Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. He spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my pillar, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encircled me,
and the torrents of destruction terrified me.
5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called on the Lord,
and cried for help to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
and my cry for help came before Him to His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the hills also moved;
they reeled because His anger burned.
8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
and fire from His mouth devoured;
coals were kindled by it.
9 He bent the heavens and came down,
and darkness was under His feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew;
He flew swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His secret place;
His pavilion was surrounding Him,
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed by,
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High gave His voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows and scattered them,
and He shot out lightning and distressed them.
15 Then the channels of waters appeared,
and the foundations of the world were discovered
at Your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16 He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He also brought me forth into a large place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His view.
25 With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26 with the pure You will show Yourself pure;
and with the crooked You will show Yourself crooked.
27 For You will save the afflicted people,
but will bring down prideful eyes.
28 For You will cause my lamp to shine;
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run through a troop,
and by my God I can leap a wall.
30 As for God, His way has integrity;
the word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield
to all those who take refuge in Him.
31 For who is God except the Lord?
Or who is a rock besides our God?
32 It is God who clothes me with strength,
and gives my way integrity.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and causes me to stand on my high places.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of Your salvation,
and Your right hand has held me up,
and Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You have lengthened my stride under me,
so that my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not return until they were destroyed.
38 I wounded them, and they were not able to rise;
they are fallen under my feet.
39 For You clothed me with strength for the battle;
You subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40 You gave me the necks of my enemies,
and I destroyed those who hate me.
41 They cried for help, but there was none to save them;
even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind;
I cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the hostilities of the people,
and You have made me the head of nations;
a people whom I have not known serve me.
44 At hearing a report, they obey me;
foreigners come cringing to me.
45 Foreigners fade away,
and come quaking out of their prisons.
46 The Lord lives! And blessed be my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God who avenges me
and subdues the people under me;
48 He delivers me from my enemies.
You lift me up above those who rise up against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing praises to Your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to His king,
and shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
to David and to his descendants for evermore.
31 “You, O king, were watching, and there was a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you. And its form was awesome. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched until a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell its interpretation before the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 Wherever the sons of men dwell, or the animals of the field, or the fowl of the heavens, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom inferior to you shall arise, and a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, it shall crush and shatter all these. 41 As you saw the feet and toes, partly of potters’ clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it some of the strength of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. 43 Whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.
44 “In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
The Promotion of Daniel
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and did homage to Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and sweet incense to him. 47 The king answered Daniel and said, “Truly your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”
48 Then the king advanced Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat at the court of the king.
The Antichrist
18 Little children, it is the last hour. As you have heard that the antichrist will come, even now there are many antichrists. By this 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 no doubt have remained with us. But they went out, revealing that none of them were of us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have written to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? Whoever denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father.
24 Let that which you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If that which 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 that He has promised us—eternal life.
26 I have written these things to you concerning those who deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. For as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and just as it has taught you, remain in Him.
Children of God
28 And now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him when He comes.
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.
The Preaching of John the Baptist(A)
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Caesar Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Traconitis, and Lysanias was the tetrarch of Abilene. 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He came into the region surrounding the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make His paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low;
and the crooked shall be made straight
and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”[a]
7 Then he said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You children of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is put to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 The people asked him, “What then must we do?”
11 John answered, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise.”
12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what must we do?”
13 He said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed you.”
14 Then the soldiers likewise demanded of him, “And what must we do?”
He said to them, “Do no violence to anyone nor accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.