Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 26

Of David.

Psalm 28

Of David.

Psalm 36

For the music leader. Of the Lord’s servant David.

Psalm 39

For the music leader. To Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

God’s covenant with all life

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, multiply, and fill the earth. ² All of the animals on the earth will fear you and dread you—all the birds in the skies, everything crawling on the ground, and all of the sea’s fish. They are in your power. ³ Everything that lives and moves will be your food. Just as I gave you the green grasses, I now give you everything. ⁴ However, you must not eat meat with its life, its blood, in it.

⁷ As for you, be fertile and multiply. Populate the earth and multiply in it.” ⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “I am now setting up my covenant with you, with your descendants, ¹⁰ and with every living being with you—with the birds, with the large animals, and with all the animals of the earth, leaving the ark with you.^{[a] 11} I will set up my covenant with you so that never again will all life be cut off by floodwaters. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² God said, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. ¹³ I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. ¹⁶ The bow will be in the clouds, and upon seeing it I will remember the enduring covenant between God and every living being of all the earth’s creatures.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I have set up between me and all creatures on earth.”

⁷ During his days on earth, Christ offered prayers and requests with loud cries and tears as his sacrifices to the one who was able to save him from death. He was heard because of his godly devotion. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. ⁹ After he had been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him. ¹⁰ He was appointed by God to be a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ We have a lot to say about this topic, and it’s difficult to explain, because you have been lazy and you haven’t been listening. ¹² Although you should have been teachers by now, you need someone to teach you an introduction to the basics about God’s message. You have come to the place where you need milk instead of solid food. ¹³ Everyone who lives on milk is not used to the word of righteousness, because they are babies. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil.

¹⁶ God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. ¹⁷ God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.

¹⁹ “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil. ²⁰ All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light. ²¹ Whoever does the truth comes to the light so that it can be seen that their actions were done in God.”