Book of Common Prayer
A song of David written when he was in the desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I am searching so hard to find you.
Body and soul, I thirst for you
in this dry and weary land without water.
2 Yes, I have seen you in your Temple.[a]
I have seen your strength and glory.
3 Your faithful love is better than life,
so my lips praise you.
4 By my life, I will praise you.
In your name, I lift my hands in prayer.
5 When I sit down to satisfy my hunger,
my joyful lips hunger to praise you!
6 I remember you while lying on my bed.
I think about you in the middle of the night.
7 That is because you are the one who helps me.
It makes me happy to be under your protection!
8 I stay close to you,
and you hold me with your powerful arm.
9 Those who are trying to kill me will be destroyed.
They will go down to their graves.
10 They will be killed with swords.
Wild dogs will eat their dead bodies.
11 But the king will be happy with his God,
and those who promised to obey him will praise him when he defeats those liars.
A song of praise.
98 Sing a new song[a] to the Lord,
because he has done amazing things!
His powerful and holy right arm[b]
has brought him another victory.
2 The Lord showed the nations his power to save.
He showed them his goodness.
3 He has kept his promise of love and loyalty to the people of Israel.
People everywhere have seen our God’s power to save.
4 Everyone on earth, shout with joy to the Lord.
Start singing happy songs of praise!
5 Praise the Lord with harps.
Yes, praise him with music from the harps.
6 Blow the pipes and horns,
and shout for joy to the Lord our King!
7 Let the sea and everything in it,
the earth and all who live in it shout his praise!
8 Rivers, clap your hands!
All together now, mountains sing out!
9 Sing before the Lord
because he is coming to judge the world.
He will rule the world fairly.
He will rule the people with goodness.
A song of David.
103 My soul, praise the Lord!
Every part of me, praise his holy name!
2 My soul, praise the Lord
and never forget how kind he is!
3 He forgives all our sins
and heals all our sicknesses.
4 He saves us from the grave,
and he gives us love and compassion.
5 He gives us plenty of good things.
He makes us young again,
like an eagle that grows new feathers.
6 The Lord does what is fair.
He brings justice to all who have been hurt by others.
7 He taught his laws to Moses.
He let Israel see the powerful things he can do.
8 The Lord is kind and merciful.
He is patient and full of love.
9 He does not always criticize.
He does not stay angry with us forever.
10 We sinned against him,
but he didn’t give us the punishment we deserved.
11 His love for his followers is
as high above us as heaven is above the earth.
12 And he has taken our sins
as far away from us as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is as kind to his followers
as a father is to his children.
14 He knows all about us.
He knows we are made from dust.
15 He knows our lives are short, that they are like grass.
He knows we are like a little wildflower that grows so quickly,
16 but when the hot wind blows, it dies.
Soon, you cannot even see where the flower was.
17 But the Lord has always loved his followers,
and he will continue to love them forever and ever!
He will be good to all their descendants,
18 to those who are faithful to his agreement
and who remember to obey his commands.
19 The Lord set his throne up in heaven,
and he rules over everything.
20 Angels, praise the Lord!
You angels are the powerful soldiers who obey his commands.
You listen to him and obey his commands.
21 Praise the Lord, all his armies.[a]
You are his servants,
and you do what he wants.
22 Everything the Lord has made should praise him
throughout the world that he rules!
My soul, praise the Lord!
6 The Lord’s special day is near. So cry and be sad for yourselves. A time is coming when the enemy will steal your wealth. God All-Powerful will make that happen.[a] 7 People will lose their courage. Fear will make them weak. 8 Everyone will be afraid. They will stare at each other with shock on their faces. Fear will grip them like the pains of a woman in childbirth.
God’s Judgment Against Babylon
9 Look, the Lord’s special day is coming! It will be a terrible day. God will be very angry. He will destroy the country and wipe out the sinful people who live there. 10 The skies will be dark. The sun, the moon, and the stars will not shine.
11 The Lord says, “I will cause bad things to happen to the world. I will punish the evil people for their sin. I will make proud people lose their pride. I will stop the bragging of cruel people. 12 There will be only a few people left. They will be as rare as pure gold. 13 In my anger I will shake the sky, and the earth will be moved from its place.”
That will happen on the day the Lord All-Powerful shows his anger.
18 You have not come to a place that can be seen and touched, like the mountain the people of Israel saw, which was burning with fire and covered with darkness, gloom, and storms. 19 There is no sound of a trumpet or a voice speaking words like those they heard. When they heard the voice, they begged never to hear another word. 20 They did not want to hear the command: “If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be killed with stones.”[a] 21 What they saw was so terrible that Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.”[b][c]
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.[d] You have come to a place where thousands of angels have gathered to celebrate. 23 You have come to the meeting of God’s firstborn[e] children. Their names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all people. And you have come to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect. 24 You have come to Jesus—the one who brought the new agreement from God to his people. You have come to the sprinkled blood[f] that tells us about better things than the blood of Abel.
25 Be careful and don’t refuse to listen when God speaks. Those people refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth. And they did not escape. Now God is speaking from heaven. So now it will be worse for those who refuse to listen to him. 26 When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised, “Once again I will shake the earth, but I will also shake heaven.”[g] 27 The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was created will be destroyed—that is, the things that can be shaken. And only what cannot be shaken will remain.
28 So we should be thankful because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And because we are thankful, we should worship God in a way that will please him. We should do this with respect and fear, 29 because our God is like a fire that can destroy us.
Jesus and John the Baptizer
22 After this, Jesus and his followers went into the area of Judea. There he stayed with his followers and baptized people. 23 John was also baptizing people in Aenon, a place near Salim with plenty of water. People were going there to be baptized. 24 This was before John was put in prison.
25 Some of John’s followers had an argument with another Jew about religious washing.[a] 26 Then they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River? He is the one you were telling everyone about. He is also baptizing people, and many are going to him.”
27 John answered, “A person can receive only what God gives. 28 You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only the one God sent to prepare the way for him.’ 29 The bride always belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who helps the bridegroom just waits and listens. He is happy just to hear the bridegroom talk. That’s how I feel now. I am so happy that he is here. 30 He must become more and more important, and I must become less important.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International