Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 97
1 The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and darkness are all around Him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 A fire goes before Him
and burns up His enemies all around.
4 His lightning bolts light up the world;
the earth sees and shakes.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
and all the peoples see His glory.
7 All who serve graven images are ashamed,
who boast in worthless idols;
worship Him, all you gods.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of Your judgments, O Lord.
9 For You, O Lord, are Most High above all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of His devoted ones;
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light goes out for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous,
and give thanks at the memory of His holy name.
Psalm 99
1 The Lord reigns;
let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned between the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
He is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise Your great and awesome name—
He is holy!
4 The King’s strength loves justice;
You establish righteousness,
and You execute judgment
and fairness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at His footstool—
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
even Samuel was among them who called upon His name;
they called upon the Lord,
and He answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept His statues and the ordinance that He gave them.
8 You answered them,
O Lord our God;
You were a God who forgave them,
though You took vengeance on their wrongdoing.
9 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at His holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy!
Psalm 100
A Psalm of thanksgiving.
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise;
be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 94
1 O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs;
O God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth.
2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth;
render to the proud what they deserve.
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 They spew forth their arrogant words;
all those who do iniquity boast.
5 They break in pieces Your people, O Lord,
and afflict Your inheritance.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless.
7 Yet they say, “The Lord does not see,
neither does the God of Jacob regard it.”
8 Understand, you brutish among the people;
fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who made the ear, shall He not hear?
He who formed the eye, shall He not see?
10 He who chastises the nations, shall He not correct?
He teaches people knowledge!
11 The Lord, He knows the thoughts of people,
that they are a breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord,
and teach from Your law,
13 that You may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake His people;
neither will He abandon His inheritance.
15 But justice shall return to those who are righteous,
and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against those who do iniquity?
17 Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul would have lived in the land of silent death.
18 When I said, “My foot slips,”
Your mercy, O Lord, held me up.
19 When there is a multitude of worries within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.
20 Shall wicked rulers, who make oppressive laws,
align with You?
21 They conspire together against the life of the righteous
and condemn innocent blood to death.
22 But the Lord is my defense,
and my God is the rock of my refuge.
23 He shall bring upon them their own iniquity
and shall cut them off for their own wickedness;
yes, the Lord our God shall destroy them.
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are also His.
5 The sea is His, for He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand.
Today if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
and as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tested Me and tried Me,
though they had seen My deeds.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known My ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in My wrath,
“They shall not enter into My rest.”
Hezekiah, King of Judah(A)
29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. The name of his mother was Abijah[a] the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was correct in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had done.
Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple
3 And in the first year and first month of his reign he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and restored them.
Hezekiah Celebrates the Passover
30 And Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah. He even wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. 2 The king counseled with his officials and all the assembly in Jerusalem to have the Passover in the second month. 3 For they were not able to have it at the appropriate time of the first month because a sufficient amount of priests had not consecrated themselves, nor had the people assembled yet in Jerusalem. 4 And this matter was pleasing in the eyes of the king and all the assembly. 5 So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel in Jerusalem, for the multitude of people did not do as it was written.
6 So couriers ran throughout all Israel and Judah with a letter from the hand of the king and his officials as a command from the king:
“Sons of Israel, return to the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel that He might turn to the remnant who has escaped from the king of Assyria. 7 Do not act like your fathers and brothers who were faithless before the Lord God of their fathers, and He appointed them for horror, as you observe. 8 So now do not harden your necks as your fathers, but give yourselves to the Lord and come to the sanctuary that He has consecrated permanently. Serve the Lord your God so that His burning anger might turn away from you all. 9 Because if you return to the Lord, your brothers and children will find compassion before those who have taken them captive, in order to return you to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn His face from you if you all return to Him.”
10 So the couriers ran from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and up to Zebulun, but the people laughed at them and mocked them. 11 However some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and journeyed to Jerusalem. 12 And even in Judah the hand of God was on them to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and officials by the word of the Lord.
13 And many people assembled in Jerusalem to have the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. There was a very large assembly. 14 They went out and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.
15 They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought in burnt offerings to the house of the Lord. 16 They stood at their places according to the Law of Moses, the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood they received from the hands of the Levites. 17 For there were many in the assembly who had consecrated themselves, so the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for those who were not clean in order to consecrate the people to the Lord. 18 For a multitude of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves. For they ate of the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed over them saying, “The Lord is good, and may He pardon 19 everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, but is not pure according the rules of the holy sanctuary.” 20 So the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
21 Then the sons of Israel present in Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the Lord every day, singing with loud instruments to the Lord.
22 Then Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.
23 Then the whole assembly counseled to have the feast for another seven days, so they had seven more days of gladness. 24 For Hezekiah king of Judah lifted up for the assembly one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep. And the officials offered up for the assembly one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. And a multitude of priests consecrated themselves. 25 So all the assembly of Judah and the priests and Levites and all the assembly who came from Israel rejoiced, even the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and those who resided in Judah. 26 And there was a great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had not been anything like this. 27 Then the priests and Levites went out and blessed the people, and their voices were heard. And their prayers came up to His holy habitation in the heavens.
32 But I prefer that you have no concern. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. 33 But he who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. 34 There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.
36 If any man thinks that he is behaving improperly toward his virgin,[a] and if she is past the flower of her youth, and passions so require, let him do what he will. He does not sin. Let them marry. 37 Nevertheless he who stands steadfast in his heart without necessity, and has power over his own will, and has so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, does well. 38 So then he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who gives her not in marriage does better.
39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, but only in the Lord. 40 But in my judgment she is happier if she so remains as she is. And I think that I have the Spirit of God.
Judging Others(A)
7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured again for you.
3 “And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank that is in your own eye? 4 Or how will you say to your brother, ‘Let me pull the speck out of your eye,’ when a log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn around and attack you.
Ask, Seek, Knock(B)
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
9 “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, everything you would like men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.