Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 148
Praise for God’s Universal Glory
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 host!(A)
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the heavens!(B)
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.(C)
6 He established them forever and ever;
he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.[a](D)
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,(E)
8 fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!(F)
9 Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!(G)
10 Wild 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 Young men and women alike,
old and young together!
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven.(H)
14 He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his faithful,
for the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the Lord!(I)
Psalm 149
Praise for God’s Goodness to Israel
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.(J)
2 Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.(K)
3 Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.(L)
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.(M)
5 Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.(N)
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,(O)
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters
and their nobles with chains of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment decreed.
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!(P)
Psalm 150
Praise for God’s Surpassing Greatness
Psalm 114
God’s Wonders at the Exodus
1 [a]When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,(A)
2 Judah became God’s[b] sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.(B)
3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.(C)
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.(D)
5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,(E)
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.(F)
Psalm 115
The Impotence of Idols and the Greatness of God
1 [c]Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.(G)
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”(H)
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases.(I)
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.(J)
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
they have eyes, but they do not see.
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
they have noses, but they do not smell.
7 They have hands, but they do not feel;
they have feet, but they do not walk;
they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.(K)
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.(L)
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.(M)
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 small and great.
Elijah
48 Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,
and his word burned like a torch.(A)
2 He brought a famine upon them,
and by his zeal he made them few in number.
3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens
and also three times brought down fire.(B)
4 How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Who can boast[a] as you can?
5 You who raised a corpse from death
and from Hades, by the word of the Most High,(C)
6 who sent kings down to destruction
and famous men from their sickbeds,(D)
7 who heard rebuke at Sinai
and judgments of vengeance at Horeb,(E)
8 who anointed kings to inflict retribution
and prophets to succeed you,[b](F)
9 who were taken up by a whirlwind of fire
in a chariot with horses of fire,(G)
10 who were prepared at the appointed time[c]
to calm wrath before it breaks out in fury,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children
and to restore the tribes of Jacob.(H)
11 Happy are those who saw you
and were adorned[d] in love!
For we also shall surely live.[e]
7 Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets,[a] came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside,(A) 8 how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation,[b] much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory!(B) 10 Indeed, what once had glory has in this respect lost its glory because of the greater glory, 11 for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!
12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness,(C) 13 not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that[c] was being set aside.(D) 14 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside.(E) 15 Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,[d] 16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.(F) 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.(G) 18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.(H)
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
18 Once when Jesus[a] was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”(A) 19 They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.”(B) 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah[b] of God.”(C)
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone,(D) 22 saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.”(E)
23 Then he said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.(F) 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.(G) 25 For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?(H) 26 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.(I) 27 Indeed, truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”(J)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.