Book of Common Prayer

Song of Praise and Thanks to God

66 Raise the voice of joy to God, all the earth! ² Sing out the honor of His name! Make His praise great! ³ Say to God, “How Your great works make those who hate You afraid! They will have to obey You because of Your great power. ⁴ All the earth will worship You and sing praises to You. They will sing praises to Your name.”

⁵ Come and see what God has done. There is much fear because of His great works toward the children of men. ⁶ He changed the sea into dry land. They passed through the river on foot. There we were full of joy in Him. ⁷ He rules forever by His power. His eyes keep watch over the nations. Do not let those who do not obey You honor themselves.

⁸ Give honor and thanks to God, O people, and let all hear how great He is! ⁹ He keeps us alive, and does not let our feet go out from under us. ¹⁰ For You have tested us, O God. You have made us pure like silver is made pure. ¹¹ You brought us into the net. And You laid a heavy load on our back. ¹² You made men travel over our heads. We went through fire and through water. But You brought us out into a place where we have much more than we need. ¹³ I will come into Your house with burnt gifts. I will give You what I promised, ¹⁴ promises made by my lips and spoken by my mouth when I was in trouble. ¹⁵ I will give You burnt gifts of fat animals with the smoke of rams. I will give You bulls with male goats.

¹⁶ Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for me. ¹⁷ I cried to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. ¹⁸ The Lord will not hear me if I hold on to sin in my heart. ¹⁹ But it is sure that God has heard. He has listened to the voice of my prayer. ²⁰ Honor and thanks be to God! He has not turned away from my prayer or held His loving-kindness from me.

The Brass Snake

⁴ Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people wanted to give up because of the long way. ⁵ They spoke against God and Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is no food and no water. And we hate this bad food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent snakes with a bite of poison among the people. They bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord, that He will take away the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a special snake and put it up on a long piece of wood. Everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it.” ⁹ So Moses made a brass snake and put it up on the long piece of wood. If a snake bit any man, he would live when he looked at the brass snake.

¹¹ For sure, I tell you, We are talking about things We know. We tell of what We have seen. Yet you do not take Our words to be true. ¹² I tell you about things of the earth and you do not believe them. How will you believe if I tell you things about heaven?

¹³ “No one has gone up into heaven except the One Who came down from heaven. That One is the Son of Man *Who is in heaven. ¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. ¹⁵ Then whoever puts his trust in Him will have life that lasts forever. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God’s Son will not be lost but will have life that lasts forever. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to say it is guilty. He sent His Son so the world might be saved from the punishment of sin by Him.

A Prayer of Thanks

118 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. ² Let Israel say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.” ³ Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.” ⁴ Let those who fear the Lord say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.”

⁵ I cried to the Lord in my trouble, and He answered me and put me in a good place. ⁶ The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid of what man can do to me. ⁷ The Lord is with me. He is my Helper. I will watch those lose who fight against me. ⁸ It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man. ⁹ It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in rulers.

¹⁰ All nations gathered around me. But I cut them off in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ They gathered around me. Yes, they were on every side. But I cut them off in the name of the Lord. ¹² They were all around me like bees and they died out fast like burning thorns. I will destroy them in the name of the Lord. ¹³ You pushed me back so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. ¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my song. He is the One Who saves me.

¹⁵ The joy of being saved is being heard in the tents of those who are right and good. The right hand of the Lord does powerful things. ¹⁶ The Lord’s right hand is lifted high. The right hand of the Lord does powerful things. ¹⁷ I will not die but live. And I will tell of what the Lord has done. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me but He has not given me over to death.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of what is right and good. I will go through them and give thanks to the Lord. ²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord. Those who are right with God will pass through it. ²¹ I will give thanks to You, for You have answered me. And You are the One Who saves me.

²² The stone that was put aside by the workmen has become the most important stone in the building. ²³ The Lord has done this. We think it is great! ²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be full of joy and be glad in it. ²⁵ O Lord, we beg You to save us! O Lord, we ask that You let everything go well for us! ²⁶ Great and honored is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We honor you from the house of the Lord. ²⁷ The Lord is God. He has given us light. Tie the gift with rope to the horns of the altar on this special day. ²⁸ You are my God and I will give You thanks. You are my God and I will praise You. ²⁹ Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever.

¹⁷ If God wants you to suffer, it is better to suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong.

Christ Suffered for Us

¹⁸ Christ suffered and died for sins once for all. He never sinned and yet He died for us who have sinned. He died so He might bring us to God. His body died but His spirit was made alive. ¹⁹ Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison. ²⁰ Those were the spirits of the people who would not obey in the days of Noah. God waited a long time for them while Noah was building the big boat. But only eight people were saved from dying when the earth was covered with water. ²¹ This is like baptism to us. Baptism does not mean we wash our bodies clean. It means we are saved from the punishment of sin and go to God in prayer with a heart that says we are right. This can be done because Christ was raised from the dead. ²² Christ has gone to heaven and is on the right side of God. Angels and powers of heaven are obeying Him.