Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 95
95 Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord!
Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come before him with thanks!
Let’s shout songs of joy to him!
3 The Lord is a great God,
the great king over all other gods.
4 The earth’s depths are in his hands;
the mountain heights belong to him;
5 the sea, which he made, is his
along with the dry ground,
which his own hands formed.
6 Come, let’s worship and bow down!
Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker!
7 He is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep in his hands.
If only you would listen to his voice right now!
8 “Don’t harden your hearts
like you did at Meribah,
like you did when you were at Massah,
in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me
and scrutinized me,
even though they had already seen my acts.
10 For forty years I despised that generation;
I said, ‘These people have twisted hearts.
They don’t know my ways.’
11 So in anger I swore:
‘They will never enter my place of rest!’”
Psalm 88
A song. A psalm of the Korahites. For the music leader. According to “Mahalath Leannoth.”[a] A maskil[b] of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 Lord, God of my salvation,
by day I cry out,
even at night, before you—
2 let my prayer reach you!
Turn your ear to my outcry
3 because my whole being[c] is filled with distress;
my life is at the very brink of hell.[d]
4 I am considered as one of those plummeting into the pit.
I am like those who are beyond help,
5 drifting among the dead,
lying in the grave, like dead bodies—
those you don’t remember anymore,
those who are cut off from your power.
6 You placed me down in the deepest pit,
in places dark and deep.
7 Your anger smothers me;
you subdue me with it, wave after wave. Selah
8 You’ve made my friends distant.
You’ve made me disgusting to them.
I can’t escape. I’m trapped!
9 My eyes are tired of looking at my suffering.
I’ve been calling out to you every day, Lord—
I’ve had my hands outstretched to you!
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do ghosts rise up and give you thanks? Selah
11 Is your faithful love proclaimed in the grave,
your faithfulness in the underworld?[e]
12 Are your wonders known in the land of darkness,
your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry out to you, Lord!
My prayer meets you first thing in the morning!
14 Why do you reject my very being, Lord?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Since I was young I’ve been afflicted, I’ve been dying.
I’ve endured your terrors. I’m lifeless.
16 Your fiery anger has overwhelmed me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
17 They surround me all day long like water;
they engulf me completely.
18 You’ve made my loved ones and companions distant.
My only friend is darkness.
Psalm 27
Of David.
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Should I fear anyone?
The Lord is a fortress protecting my life.
Should I be frightened of anything?
2 When evildoers come at me trying to eat me up—
it’s they, my foes and my enemies,
who stumble and fall!
3 If an army camps against me,
my heart won’t be afraid.
If war comes up against me,
I will continue to trust in this:
4 I have asked one thing from the Lord—
it’s all I seek:
to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life,
seeing the Lord’s beauty
and constantly adoring his temple.
5 Because he will shelter me in his own dwelling
during troubling times;
he will hide me in a secret place in his own tent;
he will set me up high, safe on a rock.
6 Now my head is higher than the enemies surrounding me,
and I will offer sacrifices in God’s tent—
sacrifices with shouts of joy!
I will sing and praise the Lord.
7 Lord, listen to my voice when I cry out—
have mercy on me and answer me!
8 Come, my heart says, seek God’s face.[a]
Lord, I do seek your face!
9 Please don’t hide it from me!
Don’t push your servant aside angrily—
you have been my help!
God who saves me,
don’t neglect me!
Don’t leave me all alone!
10 Even if my father and mother left me all alone,
the Lord would take me in.
11 Lord, teach me your way;
because of my opponents, lead me on a good path.
12 Don’t give me over to the desires of my enemies,
because false witnesses and violent accusers
have taken their stand against me.
13 But I have sure faith
that I will experience the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living!
14 Hope in the Lord!
Be strong! Let your heart take courage!
Hope in the Lord!
21 Pity me. Pity me. You’re my friends.
God’s hand has truly struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me like God does,
always hungry for my flesh?
Brief hope
23 Oh, that my words were written down,
inscribed on a scroll
24 with an iron instrument and lead,
forever engraved on stone.
25 But I know that my redeemer[a] is alive
and afterward he’ll rise upon the dust.
26 After my skin has been torn apart this way—
then from my flesh[b] I’ll see God,
27 whom I’ll see myself—
my eyes see,[c] and not a stranger’s.
I am utterly dejected.
Enter the rest
4 Therefore, since the promise that we can enter into rest is still open, let’s be careful so that none of you will appear to miss it. 2 We also had the good news preached to us, just as the Israelites did. However, the message they heard didn’t help them because they weren’t united in faith with the ones who listened to it. 3 We who have faith are entering the rest. As God said,
And because of my anger I swore:
“They will never enter into my rest!”[a]
And yet God’s works were completed at the foundation of the world. 4 Then somewhere he said this about the seventh day of creation: God rested on the seventh day from all his works.[b] 5 But again, in the passage above, God said, They will never enter my rest![c] 6 Therefore, it’s left open for some to enter it, and the ones who had the good news preached to them before didn’t enter because of disobedience. 7 Just as it says in the passage above, God designates a certain day as “today,” when he says through David much later,
Today, if you hear his voice,
don’t have stubborn hearts.[d]
8 If Joshua gave the Israelites rest, God wouldn’t have spoken about another day later on. 9 So you see that a sabbath rest is left open for God’s people. 10 The one who entered God’s rest also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own.
First summary of the message
11 Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience, 12 because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. 13 No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer.
14 Also, let’s hold on to the confession since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son; 15 because we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.
16 Finally, let’s draw near to the throne of favor with confidence so that we can receive mercy and find grace when we need help.
Set free by the Spirit
8 So now there isn’t any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 God has done what was impossible for the Law, since it was weak because of selfishness. God condemned sin in the body by sending his own Son to deal with sin in the same body as humans, who are controlled by sin. 4 He did this so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Now the way we live is based on the Spirit, not based on selfishness. 5 People whose lives are based on selfishness think about selfish things, but people whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit. 6 The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. 7 So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. 8 People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.
9 But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. 10 If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. 11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible