Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 63
A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, You are my God;
early will I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You,
my flesh faints for You,
in a dry and thirsty land
with no water.
2 I have seen You in the sanctuary,
to see Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
4 Thus will I bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips.
6 When I remember You on my bed,
and meditate on You in the night watches,
7 because You have been my help,
therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul clings hard to You;
Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek my soul to destroy it
will go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They will fall by the sword;
they will be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
everyone who swears by Him will glory,
because the mouth of liars will be stopped.
Psalm 103
A Psalm of David.
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquities,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 who satisfies your mouth with good things,
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord does righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always accuse,
neither will He keep his anger forever.
10 He does not treat us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord gives compassion to those who fear Him.
14 For He knows how we are formed;
He remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass;
as a flower of the field he flourishes.
16 For the hot wind passes over it, and it is gone;
the place where it was is not known.
17 But the mercy of the Lord
is from everlasting to everlasting
upon those who fear Him,
and His righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep His covenant,
and to those who remember to do His commandments.
19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,
and His kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, you His angels,
who are mighty, and do His commands,
and obey the voice of His word.
21 Bless the Lord, all you His hosts;
you servants who do His pleasure.
22 Bless the Lord, all His works,
in all places of His dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
21 When Rehoboam arrived at Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah along with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel and to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying: 23 Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the remnant of the people, saying, 24 “Thus says the Lord: You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the children of Israel. Every man is to return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” They listened therefore to the word of the Lord and turned to depart, according to the word of the Lord.
Jeroboam’s Golden Calves
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and lived there and went out from there and built Peniel.
26 Jeroboam said in his heart, “The kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28 At that point, the king got some advice and made two golden calves and said to the people, “It is too difficult for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 He set one in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan. 30 This was a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even all the way in Dan.
31 He also made houses on high places and appointed priests from among all the people who were not Levites. 32 Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast in Judah, and he offered sacrifice on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made. 33 So he made offerings on the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a holiday he imagined in his own heart, and ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and he sacrificed on the altar and burned incense.
18 Then they called them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot help but declare what we have seen and heard.”
21 When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people. For all glorified God for what was done, 22 for the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was over forty years old.
The Believers Pray for Boldness
23 On being released, they went to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they lifted their voices in unity to God and prayed, “Lord, You are God, who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 and who by the mouth of Your servant David said:
‘Why did the nations rage,
and the people devise vain things?
26 The kings of the earth came,
and the rulers were assembled together
against the Lord
and against His Christ.’[a]
27 Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were assembled together against Your holy Son Jesus whom You have anointed, 28 to do what Your hand and Your counsel had foreordained to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant that Your servants may speak Your word with great boldness, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be performed in the name of Your holy Son Jesus.”
31 When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
31 Again the Jews took up stones to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
33 The Jews answered Him, “We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, claim to be God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”[a]’? 35 If He called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, 36 do you say of Him, whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of My Father, do not believe Me. 38 But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” 39 Again they tried to seize Him, but He escaped from their hands.
40 Then He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and He remained there. 41 Many came to Him and said, “John did no sign. But everything that John said about this Man was true.” 42 And many believed in Him there.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.