Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 148
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise Him in the heights.
2 Praise Him, all His angels;
praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
3 Praise Him, sun and moon;
praise Him, all you stars of light.
4 Praise Him, you highest of heavens,
and you waters that are above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for He commanded, and they were created.
6 He has also established them forever and ever;
He has made a decree that shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures, and all you depths,
8 fire and hail, snow and mist,
storming wind fulfilling His word,
9 mountains and all hills,
fruitful trees and all cedars;
10 animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds;
11 kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth;
12 both young men and maidens,
old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for His name alone is excellent;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a victory horn for His people,
praise for all His saints,
even for the people of Israel near Him.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing unto the Lord a new song,
and His praise in the assembly of the godly ones.
2 Let Israel rejoice in its Maker;
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise His name with dancing;
let them sing praises unto Him with the tambourine and harp.
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
5 Let the godly ones be joyful in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths,
and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations,
and punishments on the peoples;
8 to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with shackles of iron;
9 to execute upon them the written judgment;
this is honor for all His godly ones.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
praise Him in the firmament of His power!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
praise Him with the lyre and harp!
4 Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing;
praise Him with stringed instruments and flute!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
praise Him with the clanging cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 114
1 When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah was His sanctuary,
and Israel His dominion.
3 The sea saw it and fled;
the Jordan was driven back;
4 the mountains skipped like rams
and the hills like lambs.
5 What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams,
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the hard stone into a spring of waters.
Psalm 115(A)
1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto Your name give glory,
for the sake of Your mercy, and for the sake of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where now is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but they cannot hear;
noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but they cannot feel;
feet, but they cannot walk;
neither can they speak with their throat.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so is everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us;
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and great ones.
14 The Lord shall increase you more and more,
you and your children.
15 You are blessed of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth He has given to the children of men.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any who go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the Lord
from this time and for evermore.
Praise the Lord!
Woe to the Complacent
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those confident on the mount of Samaria,
nobles of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Cross over to Kalneh and see,
and go from there to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines—
are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 You who brush off the day of disaster,
but bring on a session of lawlessness;
4 who lie upon beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches,
eating lambs from the flock and calves from the stall;
5 who sing to the sound of the harp
and invent musical instruments for themselves like David;
6 who drink from bowls of wine
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the destruction of Joseph.
7 Therefore now they will go at the head of the captives into exile,
and the revelry of those who are lounging will vanish.
8 The Lord God hath sworn by Himself, an oracle of the Lord the God of Hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his palaces,
so I will deliver up the city
with all that is in it.
9 If there remain ten people in one house, they will die. 10 And when a relative or one who prepares the bodies picks them up to carry them out of the house, and says to someone in the recesses of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” he will say, “Hush!”—not to pronounce the name of the Lord.
11 But indeed the Lord gives a command,
and He will shatter the great house to bits,
and the small house to pieces.
12 Can horses run on a rocky crag?
Can one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 you who rejoice in Lo Debar, who say,
“Is it not by our own strength that we captured Karnaim?”
14 Watch: I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,
says the Lord, the God of Hosts,
and they will oppress you
from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi Arabah.
5 This is evidence that God’s judgment, being righteous, will count you worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. 6 It is a righteous matter with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 They shall be punished with eternal destruction, isolated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at by all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
11 Therefore we always pray for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and with power fulfill all your good desires and works done by faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Birth of John the Baptist
57 Now Elizabeth’s time had come to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and cousins heard how the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they were calling him Zechariah, after the name of his father. 60 But his mother answered, “Not so! He shall be called John.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.”
62 They made signs to his father, asking what he would have him called. 63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke and praised God. 65 Fear came on all who lived around them. And all these facts were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66 All those who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will he be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
The Prophecy of Zechariah
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for He has visited and redeemed His people,
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.