Book of Common Prayer
A Davidic Psalm, while he was in the Judean wilderness.
Joyful Trust in God
63 God, you are my God!
I will fervently seek you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my flesh longs for you in a dry, weary, and parched land.
2 So I have looked for you in the sanctuary,
to behold your power and glory.
3 Because your gracious love is better than life itself,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in your name.
5 Just as I am satisfied with the choicest of foods,[a]
so my lips will praise you joyfully.
6 When I think of you in bed,
I will meditate on you in the night watches.
7 For you have been my strength,
and in the shadow of your wings I will shout for joy.
8 My soul clings to you,
even as your right hand supports me.
9 But as for those who seek to destroy me,
they will go down to the depths of the earth;
10 May they be given over to the power of[b] the sword;
may they become carrion for jackals.
11 But as for the king,
he will rejoice in God.
Indeed, everyone who swears by God[c] will exult,
because the mouths of liars will be silenced.
A psalm
Sing Praise to the King
98 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done awesome deeds!
His right hand and powerful[a] arm[b]
have brought him victory.
2 The Lord has made his deliverance known;
he has disclosed his justice before the nations.
3 He has remembered his gracious love;
his faithfulness toward the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth saw our God’s deliverance.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Break forth into joyful songs of praise!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with a lyre—
with a lyre and a melodious song!
6 With trumpets and the sound of a ram’s horn
shout in the presence of the Lord, the king!
7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,[c]
along with the world and its inhabitants;
8 let the rivers clap their hands in unison;
and let the mountains sing for joy
9 in the Lord’s presence, who comes to judge the earth;
He’ll judge the world righteously;
and its people fairly.
Davidic
Praise God, who Forgives
103 Bless the Lord, my soul,
and all that is within me, bless[a] his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, my soul,
and never forget any of his benefits:
3 He continues to forgive all your sins,
he continues to heal all your diseases,
4 he continues to redeem your life from the Pit,[b]
and he continuously surrounds you
with gracious love and compassion.
5 He keeps satisfying you with good things,
and he keeps renewing your youth like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord continuously does what is right,
executing justice for all who are being oppressed.
7 He revealed his plans[c] to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
patient,[d] and abundantly rich in gracious love.
9 He does not maintain a dispute[e] continuously
or remain angry for all time.
10 He neither deals with us according to our sins,
nor repays us equivalent to our iniquity.
11 As high as heaven rises above earth,
so his gracious love strengthens[f] those who fear him.
12 As distant as the east is from the west,
that is how far he has removed our sins from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were formed,
aware that we were made from dust.
15 A person’s life is like grass—
it blossoms like wild flowers,
16 but when the wind blows through it,
it withers away and no one remembers where it was.
17 Yet the Lord’s gracious love remains
throughout eternity for those who fear him
and his righteous acts extend to their children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and to those who remember to observe his precepts.
19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, you angels who belong to him,
you mighty warriors who carry out his commands,
who are obedient to the sound of his words.[g]
21 Bless the Lord, all his heavenly armies,
his ministers who do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his creation,[h]
in all the places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, my soul.
The Day of the Lord
6 Wail out loud, because the Day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty!
7 Because of this, every hand[a] will go limp,
and every man’s courage[b] will melt.
8 They will be terrified;
pain and anguish will seize them;
they’ll writhe like a woman in labor.
They’ll look aghast at one another;
and[c] their faces will be ablaze with fear.[d]
9 Watch out! The Day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger—
to turn the entire inhabited[e] earth[f] into a desolation
and to annihilate sinners[g] from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
won’t shine[h] their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon won’t shine its light.
11 I’ll punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I’ll put an end to the pomposity of the arrogant,
and overthrow the insolence of tyrants.
12 I’ll make people scarcer[i] than pure gold,
and mankind rarer[j] than gold from Ophir.
13 Therefore I’ll make the heavens tremble.
The earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
at the time[k] of his burning anger.[l]
18 You have not come to something[a] that can be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, to gloom, 19 to a trumpet’s blast, or to a voice that made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the command that was given: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”[b] 21 Indeed, the sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”[c] 22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels joyfully gathered together, 23 to the assembly[d] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect, 24 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better message than Abel’s.
25 See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers[e] did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape[f] if we turn away from the one who is from heaven! 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”[g] 27 The expression “once more”[h] signifies the removal of what can be shaken, that is, what he has made, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases him. 29 For “our God is an all-consuming fire.”[i]
John the Baptist Talks about Jesus
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside. He spent some time there with them and began baptizing. 23 John was also baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People[a] kept coming and were being baptized, 24 since John had not yet been thrown into prison.
25 Then a controversy about ritual purification sprang up between a certain Jew[b] and John’s disciples, 26 so they went to John and told him, “Rabbi,[c] the man who was with you on the other side[d] of the Jordan, the one about whom you testified—look, he’s baptizing, and everyone is going to him!”
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to them from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my[e] witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,[f] but I have been sent ahead of him.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who gets the bride, yet the bridegroom’s friend, who merely[g] stands by and listens for him, is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That’s why this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must become more important, but I must become less important.”
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