Book of Common Prayer
A Call to Praise and Obedience
95 Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord.
Let’s shout praises to the Rock who saves us.
2 Let’s come to him with thanksgiving.
Let’s sing songs to him,
3 because the Lord is the great God,
the great King over all gods.
4 The deepest places on earth are his,
and the highest mountains belong to him.
5 The sea is his because he made it,
and he created the land with his own hands.
6 Come, let’s worship him and bow down.
Let’s kneel before the Lord who made us,
7 because he is our God
and we are the people he takes care of,
the sheep that he tends.
Today listen to what he says:
8 “Do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah,
as they were that day at Massah in the desert.
9 There your ancestors tested me
and tried me even though they saw what I did.
10 I was angry with those people for forty years.
I said, ‘They are not loyal to me
and have not understood my ways.’
11 I was angry and made a promise,
‘They will never enter my rest.’”
A Sad Complaint
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the director of music. By the mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 Lord, you are the God who saves me.
I cry out to you day and night.
2 Receive my prayer,
and listen to my cry.
3 My life is full of troubles,
and I am nearly dead.
4 They think I am on the way to my grave.
I am like a man with no strength.
5 I have been left as dead,
like a body lying in a grave
whom you don’t remember anymore,
cut off from your care.
6 You have brought me close to death;
I am almost in the dark place of the dead.
7 You have been very angry with me;
all your waves crush me. Selah
8 You have taken my friends away from me
and have made them hate me.
I am trapped and cannot escape.
9 My eyes are weak from crying.
Lord, I have prayed to you every day;
I have lifted my hands in prayer to you.
10 Do you show your miracles for the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you? Selah
11 Will your love be told in the grave?
Will your loyalty be told in the place of death?
12 Will your miracles be known in the dark grave?
Will your goodness be known in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But, Lord, I have called out to you for help;
every morning I pray to you.
14 Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you hide from me?
15 I have been weak and dying since I was young.
I suffer from your terrors, and I am helpless.
16 You have been angry with me,
and your terrors have destroyed me.
17 They surround me daily like a flood;
they are all around me.
18 You have taken away my loved ones and friends.
Darkness is my only friend.
Safe in the Lord
91 Those who go to God Most High for safety
will be protected by the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “You are my place of safety and protection.
You are my God and I trust you.”
3 God will save you from hidden traps
and from deadly diseases.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you can hide.
His truth will be your shield and protection.
5 You will not fear any danger by night
or an arrow during the day.
6 You will not be afraid of diseases that come in the dark
or sickness that strikes at noon.
7 At your side one thousand people may die,
or even ten thousand right beside you,
but you will not be hurt.
8 You will only watch
and see the wicked punished.
9 The Lord is your protection;
you have made God Most High your place of safety.
10 Nothing bad will happen to you;
no disaster will come to your home.
11 He has put his angels in charge of you
to watch over you wherever you go.
12 They will catch you in their hands
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.
13 You will walk on lions and cobras;
you will step on strong lions and snakes.
14 The Lord says, “Whoever loves me, I will save.
I will protect those who know me.
15 They will call to me, and I will answer them.
I will be with them in trouble;
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 I will give them a long, full life,
and they will see how I can save.”
Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.
92 It is good to praise you, Lord,
to sing praises to God Most High.
2 It is good to tell of your love in the morning
and of your loyalty at night.
3 It is good to praise you with the ten-stringed lyre
and with the soft-sounding harp.
4 Lord, you have made me happy by what you have done;
I will sing for joy about what your hands have done.
5 Lord, you have done such great things!
How deep are your thoughts!
6 Stupid people don’t know these things,
and fools don’t understand.
7 Wicked people grow like the grass.
Evil people seem to do well,
but they will be destroyed forever.
8 But, Lord, you will be honored forever.
9 Lord, surely your enemies,
surely your enemies will be destroyed,
and all who do evil will be scattered.
10 But you have made me as strong as an ox.
You have poured fine oils on me.
11 When I looked, I saw my enemies;
I heard the cries of those who are against me.
12 But good people will grow like palm trees;
they will be tall like the cedars of Lebanon.
13 Like trees planted in the Temple of the Lord,
they will grow strong in the courtyards of our God.
14 When they are old, they will still produce fruit;
they will be healthy and fresh.
15 They will say that the Lord is good.
He is my Rock, and there is no wrong in him.
The Agreement Is Broken
11 These are the words that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: 2 “Listen to the words of this agreement and tell them to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem. 3 Tell them this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the person who does not obey the words of this agreement 4 that I made with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. Egypt was like a furnace for melting iron!’ I told them, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5 Then I will keep the promise I made to your ancestors to give them a fertile land.’ And you are living in that country today.”
I answered, “Amen, Lord.”
6 The Lord said to me, “Announce this message in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the words of this agreement and obey them. 7 I warned your ancestors to obey me when I brought them out of Egypt. I have warned them again and again to this very day: “Obey me!” 8 But your ancestors did not listen to me. They were stubborn and did what their own evil hearts wanted. So I made all the curses of this agreement come upon them. I commanded them to obey the agreement, but they did not.’”
14 “As for you, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people or cry out for them or ask anything for them. I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.
15 “What is my beloved Judah doing in my Temple
when she makes many evil plans?
Do you think animal sacrifices will stop your punishment?
When you do your evil, then you are happy.”
16 The Lord called you “a leafy olive tree,
with beautiful fruit and shape.”
But with the roar of a strong storm
he will set that tree on fire,
and its branches will be burned up.
17 The Lord All-Powerful, who planted you, has announced that disaster will come to you. This is because the families of Israel and Judah have done evil and have made him angry by burning incense to Baal.
Evil Plans Against Jeremiah
18 The Lord showed me that people were making plans against me. Because he showed me what they were doing, I knew they were against me. 19 Before this, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not know they had made plans against me, saying:
“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit.
Let’s kill him so people will forget him.”
20 But, Lord All-Powerful, you are a fair judge.
You know how to test peoples’ hearts and minds.
I have told you what I have against them.
So let me see you give them the punishment they deserve.
Dead to Sin but Alive in Christ
6 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? 2 No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin? 3 Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ when we were baptized? We shared his death in our baptism. 4 When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life.
5 Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from the dead as he did. 6 We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin. 7 Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.
8 If we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 Christ was raised from the dead, and we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. 10 Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. 11 In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus.
33 They answered, “We are Abraham’s children, and we have never been anyone’s slaves. So why do you say we will be free?”
34 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. 35 A slave does not stay with a family forever, but a son belongs to the family forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free. 37 I know you are Abraham’s children, but you want to kill me because you don’t accept my teaching. 38 I am telling you what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.”
39 They answered, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said, “If you were really Abraham’s children, you would do[a] the things Abraham did. 40 I am a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God, but you are trying to kill me. Abraham did nothing like that. 41 So you are doing the things your own father did.”
But they said, “We are not like children who never knew who their father was. God is our Father; he is the only Father we have.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were really your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. I did not come by my own authority; God sent me. 43 You don’t understand what I say, because you cannot accept my teaching. 44 You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning and was against the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he shows what he is really like, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. 46 Can any of you prove that I am guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 The person who belongs to God accepts what God says. But you don’t accept what God says, because you don’t belong to God.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.