Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 145[a]
A song of praise by David.
1 I will lift my praise above everything to You, my God and King!
I will continually bless Your name forever and always.
2 My praise will never cease—
I will praise You every day;
I will lift up Your name forever.
3 The Eternal is great and deserves endless praise;
His greatness knows no limit, recognizes no boundary.
No one can measure or comprehend His magnificence.
4 One generation after another will celebrate Your great works;
they will pass on the story of Your powerful acts to their children.
5 Your majesty and glorious splendor have captivated me;
I will meditate on Your wonders, sing songs of Your worth.
6 We confess—there is nothing greater than You, God, nothing mightier than Your awesome works.
I will tell of Your greatness as long as I have breath.
7 The news of Your rich goodness is no secret—
Your people love to recall it
and sing songs of joy to celebrate Your righteousness.
8 The Eternal is gracious.
He shows mercy to His people.
For Him anger does not come easily, but faithful love does—and it is rich and abundant.
9 But the Eternal’s goodness is not exclusive—it is offered freely to all.
His mercy extends to all His creation.
10 All creation will stand in awe of You, O Eternal One.
Thanks will pour from the mouths of every one of Your creatures;
Your holy people will bless You.
11 They will not be silent; they will talk of the grandeur of Your kingdom
and celebrate the wonder of Your power
12 Until everyone on earth who has ears to hear knows Your valiant acts
and the splendor of Your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom will never end;
Your rule will endure forever.
[You are faithful to Your promise,
and Your acts are marked with grace.][b]
14 The Eternal sustains all who stumble on their way.
For those who are broken down, God is near. He raises them up in hope.
15 All eyes have turned toward You, waiting in expectation;
when they are hungry, You feed them right on time.
16 The desires of every living thing
are met by Your open hand.
17 The Eternal is right in all His ways,
and He is kind in all His acts.
18 The Eternal stays close to those who call on Him,
those who pray sincerely.
19 All of you who revere Him—
God will satisfy your desires.
He hears the cries for help, and He brings salvation.
20 All of you who love God—
He will watch out for you,
but total destruction is around the corner for all the wicked.
21 My lips will sing the praise of the Eternal.
Let every creature join me and praise the holy name of God—forever and always!
Psalm 104
1 Call Him good, my soul, and praise the Eternal.
I am here to declare my affection for You, Eternal One, my God.
You are indeed great—
You who are wrapped in glory and dressed in greatness.
2 For covering, You choose light—Your clothes, sunset and moonrise.
For a tent, You stretch out the heavens; for Your roof, You pitch the sky.
3 Your upper chamber is built on beams that lie in the waters overhead,
and the clouds, Your chariot;
You are held aloft by the wind.
4 You make Your messengers like the winds;
the breeze whispers Your words,
Your servants are like the fire and flame.
5 You made the earth,
and You made its frame stable forever.
Never will it be shaken.
6 You wrapped it in a gown of waters—
ancient mountains under layers of sky.
7 But when You reprimanded those waters, they fled;
the thunder of Your voice sent them running away.
8-9 They hammered out new depths, heaved up new heights,
and swallowed up whatever You commanded.
At first, they covered the earth,
but now You have bound them,
and they know their appointed place.
10 You send fresh streams that spring up in the valleys,
in the cracks between hills.
11 Every animal of the open field makes its journey there for drink:
wild donkeys lap at the brooks’ edges.
12 Birds build their nests by the streams,
singing among the branches.
13 And the clouds, too, drink up their share,
raining it back down on the mountains from the upper reaches of Your home,
Sustaining the whole earth with what comes from You.
And the earth is satisfied.
14-15 Thus You grow grain for bread, grapes for wine, grass for cattle—
all of this for us.
And so we have bread to make our bodies strong,
wine to make our hearts happy,
oil to make our faces shine.
Every good thing we need, Your earth provides;
our faces grow flush with Your life in them.
16 The forests are Yours, Eternal One—stout hardwoods watered deeply, swollen with sap—
like the great cedars of Lebanon You planted,
17 Where many birds nest.
There are fir trees for storks,
18 High hills for wild goats,
stony cliffs for rock badgers.
For each place, a resident,
and for each resident, a home.
19 The moon strides through her phases, marking seasons as she goes.
The sun hides at his appointed time,
20 And with the darkness You bring, so comes night—
when the prowling animals of the forest move about.
21 It is then that lions seek the food You, the True God, give them,
roaring after their prey.
22 At sunrise, they disappear
and sleep away the day in their dens.
23 Meanwhile, the people take to the fields and to the shops and to the roads,
to all the places that people work, until evening when they rest.
24 There is so much here, O Eternal One, so much You have made.
By the wise way in which You create, riches and creatures fill the earth.
25 Of course, the sea is vast and stretches like the heavens beyond view,
and numberless creatures inhabit her.
From the tiny to the great, they swarm beneath her waves.
26 Our ships skim her surface
while the monsters of the sea play beneath.
27 And all of these look to You
to give them food when the time is right.
28 When You feed, they gather what You supply.
When You open Your hand, they are filled with good food.
29 When You withdraw Your presence, they are dismayed.
When You revoke their breath, the life goes out of them,
and they become, again, the dust of the earth from which You formed them at the start.
30 When You send out Your breath, life is created,
and the face of the earth is made beautiful and is renewed.
31 May the glorious presence of the Eternal linger among us forever.
And may He rejoice in the greatness of His own works—
32 He, who rattles the earth with a glance;
He, who sets mountains to smoking with a touch.
33 I will sing to the Eternal all of my life;
I will call my God good as long as I live.
The last phrase of Psalm 104, “Praise the Eternal,” gives us a clear picture of the use of these songs in Israel. This phrase, which not only ends Psalm 104 but often opens and closes other psalms (for example, Psalms 146–150), is not part of the song itself. It is a direction for worship.
The Bible indicates that praise is the natural response to God’s gifts to His people. When David brought the covenant chest to Jerusalem, he appointed Asaph and his relatives to lead in praise. After the Levites chanted a marvelous psalm, the people responded in praise to the Eternal (1 Chronicles 16:36). In John’s vision of the final destruction of Babylon—a symbol for God’s enemies throughout all the ages—a vast number of creatures in heaven, the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures offer praise and adoration to the Lord (Revelation 18 and 19). Praise is simply the inevitable response of God’s people to all He is and all He has done.
34 May the thoughts of my mind be pleasing to Him,
for the Eternal has become my happiness.
35 But may those who hate Him, who act against Him,
disappear from the face of this beautiful planet.
As for the Eternal, call Him good, my soul.
Praise the Eternal!
25 Eternal One, You are my God.
I will lift You up and praise Your name.
Because You have made wonders marvelous and beautiful—
the most ancient designs holding strong and sure.
2 Your power is awesome. You have brought down whole cities,
turned fortresses and strongholds into piles of sticks and rubble.
A citadel of foreigners is no longer even a city.
Those structures are gone forever.
3 This is why nations strong and mighty will glorify You;
the cities of ruthless people will fear and respect You.
4 Because You stand up for the poor and weak,
You comfort and empower them in their distress,
Giving them safe harbor and cool shade when it’s hot;
You shelter them from their oppressors’ blows
As a strong wall holds back the driving rain.
5 You shelter from the relentless heat of the desert.
You quiet the clamor of outsiders, ease them to stillness.
Like a full, dark cloud relieves the heat,
You silence the arrogant song of the violent.
6 The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, is preparing a feast,
a feast for everyone on this mystical mountain
With aged wine and good food, the finest wine and choicest meat.
7 And God will swallow up the oppression that weighs us down.
He will take away the heavy shroud
that is draped over all peoples of the world.
8 God will swallow up death forever.
The Lord, the Eternal, will wipe away the tears from each and every face
And deflect the scorn and shame His people endure from the whole world,
for the Eternal determined that it should be so.
9 And in that moment, at that glorious time, people will say,
People: This is our God! We put our hope in him.
We knew that He would save us!
This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited.
Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.
13 Now the leaders were surprised and confused. They looked at Peter and John and realized they were typical peasants—uneducated, utterly ordinary fellows—with extraordinary confidence. The leaders recognized them as companions of Jesus, 14 then they turned their attention to the third man standing beside them—recently lame, now standing tall and healthy. What could they say in response to all this?
15 Because they were at a loss about what to do, they excused the prisoners so the council could deliberate in private.
Jewish Leaders: 16 What do we do with these fellows? Anyone who lives in Jerusalem will know an unexplainable sign has been performed through these two preachers. We can’t deny their story. 17 The best we can do is try to keep it from spreading. So let’s warn them to stop speaking to anybody in this name.
18 The leaders brought the prisoners back in and prohibited them from doing any more speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus. 19 Peter and John listened quietly and then replied,
Peter and John: You are the judges here, so we’ll leave it up to you to judge whether it is right in the sight of God to obey your commands or God’s. 20 But one thing we can tell you: we cannot possibly restrain ourselves from speaking about what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.
21-22 The council threatened them again, but finally let them go because public opinion strongly supported Peter and John and this man who had received this miraculous sign. He was over 40 years old, so his situation was known to many people, and they couldn’t help but glorify God for his healing.
23 Peter and John, upon their release, went right to their friends and told the story—including the warning from the council. 24 The whole community responded with this prayer to God:
Community of Believers: God, our King, You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything they contain.[a] 25 You are the One who, by the Holy Spirit, spoke through our ancestor David, Your servant, with these words:
Why did the nations rage?
Why did they imagine useless things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand;
their rulers assembled in opposition
against the Eternal One and His Anointed King.[b]
27 This is exactly what has happened among us, here in this city. The foreign ruler Pontius Pilate and the Jewish ruler Herod, along with their respective peoples, have assembled in opposition to Your holy servant Jesus, the One You chose. 28 They have done whatever Your hand and plan predetermined should happen. 29 And now, Lord, take note of their intimidations intended to silence us. Grant us, Your servants, the courageous confidence we need to go ahead and proclaim Your message 30 while You reach out Your hand to heal people, enabling us to perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.
31 They finished their prayer, and immediately the whole place where they had gathered began to shake. All the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began speaking God’s message with courageous confidence.
16 For a little while you will not see Me; but after that, a time will come when you will see Me again.
Some of His Disciples: 17 What does He mean? “I’ll be here, and then I won’t be here, because I’ll be with the Father”?
Other Disciples: 18 What is He saying? “A little while”? We don’t understand.
The promise of eternity is a reminder that God’s children are made for a renewed world. There is great comfort amid fear, knowing believers will be reunited with Jesus and joined with the Father. As believers labor together in this world—enduring pain, loss, and unfulfilled desires—they should be encouraged that in eternity all needs will be fulfilled in the presence of God.
19 Jesus knew they had questions to ask of Him, so He approached them.
Jesus: Are you trying to figure out what I mean when I say you will see Me in a little while? 20 I tell you the truth, a time is approaching when you will weep and mourn while the world is celebrating. You will grieve, but that grief will give birth to great joy. 21-22 In the same way that a woman labors in great pain during childbirth only to forget the intensity of the pain when she holds her child, when I return, your labored grief will also change into a joy that cannot be stolen.
23 When all this transpires, you will finally have the answers you have been seeking. I tell you the truth, anything you ask of the Father in My name, He will give to you. 24 Until this moment, you have not sought after anything in My name. Ask and you will receive so that you will be filled with joy.
25 I have been teaching you all of these truths through stories and metaphors, but the time is coming for Me to speak openly and directly of the Father.
26 The day is coming when you will make a request in My name, but I will not represent you before the Father. 27 You will be heard directly by the Father. The Father loves you because you love Me and know that I come from the Father. 28 I came from the Father into the cosmos, but soon I will leave it and return to the Father.
All His disciples mourn Jesus’ refusal to take His rightful place as a king and lead a revolution. Jesus knows political might, brute force, and earthly governments are not helpful tools in a battle for hearts. Spiritual revolutions are subversive. They are led by defiant acts of love (for example, healing, foot washing, and martyrdom). Laws do not change hearts, and violence induces hatred and fear. But a sincere community of faith in which love and hope are demonstrated even in the darkest hours will lead a spiritual revolution. It is time to go forward with open eyes and continue to labor as Christian citizens, placing hope only in the redemptive work of the gospel.
Disciples: 29 We hear You speaking clearly and not in metaphors. How could we misunderstand? 30 We see now that You are aware of everything and You reveal things at the proper time. So we do not need to question You, because we believe You have come from God.
Jesus: 31 So you believe now? 32 Be aware that a time is coming when you will be scattered like seeds. You will return to your own way, and I will be left alone. But I will not be alone, because the Father will be with Me. 33 I have told you these things so that you will be whole and at peace. In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear; I have triumphed over this corrupt world order.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.