Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 148
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise Him in the heights.
2 Praise Him, all His angels;
praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
3 Praise Him, sun and moon;
praise Him, all you stars of light.
4 Praise Him, you highest of heavens,
and you waters that are above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for He commanded, and they were created.
6 He has also established them forever and ever;
He has made a decree that shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures, and all you depths,
8 fire and hail, snow and mist,
storming wind fulfilling His word,
9 mountains and all hills,
fruitful trees and all cedars;
10 animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds;
11 kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth;
12 both young men and maidens,
old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for His name alone is excellent;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a victory horn for His people,
praise for all His saints,
even for the people of Israel near Him.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing unto the Lord a new song,
and His praise in the assembly of the godly ones.
2 Let Israel rejoice in its Maker;
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise His name with dancing;
let them sing praises unto Him with the tambourine and harp.
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
5 Let the godly ones be joyful in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths,
and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations,
and punishments on the peoples;
8 to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with shackles of iron;
9 to execute upon them the written judgment;
this is honor for all His godly ones.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
praise Him in the firmament of His power!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
praise Him with the lyre and harp!
4 Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing;
praise Him with stringed instruments and flute!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
praise Him with the clanging cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 114
1 When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah was His sanctuary,
and Israel His dominion.
3 The sea saw it and fled;
the Jordan was driven back;
4 the mountains skipped like rams
and the hills like lambs.
5 What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams,
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the hard stone into a spring of waters.
Psalm 115(A)
1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto Your name give glory,
for the sake of Your mercy, and for the sake of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where now is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but they cannot hear;
noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but they cannot feel;
feet, but they cannot walk;
neither can they speak with their throat.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so is everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us;
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and great ones.
14 The Lord shall increase you more and more,
you and your children.
15 You are blessed of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth He has given to the children of men.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any who go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the Lord
from this time and for evermore.
Praise the Lord!
14 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans,
into the ships in which they rejoice.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings forth the chariot and horse,
the army and the mighty men
(they shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
18 Do not remember the former things
nor consider the things of old.
19 See, I will do a new thing,
now it shall spring forth; shall you not be aware of it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honor Me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I give waters in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to My people, My chosen ones.
21 This people I have formed for Myself;
they shall declare My praise.
Pleading With Israel
22 But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;
but you have been weary of Me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,
nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
nor wearied you with incense.
24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,
nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
but you have made Me burdened with your sins;
you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
25 I, even I, am He who blots out
your transgressions for My own sake,
and will not remember your sins.
26 Put Me in remembrance;
let us plead together;
state your cause, that you may be justified.
27 Your first father has sinned,
and your teachers have transgressed against Me.
28 Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
and have given Jacob to the curse,
and Israel to reproaches.
God’s Blessing on Jacob
44 Yet now listen, O Jacob, My servant,
and Israel, whom I have chosen.
2 Thus says the Lord
who made you, and formed you from the womb,
who will help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob, My servant, and you,
Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
and floods on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants,
and My blessing on your offspring;
4 and they shall spring up as among the grass,
as willows by the water courses.
5 One will say, “I am the Lord’s”;
another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
and another will write on his hand, “Belonging to the Lord,”
and name himself by the name of Israel.
17 So God, wanting to show more abundantly the immutability of His counsel to the heirs of promise, confirmed it by an oath. 18 So that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, which enters the Inner Place behind the veil. 20 This is where Jesus has entered for us as a forerunner, since He has become the everlasting High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
The Priestly Order of Melchizedek
7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 2 To him Abraham also gave a tenth part of everything. In the first place, his name is translated “king of righteousness,” and then also he is king of Salem, which means “king of peace.” 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he continually remains a priest.
4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 Surely the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a command to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though they also come from the seed of Abraham. 6 But this man, whose descent is not numbered among them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Without question, the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case mortal men receive tithes, but in the other he of whom it is witnessed that he is alive receives them. 9 One might say that Levi also, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met Abraham.
27 Then His disciples came. They marveled that He talked with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28 The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the city and came to Him.
31 Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 Therefore the disciples said one to another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen! I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit that leads to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this is the saying true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not labor. And you have benefited from their labor.”
39 Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them. And He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His word.
42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this Man is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.