Book of Common Prayer
Let All the Earth Praise the Lord
148 Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord from heaven;
praise him in the highest places.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his armies!
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.[a]
4 Praise him, you heaven of heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he himself gave the command that they be created.
6 He set them in place to last forever and ever;
he gave the command and will not rescind it.
7 Praise the Lord, you from the earth,
you creatures of the sea
and all you depths,
8 fire, hail, snow, fog, and wind storm
that carry out his command,[b]
9 mountains and every hill,
fruit trees and cedars,
10 living creatures and livestock,
insects and flying birds,
11 earthly kings and all peoples,
nobles and all court officials of the earth,
12 young men and young women alike,
along with older people and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is lifted up;
his majesty transcends earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a source of strength[c] for his people,
an object of praise for all of his holy ones,
that is, for the people of Israel who are near him.
Hallelujah!
A Song About Rejoicing in God
149 Hallelujah!
Sing a new song to the Lord,
praising him where the godly gather together.
2 May Israel rejoice in its Maker,
and Zion’s descendants in their King!
3 May they praise his name with dancing,
chanting songs to him with tambourines and lyres.
4 For the Lord is pleased with his people;
he beautifies the afflicted with salvation.
5 May those he loves be exalted,
singing for joy on their couches.
6 Let high praises to God be heard[d] in their throats,
while they wield two-edged swords in their hands
7 as they bring retribution to nations
and punishment to peoples,
8 binding their kings with chains,
their officials with iron bands,
9 and executing the judgment written against them.
This is honor for all the ones he loves.
Hallelujah!
A Psalm of Praise
150 Hallelujah!
Praise God in his Holy Place.
Praise him in his great expanse.
2 Praise him for his mighty works.
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with trumpet sounding.
Praise him with stringed instrument and harp.
4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing.
Praise him with stringed and wind instruments.
5 Praise him with loud cymbals.
Praise him with reverberating cymbals.
6 Let everyone who breathes praise the Lord.
Hallelujah!
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!
14 This is what the Lord says,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I will send to Babylon,[a]
and bring them all down as fugitives.
Now as for the Babylonians,
their ringing cry will become lamentation.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
Creator of Israel, and your King.”
Something New for Israel
16 This is what the Lord says —
who makes a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariots and horsemen,
and[b] armies and warriors at the same time.
They lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a candle:[c]
18 “Don’t remember[d] the former things;
don’t dwell on things past.
19 Watch! I’m about to carry out something new!
And[e] now it’s springing up—
don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the wilderness
and paths[f] in the desert.
20 Wild animals, jackals, and owls[g] will honor me
because I provide[h] water in the desert
and streams in the wilderness
to give drink to my people, my chosen ones,[i]
21 the people whom I formed for myself
and[j] so that they may speak[k] my praise.”
God is Weary of Israel
22 “And[l] yet you didn’t call upon me, Jacob;
indeed, you are tired of me, Israel!
23 You haven’t brought me your sheep for a burnt offering,[m]
nor have you honored me with[n] your sacrifices,
nor have you made meal offerings for me[o]—
yet I have not tired you about incense!
24 You[p] haven’t bought me sweet cane with money,
nor have you satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
You have only burdened me with your sins
and made me tired with your iniquities.
25 “I, I am the one
who blots out your transgression[q] for my own sake,
and I’ll remember your sins no more.[r]
26 Recount the brief!
Let’s argue the matter together;
Present your case,
so that you may be proved right.
27 Your first ancestor sinned,
and your mediators rebelled against me.
28 So I’ll disgrace the leaders of the Temple,
and I’ll consign Jacob to total destruction[s]
and Israel to contempt.
God’s Blessing on Israel
44 “But now listen, Jacob my servant
and Israel whom I have chosen:
2 This what the Lord says, the one who made you,
formed you from the womb,
and who will help[t] you:
“Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant,
and Jeshurun,[u] whom I have chosen.
3 For I’ll pour water upon thirsty ground
and streams on parched land.
So[v] will I pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing upon your descendants.
4 They’ll[w] spring up as among[x] the green grass,
like willows by flowing streams.
5 One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord,’
and another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
still another will have written on his hand, ‘the Lord’s,’
and will adopt the name of Israel.”
17 In the same way, when God wanted to make the unchangeable character of his purpose perfectly clear to the heirs of his promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by these two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to prove false, we who have taken refuge in him might be encouraged to seize the hope set before us. 19 That hope,[a] firm and secure like an anchor for our souls, reaches behind the curtain 20 where Jesus, our forerunner, has gone on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Messiah is Superior to Melchizedek
7 Now this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham and blessed him when he was returning from defeating the kings. 2 Abraham gave Melchizedek[b] a tenth of everything.[c] In the first place, his name means “king of righteousness,” and then he is also king of Salem, that is, “king of peace.” 3 He has no father, mother, or genealogy, no birth date recorded for him, nor a date of death.[d] Like the Son of God, he continues to be a priest forever.
4 Just look at how great this man was! Even Abraham—the patriarch himself—gave him a tenth of what he had captured! 5 The descendants of Levi who accept the priesthood have a commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their own brothers, even though they are also descendants of Abraham. 6 But this man, whose descent is not traced from them, collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the man who had received the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the less important person is blessed by the more important person. 8 Mortal men collect tithes, but we are informed by Scripture[e] that[f] Melchizedek[g] keeps on living. 9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, 10 because Levi[h] was still inside his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
27 At this point his disciples arrived, and they were astonished that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want from her?”[a] or, “Why are you talking to her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”[b] 30 The people[c] left the town and started on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi,[d] have something to eat.”
32 But he told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work. 35 You say, don’t you, ‘In four more months the harvest will begin?’ Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the fields are ready[e] for harvesting now! 36 The one who harvests is already receiving his wages and gathering a crop for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who harvests may rejoice together. 37 In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person sows, and another person harvests.’[f] 38 I have sent you to harvest what you have not worked for. Others have worked, and you have adopted their work as your own.”
39 Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Jesus[g] because the woman had testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus,[h] they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. 41 And many more believed because of what he said. 42 They kept telling the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, because now we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”
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