Book of Common Prayer
God Reigns
93 The Lord reigns! He is clothed in majesty;
the Lord is clothed,
and he is girded[a] with strength.
Indeed, the world is well established,
and cannot be shaken.
2 Your throne has been established since time immemorial;
you are king from eternity.
3 The rivers have flooded, Lord;
the rivers have spoken aloud,
the rivers have lifted up their crushing waves.
4 More than the sound of surging waters—
the majestic waves of the sea—
the Lord on high is majestic.
5 Your decrees are very trustworthy,
and holiness always befits your house, Lord.
Give Glory to the Lord
96 Sing a new song to the Lord!
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Sing to the Lord!
Bless his name!
Proclaim his deliverance every day!
3 Declare his glory among the nations
and his awesome deeds among all the peoples!
4 For the Lord is great,
and greatly to be praised;
he is awesome above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
might and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, you families of peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name,
bring an offering and enter his courts!
9 Worship the Lord in holy splendor;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Declare among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
Indeed, he established the world so that it will not falter.
He will judge people fairly.
11 The heavens will be glad
and the earth will rejoice;
even the sea and everything that fills it will roar.[a]
12 The field and all that is in it will rejoice;
then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
13 in the Lord’s presence,
because he is coming;
indeed, he will come to judge the earth.
He will judge the world fairly
and its people reliably.
By David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away. So David[a] left.
Learning about God’s Deliverance
34 [b]I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise will be in my mouth continuously.
2 My soul will glorify the Lord;
the humble will hear about it and rejoice.
3 Magnify the Lord with me!
Let us lift up his name together!
4 I sought the Lord and he answered me;
he delivered me from all of my fears.
5 Look to him and be radiant;
and you[c] will not be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard
and delivered him from all of his distress.
7 The angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good!
How blessed is the person who trusts in him!
9 Fear the Lord, you holy ones of his;
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 Young lions lack and go hungry,
but those who seek the Lord will never lack any good thing.
11 Come, children, listen to me,
and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Who among you[d] desires life,
and wants long life in order to see good?
13 Then keep your tongue from doing evil
and your lips from spreading lies.
14 Avoid evil and do good!
Seek peace and pursue it!
15 The[e] Lord looks on the righteous,
and he listens to their cries.
16 The face of the Lord is set against those who do evil,
and he will remove people’s recollection of them from the earth.
17 The Lord hears those who cry out,
and he delivers them from all their distress.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted,
and he delivers those whose spirit has been crushed.
19 A righteous person will have many troubles,
but the Lord will deliver him from them all.
20 God[f] protects all his bones;
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil will kill the wicked;
those who hate the righteous will be held guilty.
22 The Lord redeems the lives of his servants;
and none of those who trust in him will be held guilty.
14 And one has said:[a]
‘Build up! Build up the road![b]
Prepare the highway!
Remove every obstacle from my people’s way.’
15 “For this is what the high and lofty One says,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“He lives[c] in the height and in holiness,[d]
and also with the one who is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I won’t accuse forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for then the human spirit would grow faint before me—
even the souls that I have created.
17 Because of his wicked greed I was angry,
so I punished him;
and[e] I hid my face, and was angry—
but he kept turning back to his stubborn will.[f]
18 I’ve seen his ways,[g] yet I will heal him,[h]
and restore for him[i] comfort[j] to him
and for those who mourn for him[k]
19 when[l] I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace[m] to the one who is far away or near,” says the Lord,
“and I’ll heal him.
20 But the wicked are tossed like the sea;[n]
for it is not able to[o] keep still,
and its waters toss up mire and mud.
21 “Yet[p] there is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
We Must Look Off to Jesus
12 Therefore, having so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles[a] us, let us keep running with endurance the race set before us, 2 fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of[b] the joy set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Father Disciplines Us
3 Think about the one who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you may not become tired and give up. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your[c] blood. 5 You have forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons:
Rivers of Living Water
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me[a] and drink! 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have rivers of living water flowing from his heart.” 39 Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who were believing in him were to receive, because the Spirit[b] was not yet present[c] and Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Division among the People
40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd were saying, “This really is the Prophet,” 41 while others were saying, “This is the Messiah!”[d]
But some were saying, “The Messiah[e] doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah[f] is from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
The Unbelief of the Authorities
45 Then the officers returned to the high priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like that!”
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