Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 45
The Wedding of the Victorious King
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For the choir director. According to “Lilies.”[a]
By the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A love song.
Introduction
1 My heart is bubbling over with a beautiful theme.
I am reciting my works for the King.
My tongue is the pen of a rapid writer.
The Glory of the Royal Groom
2 You are the most beautiful of the sons of Adam.
Grace is poured out on your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Strap your sword on your thigh, you mighty warrior,
in your splendor and your majesty.
4 In your majesty advance successfully.
Ride forward in the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness.
Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds.
5 Your arrows are sharpened.
Let peoples fall beneath you.
Your arrows are in the heart of the king’s enemies.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy
more than any of your companions.
8 Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume all your garments.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.
9 Daughters of kings are among your honored attendants.
The royal wife[b] stands at your right hand in gold from Ophir.
The Beauty of the Bride
10 Hear, O daughter, look and listen.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
11 because the king desires your beauty.
Because he is your lord, bow down to him.
12 Then the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift.
The richest people will seek your favor.
13 The princess, who waits inside, is all glorious.
Her dress is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king.
Virgins who follow her as attendants are brought to you.
15 They are brought with joyful celebration.
They enter the palace of the king.
The Glory of the King’s Children
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You will make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will preserve the memory of your name through all generations.
Therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.
Psalm 47
The King’s Empire
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For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
Praise the Great King of All the Earth!
1 All you peoples, clap your hands!
Shout to God! Sing a loud song!
2 Yes, the Lord Most High is awesome.
He is the great King over all the earth!
3 He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us.
It is the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Interlude
5 God has ascended with a joyful shout.
The Lord goes up with the sound of the ram’s horn.
6 Make music for God! Make music!
Make music for our King! Make music!
7 For God is the King of all the earth.
Make music for him with a wise song.
8 God reigns as king over the nations.
God is seated on his holy throne.
9 The nobles of the peoples come together
as the people of the God of Abraham.
Yes, the shields of the earth[a] belong to God.
He is greatly exalted.
Psalm 48
The Security of the King’s Holy City
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A song. A psalm by the Sons of Korah.
Call to Praise
1 The Lord is great. He deserves to be praised
in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
2 His mountain is lofty and beautiful, the joy of the whole earth.
Mount Zion, the northern mountain, is the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels.
He is famous as her fortress.
Defeat of the Enemies
4 Look! See! The kings came together.
They advanced together.
5 They saw. Yes, they were amazed.
They were terrified. They were put to flight.
6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman giving birth.
7 You shattered them with an east wind, like ships of Tarshish.
Thanksgiving
8 What we have heard, we now have also seen:
In the city of the Lord of Armies,
in the city of our God, Interlude
God establishes her forever.
9 Inside your temple, O God, we meditate on your mercy.
10 Your praise, O God, reaches to the ends of the earth,
just as your fame does.
Righteousness fills your right hand.
11 Mount Zion rejoices.
The daughters of Judah[b] celebrate because of your judgments.
12 Go around Zion. Yes, go all the way around her.
Count her towers. 13 Consider her rampart.[c]
View her citadels, so that you may tell the next generation about them.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will guide us beyond death.[d]
Completion of the Second Temple
5 Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah grandson[a] of Iddo, prophesied to the Judeans who were in Judah[b] and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began to build the house of the God who is in Jerusalem.[c] The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
3 At that time, Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, together with Shethar Bozenai and their associates, came up to them and said this to them: “Who gave you an order to construct this building and to finish this project?” 4 They[d] also said this to them: “What are the names of the men who are building this building?”
5 However, the eye of their God was on the Judean elders, and the officials did not make them stop until the report could go to Darius, and they could respond on the basis of a document concerning this matter.
6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar Bozenai and his associates, officials who are in Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius. 7 They sent him a report, and this is what was written in it:
To King Darius.
All peace.
8 We want the King to know that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It was being built with large stones, and beams were being laid in the walls. This work was being done thoroughly and was progressing in their hands.
9 Then we questioned those elders, and we said this to them, “Who gave you an order to build this house and to finish this structure?” 10 We also asked them for their names, in order to inform you so that we could write the names of the men who were their leaders.
11 Now this was what they replied to us: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago. A great king of Israel built it and finished it. 12 However, because our ancestors angered the God of Heaven,[e] he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean. As a result, he destroyed this house and exiled the people to Babylon. 13 However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. 14 Also the gold and silver vessels of the house of God that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon—King Cyrus brought them out of the temple in Babylon, and they were given to a certain Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor. 15 Moreover, he said to him, ‘Take these vessels. Go deposit them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.’ 16 Then that Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. So from then until now, it has been under construction but has not been completed.”
17 Now if it seems good to the King, an investigation may be conducted in the royal archives there in Babylon to see whether it is true that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to build that house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the King send us his decision in this matter.
John’s Vision of God
4 After these things I looked, and there was a door opened in heaven! And the first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in spirit. And look! A throne was standing in heaven, and someone was sitting on the throne. 3 The one who was sitting there looked like a jasper stone and a ruby.[a] Around the throne there was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.
4 Also around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and sitting on those thrones were twenty-four elders dressed in white garments, with gold crowns on their heads. 5 Out of the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and crashes of thunder. In front of the throne seven flaming lamps were burning, which are the seven spirits of God. 6 Also in front of the throne was something resembling a glassy sea, which was like crystal.
In the middle, near the throne and around the throne, there were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature was like an ox, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 8 Each one of the four living creatures had six wings, and the wings were full of eyes all around and underneath.[b] Day and night, without pause, they keep saying:
Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
who was and who is and who is coming.
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders bow down before him who sits on the throne. They worship the one who lives forever and ever and lay down their crowns in front of his throne as they say:
11 Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive the glory and the honor and the power,
for you have created all things,
and because of your will they existed and were created.
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus left the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 A large crowd gathered around him. So he stepped into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen, a sower went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. Immediately the seed sprang up, because the soil was not deep. 6 But when the sun rose, the seed was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it. 8 But some seed fell on good ground and produced grain: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown. 9 Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.