Book of Common Prayer
A Davidic Psalm, while he was in the Judean wilderness.
Joyful Trust in God
63 God, you are my God!
I will fervently seek you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my flesh longs for you in a dry, weary, and parched land.
2 So I have looked for you in the sanctuary,
to behold your power and glory.
3 Because your gracious love is better than life itself,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in your name.
5 Just as I am satisfied with the choicest of foods,[a]
so my lips will praise you joyfully.
6 When I think of you in bed,
I will meditate on you in the night watches.
7 For you have been my strength,
and in the shadow of your wings I will shout for joy.
8 My soul clings to you,
even as your right hand supports me.
9 But as for those who seek to destroy me,
they will go down to the depths of the earth;
10 May they be given over to the power of[b] the sword;
may they become carrion for jackals.
11 But as for the king,
he will rejoice in God.
Indeed, everyone who swears by God[c] will exult,
because the mouths of liars will be silenced.
A psalm
Sing Praise to the King
98 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done awesome deeds!
His right hand and powerful[a] arm[b]
have brought him victory.
2 The Lord has made his deliverance known;
he has disclosed his justice before the nations.
3 He has remembered his gracious love;
his faithfulness toward the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth saw our God’s deliverance.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Break forth into joyful songs of praise!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with a lyre—
with a lyre and a melodious song!
6 With trumpets and the sound of a ram’s horn
shout in the presence of the Lord, the king!
7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,[c]
along with the world and its inhabitants;
8 let the rivers clap their hands in unison;
and let the mountains sing for joy
9 in the Lord’s presence, who comes to judge the earth;
He’ll judge the world righteously;
and its people fairly.
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.
The Fall of Babylon
47 “Come down and sit in the dust,
Virgin Daughter of Babylon.
Sit on[a] the ground without a chair,
Daughter of the Chaldeans!
For no longer will they call you
tender and attractive.
2 Take millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil,
strip off your robes,[b]
bare your legs,
and wade through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be[c] exposed,
and your disgrace will also be seen.
I’ll take vengeance,
and I will spare no mortal.
4 “Our Redeemer—
the Lord of the Heavenly Armies is his name—
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit silent,[d] and enter into the darkness,
you daughter of the Chaldeans;
for no more will they call you
Queen of Kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people,
and[e] I desecrated my heritage,
and gave them into your control.
You showed them no mercy;
even on the aged you laid your yoke most heavily.
7 You said, ‘I will always continue—Queen forever!’
You didn’t take these things into your thinking,
nor did you think about their consequences.[f]
8 “Now hear this, you wanton creature,
lounging with no cares,
and saying to herself:
‘I am the one, and there will be none besides me;
I won’t live as a widow,
nor will I see[g] the loss of children.’
9 Both of these things will overtake you
suddenly on a single day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
despite the multitude of your incantations
and the great power of your spells.”
Self-Deception of the Babylonians
10 “You trusted in your own knowledge.[h]
You said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge have misled you.
You said in your heart,
‘I am the one, and there will be none besides me.’
11 “But disaster will come[i] upon you,
and[j] you will not know how to charm it away.
A calamity will befall you
that you will not be able to[k] ward off;
and devastation will come upon you suddenly,
and[l] you won’t anticipate it.
12 “But[m] stand up now with your spells
and your many incantations,
at which you have labored from your childhood until today,[n]
13 according to[o] your multiple schemes.
Let them stand up now—
those who conjure[p] the heavens
and[q] gaze at the stars,
predicting at the new moons—
and save you from what is about to happen to them.[r]
14 “See, they are just like stubble;
fire burns them up.
They could not[s] even save themselves
from the power of the flame.
There will be no coals for warming oneself,
no fire to sit by.
15 So will they be to you—those with whom you toiled
and did business since your childhood—
they wander about, each in his own direction;
there is not one who can save you.
How We Should Live
19 Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, 22 let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful. 24 And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the day of the Lord[a] coming nearer.
26 For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.[b] 28 Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”[c] 29 How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it[d] was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back,”[e] and again, “The Lord[f] will judge his people.”[g] 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool called Bethesda[a] in Hebrew. It has five colonnades, 3 and under these a large number of sick people were lying—blind, lame, or paralyzed—waiting for the movement of the water.[b] 4 At certain times an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water, and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.[c]
5 One particular man was there who had been ill for 38 years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 The man immediately became well, and he picked up his mat and started walking. Now that day was a Sabbath.
10 So the Jewish leaders[d] told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.
11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”
13 But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd in that place. 14 Later on, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Look! You have become well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went off and told the Jewish leaders[e] that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 So the Jewish leaders[f] began persecuting Jesus,[g] because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus[h] answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.” 18 So the Jewish leaders[i] were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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