Book of Common Prayer
The Love of God[a]
103 Praise the Lord, my soul!
All my being, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and do not forget how kind he is.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He keeps me from the grave
and blesses me with love and mercy.
5 He fills my life[b] with good things,
so that I stay young and strong like an eagle.
6 The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed
and gives them their rights.
7 He revealed his plans to Moses
and let the people of Israel see his mighty deeds.
8 (A)The Lord is merciful and loving,
slow to become angry and full of constant love.
9 He does not keep on rebuking;
he is not angry forever.
10 He does not punish us as we deserve
or repay us according to our sins and wrongs.
11 As high as the sky is above the earth,
so great is his love for those who honor him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our sins from us.
13 As a father is kind to his children,
so the Lord is kind to those who honor him.
14 He knows what we are made of;
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for us, our life is like grass.
We grow and flourish like a wild flower;
16 then the wind blows on it, and it is gone—
no one sees it again.
17 But for those who honor the Lord, his love lasts forever,
and his goodness endures for all generations
18 of those who are true to his covenant
and who faithfully obey his commands.
19 The Lord placed his throne in heaven;
he is king over all.
20 Praise the Lord, you strong and mighty angels,
who obey his commands,
who listen to what he says.
21 Praise the Lord, all you heavenly powers,
you servants of his, who do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, all his creatures
in all the places he rules.
Praise the Lord, my soul!
A Passover Song
114 (A)When the people of Israel left Egypt,
when Jacob's descendants left that foreign land,
2 Judah became the Lord's holy people,
Israel became his own possession.
3 (B)The Red Sea looked and ran away;
the Jordan River stopped flowing.
4 The mountains skipped like goats;
the hills jumped around like lambs.
5 What happened, Sea, to make you run away?
And you, O Jordan, why did you stop flowing?
6 You mountains, why did you skip like goats?
You hills, why did you jump around like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the Lord's coming,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 (C)who changes rocks into pools of water
and solid cliffs into flowing springs.
The One True God
115 To you alone, O Lord, to you alone,
and not to us, must glory be given
because of your constant love and faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations ask us,
“Where is your God?”
3 Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever he wishes.
4 (D)Their gods are made of silver and gold,
formed by human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
and eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears, but cannot hear,
and noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but cannot feel,
and feet, but cannot walk;
they cannot make a sound.
8 May all who made them and who trust in them
become[a] like the idols they have made.
9 Trust in the Lord, you people of Israel.
He helps you and protects you.
10 Trust in the Lord, you priests of God.
He helps you and protects you.
11 Trust in the Lord, all you that worship him.
He helps you and protects you.
12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us;
he will bless the people of Israel
and all the priests of God.
13 (E)He will bless everyone who honors him,
the great and the small alike.
14 May the Lord give you children—
you and your descendants!
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
16 Heaven belongs to the Lord alone,
but he gave the earth to us humans.
17 The Lord is not praised by the dead,
by any who go down to the land of silence.[b]
18 But we, the living, will give thanks to him
now and forever.
Praise the Lord!
A Good Land to Be Possessed
8 “Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you today, so that you may live, increase in number, and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. 3 (A)He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says.
1 From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy—
2 To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful friends in union with Christ:
May God our Father give you grace and peace.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. 4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people. 5 When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. 6 The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is. 7 (A)You learned of God's grace from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is Christ's faithful worker on our[a] behalf. 8 He has told us of the love that the Spirit has given you.
9 For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. 10 Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God. 11-12 May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to[b] the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light. 13 He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, 14 (B)by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.
30 They replied, “What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 (A)Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 “I am telling you the truth,” Jesus said. “What Moses gave you was not[a] the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven. 33 For the bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died. 50 But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If you eat this bread, you will live forever. The bread that I will give you is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.”
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.