Book of Common Prayer
For the choir director; according to shoshannim; [a] a maskil by Korah’s descendants; a love song.
45 My heart is overflowing with good news.
I will direct my song to the king.
My tongue is a pen for a skillful writer.
2 You are the most handsome of Adam’s descendants.
Grace is poured on your lips.
That is why God has blessed you forever.
3 O warrior, strap your sword to your side
with your splendor and majesty.
4 Ride on victoriously in your majesty
for the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness.
Let your right hand teach you awe-inspiring things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies.
Nations fall beneath you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter in your kingdom is a scepter for justice.
7 You have loved what is right and hated what is wrong.
That is why God, your God, has anointed you,
rather than your companions, with the oil of joy.
8 All your robes are ⌞fragrant⌟ with myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
From ivory palaces the music of stringed instruments delights you.
9 The daughters of kings are among your noble ladies.
The queen takes her place at your right hand
and wears gold from Ophir.
10 Listen, daughter! Look closely!
Turn your ear ⌞toward me⌟.
Forget your people, and forget your father’s house.
11 The king longs for your beauty.
He is your Lord.
Worship him.
12 The people of Tyre, the richest people,
want to win your favor with a gift.
13 The daughter of the king is glorious inside ⌞the palace⌟.
Her dress is embroidered with gold.
14 Wearing a colorful gown, she is brought to the king.
Her bridesmaids follow her.
They will be brought to you.
15 With joy and delight they are brought in.
They enter the palace of the king.
16 Your sons will take the place of your father.
You will make them princes over the whole earth.
17 I will cause your name to be remembered throughout every generation.
That is why the nations will give thanks to you forever and ever.
For the choir director; a psalm by Korah’s descendants.
47 Clap your hands, all you people.
Shout to God with a loud, joyful song.
2 We must fear the Lord, the Most High.
He is the great king of the whole earth.
3 He brings people under our authority
and ⌞puts⌟ nations under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us,
the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah
5 God has gone up with a joyful shout.
The Lord has gone up with the sound of a ram’s horn.
6 Make music to praise God.
Play music for him!
Make music to praise our king.
Play music for him!
7 God is the king of the whole earth.
Make your best music for him!
8 God rules the nations.
He sits upon his holy throne.
9 The influential people from the nations gather together
as the people of the God of Abraham.
The rulers of the earth belong to God.
He rules everything.
A song; a psalm by Korah’s descendants.
48 The Lord is great.
He should be highly praised.
His holy mountain is in the city of our God.
2 Its beautiful peak is the joy of the whole earth.
Mount Zion is on the northern ridge.
It is the city of the great king.
3 God is in its palaces.
He has proved that he is a stronghold.
4 The kings have gathered.
They marched together.
5 ⌞When⌟ they saw ⌞Mount Zion⌟,
they were astonished.
They were terrified and ran away in fear.
6 Trembling seized them
like the trembling that a woman experiences during labor.
7 With the east wind you smash the ships of Tarshish.
8 The things we had only heard about, we have now seen
in the city of the Lord of Armies,
in the city of our God.
God makes Zion stand firm forever. Selah
9 Inside your temple we carefully reflect on your mercy, O God.
10 Like your name, O God,
your praise ⌞reaches⌟ to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad
and the cities of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments.
12 Walk around Zion.
Go around it.
Count its towers.
13 Examine its embankments.
Walk through its palaces.
Then you can tell the next generation,
14 “This God is our God forever and ever.
He will lead us beyond death.”
The Proper Place to Worship
12 Here are the laws and rules you must faithfully obey in the land that the Lord God of your ancestors is giving you as your own. You must obey them as long as you live in the land.
2 Completely destroy all the worship sites on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every large tree. The people you’re forcing out worship their gods in these places. 3 Tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, burn their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, cut down their idols, and wipe out the names of their gods from those places.
4 Never worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods. 5 The Lord your God will choose a place out of all your tribes to live and put his name. Go there and worship him. 6 Bring him your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your income, your contributions, the offerings you vow to bring, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats. 7 There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families will eat and enjoy everything you’ve worked for, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Never worship in the way that it’s being done here today, where everyone does whatever he considers right. 9 Up until now you haven’t come to your place of rest, the property the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan River and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own property. He will give you peace from all your enemies around you so that you will live securely. 11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place where his name will live. You must bring everything I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your income, your contributions, and all the best offerings you vow to bring to the Lord. 12 Enjoy yourselves in the presence of the Lord your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levites. (The Levites live in your cities because they have no land of their own as you have.)
Our Lives Demonstrate That We Are God’s Servants
3 We don’t give people any opportunity to find fault with how we serve. 4 Instead, our lives demonstrate that we are God’s servants. We have endured many things: suffering, distress, anxiety, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, and lack of food. 6 ⌞People can see⌟ our purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit’s presence ⌞in our lives⌟, our sincere love, 7 truthfulness, and the presence of God’s power. We demonstrate that we are God’s servants 8 as we are praised and dishonored, as we are slandered and honored, and as we use what is right to attack what is wrong and to defend the truth.[a] We are treated as dishonest although we are honest, 9 as unknown although we are well-known, as dying although, as you see, we go on living. We are punished, but we are not killed. 10 People think we are sad although we’re always glad, that we’re beggars although we make many people spiritually rich, that we have nothing although we possess everything.
11 We have been very open in speaking to you Corinthians. We have a place for you in our hearts. 12 We haven’t cut you off. Your own emotions have cut you off ⌞from us⌟. 13 I’m talking to you as I would talk to children. Treat us the same way we’ve treated you. Make a place for us in your hearts too.
Christians and Their Relationships with Unbelievers
14 Stop forming inappropriate relationships with unbelievers. Can right and wrong be partners? Can light have anything in common with darkness? 15 Can Christ agree with the devil? Can a believer share life with an unbeliever? 16 Can God’s temple contain false gods? Clearly, we are the temple of the living God. As God said,
“I will live and walk among them.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”
17 The Lord says, “Get away from unbelievers.
Separate yourselves from them.
Have nothing to do with anything unclean.[b]
Then I will welcome you.”
18 The Lord Almighty says, “I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters.”
7 Since we have these promises, dear friends, we need to cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit and live a holy life in the fear of God.
Ten Men with a Skin Disease Are Healed
11 Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. 12 As he went into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance 13 and shouted, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!”
14 When he saw them, he told them, “Show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were made clean.[a] 15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back and praised God in a loud voice. 16 He quickly bowed at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (The man was a Samaritan.)
17 Jesus asked, “Weren’t ten men made clean? Where are the other nine? 18 Only this foreigner came back to praise God.”
19 Jesus told the man, “Get up, and go home! Your faith has made you well.”
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