Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote.
The love of God[a]
103 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Everything that is in me, praise his holy name!
2 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Never forget all the good things that he has done for you!
3 He forgives all my sins.
He makes me well again when I am ill.
4 He saves me from the deep hole of death's power.
He always loves me and he is kind to me.
That is how he blesses me so much!
5 He gives me many good things for my life here.
So I become strong again, with the strength of a young eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair.
He helps poor people who suffer.
7 He showed Moses how he works to help his people.
He showed the Israelites the great things that he could do.
8 The Lord is kind to people and he forgives them.
He is slow to get angry and his love always continues.
9 He will not always tell us that we are wrong.
He will not always continue to be angry.
10 We should receive much punishment for the bad things that we do.
But the Lord does not punish us so much.
11 For people who worship him, his faithful love is very great.
How far is the sky above the earth? His love is greater than that!
12 How far is the east from the west?
The Lord has taken our sins further away than that!
He no longer says that we are guilty.
13 As a father is kind to his children, the Lord is kind to us.
He is kind to people who worship him.
14 He knows that we are weak humans.
He remembers that he used dust to make us.
15 A person's life is like grass that quickly dies.
He is strong only for a short time, like wild flowers in a field.
16 A hot wind blows over flowers and they die!
Nobody even remembers where they were growing.
17 But the faithful love of the Lord
will always be with people who worship him.
He promises to be kind to their children's children for ever.
18 He continues to love people who obey his covenant.
Those are the people who obey his laws.
19 The Lord rules from his throne in heaven.
He rules as king over everything.
20 You who are the Lord's angels,
you strong angels who do what he tells you to do,
praise the Lord!
21 All of you who belong to his armies in heaven,
his servants who do what he wants,
praise the Lord!
22 Yes, everything that the Lord has made,
in all the places that he rules over,
praise the Lord!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Hallelujah, God does great things[a]
114 God led Israel's people out of Egypt.
Jacob's descendants left that foreign land.
2 Then Judah became God's special place for his people.
There he ruled over Israel's people.
3 The sea looked and ran away!
Then the Jordan River turned back![b]
4 The mountains shook,
like sheep that are jumping.
The hills jumped like lambs.[c]
5 Tell me, sea, why did you run away?
Tell me, Jordan River, why did you turn back?
6 And you mountains and hills,
why did you jump like sheep?
7 Earth, you should shake with fear!
The Lord, Jacob's God, has come to you,
so be afraid!
8 He changes a rock into a pool of water!
Water pours out of a hard rock![d]
There is only one true God[e]
115 Lord, you are the one
who deserves that people praise you.
They should praise only you, not us!
Because you love us with a faithful love,
and you always do what you have promised.
2 Why should other nations say about us,
‘Where is their God?’
3 We know that our God is in heaven.
He does whatever he wants to do.
4 Those people's idols are made from silver and gold.
Yes, human hands make them!
5 Each idol has a mouth,
but it cannot speak!
It has eyes, but it cannot see!
6 It has ears, but it cannot hear!
It has a nose, but it cannot smell!
7 It has hands, but it cannot feel anything!
It has feet, but it cannot walk!
They cannot make a sound!
8 The people that make those idols
will become useless like them.
The same is true for everyone
who trusts their idols to help them.
9 People of Israel,
trust in the Lord.
He is the one who helps you
and keeps you safe.
10 Aaron's family,
trust in the Lord.[f]
He is the one who helps you
and keeps you safe.
11 Everyone who serves the Lord,
trust in the Lord.
He is the one who helps you
and keeps you safe.
12 The Lord will remember us,
and he will bless us.
He will bless Israel's people.
He will bless Aaron's family.
13 He will bless everybody who serves him,
whether they are important people or not.
14 I pray that the Lord will give you many children,
and your children too!
15 I pray that the Lord will bless you all.
He is the one who made the whole universe.
16 The heavens belong to the Lord,
but he has given the earth to us people.
17 Dead people cannot praise the Lord.
In their graves, they are unable to speak.
18 But we will praise the Lord,
now and for ever.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The Lord takes care of his people
8 Be careful to obey all the commands that I am giving to you today. If you do that, you will continue to live, and you will have many children. You will go into the land that the Lord your God promised to your ancestors. It will become your home. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way across the desert. He took care of you for 40 years. He caused many troubles to come and to test you. He did that to see if you would trust him. He wanted to know whether you would continue to obey his commands. 3 He caused you to become hungry and then he fed you with manna.[a] Neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen this food before. In this way, he taught you that food alone cannot cause people to live. They need to hear every word that the Lord speaks. That is what gives them true life.
Paul and Timothy say ‘Hello’
1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Our friend Timothy is here with me while I write.
2 We are writing to you, God's own people who live in Colossae. You are like brothers and sisters to us because you continue to believe in Christ.
I pray that God, our Father, will continue to help you. I pray that he will give you peace in your minds.
Paul thanks God for the believers
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. 4 We thank God because people have told us good things about you. You continue to trust Christ Jesus. You also love all God's people. 5 You live like that because you hope to receive good things from God.[a] You know that God has prepared those good things for you. He is keeping them safe in heaven. You learned that when people first told you God's true message, his good news.
6 You have heard this good news, like people all over the world have heard it. It has caused good results among you since the time when you heard it first. At that time, you understood the true message about how kind God really is. As a result, God is blessing you more and more, like he blesses his people everywhere. 7 It was our good friend Epaphras who first told you this good news. Like us, he is Christ's servant. He serves Christ on our behalf. 8 He has told us about the love that God's Spirit has given to you.
Paul prays that they will know God more and more
9 Because of all that, we have not stopped praying for you, ever since the day that we heard about you. We ask God that his Spirit will make you truly wise. He will help you to know clearly what he wants you to do. You will understand his true message. 10 Then you will be able to live in a way that the Lord wants you to live. Everything that you do will please him. We pray that all these good things will have good results. We pray that you will know God better and better. 11 God rules from heaven with great power. We pray that he will make you strong with every kind of strength. Then, when troubles come, you can still be patient and strong. 12 You will be able to thank God, our Father, and be happy. God has prepared good things for his people to receive in heaven. Because God has included you among his people, you will also share those good things in the kingdom of light. 13 God has saved us from the dark kingdom where Satan rules.[b] He has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. 14 God's Son, Jesus, paid the price for our sins and made us free. Yes, God has forgiven us.[c]
30 So then the people asked him, ‘What miracle will you do? Do one that shows that God has sent you. If we see that, we will believe in you. What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. We know that it says in the Bible, “God gave bread to them from heaven for them to eat.” ’[a]
32 Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: It was not Moses who gave bread to you from heaven. No. It is my Father who gives to you the true bread from heaven. 33 God's bread is the one who comes down from heaven. He is the one who gives life to people in the world.’
48 I am the bread that causes you to live. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they died. 50 This bread that comes down from heaven is different. Anyone who eats this bread will not die. 51 I am the bread that gives life to people. This bread came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. The bread that I will give is my own body. I will give it so that all people in the world may have life with God.’
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