Book of Common Prayer
146 Praise the Lord!
My soul, praise the Lord!
2 I will praise the Lord all my life.
I will sing praises to him as long as I live.
3 Don’t depend on your leaders for help.
Don’t depend on people, because they cannot save you.
4 People die and are buried.
Then all their plans to help are gone.
5 It is a great blessing for people to have the God of Jacob to help them.
They depend on the Lord their God.
6 He made heaven and earth.
He made the sea and everything in it.
He can be trusted to do what he says.
7 He does what is right for those who have been hurt.
He gives food to the hungry.
The Lord frees people locked up in prison.
8 The Lord makes the blind see again.
The Lord helps those who are in trouble.
The Lord loves those who do right.
9 The Lord protects strangers in our country.
He cares for widows and orphans,
but he destroys the wicked.
10 The Lord will rule forever!
Zion, your God will rule forever and ever!
Praise the Lord!
147 Praise the Lord because he is good.
Sing praises to our God.
It is good and pleasant to praise him.
2 The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem.
He brings back the Israelites who were taken as prisoners.
3 He heals their broken hearts
and bandages their wounds.
4 He counts the stars
and knows each of them by name.
5 Our Lord is great and powerful.
There is no limit to what he knows.
6 The Lord supports the humble,
but he shames the wicked.
7 Give thanks to the Lord.
Praise our God with harps.
8 He fills the sky with clouds.
He sends rain to the earth.
He makes the grass grow on the mountains.
9 He gives food to the animals.
He feeds the young birds that cry out.
10 War horses and powerful soldiers
are not what he cares about.
11 The Lord enjoys people who worship him
and trust in his faithful love.
12 Jerusalem, praise the Lord!
Zion, praise your God!
13 He makes your gates strong,
and he blesses the people in your city.
14 He brought peace to your country,
so you have plenty of grain for food.
15 He gives a command to the earth,
and it quickly obeys.
16 He makes the snow fall until the ground is as white as wool.
He makes sleet blow through the air like dust.
17 He makes hail fall like rocks from the sky.
No one can stand the cold he sends.
18 Then he gives another command, and warm air begins to blow.
The ice melts, and water begins to flow.
19 He gave his commands to Jacob.
He gave his laws and rules to Israel.
20 He did not do this for any other nation.
He did not teach his laws to other people.
Praise the Lord!
148 Praise the Lord!
Angels above,
praise the Lord from heaven!
2 Praise him, all you angels!
Praise him, all his army[a]!
3 Sun and moon, praise him!
Stars and lights in the sky, praise him!
4 Praise him, highest heaven!
Waters above the sky, praise him!
5 Let them praise the Lord’s name,
because he gave the command and created them all!
6 He made all these continue forever.
He made the laws that will never end.
7 Everything on earth, praise him!
Great sea animals and all the oceans, praise the Lord!
8 Praise him, fire and hail, snow and clouds,
and the stormy winds that obey him.
9 Praise him, mountains and hills,
fruit trees and cedar trees.
10 Praise him, wild animals and cattle, reptiles and birds.
11 Praise him, kings of the earth and all nations,
princes and all rulers on earth.
12 Praise him, young men and women,
old people and children.
13 Praise the Lord’s name!
Honor his name forever!
His name is greater than any other.
He is more glorious than heaven and earth.
14 He made his people strong.
His loyal followers praise him.
Israel, his precious people, praise the Lord!
149 Praise the Lord!
Sing a new song[b] to the Lord!
Sing his praise in the assembly of his followers.
2 Let Israel be happy with their Maker.
Let the people of Zion rejoice with their King.
3 Let them praise him by dancing
and playing their tambourines and harps.
4 The Lord is happy with his people.
He did a wonderful thing for his humble people.
He saved them!
5 Let his followers rejoice in this victory!
Let them sing for joy, even in their beds!
6 Let the people shout praise to God.
And with a sharp sword in their hand,
7 let them take revenge on the other nations.
Let them go punish those people.
8 They will put their kings in chains
and their leaders in chains of iron.
9 They will punish those nations as God commanded.
This is an honor for all his followers.
Praise the Lord!
The Vision of the Dry Bones
37 The Lord’s power came on me. The Spirit[a] of the Lord carried me out of the city and put me down in the middle of the valley.[b] The valley was full of dead men’s bones. 2 There were many bones lying on the ground in the valley. The Lord made me walk all around among the bones. I saw the bones were very dry.
3 Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man,[c] can these bones come to life?”
I answered, “Lord God, only you know the answer to that question.”
4 Then he said to me, “Speak to these bones for me. Tell them, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Lord God says to you: I will cause breath[d] to come into you, and you will come to life! 6 I will put sinew and muscles on you, and I will cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you, and you will come back to life! Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I spoke to the bones for the Lord, as he said. I was still speaking, when I heard the loud noise. The bones began to rattle, and bone joined together with bone! 8 There before my eyes, I saw sinew and muscles begin to cover the bones. Skin began to cover them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then the Lord said to me, “Speak to the wind[e] for me. Son of man, speak to the wind for me. Tell the wind that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Wind, come from every direction and breathe air into these dead bodies! Breathe into them and they will come to life again!’”
10 So I spoke to the wind for the Lord, as he said, and the breath came into the dead bodies. They came to life and stood up. There were many men—a very large army!
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are like the whole family of Israel. The people of Israel say, ‘Our bones have dried up;[f] our hope is gone. We have been completely destroyed!’ 12 So speak to them for me. Tell them this is what the Lord God says: ‘My people, I will open your graves and bring you up out of them! Then I will bring you to the land of Israel. 13 My people, I will open your graves and bring you up out of your graves, and then you will know that I am the Lord. 14 I will put my Spirit[g] in you, and you will come to life again. Then I will lead you back to your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord. You will know that I said this and that I made it happen.’” This is what the Lord said.
Peter Speaks to the People
11 The man was holding on to Peter and John. All the people were amazed. They ran to Peter and John at Solomon’s Porch.
12 When Peter saw this, he said to the people, “My Jewish brothers, why are you surprised at this? You are looking at us as if it was our power that made this man walk. Do you think this was done because we are good? 13 No, God did it! He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is the God of all our fathers. He gave glory to Jesus, his special servant. But you handed him over to be killed. Pilate decided to let him go free. But you told Pilate you did not want him. 14 Jesus was holy and good, but you said you did not want him. You told Pilate to give you a murderer[a] instead of Jesus. 15 And so you killed the one who gives life! But God raised him from death. We are witnesses of this—we saw it with our own eyes.
16 “This crippled man was healed because we trusted in Jesus. It was Jesus’ power that made him well. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of faith in Jesus. You all saw it happen!
17 “My brothers, I know that what you did to Jesus was done because you did not understand what you were doing. And your leaders did not understand any more than you did. 18 But God said these things would happen. Through the prophets he said that his Messiah would suffer and die. I have told you how God made this happen. 19 So you must change your hearts and lives. Come back to God, and he will forgive your sins. 20 Then the Lord will give you times of spiritual rest. He will send you Jesus, the one he chose to be the Messiah.
21 “But Jesus must stay in heaven until the time when all things will be made right again. God told about this time when he spoke long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will give you a prophet. That prophet will come from among your own people. He will be like me. You must obey everything he tells you. 23 And anyone who refuses to obey that prophet will die, separated from God’s people.’[b]
24 “Samuel, and all the other prophets who spoke for God after Samuel, said that this time would come. 25 And what those prophets talked about is for you, their descendants. You have received the agreement that God made with your fathers. God said to your father Abraham, ‘Every nation on earth will be blessed through your descendants.’[c] 26 God has sent his special servant Jesus. He sent him to you first. He sent him to bless you by causing each of you to turn away from your evil ways.”
12 This is what I command you: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 The greatest love people can show is to die for their friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do. 15 I no longer call you servants, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. But now I call you friends, because I have told you everything that my Father told me.
16 “You did not choose me. I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Jesus Warns His Followers
18 “If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as it loves its own people. But I have chosen you to be different from those in the world. So you don’t belong to the world, and that is why the world hates you.
20 “Remember the lesson I told you: Servants are not greater than their master. If people treated me badly, they will treat you badly too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. 21 They will do to you whatever they did to me, because you belong to me. They don’t know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to the people of the world, they would not be guilty of sin. But now I have spoken to them. So they have no excuse for their sin.
23 “Whoever hates me also hates my Father. 24 I did things among the people of the world that no one else has ever done. If I had not done those things, they would not be guilty of sin. But they have seen what I did, and still they hate me and my Father. 25 But this happened to make clear the full meaning of what is written in their law: ‘They hated me for no reason.’[a]
26 “I will send you the Helper[b] from the Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth[c] who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me. 27 And you will tell people about me too, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International