Book of Common Prayer
33 He dries up rivers 34 and turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt. 35 Again, he turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys. 36 He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities, 37 to sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops! 38 How he blesses them! They raise big families there and many cattle.
39 But others become poor through oppression, trouble, and sorrow. 40 For God pours contempt upon the haughty and causes princes to wander among ruins; 41 but he rescues the poor who are godly and gives them many children and much prosperity. 42 Good men everywhere will see it and be glad, while evil men are stricken silent.
43 Listen, if you are wise, to what I am saying. Think about the loving-kindness of the Lord!
108 O God, my heart is ready to praise you! I will sing and rejoice before you.
2 Wake up, O harp and lyre! We will meet the dawn with song. 3 I will praise you everywhere around the world, in every nation. 4 For your loving-kindness is great beyond measure, high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the skies. 5 His glory is far more vast than the heavens. It towers above the earth. 6 Hear the cry of your beloved child—come with mighty power and rescue me.
7 God has given sacred promises; no wonder I exult! He has promised to give us all the land of Shechem and also Succoth Valley. 8 “Gilead is mine to give to you,” he says, “and Manasseh as well; the land of Ephraim is the helmet on my head. Judah is my scepter. 9 But Moab and Edom are despised;[a] and I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”
10 Who but God can give me strength to conquer these fortified cities? Who else can lead me into Edom?
11 Lord, have you thrown us away? Have you deserted our army? 12 Oh, help us fight against our enemies, for men are useless allies. 13 But with the help of God we shall do mighty acts of valor. For he treads down our foes.
33 Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise him. 2 Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. 3 Compose new songs of praise to him, accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.
4 For all God’s words are right, and everything he does is worthy of our trust. 5 He loves whatever is just and good; the earth is filled with his tender love. 6 He merely spoke, and the heavens were formed and all the galaxies of stars. 7 He made the oceans, pouring them into his vast reservoirs.
8 Let everyone in all the world—men, women, and children—fear the Lord and stand in awe of him. 9 For when he but spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command! 10 And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, 11 but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. 13-15 The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.
16-17 The best-equipped army cannot save a king—for great strength is not enough to save anyone. A war horse is a poor risk for winning victories—it is strong, but it cannot save.
18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. He will keep them from death even in times of famine! 20 We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield. 21 No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name. 22 Yes, Lord, let your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.
13 “Your attitude toward me has been proud and arrogant,” says the Lord.
“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said that we shouldn’t?’
14-15 “Listen; you have said, ‘It is foolish to worship God and obey him. What good does it do to obey his laws, and to sorrow and mourn for our sins? From now on, as far as we’re concerned, “Blessed are the arrogant.” For those who do evil shall prosper, and those who dare God to punish them shall get off scot-free.’”
16 Then those who feared and loved the Lord spoke often of him to each other. And he had a Book of Remembrance drawn up in which he recorded the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him.
17 “They shall be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares an obedient and dutiful son. 18 Then you will see the difference between God’s treatment of good men and bad, between those who serve him and those who don’t.
4 “Watch now,” the Lord Almighty declares, “the day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. The proud and wicked will be burned up like straw; like a tree, they will be consumed—roots and all.
2 “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. 3 Then you will tread upon the wicked as ashes underfoot,” says the Lord Almighty. 4 “Remember to obey the laws I gave all Israel through Moses my servant on Mount Horeb.
5 “See, I will send you another prophet like Elijah[a] before the coming of the great and dreadful judgment day of God. 6 His preaching will bring fathers and children together again, to be of one mind and heart, for they will know that if they do not repent, I will come and utterly destroy their land.”
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually be singing praises to the Lord.
14 Is anyone sick? He should call for the elders of the church and they should pray over him and pour a little oil upon him, calling on the Lord to heal him. 15 And their prayer, if offered in faith, will heal him, for the Lord will make him well; and if his sickness was caused by some sin, the Lord will forgive him.
16 Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as completely human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! 18 Then he prayed again, this time that it would rain, and down it poured, and the grass turned green and the gardens began to grow again.
19 Dear brothers, if anyone has slipped away from God and no longer trusts the Lord and someone helps him understand the Truth again, 20 that person who brings him back to God will have saved a wandering soul from death, bringing about the forgiveness of his many sins.
Sincerely, James
9 Then he told this story to some who boasted of their virtue and scorned everyone else:
10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, and the other a cheating tax collector. 11 The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, 12 I go without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’
13 “But the corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed, but beat upon his chest in sorrow, exclaiming, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home forgiven! For the proud shall be humbled, but the humble shall be honored.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.