Book of Common Prayer

Giving Thanks to God

63 O God, You are my God. I will look for You with all my heart and strength. My soul is thirsty for You. My flesh is weak wanting You in a dry and tired land where there is no water. ² So I have seen You in the holy place. And I have seen Your power and Your shining-greatness. ³ My lips will praise You because Your loving-kindness is better than life. ⁴ So I will give honor to You as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name. ⁵ My soul will be filled as with rich foods. And my mouth praises You with lips of joy.

⁶ On my bed I remember You. I think of You through the hours of the night. ⁷ For You have been my help. And I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. ⁸ My soul holds on to You. Your right hand holds me up.

⁹ But those who want to take my life and destroy it will go deep into the earth. ¹⁰ They will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become food for foxes. ¹¹ But the king will be full of joy in God. All who are faithful to God will be full of joy. For the mouth of those who speak lies will be stopped.

A Call to Praise the Lord

98 Sing a new song to the Lord. For He has done great things. His right hand and His holy arm have won the fight for Him. ² The Lord has made His saving power known. He has shown to the nations how right and good He is. ³ He has shown His loving-kindness and how beautiful He is to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of our God.

⁴ Call out for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out loud songs of joy and sing praises. ⁵ Sing praises to the Lord with harps, with harps and the voice of singing. ⁶ Call out for joy with the sound of horns before the King, the Lord.

⁷ Let the sea and all that is in it make a loud noise, and the world and all who live in it. ⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing together for joy ⁹ before the Lord. For He is coming to say who is guilty or not on the earth. He will be right in what He decides about the world. And He will be fair to the people.

Praise for God’s Love

103 Praise the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, praise His holy name. ² Praise the Lord, O my soul. And forget none of His acts of kindness. ³ He forgives all my sins. He heals all my diseases. ⁴ He saves my life from the grave. He crowns me with loving-kindness and pity. ⁵ He fills my years with good things and I am made young again like the eagle.

⁶ The Lord does what is right and fair for all who suffer under a bad power. ⁷ He made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the people of Israel. ⁸ The Lord is full of loving-pity and kindness. He is slow to anger and has much loving-kindness. ⁹ He will not always keep after us. And He will not keep His anger back forever. ¹⁰ He has not punished us enough for all our sins. He has not paid us back for all our wrong-doings. ¹¹ For His loving-kindness for those who fear Him is as great as the heavens are high above the earth. ¹² He has taken our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. ¹³ The Lord has loving-pity on those who fear Him, as a father has loving-pity on his children. ¹⁴ For He knows what we are made of. He remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ The days of man are like grass. He grows like a flower of the field. ¹⁶ When the wind blows over it, it is gone. Its place will remember it no more. ¹⁷ But the loving-kindness of the Lord is forever and forever on those who fear Him. And what is right with God is given forever to their children’s children, ¹⁸ to those who keep His agreement and remember to obey His Law.

¹⁹ The Lord has set up His throne in the heavens. And His holy nation rules over all. ²⁰ Praise the Lord, you powerful angels of His who do what He says, obeying His voice as He speaks! ²¹ Praise the Lord, all you armies of His who work for Him and do what pleases Him. ²² Praise the Lord, all His works in all places under His rule. Praise the Lord, O my soul!

⁶ Cry out in sorrow, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as a destroying power from the All-powerful. ⁷ So all hands will become weak, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸ They will be filled with fear. Pain and suffering will take hold of them. They will suffer like a woman giving birth. They will look surprised at one another, their faces burning. ⁹ See, the day of the Lord is coming, without pity and with much anger. He is coming to destroy the land and its sinners from it. ¹⁰ The stars of heaven and every group of stars will not give out their light. The sun will be dark when it comes up, and the moon will not give its light. ¹¹ This is how I will punish the world for its sin, and the sinful for their wrong-doing. I will also put an end to those who are proud. And I will put to shame those who make it hard for others and show no pity. ¹² I will make men so few that they will be of more worth than pure gold, even the gold of Ophir. ¹³ I will make the heavens shake. And the earth will be shaken from its place with the anger of the Lord of All in the day of His burning anger.

¹⁸ For you have not come close to a mountain that you can touch. You have not come to worship where there is burning fire and darkness and storm and wind. ¹⁹ The sound of a horn was heard and God’s voice spoke. The people cried out to Moses to have God stop speaking to them. ²⁰ They could not stand to listen to His strong words, “Even if an animal comes to the mountain, it must be killed.” ^{(A) 21} What Moses saw was so hard to look at that he said, “I am full of fear and am shaking.” ^(B)

²² But instead, you have come to the mountain of Jerusalem. It is the city of the living God. It is the Jerusalem of heaven with its thousands of angels. ²³ You have gathered there with God’s children who were born long ago. They are citizens of heaven. God is there. He will judge all men. The spirits of all those right with God are there. They have been made perfect. ²⁴ Jesus is there. He has made a way for man to go to God. He gave His blood that men might worship God the New Way. The blood of Jesus tells of better things than that which Abel used.

²⁵ Be sure you listen to the One Who is speaking to you. The Jews did not obey when God’s Law was given to them on earth. They did not go free. They were punished. We will be punished more if we do not listen to God as He speaks from heaven. ²⁶ On Mount Sinai, God’s voice shook the earth. But now He has promised, saying, “Once more I will shake the earth and the heavens.” ^(C)

²⁷ When God says, “Once more,” He means He will take away everything of this world that can be shaken so the things that cannot be shaken will be left.

²⁸ Since we have received a holy nation that cannot be moved, let us be thankful. Let us please God and worship Him with honor and fear. ²⁹ For our God is a fire that destroys everything.

Jesus Preaches in Judea

²² After this, Jesus and His followers came into the country of Judea. He stayed with them there and baptized people.

John the Baptist Tells More about Jesus

²³ John was baptizing in the town of Aenon near Salim. There was much water there and people were coming to be baptized. ²⁴ John had not been put in prison yet.

²⁵ Then some of the followers of John and a Jew started to argue about the religious washing of the Jewish worship. ²⁶ They came to John and said to him, “Teacher, the One with you on the other side of the Jordan River is baptizing also. He is the One you told of. Everyone is going to Him.”

²⁷ John said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸ You heard the words that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.’ ²⁹ The man who has just been married has the bride. The friend of the man just married stands at his side and listens to him. He has joy when he hears the voice of the man just married. I am full of this joy. ³⁰ He must become more important. I must become less important.