Book of Common Prayer

The Lord—Our Helper

146 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! ² I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God as long as I live. ³ Do not put your trust in princes, in a son of a man, who cannot save us. ⁴ When his spirit leaves, he returns to the earth. His thoughts end on that day. ⁵ Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, and whose hope is in the Lord his God. ⁶ The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He is faithful forever. ⁷ He helps those who have a bad power over them. He gives food to the hungry. And He sets those in prison free.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises up those who are brought down. The Lord loves those who are right and good. ⁹ The Lord keeps the strangers safe. He takes care of the children who have no father and the woman whose husband has died. But He destroys the way of the sinful. ¹⁰ The Lord will rule forever. Your God, O Zion, will rule over all people for all time. Praise the Lord!

Praise for God’s Goodness

147 Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasing and praise is right. ² The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers those of Israel who had been taken away. ³ He heals those who have a broken heart. He heals their sorrows. ⁴ He knows the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them. ⁵ Great is our Lord, and great in power. His understanding has no end. ⁶ The Lord lifts up those who are suffering, and He brings the sinful down to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanks. Sing praises to our God on the harp. ⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds. He gives rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the mountains. ⁹ He gives food to the animals, and to the young ravens that cry. ¹⁰ His joy is not in the strength of a horse. He does not find joy in the legs of a man. ¹¹ But the Lord favors those who fear Him and those who wait for His loving-kindness.

¹² Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! ¹³ For He has made your gates strong. He has made good come to your children within you. ¹⁴ He makes peace within your walls. He fills you with the best grain. ¹⁵ He sends His Word to the earth. And His Word runs fast. ¹⁶ He gives snow like wool. He spreads ice like ashes. ¹⁷ He throws down His ice as hail stones. Who can stand before His cold? ¹⁸ He sends out His Word and melts them. He makes His wind blow and the waters flow. ¹⁹ He speaks His Word to Jacob, and His Law to Israel. ²⁰ He has not done this with any other nation. They do not know His Law. Praise the Lord!

The Lord Be Praised

111 Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart where those who are right with God gather together and in the meeting of the people. ² The works of the Lord are great. All who find joy in them try to understand them. ³ His work is great and powerful. And He is right and good forever. ⁴ He has made His great works to be remembered. The Lord shows loving-favor and pity. ⁵ He gives food to those who fear Him. He will remember His agreement forever. ⁶ He has shown His people the power of His works by giving them the land of other nations.

⁷ The works of His hands are faithful and right. All His Laws are true. ⁸ They stand strong forever and ever. They are done by what is true and right. ⁹ He has made a way for His people to be free. He has set up His agreement forever. His holy name is to be honored with fear. ¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All who obey His Laws have good understanding. His praise lasts forever.

Good Comes to the Person Who Honors the Lord

112 Praise the Lord! How happy is the man who honors the Lord with fear and finds joy in His Law! ² His children will be powerful in the land. Each family who is right will be happy. ³ Riches and well-being are in his house. And his right-standing with God will last forever. ⁴ Light rises even in darkness for the one who is right. He is kind and has loving-pity and does what is right. ⁵ Good will come to the man who is ready to give much, and fair in what he does. ⁶ He will never be shaken. The man who is right and good will be remembered forever. ⁷ He will not be afraid of bad news. His heart is strong because he trusts in the Lord. ⁸ His heart will not be shaken. He will not be afraid and will watch those lose who fight against him. ⁹ He has given much to the poor. His right-standing with God lasts forever. His horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰ The sinful man will see it and be troubled and angry. He will grind his teeth and waste away. The desire of the sinful will come to nothing.

The Lord Helps the Poor

113 Praise the Lord! Praise Him, O you who serve the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. ² Let the name of the Lord be honored, now and forever. ³ The name of the Lord is to be praised from the time the sun rises to when it sets. ⁴ The Lord is high above all nations. His shining-greatness is above the heavens.

⁵ Who is like the Lord our God? He sits on His throne on high. ⁶ He looks down upon the heavens and the earth. ⁷ He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts those in need from the ashes. ⁸ He makes them sit with rulers, with the rulers of His people. ⁹ He gives a home to the woman who could not give birth and makes her the mother of children. Praise the Lord!

The Sinful Nation of Judah

1 This is the special dream of Isaiah the son of Amoz, about Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the rule of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have brought up and have taken care of sons, but they have turned against Me. ³ An ox knows its owner. A donkey knows where to find the food its owner gives it. But Israel does not know. My people do not understand.” ⁴ O sinful nation, people weighed down with sin, children of those who do wrong, sons who act in a sinful way! They have left the Lord. They have hated the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away from Him.

⁵ Where will you be punished again, since you still fight against the Lord? Your whole head is sick, and your whole heart is weak. ⁶ From the bottom of the foot even to the head, there is no good part. There are only sores from beatings and open sores. They are not taken care of or covered or made soft with oil.

⁷ Your land lies waste. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers are eating the food of your fields in front of you. It lies waste, as destroyed by strangers. ⁸ The people of Zion are left like a tent in a grape-field, like a watchman’s house in a vegetable field, like a city closed in by armies. ⁹ If the Lord of All had not left some people, we would have all been destroyed like those who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The World Will Be Destroyed

3 Dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to you. In both of them I have tried to get you to remember some things. ² You should remember the words that were spoken before by the holy early preachers. Do not forget the teaching of the Lord, the One Who saves. This was given to you by your missionaries.

³ First of all, I want you to know that in the last days men will laugh at the truth. They will follow their own sinful desires. ⁴ They will say, “He promised to come again. Where is He? Since our early fathers died, everything is the same from the beginning of the world.” ⁵ But they want to forget that God spoke and the heavens were made long ago. The earth was made out of water and water was all around it. ⁶ Long ago the earth was covered with water and it was destroyed. ⁷ But the heaven we see now and the earth we live on now have been kept by His word. They will be kept until they are to be destroyed by fire. They will be kept until the day men stand before God and sinners will be destroyed.

⁸ Dear friends, remember this one thing, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years are as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about keeping His promise as some people think. He is waiting for you. The Lord does not want any person to be punished forever. He wants all people to be sorry for their sins and turn from them. ¹⁰ The day of the Lord will come as a robber comes. The heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The sun and moon and stars will burn up. The earth and all that is in it will be burned up.

The Picture-Story of Ten Young Women

25 “At that time the holy nation of heaven will be like ten women who have never had men. They took their lamps and went out to meet the man soon to be married. ² Five of them were wise and five were foolish. ³ The foolish women took their lamps but did not take oil with them. ⁴ The wise women took oil in a jar with their lamps. ⁵ They all went to sleep because the man to be married did not come for a long time.

⁶ “At twelve o’clock in the night there was a loud call, ‘See! The man soon to be married is coming! Go out to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all the women got up and made their lamps brighter. ⁸ The foolish women said to the wise women, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise women said, ‘No! There will not be enough for us and you. Go to the store and buy oil for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ While they were gone to buy oil, the man soon to be married came. Those who were ready went in with him to the marriage. The door was shut.

¹¹ “Later the foolish women came. They said, ‘Sir, Sir, open the door for us!’ ¹² But he said to them, ‘For sure, I tell you, I do not know you!’ ¹³ So watch! You do not know what day or what hour the Son of Man is coming.