Book of Common Prayer
97 Jehovah is King! Let all the earth rejoice! Tell the farthest islands to be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes forth before him and burns up all his foes. 4 His lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens declare his perfect righteousness; every nation sees his glory.
7 Let those who worship idols be disgraced—all who brag about their worthless gods—for every god must bow to him! 8-9 Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah have heard of your justice, Lord, and are glad that you reign in majesty over the entire earth and are far greater than these other gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he protects the lives of his people and rescues them from the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the godly and joy for the good. 12 May all who are godly be happy in the Lord and crown him,[a] our holy God.
99 Jehovah is King! Let the nations tremble! He is enthroned between the Guardian Angels. Let the whole earth shake.
2 Jehovah sits in majesty in Zion, supreme above all rulers of the earth. 3 Let them reverence your great and holy name.
4 This mighty King is determined to give justice. Fairness is the touchstone of everything he does. He gives justice throughout Israel. 5 Exalt the Lord our holy God! Bow low before his feet.
6 When Moses and Aaron and Samuel, his prophet, cried to him for help, he answered them. 7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud, and they followed his instructions. 8 O Jehovah our God! You answered them and forgave their sins, yet punished them when they went wrong.
9 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for he is holy.
100 Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! 2 Obey him gladly; come before him, singing with joy.
3 Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Go through his open gates with great thanksgiving; enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.
94 1-2 Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs, let your glory shine out. Arise and judge the earth; sentence the proud to the penalties they deserve. 3 Lord, how long shall the wicked be allowed to triumph and exult? 4 Hear their insolence! See their arrogance! How these men of evil boast! 5 See them oppressing your people, O Lord, afflicting those you love. 6-7 They murder widows, immigrants, and orphans, for “The Lord isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, he[a] doesn’t care.”
8 Fools! 9 Is God deaf and blind—he who makes ears and eyes? 10 He punishes the nations—won’t he also punish you? He knows everything—doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
11 The Lord is fully aware of how limited and futile the thoughts of mankind are, 12-13 so he helps us by punishing us. This makes us follow his paths and gives us respite from our enemies while God traps them and destroys them. 14 The Lord will not forsake his people, for they are his prize. 15 Judgment will again be just, and all the upright will rejoice.
16 Who will protect me from the wicked? Who will be my shield? 17 I would have died unless the Lord had helped me. 18 I screamed, “I’m slipping, Lord!” and he was kind and saved me.
19 Lord, when doubts fill my mind, when my heart is in turmoil, quiet me and give me renewed hope and cheer. 20 Will you permit a corrupt government to rule under your protection—a government permitting wrong to defeat right? 21-22 Do you approve of those who condemn the innocent to death? No! The Lord my God is my fortress—the mighty Rock where I can hide. 23 God has made the sins of evil men to boomerang upon them! He will destroy them by their own plans. Jehovah our God will cut them off.
95 Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord! Give a joyous shout in honor of the Rock of our salvation!
2 Come before him with thankful hearts. Let us sing him psalms of praise. 3 For the Lord is a great God, the great King of[b] all gods. 4 He controls the formation of the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains; all are his. 5 He made the sea and formed the land; they too are his. 6 Come, kneel before the Lord our Maker, 7 for he is our God. We are his sheep, and he is our Shepherd. Oh, that you would hear him calling you today and come to him!
8 Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness[c] at Meribah and Massah. 9 For there your fathers doubted me, though they had seen so many of my miracles before. My patience was severely tried by their complaints. 10 “For forty years I watched them in disgust,” the Lord God says. “They were a nation whose thoughts and heart were far away from me. They refused to accept my laws. 11 Therefore, in mighty wrath I swore that they would never enter the Promised Land, the place of rest I planned for them.”
10-11 The day of judgment has come; the morning dawns, for your wickedness and pride have run their course and reached their climax—none of these rich and wicked men of pride shall live. All your boasting will die away, and no one will be left to bewail your fate.
12 “Yes, the time has come; the day draws near. There will be nothing to buy or sell, for the wrath of God is on the land. 13 And even if a merchant lives, his business will be gone, for God has spoken against all the people of Israel; all will be destroyed. Not one of those whose lives are filled with sin will recover.
14 “The trumpets shout to Israel’s army, ‘Mobilize!’ but no one listens, for my wrath is on them all. 15 If you go outside the walls, there stands the enemy to kill you. If you stay inside, famine and disease will devour you.
23 “Prepare chains for my people, for the land is full of bloody crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence, so I will enslave her people. 24 I will crush your pride by bringing to Jerusalem the worst of the nations to occupy your homes, break down your fortifications you are so proud of, and defile your Temple. 25 For the time has come for the cutting off of Israel. You will sue for peace, but you won’t get it. 26-27 Calamity upon calamity will befall you; woe upon woe, disaster upon disaster! You will long for a prophet to guide you, but the priests and elders and the kings and princes will stand helpless, weeping in despair. The people will tremble with fear, for I will do to them the evil they have done and give them all their just deserts. They shall learn that I am the Lord.”
13 For instance, there was God’s promise to Abraham: God took an oath in his own name, since there was no one greater to swear by, 14 that he would bless Abraham again and again, and give him a son and make him the father of a great nation of people. 15 Then Abraham waited patiently until finally God gave him a son, Isaac, just as he had promised.
16 When a man takes an oath, he is calling upon someone greater than himself to force him to do what he has promised or to punish him if he later refuses to do it; the oath ends all argument about it. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those he promised to help would be perfectly sure and never need to wonder whether he might change his plans.
18 He has given us both his promise and his oath, two things we can completely count on, for it is impossible for God to tell a lie. Now all those who flee to him to save them can take new courage when they hear such assurances from God; now they can know without doubt that he will give them the salvation he has promised them.
19 This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven, 20 where Christ has gone ahead to plead for us from his position as our High Priest,[a] with the honor and rank of Melchizedek.
10 The Lord now chose seventy other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit later.
2 These were his instructions to them: “Plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers to help you, for the harvest is so plentiful and the workers so few. 3 Go now, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, or a beggar’s bag, or even an extra pair of shoes. And don’t waste time along the way.[a]
5 “Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. 6 If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you.
7 “When you enter a village, don’t shift around from home to home, but stay in one place, eating and drinking without question whatever is set before you. And don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, for the workman is worthy of his wages!
8-9 “If a town welcomes you, follow these two rules:
(1) Eat whatever is set before you.
(2) Heal the sick; and as you heal them, say, ‘The Kingdom of God is very near you now.’
10 “But if a town refuses you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe the dust of your town from our feet as a public announcement of your doom. Never forget how close you were to the Kingdom of God!’ 12 Even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a city on the Judgment Day. 13 What horrors await you, you cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did for you had been done in the cities of Tyre and Sidon,[b] their people would have sat in deep repentance long ago, clothed in sackcloth and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 14 Yes, Tyre and Sidon will receive less punishment on the Judgment Day than you. 15 And you people of Capernaum, what shall I say about you? Will you be exalted to heaven? No, you shall be brought down to hell.”
16 Then he said to the disciples, “Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And those who reject you are rejecting me. And those who reject me are rejecting God who sent me.”
17 When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.