Book of Common Prayer
God’s Promise to David
89 I will sing of the loving-kindness of the Lord forever. I will make known with my mouth how faithful You are to all people. 2 For I said, “Loving-kindness will be built up forever. You will make known how faithful You are in the heavens.”
3 You said, “I have made an agreement with My chosen one. I have promised to David, Your servant. 4 I will make your seed last forever. I will build up your throne for all the children-to-come.”
5 O Lord, the heavens will praise Your great works and how faithful You are in the meeting of the holy ones. 6 For who in the heavens is like the Lord? Who among the sons of the powerful is like the Lord? 7 God is honored with fear in the meeting of the holy ones. He is honored with fear more than all who are around Him. 8 Lord God of all, powerful Lord, who is like You? All around You we see how faithful You are. 9 You rule over the rising sea. When its waves rise, You quiet them. 10 You have crushed Rahab like one who is killed. You have destroyed those who hate You with Your powerful arm.
11 The heavens are Yours; and the earth is Yours. You have made the world and all that is in it. 12 You have made from nothing the north and the south. Tabor and Hermon call out for joy at Your name. 13 You have a strong arm. Your hand is powerful. Your right hand is honored. 14 Your throne stands on what is right and fair. Loving-kindness and truth go before You. 15 How happy are the people who know the sound of joy! They walk in the light of Your face, O Lord. 16 They are full of joy in Your name all day long. And by being right with You, they are honored. 17 For You are the shining-greatness of their strength. And our horn is lifted high by Your favor. 18 For our safe-covering belongs to the Lord. And our king belongs to the Holy One of Israel.
19 Once You spoke in a special dream to Your faithful ones, saying: “I have given help to a powerful one. I have honored a chosen one from among the people. 20 I have found David, Your servant. I have poured My holy oil upon him. 21 My hand will stay with him. And My arm will give him strength. 22 Those who hate him will not fool him. No sinful man will bring trouble to him. 23 But he will see Me crush those who fight against him. I will kill those who hate him. 24 I will be faithful and My loving-kindness will be with him. And in My name he will become great. 25 I will set his hand on the sea also, and his right hand on the rivers. 26 He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock that saves me.’ 27 I will make him My first-born also, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 I will keep My loving-kindness for him forever. And My agreement with him will be made strong. 29 I will make his seed last forever. And his throne will last as long as heaven.
30 “If his sons leave My Law and do not do what I say, 31 and if they break My Laws and do not obey My Word, 32 then I will punish their sin with the stick, and their wrong-doing with the whip. 33 But I will not take my loving-kindness from him. I will always be faithful to him. 34 I will not break My agreement, or change what was spoken by My lips. 35 Once I have promised by My holy name, I will not lie to David. 36 His seed will last forever. And his throne will last before Me like the sun. 37 It will last forever like the moon, which may always be seen in the sky.”
38 But You have thrown off and turned away from Your chosen one. You have been full of anger against him. 39 You have hated the agreement with Your servant. You have made his crown dirty in the dust. 40 You have broken down all his walls. You have destroyed his strong places. 41 All who pass on the road rob him. He has become a shame to his neighbors. 42 You have honored the right hand of those who fight against him. You have made all who hate him glad. 43 You have turned away the sharp part of his sword. And You have not made him stand in a fight. 44 You have put an end to what shows of his greatness, and have thrown his throne to the ground. 45 You have made him old before his time, and have covered him with shame.
46 How long, O Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your anger burn like fire? 47 Remember how fast my life is passing. You have made all men for nothing. 48 What man can live and not see death? Can he save himself from the power of the grave?
49 O Lord, where is the loving-kindness You used to have, that You promised in faith to David? 50 O Lord, remember the shame of those who work for You. Remember how I carry near my heart the shame of all the nations. 51 Those who hate You have put us to shame, O Lord. They have put to shame the footsteps of Your chosen one.
52 Praise the Lord forever! Let it be so.
2 I will take my stand and keep watch. I will take my place on the tower. And I will keep watch to see what the Lord will say, and how I should answer when He speaks strong words to me.
The Lord’s Answer to Habakkuk
2 Then the Lord answered me and said, “Write down the special dream on stone so that one may read it in a hurry. 3 For it is not yet time for it to come true. The time is coming in a hurry, and it will come true. If you think it is slow in coming, wait for it. For it will happen for sure, and it will not wait. 4 As for the proud one, his soul is not right in him. But the one who is right and good will live by his faith.
9 “It is bad for him who builds his house by sinful ways, to put his nest in a high place to be safe from trouble! 10 You have brought shame upon your house by destroying many nations. You are sinning against yourself. 11 The stone will cry out from the wall, and the roof will answer it from the wood.
12 “It is bad for him who builds a city with blood, and builds a town with wrong-doing! 13 Is it not the will of the All-powerful Lord that people work for what will burn up and nations make themselves tired for nothing? 14 For the earth will be filled with knowing of the Lord’s shining-greatness, as the waters cover the sea.
15 “It is bad for him who makes his neighbors drink, mixing in his poison to make them drunk, so he can look on their shame! 16 You will be filled with shame instead of honor. Now you yourself drink and let your own shame be seen. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and your greatness will turn to shame. 17 The bad things you have done to Lebanon will come back to you. Because you have killed its animals, now they will make you afraid. This will happen because of all the killing you have done. You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
18 “Of what worth is a false god when a workman has made it? Of what worth is an object of worship, a teacher of lies? For the workman trusts in his own work when he makes these false gods that cannot speak. 19 It is bad for him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Wake up!’ or to a stone that cannot speak, ‘Get up!’ Can this teach you? See, it is covered with gold and silver. There is no breath in it. 20 But the Lord is in His holy house. Let all the earth be quiet before Him.”
Faith Without Works Is Dead
14 My Christian brothers, what good does it do if you say you have faith but do not do things that prove you have faith? Can that kind of faith save you from the punishment of sin? 15 What if a Christian does not have clothes or food? 16 And one of you says to him, “Goodbye, keep yourself warm and eat well.” But if you do not give him what he needs, how does that help him? 17 A faith that does not do things is a dead faith.
18 Someone may say, “You have faith, and I do things. Prove to me you have faith when you are doing nothing. I will prove to you I have faith by doing things.” 19 You believe there is one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that, and because they do, they shake.
20 You foolish man! Do I have to prove to you that faith without doing things is of no use? 21 Was not our early father Abraham right with God by what he did? He obeyed God and put his son Isaac on the altar to die. 22 You see his faith working by what he did and his faith was made perfect by what he did. 23 It happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen. They say, “Abraham put his trust in God and he became right with God.” (A) He was called the friend of God. 24 A man becomes right with God by what he does and not by faith only. 25 The same was true with Rahab, the woman who sold the use of her body. She became right with God by what she did in helping the men who had been sent to look through the country and sent them away by another road. 26 The body is dead when there is no spirit in it. It is the same with faith. Faith is dead when nothing is done.
The Rich Man and the Man Who Begged for Food
19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple linen clothes everyday. He lived like a king would live with the best of food. 20 There was a poor man named Lazarus who had many bad sores. He was put by the door of the rich man. 21 He wanted the pieces of food that fell from the table of the rich man. Even dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The poor man who asked for food died. He was taken by the angels into the arms of Abraham. The rich man died also and was buried. 23 In hell the rich man was in much pain. He looked up and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus beside him. 24 He cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, take pity on me. Send Lazarus. Let him put the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in much pain in this fire.’ 25 Abraham said, ‘My son, do not forget that when you were living you had your good things. Lazarus had bad things. Now he is well cared for. You are in pain. 26 And more than all this, there is a big deep place between us. No one from here can go there even if he wanted to go. No one can come from there.’
27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Father, then I beg you to send Lazarus to my father’s house. 28 I have five brothers. Let him tell them of these things, or they will come to this place of much pain also.’ 29 Abraham said, ‘They have the Writings of Moses and of the early preachers. Let them hear what they say.’ 30 But the rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham. If someone goes to them from the dead, they will be sorry for their sins and turn from them.’ 31 Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and to the early preachers, they will not listen even if someone is raised from the dead.’”
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