Book of Common Prayer
To the director: To the tune “Shoshanim.”[a] A maskil from the Korah family. A love song.
45 Beautiful thoughts fill my mind
as I speak these lines for the king.
These words come from my tongue
as from the pen of a skilled writer.
2 You are more handsome than anyone,
and you say such pleasant things.
So God will always bless you.
3 Put on your sword, mighty warrior,
so impressive in your splendid uniform.
4 Go out in your greatness to win the victory for what is true and right.
Let us see the amazing things you can do with your powerful right arm.[b]
5 Your sharp arrows will go deep into the hearts of your enemies,
who will fall to the ground in front of you.
6 God,[c] your kingdom will last forever.
You use your authority for justice.
7 You love what is right and hate what is wrong.
So God, your God, chose you to be king,
giving you more joy and honor than anyone like you.[d]
8 From your clothes comes the wonderful smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
In palaces decorated with ivory, you enjoy the music of stringed instruments.
9 Here are ladies of honor, daughters of kings.
Your bride[e] stands at your right side, wearing a gown decorated with the finest gold.
10 My lady,[f] listen to me.
Listen carefully and understand me.
Forget your people and your father’s family,
11 so that the king will be pleased with your beauty.
He will be your new husband,[g]
so you must honor him.
12 People from Tyre will bring you gifts.
Their richest people will try to win your friendship.
13 The princess is so beautiful in her gown,
like a pearl set in gold.
14 Clothed in beauty, she is led to the king,
followed by her bridesmaids.
15 Filled with joy and excitement,
they enter into the king’s palace.
16 Your sons will be kings like their ancestors.
You will make them rulers throughout the land.
17 You will be famous for generations.
People will praise you forever and ever.
To the director: A song from the Korah family.
47 Everyone, clap your hands.
Shout with joy to God!
2 The Lord Most High is awesome.
He is the great King over all the earth.
3 He helped us defeat other nations.
He put those people under our control.
4 He chose our land for us.
He chose that wonderful land for Jacob, the one he loved. Selah
5 The Lord God goes up to his throne
at the sound of the trumpet and horn.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 God is the King of the whole world.
Sing songs of praise![a]
8 God sits on his holy throne;
he rules all the nations.
9 The leaders of the nations have come together
with the people of the God of Abraham.
All the rulers of the world belong to God.
He is over them all!
A song of praise from the Korah family.
48 The Lord is great!
He is praised throughout the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 His city is such a pleasant place.
It brings joy to people from around the world.
Mount Zion is the true mountain of God.[b]
It is the city of the great King.
3 In the palaces of that city,
God is known as the fortress.
4 Once some kings met together
and planned an attack against this city.
They marched toward the city,
5 but when they saw it, they were amazed.
They all panicked and ran away.
6 Fear grabbed them;
they trembled like a woman giving birth.
7 God, with a strong east wind,
you wrecked their big ships.
8 Yes, we heard the stories about your power.
But we also saw it in the city of our God, the city of the Lord All-Powerful.
God makes that city strong forever. Selah
9 God, in your Temple we remember your loving kindness.
10 Your name is known everywhere, God,
and people throughout the earth praise you.
You have shown that you do what is right.
11 Mount Zion is happy,
and the towns of Judah rejoice, because your decisions are fair.
12 Walk around Jerusalem,
and count its towers.
13 Look at the tall walls,
and see the palaces.
Then you can tell the next generation about them.
14 This God is our God forever and ever.
He will lead us from now to the end of time!
The Place for Worshiping God
12 “These are the laws and rules that you must obey in your new land. You must carefully obey them as long as you live in this land. The Lord is the God of your ancestors, and he is giving this land to you. 2 You will take that land from the nations that live there now. You must completely destroy all the places where the people of these nations worship their gods. These places are on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. 3 You must smash their altars and break their memorial stones into pieces. You must burn their Asherah poles and cut down the statues of their gods. Wipe out everything that would remind you of those gods.
4 “You must not worship the Lord your God in the same way these people worship their gods. 5 The Lord your God will choose a special place among your tribes. That will be the home for his name. You must go to that place to worship him. 6 There you must bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your crops and animals,[a] your special gifts, any gifts you promised to him, any special gift you want to give, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. 7 You and your families will eat together at that place, and the Lord your God will be there with you. You will enjoy sharing the things you worked for there. You will remember that the Lord your God blessed you and gave you these good things.
8 “You must not continue to worship the way we have been worshiping. Until now each of us has been worshiping God any way we wanted. 9 This is because we have not yet entered the peaceful land that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will go across the Jordan River and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. There he will give you rest from all your enemies, and you will be safe. 11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place that will be the home for his name. You must bring everything I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your crops and animals, your special gifts, and any gifts that you promised to give to the Lord. 12 Come to that place with all your people—your children, all your servants, and the Levites living in your towns. (These Levites will not have a share of the land for their own.) Enjoy yourselves together there with the Lord your God.
3 We don’t want people to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem to others. 4 But in every way we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind. 5 We are beaten and thrown into prison. People get upset at us and fight against us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. 6 We show that we are God’s servants by our pure lives, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show it by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, 7 by speaking the truth, and by depending on God’s power. This right way of living has prepared us to defend ourselves against every kind of attack.
8 Some people honor us, but others shame us. Some people say good things about us, but others say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. 9 To some people we are not known, but we are well known. We seem to be dying, but look! We continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. 10 We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you people in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. 12 Our feelings of love for you have not stopped. It is you who have stopped your feelings of love for us. 13 I speak to you as if you were my children. Do the same as we have done—open your hearts also.
We Are God’s Temple
14 You are not the same as those who don’t believe. So don’t join yourselves to them. Good and evil don’t belong together. Light and darkness cannot share the same room. 15 How can there be any unity between Christ and the devil[a]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 God’s temple[b] cannot have anything to do with idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As God said,
“I will live with them
and walk with them;
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.” (A)
17 “So come away from those people
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch anything that is not clean,
and I will accept you.” (B)
18 “I will be your father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord All-Powerful.” (C)
7 Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So we should make ourselves pure—free from anything that makes our body or our soul unclean. Our respect for God should make us try to be completely holy in the way we live.
Be Thankful
11 Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. He went from Galilee to Samaria. 12 He came into a small town, and ten men met him there. They did not come close to him, because they all had leprosy. 13 But the men shouted, “Jesus! Master! Please help us!”
14 When Jesus saw the men, he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”[a]
While the ten men were going to the priests, they were healed. 15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he went back to Jesus. He praised God loudly. 16 He bowed down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (He was a Samaritan.) 17 Jesus said, “Ten men were healed; where are the other nine? 18 This man is not even one of our people. Is he the only one who came back to give praise to God?” 19 Then Jesus said to the man, “Stand up! You can go. You were healed because you believed.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International