Book of Common Prayer

Giving Thanks to God

63 O God, You are my God. I will look for You with all my heart and strength. My soul is thirsty for You. My flesh is weak wanting You in a dry and tired land where there is no water. ² So I have seen You in the holy place. And I have seen Your power and Your shining-greatness. ³ My lips will praise You because Your loving-kindness is better than life. ⁴ So I will give honor to You as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name. ⁵ My soul will be filled as with rich foods. And my mouth praises You with lips of joy.

⁶ On my bed I remember You. I think of You through the hours of the night. ⁷ For You have been my help. And I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. ⁸ My soul holds on to You. Your right hand holds me up.

⁹ But those who want to take my life and destroy it will go deep into the earth. ¹⁰ They will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become food for foxes. ¹¹ But the king will be full of joy in God. All who are faithful to God will be full of joy. For the mouth of those who speak lies will be stopped.

A Call to Praise the Lord

98 Sing a new song to the Lord. For He has done great things. His right hand and His holy arm have won the fight for Him. ² The Lord has made His saving power known. He has shown to the nations how right and good He is. ³ He has shown His loving-kindness and how beautiful He is to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of our God.

⁴ Call out for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out loud songs of joy and sing praises. ⁵ Sing praises to the Lord with harps, with harps and the voice of singing. ⁶ Call out for joy with the sound of horns before the King, the Lord.

⁷ Let the sea and all that is in it make a loud noise, and the world and all who live in it. ⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing together for joy ⁹ before the Lord. For He is coming to say who is guilty or not on the earth. He will be right in what He decides about the world. And He will be fair to the people.

Praise for God’s Love

103 Praise the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, praise His holy name. ² Praise the Lord, O my soul. And forget none of His acts of kindness. ³ He forgives all my sins. He heals all my diseases. ⁴ He saves my life from the grave. He crowns me with loving-kindness and pity. ⁵ He fills my years with good things and I am made young again like the eagle.

⁶ The Lord does what is right and fair for all who suffer under a bad power. ⁷ He made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the people of Israel. ⁸ The Lord is full of loving-pity and kindness. He is slow to anger and has much loving-kindness. ⁹ He will not always keep after us. And He will not keep His anger back forever. ¹⁰ He has not punished us enough for all our sins. He has not paid us back for all our wrong-doings. ¹¹ For His loving-kindness for those who fear Him is as great as the heavens are high above the earth. ¹² He has taken our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. ¹³ The Lord has loving-pity on those who fear Him, as a father has loving-pity on his children. ¹⁴ For He knows what we are made of. He remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ The days of man are like grass. He grows like a flower of the field. ¹⁶ When the wind blows over it, it is gone. Its place will remember it no more. ¹⁷ But the loving-kindness of the Lord is forever and forever on those who fear Him. And what is right with God is given forever to their children’s children, ¹⁸ to those who keep His agreement and remember to obey His Law.

¹⁹ The Lord has set up His throne in the heavens. And His holy nation rules over all. ²⁰ Praise the Lord, you powerful angels of His who do what He says, obeying His voice as He speaks! ²¹ Praise the Lord, all you armies of His who work for Him and do what pleases Him. ²² Praise the Lord, all His works in all places under His rule. Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Life Is of No Worth

1 These are the words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. ² “It is of no use,” says the Preacher. “It is of no use! All is for nothing.”

³ What does a man get for all his work which he does under the sun? ⁴ People die and people are born, but the earth stays forever. ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, and travels in a hurry to the place where it rises. ⁶ The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north. It goes around and around, and returns again on its way. ⁷ All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. And they return again to the place from which the rivers flow. ⁸ All things are tiring. Man is not able to tell about them. The eye never has enough to see, and the ear is never filled with what it hears. ⁹ What has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰ Is there anything of which one might say, “See, this is new”? It has already been there since long before us. ¹¹ No one remembers the things that happened before. And no one will remember the things that will happen in the future among those who will come later.

Philip and the Man from Ethiopia

²⁶ An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south. Take the road that goes down from Jerusalem to the country of Gaza. It goes through the desert.” ²⁷ Philip got up and went. A man from the country of Ethiopia had come to Jerusalem to worship. He had been made so he could not have children. He cared for all the riches that belonged to Candace who was Queen of Ethiopia. ²⁸ As he was going back home, he was sitting in his wagon reading about the early preacher Isaiah. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that wagon and get on it.” ³⁰ Philip ran up to him. He saw that the man from Ethiopia was reading from the writings of the early preacher Isaiah and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ The man from Ethiopia said, “How can I, unless someone teaches me?” Then he asked Philip to come up and sit beside him.

³² He was reading the part in the Holy Writings which says He was taken like a lamb to be put to death. A sheep does not make a sound while its wool is cut. So He made no sound. ³³ No one listened to Him because of His shame. Who will tell the story of His day? For His life was taken away from the earth. ^(A)

³⁴ The man from Ethiopia said to Philip, “Who is the early preacher talking about, himself, or someone else?” ³⁵ So Philip started with this part of the Holy Writings and preached the Good News of Jesus to him.

³⁶ As they went on their way, they came to some water. The man from Ethiopia said, “See! Here is water. What is to stop me from being baptized?” ³⁷ (*Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The man said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”) ³⁸ He stopped the wagon. Then both Philip and the man from Ethiopia went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit took Philip away. The man from Ethiopia did not see Philip again. He went on his way full of joy. ⁴⁰ Philip found himself at the city of Azotus. Then Philip went through all the towns as far as the city of Caesarea preaching the Good News at each place.

Jesus Teaches His Followers to Pray

11 Jesus had been praying. One of His followers said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his followers.” ² Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, Your name is holy. May Your holy nation come. *What You want done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven. ³ Give us the bread we need everyday. ⁴ Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not let us be tempted.’”

A Picture-Story about How to Ask

⁵ Jesus said to them, “If one of you has a friend and goes to him in the night and says, ‘Friend, give me three loaves of bread, ⁶ for a friend of mine is on a trip and has stopped at my house. I have no food to give him.’ ⁷ The man inside the house will say, ‘Do not trouble me. The door is shut. My children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you bread.’ ⁸ I say to you, he may not get up and give him bread because he is a friend. Yet, if he keeps on asking, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. ⁹ I say to you, ask, and what you ask for will be given to you. Look, and what you are looking for you will find. Knock, and the door you are knocking on will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks, will receive what he asks for. Everyone who looks, will find what he is looking for. Everyone who knocks, will have the door opened to him.

¹¹ “Would any of you fathers give your son a stone if he asked for bread? Or would you give a snake if he asked for a fish? ¹² Or if he asked for an egg, would you give him a small animal with a sting of poison? ¹³ You are sinful and you know how to give good things to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”