Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 24
A song of David.
1 The earth and all that’s upon it belong to the Eternal.
The world is His, with every living creature on it.
2 With seas as foundations and rivers as boundaries,
He shaped the continents, fashioned the earth.
3 Who can possibly ascend the mountain of the Eternal?
Who can stand before Him in sacred spaces?
4 Only those whose hands have been washed and hearts made pure,
men and women who are not given to lies or deception.
5 The Eternal will stand close to them with blessing and mercy at hand,
and the God who redeems will right what has been wrong.
6 These are the people who chase after Him;
[like Jacob, they look for the face of God].[a]
[pause][b]
7 City gates—open wide!
Ancient doors—stand back!
For the glorious King shall soon pass your way.
8 Who is the glorious King?
The Eternal who is powerful
and mightily equipped for battle.
9 City gates—open wide!
Ancient doors—stand back!
For the glorious King shall soon pass your way.
10 Who is the glorious King?
The Eternal, Commander of heaven’s army,
He is the glorious King.
[pause]
Psalm 29
A song of David.
1 Give all credit to the Eternal, O heavenly creatures;
give praise to Him for His glory and power.
2 Give to the Eternal the glory due His name;
worship Him with lavish displays of sacred splendor.
3 The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters;
God’s magnificence roars like thunder.
The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters.
4 His voice explodes in great power over the earth.
His voice is both regal and grand.
5 The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars;
His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon.
6 He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf;
Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox.
7 The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness
with great quakes;
He causes Kadesh to tremble.
9 The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb;
His voice strips the forest bare,
and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!”
10 The Eternal is enthroned over the great flood;
His reign is unending.
11 We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people;
Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace.
Psalm 8
For the worship leader. A song of David accompanied by the harp.[a]
This Davidic psalm based on Genesis 1 celebrates not only God’s majesty as Creator but also the unique place of human beings in His creation.
1 O Eternal, our Lord,
Your majestic name is heard throughout the earth;
Your magnificent glory shines far above the skies.
2 From the mouths and souls of infants and toddlers, the most innocent,
You have decreed power to stop Your adversaries
and quash those who seek revenge.
3 When I gaze to the skies and meditate on Your creation—
on the moon, stars, and all You have made,
4 I can’t help but wonder why You care about mortals—
sons and daughters of men—
specks of dust floating about the cosmos.
5 But You placed the son of man just beneath God
and honored him like royalty, crowning him with glory and honor.
6 You ordained him to govern the works of Your hands,
to nurture the offspring of Your divine imagination;
You placed everything on earth beneath his feet:
7 All kinds of domesticated animals,
even the wild animals in the fields and forests,
8 The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea,
all the multitudes of living things that travel the currents of the oceans.
9 O Eternal, our Lord,
Your majestic name is heard throughout the earth.
Psalm 84
For the worship leader. A song of the sons of Korah accompanied by the harp.[a]
1 How lovely is Your temple, Your dwelling place on earth,
O Eternal One, Commander of heaven’s armies.
2 How I long to be there—my soul is spent,
wanting, waiting to walk in the courts of the Eternal.
My whole being sings joyfully
to the living God.
3 Just as the sparrow seeks her home,
and the swallow finds in her own nest
a place to lay her young,
I, too, seek Your altars, my King and my God,
Commander of heaven’s armies.
4 How blessed are those who make Your house their home,
who live with You;
they are constantly praising You.
[pause][b]
5 Blessed are those who make You their strength,
for they treasure every step of the journey [to Zion].[c]
6 On their way through the valley of Baca,
they stop and dig wells to collect the refreshing spring water,
and the early rains fill the pools.
7 They journey from place to place, gaining strength along the way;
until they meet God in Zion.
8 O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies, listen to my prayer.
O please listen, God of Jacob.
[pause]
9 O True God, look at our shield, our protector,
see the face of Your anointed king, and defend our defender.
10 Just one day in the courts of Your temple is greater
than a thousand anywhere else.
I would rather serve as a porter at my God’s doorstep
than live in luxury in the house of the wicked.
11 For the Eternal God is a sun and a shield.
The Eternal grants favor and glory;
He doesn’t deny any good thing
to those who live with integrity.
12 O Eternal One, Commander of heaven’s armies,
how fortunate are those who trust You.
8 The Eternal One addressed Moses.
Eternal One: 2 Moses, take Aaron and his sons together with their sacred garments, the specially prepared anointing oil, the bull set aside for the purification offering for sin, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread. 3 Then gather the entire community at the entrance of the congregation tent.
4 So Moses followed the Eternal’s instructions. When the community of Israel was gathered together at the entrance of the congregation tent, 5 Moses addressed the assembly: “The Eternal One has commanded that we gather and ordain Aaron and his sons as priests.”
6 So Moses had Aaron and his sons approach, and he washed them with water and purified them. 7 Moses put a tunic on Aaron, fastened the sash around his waist, and put the robe and vest on him. He wrapped the skillfully made waistband of the vest around him and tied it to him. 8 Then Moses placed the breast piece on him and put the Urim and the Thummim inside a specially designed pouch on the breast piece.
There is much we do not know about the Urim and the Thummim. We do know the high priest used them to ascertain God’s will on difficult questions (see Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 14:41–42).
9 Moses then put the turban on Aaron’s head and fastened a golden medallion, a holy crown, to the front of it. Moses did all this exactly as the Eternal commanded.
10 Then Moses anointed and consecrated the sanctuary of the congregation tent along with everything in it with the anointing oil. 11 He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times; he anointed and consecrated the altar, its tools, and the basin and its stand with the oil. 12 Moses poured some of the oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to set him apart as head of the priestly order. 13 Then Moses had Aaron’s sons step forward and dressed them with the special tunics, fastened sashes about their waists, and placed caps on their heads. He did exactly as the Eternal commanded.
30 Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments. He did the same on Aaron’s sons and their garments. This is how he consecrated Aaron and his priestly garments, as well as his sons and their garments.
Moses (to Aaron and his sons): 31 Boil the meat at the entrance to the congregation tent, and feast on it together with bread from the basket of the ordination offering, in accordance with the instructions I gave: “Aaron and his sons may eat it.” 32 Burn the rest of the meat and bread in the fire. 33 You are not allowed to go beyond the entrance of the congregation tent for seven days when your ordination period is complete; for it will take seven days to ordain you. 34 Everything we have done today the Eternal commanded us to do in order to cover your impurity. 35 Stay here at the entrance of the congregation tent all day and all night for the seven days. Do whatever the Eternal requires, or else you will die, for this is the command He has given me.
36 So Aaron and his sons honored the Eternal One’s instructions, which He commanded through Moses.
12 So since we stand surrounded by all those who have gone before, an enormous cloud of witnesses, let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace, and let us run with endurance the long race set before us.
We may feel alone, but we aren’t. We are surrounded by an army of witnesses. They have run the race of faith and finished well. It is now our turn.
2 Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him; and now He is seated beside God on the throne, a place of honor.
3 Consider the life of the One who endured such personal attacks and hostility from sinners so that you will not grow weary or lose heart. 4 Among you, in your striving against sin, none has resisted the pressure to the point of death, as He did.
God “disciplines” His “disciples.” God is training us not just to live here and now, but to have life in the age to come, to share His life and holiness.
5 Indeed, you seem to have forgotten the proverb directed to you as children:
My child, do not ignore the instruction that comes from the Lord,
or lose heart when He steps in to correct you;
6 For the Lord disciplines those He loves,
and He corrects each one He takes as His own.[a]
7 Endure hardship as God’s discipline and rejoice that He is treating you as His children, for what child doesn’t experience discipline from a parent? 8 But if you are not experiencing the correction that all true children receive, then it may be that you are not His children after all. 9 Remember, when our human parents disciplined us, we respected them. If that was true, shouldn’t we respect and live under the correction of the Father of all spirits even more? 10 Our parents corrected us for a time as seemed good to them, but God only corrects us to our good so that we may share in His holiness.
11 When punishment is happening, it never seems pleasant, only painful. Later, though, it yields the peaceful fruit called righteousness to everyone who has been trained by it. 12 So lift up your hands that are dangling and brace your weakened knees. 13 Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame in you won’t be put out of joint, but will heal.
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, since no one will see God without it.
16 He eventually came to His hometown, Nazareth, and did there what He had done elsewhere in Galilee—entered the synagogue and stood up to read from the Hebrew Scriptures.
17 The synagogue attendant gave Him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus unrolled it to the place where Isaiah had written these words:
18 The Spirit of the Lord the Eternal One is on Me.
Why? Because the Eternal designated Me
to be His representative to the poor, to preach good news to them.
Luke’s audience doesn’t divide the world into sacred vs. secular or religious vs. political. For them, life is integrated. And for them, these “religious” words from Isaiah have a powerful and “political” meaning: because they see themselves as oppressed by the Roman occupation, Jesus’ words suggest that His “good news” describes a powerful change about to come—a change that will rescue the people from their oppression. His fellow Jews have long been waiting for a savior to free them from Roman oppression. Jesus tells them their hopes are about to be fulfilled. But then, just as people speak well of Jesus, He lets them know their expectations aren’t in line with God’s plans. He tells them not to expect God to fit into their boxes and suggests the unthinkable: that God cares for the Gentiles, the very people who are oppressing them! They aren’t too pleased by this.
He sent Me to tell those who are held captive that they can now be set free,
and to tell the blind that they can now see.
He sent Me to liberate those held down by oppression.
19 In short, the Spirit is upon Me to proclaim that now is the time;
this is the jubilee season of the Eternal One’s grace.[a]
20 Jesus rolled up the scroll and returned it to the synagogue attendant. Then He sat down, as a teacher would do, and all in the synagogue focused their attention on Jesus, waiting for Him to speak. 21 He told them that these words from the Hebrew Scriptures were being fulfilled then and there, in their hearing.
22 At first everyone was deeply impressed with the gracious words that poured from Jesus’ lips. Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed that He could say these things.
Everyone: Wait. This is only the son of Joseph, right?
Jesus: 23 You’re about to quote the old proverb to Me, “Doctor, heal yourself!” Then you’re going to ask Me to prove Myself to you by doing the same miracles I did in Capernaum. 24 But face the truth: hometowns always reject their homegrown prophets.
25 Think back to the prophet Elijah. There were many needy Jewish widows in his homeland, Israel, when a terrible famine persisted there for three and a half years. 26 Yet the only widow God sent Elijah to help was an outsider from Zarephath in Sidon.[b]
27 It was the same with the prophet Elisha. There were many Jewish lepers in his homeland, but the only one he healed—Naaman—was an outsider from Syria.[c]
28 The people in the synagogue became furious when He said these things. 29 They seized Jesus, took Him to the edge of town, and pushed Him right to the edge of the cliff on which the city was built. They would have pushed Him off and killed Him, 30 but He passed through the crowd and went on His way.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.