Book of Common Prayer
(A)A Hymn in Time of National Trouble[a]
89 O Lord, I will always sing of your constant love;
I will proclaim your faithfulness forever.
2 I know that your love will last for all time,
that your faithfulness is as permanent as the sky.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with the man I chose;
I have promised my servant David,
4 (B)‘A descendant of yours will always be king;
I will preserve your dynasty forever.’”
5 The heavens sing of the wonderful things you do;
the holy ones sing of your faithfulness, Lord.
6 No one in heaven is like you, Lord;
none of the heavenly beings is your equal.
7 You are feared in the council of the holy ones;
they all stand in awe of you.
8 Lord God Almighty, none is as mighty as you;
in all things you are faithful, O Lord.
9 You rule over the powerful sea;
you calm its angry waves.
10 You crushed the monster Rahab[b] and killed it;
with your mighty strength you defeated your enemies.
11 Heaven is yours, the earth also;
you made the world and everything in it.
12 You created the north and the south;
Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon sing to you for joy.
13 How powerful you are!
How great is your strength!
14 Your kingdom is founded on righteousness and justice;
love and faithfulness are shown in all you do.
15 How happy are the people who worship you with songs,
who live in the light of your kindness!
16 Because of you they rejoice all day long,
and they praise you for your goodness.
17 You give us great victories;
in your love you make us triumphant.
18 You, O Lord, chose our protector;
you, the Holy God of Israel, gave us our king.
God's Promise to David
19 In a vision long ago you said to your faithful servants,
“I have given help to a famous soldier;
I have given the throne to one I chose from the people.
20 (C)I have made my servant David king
by anointing him with holy oil.
21 My strength will always be with him,
my power will make him strong.
22 His enemies will never succeed against him;
the wicked will not defeat him.
23 I will crush his foes
and kill everyone who hates him.
24 I will love him and be loyal to him;
I will make him always victorious.
25 I will extend his kingdom
from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River.
26 He will say to me,
‘You are my father and my God;
you are my protector and savior.’
27 (D)I will make him my first-born son,
the greatest of all kings.
28 I will always keep my promise to him,
and my covenant with him will last forever.
29 His dynasty will be as permanent as the sky;
a descendant of his will always be king.
30 “But if his descendants disobey my law
and do not live according to my commands,
31 if they disregard my instructions
and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish them for their sins;
I will make them suffer for their wrongs.
33 But I will not stop loving David
or fail to keep my promise to him.
34 I will not break my covenant with him
or take back even one promise I made him.
35 “Once and for all I have promised by my holy name:
I will never lie to David.
36 He will always have descendants,
and I will watch over his kingdom as long as the sun shines.
37 It will be as permanent as the moon,
that faithful witness in the sky.”
Lament over the Defeat of the King
38 But you are angry with your chosen king;
you have deserted and rejected him.
39 You have broken your covenant with your servant
and thrown his crown in the dirt.
40 You have torn down the walls of his city
and left his forts in ruins.
41 All who pass by steal his belongings;
all his neighbors laugh at him.
42 You have given the victory to his enemies;
you have made them all happy.
43 You have made his weapons useless
and let him be defeated in battle.
44 You have taken away his royal scepter[c]
and knocked his throne to the ground.
45 You have made him old before his time
and covered him with disgrace.
A Prayer for Deliverance
46 Lord, will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your anger burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my life is;
remember that you created all of us mortal!
48 Who can live and never die?
How can we humans keep ourselves from the grave?
49 Lord, where are the former proofs of your love?
Where are the promises you made to David?
50 Don't forget how I, your servant, am insulted,
how I endure all the curses[d] of the heathen.
51 Your enemies insult your chosen king, O Lord!
They insult him wherever he goes.
52 Praise the Lord forever!
Amen! Amen!
The Lord's Love for His People
14 So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. 15 (A)I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt. 16 Then once again she will call me her husband—she will no longer call me her Baal.[a] 17 I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.
18 At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.
19 Israel, I will make you my wife;
I will be true and faithful;
I will show you constant love and mercy
and make you mine forever.
20 I will keep my promise and make you mine,
and you will acknowledge me as Lord.
21-22 At that time I will answer the prayers of my people Israel.[b]
I will make rain fall on the earth,
and the earth will produce grain and grapes and olives.
23 (B)I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper.
I will show love to those who were called “Unloved,”
and to those who were called “Not-My-People”
I will say, “You are my people,”
and they will answer, “You are our God.”
Paul's Farewell Speech to the Elders of Ephesus
17 From Miletus Paul sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. 18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You know how I spent the whole time I was with you, from the first day I arrived in the province of Asia. 19 With all humility and many tears I did my work as the Lord's servant during the hard times that came to me because of the plots of some Jews. 20 You know that I did not hold back anything that would be of help to you as I preached and taught in public and in your homes. 21 To Jews and Gentiles alike I gave solemn warning that they should turn from their sins to God and believe in our Lord Jesus. 22 And now, in obedience to the Holy Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit has warned me that prison and troubles wait for me. 24 (A)But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.
25 “I have gone about among all of you, preaching the Kingdom of God. And now I know that none of you will ever see me again. 26 So I solemnly declare to you this very day: if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible. 27 For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. 28 So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he made his own through the blood of his Son.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, fierce wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. 30 The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them. 31 Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.
32 “And now I commend you to the care of God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the blessings God has for all his people. 33 I have not wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that I have worked with these hands of mine to provide everything that my companions and I have needed. 35 I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’”
36 When Paul finished, he knelt down with them and prayed. 37 They were all crying as they hugged him and kissed him good-bye. 38 They were especially sad because he had said that they would never see him again. And so they went with him to the ship.
Jesus Calls the First Disciples(A)
5 (B)One day Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret while the people pushed their way up to him to listen to the word of God. 2 He saw two boats pulled up on the beach; the fishermen had left them and were washing the nets. 3 Jesus got into one of the boats—it belonged to Simon—and asked him to push off a little from the shore. Jesus sat in the boat and taught the crowd.
4 When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Push the boat out further to the deep water, and you and your partners let down your nets for a catch.”
5 (C)“Master,” Simon answered, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 (D)They let them down and caught such a large number of fish that the nets were about to break. 7 So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full of fish that the boats were about to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he fell on his knees before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man!”
9 He and the others with him were all amazed at the large number of fish they had caught. 10 The same was true of Simon's partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus said to Simon, “Don't be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
11 They pulled the boats up on the beach, left everything, and followed Jesus.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.