Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote.
The great King[a]
24 The whole earth belongs to the Lord.
Everybody who lives in the world
and all the things in it belong to him.
2 The Lord built the foundation of the earth.
He built it on the seas and the rivers.[b]
3 Who may climb up the hill of the Lord?[c]
Who can stand in his holy place?[d]
4 Only the person who does what is right,
and who has pure thoughts.
He does not worship idols
and he does not make false promises.
5 The Lord will bless people who are like that.
God will save them.
He will say that they are not guilty of wrong things.
6 People like that come to God.
They want to please him.
They like to pray to the God of Jacob.
Selah.
7 Old gates of the city, wake up!
Open now, to leave a wide path!
Then the great king will come in.
8 Who is this great king?
He is the Lord,
who is strong and powerful.
He is the Lord,
who wins against his enemies.
9 Be ready, you old gates of the city!
Be ready to open wide!
Then the great king will come in.
10 Who is this great king?
He is the Almighty Lord.
Yes, he is the great king!
Selah.
This is a song that David wrote.
The storm[a]
29 All you angels in heaven,
say how great the Lord is!
Say that the Lord rules with power!
2 Say that the Lord's name is great!
Worship the Lord for who he is,
and remember that he is holy.
3 The voice of the Lord shouts over the water.
The God of glory makes the noise of thunder.
The Lord appears over the great sea.[b]
4 The Lord's voice is powerful.
It has the authority of a king!
5 When the Lord shouts,
even the cedar trees break!
Yes! The Lord breaks the great cedar trees of Lebanon.[c]
6 He makes Lebanon jump like a calf.
He causes Hermon mountain to shake
like a young bull jumps.
7 The Lord's voice makes fire
like lightning in the sky.
8 When the Lord shouts,
the desert shakes!
He makes the Kadesh desert shake!
9 When the Lord shouts,
the big oak trees bend over.
The leaves fall off all the trees in the forests.
But in his temple,
everyone says, ‘He is great!’
10 The Lord rules as king over the deep waters.[d]
The Lord will be king for ever.
11 The Lord makes his people strong.
The Lord blesses his people with peace.
The music leader must use special music.
This is a song that David wrote.
The sky at night[a]
8 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
The sky above shows how great you are.
2 You have taught children and babies to praise you.
You do that to show your enemies how strong you are.
Anyone who turns against you has to be quiet.
Your cruel enemies can do nothing!
3 You made the skies with your own hands.
When I look up, I see the moon and the stars.
You have put them all in their right place.
4 So why do you even think about men and women?
Why do you take care of humans?
5 You have made their place a little below God himself.[b]
You have given them honour, like kings.
6 You have chosen them to rule everything that you have made.
You have put everything under their authority.
7-8 Yes! Humans rule them all:
Farm animals and wild animals,
birds, fish and all the things that swim in the sea.
9 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
Korah's sons wrote this song for the music leader. Use special music.
The journey to Zion
84 Lord Almighty,
the temple where you live is beautiful!
2 I want very much to go to the Lord's temple.
I very much want to be in the temple yards.
With all that I am, and with great joy,
I sing to you, the God who lives for ever!
3 In your temple,
even sparrows[a] have their homes.
Swallows builds their nests there,
to take care of their babies.
They can be near to your altars,
Lord Almighty, my king and my God.
4 You have truly blessed those people
who live in your temple.
They can praise you all the time!
Selah.
5 You have blessed those people
who come to you to make them strong.
They love to travel to your temple in Zion.
6 As they go through the dry Baka valley,
springs of water appear there!
The autumn rain covers the valley with pools.
7 The people become stronger as they travel,
until each one meets with God in Zion.[b]
8 Lord God Almighty,
please listen to my prayer!
God of Jacob, hear me!
Selah.
9 God, look at our king,
the one who protects us like a shield!
Take care of the king that you have chosen.
10 I would rather be near your temple for one day
than have a thousand days anywhere else.
I would rather stand near the door of God's temple
than live among wicked people.
11 The Lord God is like a sun
and a shield for his people.
He is kind to his people
and he gives glory to them.
To those who do what is right,
he gives every good thing that they need.
12 Lord Almighty,
you have truly blessed everyone who trusts in you!
God speaks to Jeremiah
1 This book tells about Hilkiah's son, Jeremiah, and the words that he spoke. Jeremiah was a priest. He lived at Anathoth, a town in the land that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. 2 The Lord first spoke to him when Amon's son Josiah had been king of Judah for 13 years.[a] 3 The Lord also spoke to him while Josiah's son, Jehoiakim, ruled Judah as king. He continued to speak to Jeremiah until Josiah's son Zedekiah had ruled Judah for 11 years. In the fifth month of that year, Judah's enemies took the people of Jerusalem away as their prisoners.
God chooses Jeremiah to be a prophet
4 The Lord gave me this message: 5 ‘I already knew you before I made you inside your mother's body. I chose you to be special before you were born. I chose you to be my prophet, to speak my message to other nations.’
6 I answered, ‘Lord God, I do not know how to speak. I am only a child.’
7 The Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” You must go to everyone that I send you to. You must say whatever I tell you to say. 8 Do not be afraid of them. Remember that I will be with you. I will keep you safe.’
9 Then the Lord touched my mouth with his hand. He said to me, ‘I am giving you the words that you must speak. 10 Look! I give you authority to tell nations and kingdoms what will happen to them. You will pull some of them out of the ground, like a plant and its roots. You will knock down and destroy some of them. You will bring an end to their power. But you will build up other nations and make them strong.’
11 God has already put Jesus Christ as the only foundation of this building. So nobody can put any other foundation there.
12 People may build on this foundation with gold, silver or valuable stones. Or they may build on it with wood, dry grass or leaves. 13 One day, God will show clearly how good each builder's work is. God will put each person's work into a fire on that great day.[a] The fire will show whether their work is good or bad. 14 If the fire does not destroy the work, then that builder will receive good things from God. 15 But if the fire destroys a builder's work, that person will lose everything. The person himself will be safe. But he will be like someone who has run through the fire to a safe place.
16 You surely know that you are like God's special house. As God's people, God's Spirit lives in you. 17 If anyone destroys God's special house, then God will destroy that person. And you are like that house. You belong to God in a special way.
18 Be careful! Do not think that you are better than you really are. Maybe you think that you are wise, like people today want to be wise. But if you want to become truly wise, be ready for other people to think that you are a fool. 19 People in this world think that some people are wise. But God thinks that those wise people are fools. It says in the Bible:
‘God causes the clever thoughts of wise people to confuse them.’[b]
20 In another place, the Bible says:
‘The Lord knows that the thoughts of wise people have no value.’[c]
21 Because of that, you should not be proud of any human leader. All leaders are there to serve you, as God's people. 22 Do not be proud of Paul, Apollos or Peter. We belong to you. All of this world, and life and death belong to you. The things of today and tomorrow belong to you. Everything belongs to you, 23 you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Jesus' mother and his brothers come to look for him
31 Then, Jesus' mother and his brothers arrived and they stood outside the house. They sent someone into the house with a message. They wanted Jesus to come out to speak to them. 32 A crowd of people was sitting around Jesus. Somebody said to him, ‘Look! Your mother and brothers are outside. They are looking for you.’
33 Jesus replied, ‘I will tell you who my mother and brothers really are.’
34 Then he looked at the people who were sitting around him. He said, ‘Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 My brothers and sisters and my mother are the people who do what God wants.’[a]
Jesus tells a story about a farmer's seeds
4 Again, Jesus began to teach people near the edge of Lake Galilee. A large crowd came together to listen to him. So he went and sat in a boat that was on the water. The crowd of people stayed on the shore. 2 Jesus used stories to teach them many things. He said to them, 3 ‘Listen to me! A farmer went out to plant seeds in his field.[b] 4 While he was throwing the seeds, some of them fell on the path. The birds came and they ate those seeds. 5 Other seeds fell on ground which had many rocks. There was not much soil in that place. The seeds quickly began to grow, because the soil was not deep. 6 But when the sun rose, it burned the young plants. They soon died because they had not grown down well into the soil. 7 Other seeds fell among thorn bushes. Those bushes grew up with the young plants. They stopped the seeds from growing into strong plants. So the plants could not make any new seeds. 8 But some seeds fell on good soil. Good strong plants grew from these seeds. Some plants made 30 new seeds. Some plants made 60 new seeds. And some plants made 100 new seeds.’
9 Then Jesus said, ‘You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’
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