Book of Common Prayer
45 My heart is overflowing with a beautiful thought! I will write a lovely poem to the King, for I am as full of words as the speediest writer pouring out his story.
2 You are the fairest of all;
Your words are filled with grace;
God himself is blessing you forever.
3 Arm yourself, O mighty one,
So glorious, so majestic!
4 And in your majesty
Go on to victory,
Defending truth, humility, and justice.
Go forth to awe-inspiring deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp
In your enemies’ hearts;
They fall before you.
6 Your throne, O God, endures forever.
Justice is your royal scepter.
7 You love what is good
And hate what is wrong.
Therefore God, your God,
Has given you more gladness
Than anyone else.
8 Your robes are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. In your palaces of inlaid ivory, lovely music is being played for your enjoyment. 9 Kings’ daughters are among your concubines.[a] Standing beside you is the queen, wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir.
10-11 “I advise you, O daughter, not to fret about your parents in your homeland far away. Your royal husband delights in your beauty. Reverence him, for he is your lord. 12 The people of Tyre, the richest people of our day, will shower you with gifts and entreat your favors.”
13 The bride,[b] a princess, waits within her chamber, robed in beautiful clothing woven with gold. 14 Lovely[c] she is, led beside her maids of honor to the king! 15 What a joyful, glad procession as they enter in the palace gates! 16 “Your sons will some day be kings like their father. They shall sit on thrones around the world!
17 “I will cause your name to be honored in all generations; the nations of the earth will praise you forever.”
47 Come, everyone, and clap for joy! Shout triumphant praises to the Lord! 2 For the Lord, the God above all gods, is awesome beyond words; he is the great King of all the earth. 3 He subdues the nations before us 4 and will personally select his choicest blessings for his Jewish people[a]—the very best for those he loves.
5 God has ascended with a mighty shout, with trumpets blaring. 6-7 Sing out your praises to our God, our King. Yes, sing your highest praises to our King, the King of all the earth. Sing thoughtful praises! 8 He reigns above the nations, sitting on his holy throne. 9 The Gentile rulers of the world have joined with us in praising him—praising[b] the God of Abraham—for the battle shields of all the armies of the world are his trophies. He is highly honored everywhere.
48 How great is the Lord! How much we should praise him. He lives upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem. 2 What a glorious sight! See Mount Zion rising north of the city[c] high above the plains for all to see—Mount Zion, joy of all the earth, the residence of the great King.
3 God himself is the defender of Jerusalem.[d] 4 The kings of the earth have arrived together to inspect the city. 5 They marvel at the sight and hurry home again, 6 afraid of what they have seen; they are filled with panic like a woman in travail! 7 For God destroys the mightiest warships with a breath of wind. 8 We have heard of the city’s glory—the city of our God, the Commander of the armies of heaven. And now we see it for ourselves! God has established Jerusalem forever.
9 Lord, here in your Temple we meditate upon your kindness and your love. 10 Your name is known throughout the earth, O God. You are praised everywhere for the salvation[e] you have scattered throughout the world. 11 O Jerusalem,[f] rejoice! O people of Judah, rejoice! For God will see to it that you are finally treated fairly. 12 Go, inspect the city! Walk around and count her many towers! 13 Note her walls and tour her palaces so that you can tell your children.
14 For this great God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide until we die.
12 One day Joseph’s brothers took their father’s flocks to Shechem to graze them there. 13-14 A few days later Israel called for Joseph, and told him, “Your brothers are over in Shechem grazing the flocks. Go and see how they are getting along, and how it is with the flocks, and bring me word.”
“Very good,” Joseph replied. So he traveled to Shechem from his home at Hebron Valley. 15 A man noticed him wandering in the fields.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked.
16 “For my brothers and their flocks,” Joseph replied. “Have you seen them?”
17 “Yes,” the man told him, “they are no longer here. I heard your brothers say they were going to Dothan.” So Joseph followed them to Dothan and found them there. 18 But when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him!
19-20 “Here comes that master-dreamer,” they exclaimed. “Come on, let’s kill him and toss him into a well and tell Father that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what will become of all his dreams!”
21-22 But Reuben hoped to spare Joseph’s life. “Let’s not kill him,” he said; “we’ll shed no blood—let’s throw him alive into this well here; that way he’ll die without our touching him!” (Reuben was planning to get him out later and return him to his father.) 23 So when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe, 24 and threw him into an empty well—there was no water in it.
20 So what about these wise men, these scholars, these brilliant debaters of this world’s great affairs? God has made them all look foolish and shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. 21 For God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find God through human brilliance, and then he stepped in and saved all those who believed his message, which the world calls foolish and silly. 22 It seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven as proof that what is preached is true; and it is foolish to the Gentiles because they believe only what agrees with their philosophy and seems wise to them. 23 So when we preach about Christ dying to save them, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. 24 But God has opened the eyes of those called to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, to see that Christ is the mighty power of God to save them; Christ himself is the center of God’s wise plan for their salvation. 25 This so-called “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness—Christ dying on the cross—is far stronger than any man.
26 Notice among yourselves, dear brothers, that few of you who follow Christ have big names or power or wealth. 27 Instead, God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great. 28 He has chosen a plan despised by the world, counted as nothing at all, and used it to bring down to nothing those the world considers great, 29 so that no one anywhere can ever brag in the presence of God.
30 For it is from God alone that you have your life through Christ Jesus. He showed us God’s plan of salvation; he was the one who made us acceptable to God; he made us pure and holy[a] and gave himself to purchase our salvation. 31 As it says in the Scriptures, “If anyone is going to boast, let him boast only of what the Lord has done.”
14 Later on, after John was arrested by King Herod,[a] Jesus went to Galilee to preach God’s Good News.
15 “At last the time has come!” he announced. “God’s Kingdom is near! Turn from your sins and act on this glorious news!”
16 One day as Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing with nets, for they were commercial fishermen.
17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me! And I will make you fishermen for the souls of men!” 18 At once they left their nets and went along with him.
19 A little farther up the beach, he saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat mending their nets. 20 He called them too, and immediately they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with him.
21 Jesus and his companions now arrived at the town of Capernaum and on Saturday morning went into the Jewish place of worship—the synagogue—where he preached. 22 The congregation was surprised at his sermon because he spoke as an authority and didn’t try to prove his points by quoting others—quite unlike what they were used to hearing![b]
23 A man possessed by a demon was present and began shouting, 24 “Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth—have you come to destroy us demons? I know who you are—the holy Son of God!”
25 Jesus curtly commanded the demon to say no more and to come out of the man. 26 At that the evil spirit screamed and convulsed the man violently and left him. 27 Amazement gripped the audience and they began discussing what had happened.
“What sort of new religion is this?” they asked excitedly. “Why, even evil spirits obey his orders!”
28 The news of what he had done spread quickly through that entire area of Galilee.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.