Book of Common Prayer

87 ^1-2 High on his holy mountain stands Jerusalem,^[a] the city of God, the city he loves more than any other!

³ O city of God, what wondrous tales are told of you! ⁴ Nowadays when I mention among my friends the names of Egypt and Babylonia, Philistia and Tyre, or even distant Ethiopia, someone boasts that he was born in one or another of those countries. ⁵ But someday the highest honor will be to be a native of Jerusalem! For the God above all gods will personally bless this city. ⁶ When he registers her citizens, he will place a check mark beside the names of those who were born here. ⁷ And in the festivals they’ll sing, “All my heart is in Jerusalem.”

90 A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! ² Before the mountains were created, before the earth was formed, you are God without beginning or end.

³ You speak, and man turns back to dust. ⁴ A thousand years are but as yesterday to you! They are like a single hour!^{[a] 5-6} We glide along the tides of time as swiftly as a racing river and vanish as quickly as a dream. We are like grass that is green in the morning but mowed down and withered before the evening shadows fall. ⁷ We die beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your wrath. ⁸ You spread out our sins before you—our secret sins—and see them all. ⁹ No wonder the years are long and heavy here beneath your wrath. All our days are filled with sighing.

¹⁰ Seventy years are given us! And some may even live to eighty. But even the best of these years are often empty and filled with pain; soon they disappear, and we are gone. ¹¹ Who can realize the terrors of your anger? Which of us can fear you as he should?

¹² Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.

¹³ O Jehovah, come and bless us! How long will you delay? Turn away your anger from us. ¹⁴ Satisfy us in our earliest^[b] youth with your loving-kindness, giving us constant joy to the end of our lives. ¹⁵ Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. ¹⁶ Let us see your miracles again; let our children see glorious things, the kind you used to do, ¹⁷ and let the Lord our God favor us and give us success. May he give permanence to all we do.

136 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his loving-kindness continues forever.

² Give thanks to the God of gods, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ⁴ Praise him who alone does mighty miracles, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ⁵ Praise him who made the heavens, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ⁶ Praise him who planted the water within the earth,^[a] for his loving-kindness continues forever. ⁷ Praise him who made the heavenly lights, for his loving-kindness continues forever: ⁸ the sun to rule the day, for his loving-kindness continues forever; ⁹ and the moon and stars at night, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ¹⁰ Praise the God who smote the firstborn of Egypt, for his loving-kindness to Israel^[b] continues forever.

^11-12 He brought them out with mighty power and upraised fist to strike their enemies, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever. ¹³ Praise the Lord who opened the Red Sea to make a path before them, for his loving-kindness continues forever, ¹⁴ and led them safely through, for his loving-kindness continues forever— ¹⁵ but drowned Pharaoh’s army in the sea, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever.

¹⁶ Praise him who led his people through the wilderness, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ¹⁷ Praise him who saved his people from the power of mighty kings, for his loving-kindness continues forever, ¹⁸ and killed famous kings who were their enemies, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever: ¹⁹ Sihon, king of Amorites—for God’s loving-kindness to Israel continues forever— ²⁰ and Og, king of Bashan—for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever. ²¹ God gave the land of these kings to Israel as a gift forever, for his loving-kindness to Israel continues forever; ²² yes, a permanent gift to his servant Israel, for his loving-kindness continues forever.

²³ He remembered our utter weakness, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ²⁴ And saved us from our foes, for his loving-kindness continues forever.

²⁵ He gives food to every living thing, for his loving-kindness continues forever. ²⁶ Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven, for his loving-kindness continues forever.

20 Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. ² He seized the Dragon—that old Serpent, the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years, ³ and threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so that he could not fool the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterwards he would be released again for a little while.

⁴ Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those who had been given the right to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the Creature or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They had come to life again and now they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵ This is the First Resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) ⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the First Resurrection. For them the Second Death holds no terrors, for they will be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

²¹ From then on Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples about going to Jerusalem, and what would happen to him there—that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders,^[a] that he would be killed, and that three days later he would be raised to life again.

²² But Peter took him aside to remonstrate with him. “Heaven forbid, sir,” he said. “This is not going to happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned on Peter and said, “Get away from me, you Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are thinking merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again. ²⁶ What profit is there if you gain the whole world—and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life? ²⁷ For I, the Son of Mankind, shall come with my angels in the glory of my Father and judge each person according to his deeds. ²⁸ And some of you standing right here now will certainly live to see me coming in my Kingdom.”