Book of Common Prayer

God’s Power over the Earth

97 The Lord rules. Let the earth be full of joy. Let the many islands be glad. ² Clouds and darkness are all around Him. His throne is built upon what is right and fair. ³ Fire goes before Him and burns up those who hate Him on every side. ⁴ His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and shakes. ⁵ The mountains melt like a candle before the Lord, before the Lord of the whole earth. ⁶ The heavens tell about how right and good He is. And all the people see His shining-greatness.

⁷ Let all those who serve false gods be ashamed, those who talk about how great their gods are. Worship Him, all you gods! ⁸ Zion heard this and was glad. The people of Judah have been full of joy because of what You decide, O Lord. ⁹ For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth. You are honored above all gods.

¹⁰ Let those who love the Lord hate what is bad. For He keeps safe the souls of His faithful ones. He takes them away from the hand of the sinful. ¹¹ Light is spread like seed for those who are right and good, and joy for the pure in heart. ¹² Be glad in the Lord, you who are right and good. Give thanks to His holy name.

The Lord Is Good to His People

99 The Lord rules! Let the people shake in fear! He sits on His throne above the angels. Let the earth shake! ² The Lord is great in Zion. And He is honored above all people. ³ Let them praise Your great name. It is to be honored with fear. He is holy!

⁴ The strength of the King loves what is right. You have set up what is fair. You do what is right and fair in Jacob. ⁵ Honor the Lord our God. Worship at His feet. For He is holy!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among His religious leaders. And Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. ⁷ He spoke to them from the cloud. They kept His Word and the Law that He gave them. ⁸ O Lord our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them. But You punished them for their wrong-doing. ⁹ Honor the Lord our God. And worship at His holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy!

A Song of Praise

100 Call out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. ² Be glad as you serve the Lord. Come before Him with songs of joy. ³ Know that the Lord is God. It is He Who made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His field.

⁴ Go into His gates giving thanks and into His holy place with praise. Give thanks to Him. Honor His name. ⁵ For the Lord is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. And He is faithful to all people and to all their children-to-come.

God Judges

94 O Lord, the God Who punishes, God Who punishes, let Your light shine! ² Rise up, You Judge of the earth. Pay what is owed to the proud. ³ How long will the sinful, O Lord, how long will the sinful be full of joy? ⁴ They pour out proud words. All those who do wrong, talk about themselves as if they are great people. ⁵ They crush Your people, O Lord. They bring trouble upon Your chosen nation. ⁶ They kill the woman whose husband has died and the stranger. They kill the children who have no parents. ⁷ And they say, “The Lord does not see. The God of Jacob does not care.”

⁸ Listen, you foolish ones among the people. You fools, when will you understand? ⁹ He Who made the ear, does He not hear? He Who made the eye, does He not see? ¹⁰ He Who punishes nations so they might give up sin, will He not speak strong words to them? Is He not the One Who teaches man all he knows? ¹¹ The Lord knows the thoughts of man. He knows that they are empty.

¹² Happy is the man who is punished until he gives up sin, O Lord, and whom You teach from Your Law. ¹³ You give him rest from days of trouble, until a hole is dug for the sinful. ¹⁴ For the Lord will not turn away from His people. He will not leave His chosen nation. ¹⁵ For what is decided will be right and good. And all those whose hearts are right will follow it. ¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the sinful? Who will take a stand for me against those who do wrong?

¹⁷ If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have been among the dead. ¹⁸ When I said, “My foot is going out from under me,” Your loving-kindness held me up, O Lord. ¹⁹ When my worry is great within me, Your comfort brings joy to my soul. ²⁰ Can a sinful throne that brings trouble by its laws be a friend to You? ²¹ They join together against the life of those who are right and good. They send those who are not guilty to their death. ²² But the Lord has been my strong place, my God, and the rock where I am safe. ²³ He has brought back their own sin upon them and will destroy them for their wrong-doing. The Lord our God will destroy them.

A Song of Praise

95 Come, let us sing with joy to the Lord. Let us sing loud with joy to the rock Who saves us. ² Let us come before Him giving thanks. Let us make a sound of joy to Him with songs. ³ For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ⁴ The deep places of the earth are in His hand. And the tops of the mountains belong to Him. ⁵ The sea is His, for He made it. And His hands made the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us get down on our knees before the Lord Who made us. ⁷ For He is our God. And we are the people of His field, and the sheep of His hand. If you hear His voice today, ⁸ do not let your hearts become hard as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert. ⁹ Your early fathers put Me to the test and tried Me. But they had seen the work I did. ¹⁰ I was angry with the people of that day for forty years. I said, “They always think wrong thoughts. And they do not know My ways.” ¹¹ I was angry with them and said, “They will never go into My rest.”

Hezekiah Rules Judah

29 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old. And he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He did all that his father David had done.

Hezekiah Makes the House of God Holy Again

³ In the first month of the first year of his rule, he opened the doors of the Lord’s house and made them like new.

Hezekiah Keeps the Passover

30 Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah. He wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh also, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. ² For the king and his rulers and all the people in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month. ³ For they could not keep it at the set time, because there had not been enough religious leaders who had made themselves holy. And the people had not been gathered to Jerusalem. ⁴ So the new time pleased the king and all the people. ⁵ And they made it known in all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem. For great numbers of people had not kept it, as they were told to do. ⁶ Men were sent through all Israel and Judah with the letters from the hand of the king and his rulers, as the king had told them. The letters said, “O sons of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who have not been taken away by the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your fathers and your brothers. They were not faithful to the Lord God of their fathers, so He gave them a reason to fear, as you see. ⁸ Now do not make your hearts hard like your fathers, but give yourselves to the Lord. Come to His holy place which He has set apart forever. And worship the Lord your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you. ⁹ For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will be shown pity by those who took them away, and will return to this land. For the Lord your God is kind and loving. He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

¹⁰ So the men took the letters from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun. But the people laughed at them and made fun of them. ¹¹ Only a few men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem. ¹² The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the rulers told them by the Word of the Lord.

The People Keep the Passover

¹³ Many people gathered together at Jerusalem to keep the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast in the second month. There were very many people. ¹⁴ They took away the altars which were in Jerusalem. And they also took away all the special perfume altars and threw them into the river of Kidron. ¹⁵ Then they killed the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. The religious leaders and Levites were ashamed and made themselves holy, and brought burnt gifts to the house of the Lord. ¹⁶ They stood in their places as they should, as given by the Law of Moses the man of God. The religious leaders placed the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many of the people who had not made themselves holy. So the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for every one who was unclean, to make them holy to the Lord. ¹⁸ For many of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean. Yet they ate the Passover in a different way than had been written. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord forgive everyone ¹⁹ who makes his heart ready to look for God, the Lord God of his fathers, even if he does not follow the rules of the holy place for making himself clean.” ²⁰ And the Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people. ²¹ The people of Israel who were there in Jerusalem kept the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast for seven days with great joy. The Levites and the religious leaders praised the Lord day after day, singing with loud music to the Lord. ²² Then Hezekiah spoke comforting words to all the Levites who had good understanding in the Lord’s work. So the people ate the food of the Special Supper for seven days, giving peace gifts and thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.

²³ Then all the people decided to keep the Special Supper for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with joy. ²⁴ For King Hezekiah of Judah had given the people 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep. And the rulers had given the people 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. And a large number of religious leaders made themselves holy. ²⁵ All the people of Judah were filled with joy, with the religious leaders and the Levites, and all the people who came from Israel. Both the people who came from the land of Israel and those living in Judah were filled with joy. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. ²⁷ Then the religious leaders and Levites stood and prayed that good would come to the people. And their voice was heard. Their prayer came to the Lord’s holy place in heaven.

³² I want you to be free from the cares of this world. The man who is not married can spend his time working for the Lord and pleasing Him. ³³ The man who is married cares for the things of the world. He wants to please his wife. ³⁴ Married women and women who have never been married are different. The woman who has never been married can spend her time working for the Lord. She wants to please the Lord with her body and spirit. The woman who is married cares for the things of the world. She wants to please her husband. ³⁵ I am saying these things to help you. I am not trying to keep you from getting married. I want you to do what is best. You should work for Him without other things taking your time.

³⁶ If a man and woman expect to get married, and he thinks his desires to marry her are getting too strong, and she is getting older, they should get married. It is no sin. ³⁷ But if a man has the power to keep from getting married and knows in his mind that he should not, he is wise if he does not get married. ³⁸ The man who gets married does well, but the man who does not get married does better.

³⁹ A wife is not free as long as her husband lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wants, if he is a Christian. ⁴⁰ I think she will be much more happy if she does not get married again. This is what I think. I believe it is what the Holy Spirit is saying.

Jesus Teaches on the Mountain about Saying What Is Wrong in Others

7 “Do not say what is wrong in other people’s lives. Then other people will not say what is wrong in your life. ² You will be guilty of the same things you find in others. When you say what is wrong in others, your words will be used to say what is wrong in you. ³ Why do you look at the small piece of wood in your brother’s eye, and do not see the big piece of wood in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take that small piece of wood out of your eye,’ when there is a big piece of wood in your own eye? ⁵ You who pretend to be someone you are not, first take the big piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you can see better to take the small piece of wood out of your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give that which belongs to God to dogs. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will break them under their feet. Then they will turn and tear you to pieces.

Jesus Teaches about Prayer

⁷ “Ask, and what you are asking for will be given to you. Look, and what you are looking for you will find. Knock, and the door you are knocking on will be opened to you. ⁸ Everyone who asks receives what he asks for. Everyone who looks finds what he is looking for. Everyone who knocks has the door opened to him. ⁹ What man among you would give his son a stone if he should ask for bread? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, would he give him a snake? ¹¹ You are bad and you know how to give good things to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

Jesus Teaches about Others

¹² “Do for other people whatever you would like to have them do for you. This is what the Jewish Law and the early preachers said.