

34 I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of his glories and grace.^{[a] 2} I will boast of all his kindness to me. Let all who are discouraged take heart. ³ Let us praise the Lord together and exalt his name.

⁴ For I cried to him and he answered me! He freed me from all my fears. ⁵ Others too were radiant at what he did for them. Theirs was no downcast look of rejection! ⁶ This poor man cried to the Lord—and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his troubles. ⁷ For the Angel of the Lord guards and rescues all who reverence him.

⁸ Oh, put God to the test and see how kind he is! See for yourself the way his mercies shower down on all who trust in him. ⁹ If you belong to the Lord, reverence him; for everyone who does this has everything he needs. ¹⁰ Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those of us who reverence the Lord will never lack any good thing.

¹¹ Sons and daughters, come and listen and let me teach you the importance of trusting and fearing the Lord. ¹² Do you want a long, good life? ¹³ Then watch your tongue! Keep your lips from lying. ¹⁴ Turn from all known sin and spend your time in doing good. Try to live in peace with everyone; work hard at it.

¹⁵ For the eyes of the Lord are intently watching all who live good lives, and he gives attention when they cry to him. ¹⁶ But the Lord has made up his mind to wipe out even the memory of evil men from the earth. ¹⁷ Yes, the Lord hears the good man when he calls to him for help and saves him out of all his troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is close to those whose hearts are breaking; he rescues those who are humbly sorry for their sins. ¹⁹ The good man does not escape all troubles—he has them too. But the Lord helps him in each and every one. ²⁰ Not one of his bones is broken.

²¹ Calamity will surely overtake the wicked; heavy penalties are meted out to those who hate the good. ²² But as for those who serve the Lord, he will redeem them; everyone who takes refuge in him will be freely pardoned.

14 Let love be your greatest aim; nevertheless, ask also for the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives, and especially the gift of prophecy, being able to preach the messages of God.

² But if your gift is that of being able to “speak in tongues,” that is, to speak in languages you haven’t learned, you will be talking to God but not to others, since they won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be a secret. ³ But one who prophesies, preaching the messages of God, is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them. ⁴ So a person “speaking in tongues” helps himself grow spiritually, but one who prophesies, preaching messages from God, helps the entire church grow in holiness and happiness.

⁵ I wish you all had the gift of “speaking in tongues,” but even more I wish you were all able to prophesy, preaching God’s messages, for that is a greater and more useful power than to speak in unknown languages—unless, of course, you can tell everyone afterwards what you were saying, so that they can get some good out of it too.

⁶ Dear friends, even if I myself should come to you talking in some language you don’t understand, how would that help you? But if I speak plainly what God has revealed to me, and tell you the things I know, and what is going to happen, and the great truths of God’s Word—that is what you need; that is what will help you. ⁷ Even musical instruments—the flute, for instance, or the harp—are examples of the need for speaking in plain, simple English^[a] rather than in unknown languages. For no one will recognize the tune the flute is playing unless each note is sounded clearly. ⁸ And if the army bugler doesn’t play the right notes, how will the soldiers know that they are being called to battle? ⁹ In the same way, if you talk to a person in some language he doesn’t understand, how will he know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room.

¹⁰ I suppose that there are hundreds of different languages in the world, and all are excellent for those who understand them, ¹¹ but to me they mean nothing. A person talking to me in one of these languages will be a stranger to me and I will be a stranger to him. ¹² Since you are so anxious to have special gifts from the Holy Spirit, ask him for the very best, for those that will be of real help to the whole church.

20 Here is another illustration of the Kingdom of Heaven. “The owner of an estate went out early one morning to hire workers for his harvest field. ² He agreed to pay them $20 a day$20 a day, literally, “a denarius,” the payment for a day’s labor; equivalent to $20 in modern times, or £7. and sent them out to work.

³ “A couple of hours later he was passing a hiring hall and saw some men standing around waiting for jobs, ⁴ so he sent them also into his fields, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. ⁵ At noon and again around three o’clock in the afternoon he did the same thing.

⁶ “At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more men standing around and asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

⁷ “‘Because no one hired us,’ they replied.

“‘Then go on out and join the others in my fields,’ he told them.

⁸ “That evening he told the paymaster to call the men in and pay them, beginning with the last men first. ⁹ When the men hired at five o’clock were paid, each received $20. ¹⁰ So when the men hired earlier came to get theirs, they assumed they would receive much more. But they, too, were paid $20.

^11-12 “They protested, ‘Those fellows worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as those of us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

¹³ “‘Friend,’ he answered one of them, ‘I did you no wrong! Didn’t you agree to work all day for $20? ¹⁴ Take it and go. It is my desire to pay all the same; ¹⁵ is it against the law to give away my money if I want to? Should you be angry because I am kind?’ ¹⁶ And so it is that the last shall be first, and the first, last.”