Book of Common Prayer
Davidic
Praise God, who Forgives
103 Bless the Lord, my soul,
and all that is within me, bless[a] his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, my soul,
and never forget any of his benefits:
3 He continues to forgive all your sins,
he continues to heal all your diseases,
4 he continues to redeem your life from the Pit,[b]
and he continuously surrounds you
with gracious love and compassion.
5 He keeps satisfying you with good things,
and he keeps renewing your youth like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord continuously does what is right,
executing justice for all who are being oppressed.
7 He revealed his plans[c] to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
patient,[d] and abundantly rich in gracious love.
9 He does not maintain a dispute[e] continuously
or remain angry for all time.
10 He neither deals with us according to our sins,
nor repays us equivalent to our iniquity.
11 As high as heaven rises above earth,
so his gracious love strengthens[f] those who fear him.
12 As distant as the east is from the west,
that is how far he has removed our sins from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were formed,
aware that we were made from dust.
15 A person’s life is like grass—
it blossoms like wild flowers,
16 but when the wind blows through it,
it withers away and no one remembers where it was.
17 Yet the Lord’s gracious love remains
throughout eternity for those who fear him
and his righteous acts extend to their children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and to those who remember to observe his precepts.
19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, you angels who belong to him,
you mighty warriors who carry out his commands,
who are obedient to the sound of his words.[g]
21 Bless the Lord, all his heavenly armies,
his ministers who do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his creation,[h]
in all the places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, my soul.
Deliverance of Israel from Egypt
114 When Israel came out of Egypt—
the household of Jacob from a people of foreign speech—
2 Judah became his sanctuary
and Israel his place of dominion.
3 The sea saw this[a] and fled,
the Jordan River[b] ran backwards,
4 the mountains skipped like rams,
and the hills like lambs.
5 What happened to you, sea, that you fled?
Jordan, that you ran backwards?
6 Mountains, that you skipped like rams?
And you hills, that you skipped[c] like lambs?
7 Tremble then, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the flinty rock into flowing springs.
The Impotence of Idols
115 Not to us, Lord, not to us,
but to your name be given glory
on account of your gracious love and faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations ask
“Where now is their God?”
3 when our God is in the heavens
and he does whatever he desires?
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
crafted by human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak;
they have eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears, but cannot hear;
they have noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but cannot touch;
feet, but cannot walk;
they cannot even groan with their throats.
8 Those who craft them will become like them,
as will all those who trust in them.
9 Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their helper and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
He is their helper and shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their helper and shield.
12 The Lord remembers and blesses us.
He will indeed bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the important and the insignificant together.
14 May the Lord add to your numbers—
to you and to your descendants.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
who made the heavens and the earth.
16 The highest heavens[d] belong to the Lord,
but he gave the earth to human beings.
17 Neither can the dead praise the Lord,
nor those who go down into the silence of death.[e]
18 But we will bless the Lord
from now to eternity.
Hallelujah!
Remember the Lord’s Provisions
8 “Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert to humble[a] and test you in order to make known what was in your heart—whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled[b] you, causing you to be hungry, yet he fed you with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, in order to teach you that human beings are not to live by food alone—instead human beings are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
Greetings from Paul
1 From:[a] Paul, an apostle of the Messiah[b] Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.
2 To: The holy[c] and faithful brothers in Colossae who are in union with the Messiah.[d]
May grace and peace from God our Father[e] be yours!
Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians
3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah,[f] praying always for you, 4 because we have heard about your faith in the Messiah[g] Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, 5 based on the hope laid up for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope[h] through the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and spreading all over the world, so it has been doing[i] among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. 7 You learned about this gospel[j] from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of the Messiah[k] on your[l] behalf. 8 He has told us about your love in the Spirit.
The Messiah is Above All
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God’s[m] will with respect to all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you might live in a manner worthy of the Lord and be fully pleasing to him[n] as you bear fruit while doing all kinds of good things and growing in the full knowledge of God. 11 You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might patiently endure everything with joy 12 and might thank the Father, who has enabled us[o] to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 God[p] has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves, 14 through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
30 So they asked him, “What sign are you going to do so that we may see it and believe in you? What actions are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”[a]
32 Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you[b] emphatically, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
48 I’m the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. 51 I’m the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he’ll live forever. And the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
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