Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 97
1 The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and darkness are all around Him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 A fire goes before Him
and burns up His enemies all around.
4 His lightning bolts light up the world;
the earth sees and shakes.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
and all the peoples see His glory.
7 All who serve graven images are ashamed,
who boast in worthless idols;
worship Him, all you gods.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of Your judgments, O Lord.
9 For You, O Lord, are Most High above all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of His devoted ones;
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light goes out for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous,
and give thanks at the memory of His holy name.
Psalm 99
1 The Lord reigns;
let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned between the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
He is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise Your great and awesome name—
He is holy!
4 The King’s strength loves justice;
You establish righteousness,
and You execute judgment
and fairness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at His footstool—
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
even Samuel was among them who called upon His name;
they called upon the Lord,
and He answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept His statues and the ordinance that He gave them.
8 You answered them,
O Lord our God;
You were a God who forgave them,
though You took vengeance on their wrongdoing.
9 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at His holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy!
Psalm 100
A Psalm of thanksgiving.
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise;
be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 94
1 O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs;
O God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth.
2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth;
render to the proud what they deserve.
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 They spew forth their arrogant words;
all those who do iniquity boast.
5 They break in pieces Your people, O Lord,
and afflict Your inheritance.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless.
7 Yet they say, “The Lord does not see,
neither does the God of Jacob regard it.”
8 Understand, you brutish among the people;
fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who made the ear, shall He not hear?
He who formed the eye, shall He not see?
10 He who chastises the nations, shall He not correct?
He teaches people knowledge!
11 The Lord, He knows the thoughts of people,
that they are a breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord,
and teach from Your law,
13 that You may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake His people;
neither will He abandon His inheritance.
15 But justice shall return to those who are righteous,
and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against those who do iniquity?
17 Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul would have lived in the land of silent death.
18 When I said, “My foot slips,”
Your mercy, O Lord, held me up.
19 When there is a multitude of worries within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.
20 Shall wicked rulers, who make oppressive laws,
align with You?
21 They conspire together against the life of the righteous
and condemn innocent blood to death.
22 But the Lord is my defense,
and my God is the rock of my refuge.
23 He shall bring upon them their own iniquity
and shall cut them off for their own wickedness;
yes, the Lord our God shall destroy them.
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are also His.
5 The sea is His, for He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand.
Today if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
and as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tested Me and tried Me,
though they had seen My deeds.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known My ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in My wrath,
“They shall not enter into My rest.”
The Prayer of Habakkuk
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth.
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of You,
and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work
in the midst of the years!
In the midst of these years
make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of His praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from His hand,
and there His power was hidden.
5 Pestilence went out before Him,
and plague followed His feet.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
He looked and shook the nations.
The eternal mountains were scattered,
the perpetual hills bowed.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
8 Were you displeased with the rivers, O Lord?
Was Your anger against the rivers,
and was Your wrath against the sea
when You rode on Your horses,
on Your chariots of salvation?
9 You made bare Your bow;
oaths were the arrows at Your command. Selah
You divided the earth with the rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and trembled;
the overflowing water passed by.
The deep lifted its voice,
and lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their places;
at the light of Your arrows they went,
at the flash of Your glittering spear.
12 You marched throughout the earth in indignation;
You threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went forth to deliver Your people,
to deliver Your anointed one.
You wounded the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from head to foot. Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows
the leaders of his villages.
They came like a whirlwind to scatter me;
their rejoicing was like devouring the poor in secret.
15 You trampled the sea with Your horses,
through the wakes of great waters.
16 I heard, and my body trembled;
my lips quivered at the sound;
rottenness entered my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will wait quietly for the day
when calamity comes on the people invading us.
A Hymn of Faith
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines;
though the yield of the olive fails,
and the fields produce no food;
though the flocks are cut off from the fold,
and there be no herd in the stalls—
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
The Tongue
3 My brothers, not many of you should become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater judgment. 2 We all err in many ways. But if any man does not err in word, he is a perfect man and able also to control the whole body.
3 See how we put bits in the mouths of horses that they may obey us, and we control their whole bodies. 4 And observe ships. Though they are so great and are driven by fierce winds, yet they are directed with a very small rudder wherever the captain pleases. 5 Even so, the tongue is a little part of the body and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. 6 The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. The tongue is among the parts of the body, defiling the whole body, and setting the course of nature on fire, and it is set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea are tamed or have been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring yield at the same opening sweet and bitter water? 12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine, figs? So no spring can yield both salt water and fresh water.
Some Sayings of Jesus(A)
17 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible except that offenses will come. But woe to him through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he was thrown into the sea, than to offend one of these little ones. 3 Take heed to yourselves.
“If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
6 The Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
7 “Which of you, having a servant plowing or herding sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come now and sit down for dinner’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare my supper, and dress yourself and serve me until I eat and drink. And afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? I think not. 10 So you also, when you have done everything commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done our duty.’ ”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.