Book of Common Prayer
Praise to God for His Deliverance
For the music director. Of David, the servant of Yahweh,
who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song
when[a] Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies,
and from the hand of Saul.[b]
18 And he said:
“I love you, O Yahweh, my strength.”
2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I have taken refuge,
my shield and the horn of my deliverance, my stronghold.
3 I called upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised,
and I was saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death encircled me,
and streams of ruin overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my trouble I called on Yahweh,
and to my God I cried for help.
He heard my voice from his temple,
and my cry for help
came up before his presence into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains trembled,
and they staggered because he was angry.
8 Smoke went forth from his nose,
and fire from his mouth consumed.
Burning coals blazed from him.
9 So he bowed the heavens and came down
with a thick cloud under his feet.
10 And he mounted a cherub and flew,
and he swooped down on wings of wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place;
all about him his covering
was a darkness of waters, thick clouds.[c]
12 From the brightness before him
his clouds passed over
with hail and coals of fire.
13 And Yahweh thundered from the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice
with hail and coals of fire.
14 And he shot his arrows and scattered them,[d]
and many lightning bolts and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea became visible,
and the foundations of the world were uncovered
by your rebuke, O Yahweh,
by the blast[e] of the wind of your nose.
16 He reached[f] from on high; he seized me.
He drew me from many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me
because they were stronger than I.
18 They confronted me on the day of disaster,
but Yahweh was my support.
19 So he brought me out to a spacious place.
He delivered me because he delighted in me.
20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
he has repaid me.
21 Because I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
and have not acted wickedly against my God,
22 because all his ordinances are before me,
and his statutes I have not removed from me,
23 and I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 Therefore Yahweh has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 To the loyal you show yourself loyal.
To the blameless you show yourself blameless.
26 To the pure you show yourself pure.
but to the wicked you show yourself shrewd.
27 For you deliver humble people,
but haughty eyes you humiliate.
28 For you light my lamp;
Yahweh, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 For with you I can charge a troop,
and with my God I can scale a wall.
30 This[g] God—his way is blameless.
The word of Yahweh is flawless.[h]
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God apart from Yahweh,
and who is a rock except our God?
32 The God who girded me with strength,
and made safe[i] my way,
33 he made my feet like the deer’s,
and on my high places he makes me stand.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You also gave me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your humility made me great.
36 You enlarged my step under me,
and my ankles did not slip.
37 I chased my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back until they were finished off.
38 I struck them and they were not able to stand up;
they fell under my feet.
39 And you girded me with strength for the battle;
those rising against me you made to kneel under me.
40 And you made my enemies turn their backs,[j]
then I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out but there was no rescuer,
even to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.
42 And I ground them like dust in the wind,[k]
I emptied them[l] out like mud of the streets.
43 You rescued me from strife with people;
you set me as head (over) nations.
People I did not know served me;
44 as soon as they heard,[m] they obeyed me.
The children of a foreign land feigned obedience before me.
45 The children of a foreign land lost heart,[n]
and they came trembling from their strongholds.
46 Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock,
and may the God of my salvation be exalted—
47 the God who executed vengeance for me,
and subdued peoples under me,
48 who delivered me from my enemies.
Indeed, you exalted me higher than those who rose against me.
You delivered me from the man of violence.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, O Yahweh,
and I will sing the praise of your name:
50 the one who makes great victories for his king,
and who shows loyal love for his anointed,
to David and to his descendants forever.
31 “You, O king, were looking and, look, there was one great statue. This statue was huge and its brilliance extraordinary, standing there before you, and its appearance was frightening.[a] 32 The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet, part of them of iron and part of them of clay. 34 You were looking on until[b] a stone was chiseled out[c]—that not by hands—and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and it broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold all at once[d] broke into pieces[e] and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away and any trace of them could not be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and it filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will tell its interpretation to the king. 37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory, 38 and also human beings wherever they dwell,[f] the animals of the field and the birds[g] of heaven[h]—he has given into your hand and made you ruler over all of them—you are the head of gold. 39 And after you another kingdom inferior to yours will arise, and another third kingdom of bronze that will rule over the whole earth. 40 And a fourth kingdom will be strong as iron, and just as[i] iron crushes and smashes everything,[j] and as iron shatters all of these other metals, so it will crush and it will shatter these nations. 41 And just as[k] you saw the feet and the toes, partly potter’s clay[l] and partly iron,[m] it will be a divided kingdom; and some hardness[n] of the iron will be in it, just as[o] you have seen the iron mixed with the wet clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so part of the kingdom will be strong and partly brittle.[p] 43 And in that you saw the iron was mixed with wet clay, so they will mix in marriage[q] and they will not cling to one another,[r] just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the day of those kings,[s] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never[t] be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left for another nation,[u] and it will bring an end to all these kingdoms, but it will stand forever.[v] 45 Inasmuch as[w] you saw that a stone from the mountain was chiseled out[x] but not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, thereby the great God made known to the king what will be in the future,[y] and the dream is certain and its explanation trustworthy.”
The King’s Response to Daniel and His God
46 Then the king, Nebuchadnezzar, fell on his face and he paid homage to Daniel; and he commanded them to offer a grain offering and incense offering to him. 47 The king answered Daniel and said, “Truly[z] your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, and he reveals mysteries, for you are able to reveal this mystery.” 48 Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 And Daniel made a request from the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the court of the king.
Departure of the False Teachers
18 Children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out[a], in order that it might be shown that all of them are not of us.
20 And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 21 I have not written to you because[b] you do not know the truth, but because[c] you do know it, and because[d] every lie is not of the truth. 22 Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise which he himself promised us: eternal life. 26 These things I have written to you concerning the ones who are trying to deceive you.
27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside[e] in him.
God’s Children
28 And now, little children, remain in him, so that whenever he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone[f] who practices righteousness has been fathered by him.
John the Baptist Begins His Ministry
3 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,[a] when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 2 in the time of the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight!
5 Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled,
and the crooked will become straight,
and the rough road will become[b] smooth,
6 and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’”[c]
7 Therefore he was saying to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 9 And even now the ax is positioned at the root of the trees; therefore every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds were asking him, saying, “What then should we do?” 11 And he answered and[d] said to them, “The one who has two tunics must share with the one who does not have one,[e] and the one who has food must do likewise.” 12 And tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you are ordered to.”[f] 14 And those who served in the army were also asking him, saying, “What should we also do?” And he said to them, “Extort from no one, and do not blackmail anyone,[g] and be content with your pay.”
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