Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of Thanksgiving[a]
30 I praise you, Lord, because you have saved me
and kept my enemies from gloating over me.
2 I cried to you for help, O Lord my God,
and you healed me;
3 you kept me from the grave.
I was on my way to the depths below,[b]
but you restored my life.
4 Sing praise to the Lord,
all his faithful people!
Remember what the Holy One has done,
and give him thanks!
5 His anger lasts only a moment,
his goodness for a lifetime.
Tears may flow in the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 I felt secure and said to myself,
“I will never be defeated.”
7 You were good to me, Lord;
you protected me like a mountain fortress.
But then you hid yourself from me,
and I was afraid.
8 I called to you, Lord;
I begged for your help:
9 “What will you gain from my death?
What profit from my going to the grave?
Are dead people able to praise you?
Can they proclaim your unfailing goodness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and be merciful!
Help me, Lord!”
11 You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance;
you have taken away my sorrow
and surrounded me with joy.
12 So I will not be silent;
I will sing praise to you.
Lord, you are my God;
I will give you thanks forever.
Confession and Forgiveness[a]
32 (A)Happy are those whose sins are forgiven,
whose wrongs are pardoned.
2 Happy is the one whom the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong
and who is free from all deceit.
3 When I did not confess my sins,
I was worn out from crying all day long.
4 Day and night you punished me, Lord;
my strength was completely drained,
as moisture is dried up by the summer heat.
5 Then I confessed my sins to you;
I did not conceal my wrongdoings.
I decided to confess them to you,
and you forgave all my sins.
6 So all your loyal people should pray to you in times of need;[b]
when a great flood of trouble comes rushing in,
it will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place;
you will save me from trouble.
I sing aloud of your salvation,
because you protect me.
8 The Lord says, “I will teach you the way you should go;
I will instruct you and advise you.
9 Don't be stupid like a horse or a mule,
which must be controlled with a bit and bridle
to make it submit.”
10 The wicked will have to suffer,
but those who trust in the Lord
are protected by his constant love.
11 You that are righteous, be glad and rejoice
because of what the Lord has done.
You that obey him, shout for joy!
BOOK TWO(A)
The Prayer of Someone in Exile[a]
42 As a deer longs for a stream of cool water,
so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for you, the living God.
When can I go and worship in your presence?
3 Day and night I cry,
and tears are my only food;
all the time my enemies ask me,
“Where is your God?”
4 My heart breaks when I remember the past,
when I went with the crowds to the house of God
and led them as they walked along,
a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.
5 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
and once again I will praise him,
my savior and my God.
6-7 Here in exile my heart is breaking,
and so I turn my thoughts to him.
He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul;
chaos roars at me like a flood,
like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan
from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.
8 May the Lord show his constant love during the day,
so that I may have a song at night,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 To God, my defender, I say,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go on suffering
from the cruelty of my enemies?”
10 I am crushed by their insults,
as they keep on asking me,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
and once again I will praise him,
my savior and my God.
The Prayer of Someone in Exile (B)
43 O God, declare me innocent,
and defend my cause against the ungodly;
deliver me from lying and evil people!
2 You are my protector;
why have you abandoned me?
Why must I go on suffering
from the cruelty of my enemies?
3 Send your light and your truth;
may they lead me
and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill,[b]
and to your Temple, where you live.
4 Then I will go to your altar, O God;
you are the source of my happiness.
I will play my harp and sing praise to you,
O God, my God.
5 Why am I so sad?
Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
and once again I will praise him,
my savior and my God.
Offerings for the Sacred Tent(A)
25 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to make an offering to me. Receive whatever offerings anyone wishes to give. 3 These offerings are to be: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; cloth made of goats' hair; 5 rams' skin dyed red; fine leather; acacia wood; 6 oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; 7 carnelians and other jewels to be set in the ephod[a] of the High Priest and in his breastpiece. 8 The people must make a sacred Tent for me, so that I may live among them. 9 Make it and all its furnishings according to the plan that I will show you.
The Covenant Box(B)
10 “Make a Box out of acacia wood, 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. 11 Cover it with pure gold inside and out and put a gold border all around it. 12 Make four carrying rings of gold for it and attach them to its four legs, with two rings on each side. 13 Make carrying poles of acacia wood and cover them with gold 14 and put them through the rings on each side of the Box. 15 The poles are to be left in the rings and must not be taken out. 16 Then put in the Box the two stone tablets that I will give you, on which the commandments are written.
17 (C)“Make a lid of pure gold, 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. 18 Make two winged creatures[b] of hammered gold, 19 one for each end of the lid. Make them so that they form one piece with the lid. 20 The winged creatures are to face each other across the lid, and their outspread wings are to cover it. 21 Put the two stone tablets inside the Box and put the lid on top of it. 22 I will meet you there, and from above the lid between the two winged creatures I will give you all my laws for the people of Israel.
3 (A)You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. 2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory!
The Old Life and the New
5 You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry). 6 Because of such things God's anger will come upon those who do not obey him.[a] 7 At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.
8 But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. 9 (B)Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits 10 (C)and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. 11 As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.
12 (D)You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 (E)Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. 14 And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. 15 The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful. 16 (F)Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts. Teach and instruct one another with all wisdom. Sing psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing to God with thanksgiving in your hearts. 17 Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father.
Jesus Calls Four Fishermen(A)
18 As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew, catching fish in the lake with a net. 19 Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.” 20 At once they left their nets and went with him.
21 He went on and saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in their boat with their father Zebedee, getting their nets ready. Jesus called them, 22 and at once they left the boat and their father, and went with him.
Jesus Teaches, Preaches, and Heals(B)
23 (C)Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom, and healing people who had all kinds of disease and sickness. 24 The news about him spread through the whole country of Syria, so that people brought to him all those who were sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders: people with demons, and epileptics, and paralytics—and Jesus healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Ten Towns, from Jerusalem, Judea, and the land on the other side of the Jordan.
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.