Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 118
1 Give thanks to the Eternal because He is always good.
He never ceases to be loving and kind.
2 Let the people of Israel proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
3 Let the priests of Aaron’s line proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
4 Let the people who fear the Eternal proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
5 When trouble surrounded me, I cried out to the Eternal;
He answered me and brought me to a wide, open space.
6 The Eternal is with me,
so I will not be afraid of anything.
If God is on my side, how can anyone hurt me?
7 The Eternal is on my side, a champion for my cause;
so when I look at those who hate me, victory will be in sight.
8 It is better to put your faith in the Eternal for your security
than to trust in people.
9 It is better to put your faith in Him for your security
than to trust in princes.
10 All these nations surround me, squeezing me from all sides;
with the name of the Eternal, I will destroy them.
11 They rose up against me, squeezed me from all sides, yes, from all sides;
with the name of the Eternal, I will destroy them.
12 They surrounded me like a swarm of bees;
they were destroyed quickly and thoroughly—
Flaring up like a pile of thorns—
with the name of the Eternal, I will destroy them.
13 I was pushed back, attacked so that I was about to fall,
but the Eternal was there to help me keep my balance.
14 He is my strength, and He is the reason I sing;
He has been there to save me in every situation.
15 In the tents of the righteous soldiers of God,
there are shouts of joy and victory. They sing:
“The right hand of the Eternal has shown His power.
16 The mighty arm of the Eternal is raised in victory;
the right hand of His has shown His power.”
17 I will not die. I will live.
I will live to tell about all the Eternal has done.
18 The Eternal has taught me many lessons;
He has been strict and severe,
but even in His discipline, He has not allowed me to die.
Early Christians found in the words of this psalm a wonderful way of describing the significance of Jesus. He was the rejected stone whom God made the cornerstone of a brand-new temple (verses 22–24).
19 Open wide to me the gates of justice
so that I may walk through them
and offer praise and worship to the Eternal.
20 This is the gate of the Eternal;
the righteous children of God will go through it.
21 I will praise You because You answered me when I was in trouble.
You have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
23 This is the work of the Eternal,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.[a]
24 This is the day the Eternal God has made;
let us celebrate and be happy today.
25 O Eternal One, save us, we beg You.
O Eternal One, we beg You, bring us success!
26 He who comes in the name of the Eternal will be blessed;[b]
we have blessed You from the house of the Eternal.
27 The Eternal is the True God;
He shines His light on us.
Let the feast begin.
Bring the sacrifice, and tie it to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I give You thanks;
You are my God, and I praise You.
29 Give thanks to our Eternal Lord; He is always good.
He never ceases to be loving and kind.
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!
10 Samuel took a vial of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head, anointing him, and then kissed him.
Samuel: The Eternal One of Israel has anointed you as ruler over His possession, over all Israel. [You will be king over the people of the Eternal One, and you will deliver them from the enemies that surround them now. And this will be the sign to you that I am speaking truth, and God has anointed you king over what is His]:[a] 2 when you leave me today, you will meet two men not far from Rachel’s tomb, in Benjamin’s territory at Zelzah. These men will tell you, “The donkeys you sought have been found. Your father has stopped worrying about them, and now he is worried about you. He asks, ‘But what about my son?’” 3 When you leave them behind and reach the oak of Tabor, you will meet three men going to sacrifice to God at Bethel. One will have three young goats; one will have three loaves of bread; another will have a skin full of wine. 4 They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves of bread. Take them, and go on. 5 When you leave them behind and reach the Philistine garrison at the hill of God (Gibeath-elohim), just as you come into the city, you will meet a group of prophets returning from the high place. Musicians leading them will be playing harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres; and the prophets will be caught up in prophetic ecstasy. 6 Then the Spirit of the Eternal One will overtake you, you will be caught up in the same prophetic spirit as these prophets, and you will be changed into a different person. 7 When these signs come to pass, do what you think is best. The True God is with you. 8 Go down to Gilgal ahead of me. I will come to present peace sacrifices and burnt offerings. Wait for seven days, and I will show you what to do.
9 As Saul turned to leave Samuel, the True God transformed his heart. As a result, all that Samuel had predicted came to pass that day. 10 When Saul came up to the hill of God, he met a band of prophets; and as Samuel had said, the Spirit of God overtook him, and he was caught up in their prophetic ecstasy.
11 Then the people who knew him saw that he began to prophesy with the prophets.
People (among themselves): What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul one of the prophets now?
Local Citizen: 12 And who is their father?
This is one way the saying, “Is Saul one of the prophets?” originated.
13 When Saul finished prophesying, he went to a high place to a local shrine.
14 When Saul returned home, his uncle asked him and his servant where they had been.
Saul: We went to look for the donkeys. When we couldn’t find them, we spoke with the seer, Samuel.
Uncle: 15 What did Samuel tell you?
Saul: 16 He told us that the donkeys had been found.
But Saul did not tell him anything about the kingdom or anything else Samuel had said.
13 The promise given to Abraham and his children, that one day they would inherit the world, did not come because he followed the rules of the law. It came as a result of his right standing before God, a standing he obtained through faith. 14 If this inheritance is available only to those who keep the law, then faith is a useless commodity and the promise is canceled. 15 For the law brings God’s wrath against sin. But where the law doesn’t draw the line, there can be no crime.
16 This is the reason that faith is the single source of the promise—so that grace would be offered to all Abraham’s children, those whose lives are defined by the law and those who follow the path of faith charted by Abraham, our common father. 17 As it is recorded in the Scriptures, “I have appointed you the father of many nations.”[a] In the presence of the God who creates out of nothing and holds the power to bring to life what is dead, Abraham believed and so became our father.
18 Against the odds, Abraham’s hope grew into full-fledged faith that he would turn out to be the father of many nations, just as God had promised when He said, “That’s how many your descendants will be.”[b] 19 His faith did not fail, although he was well aware that his impotent body, after nearly 100 years, was as good as dead and that Sarah’s womb, too, was dead. 20 In spite of all this, his faith in God’s promise did not falter. In fact, his faith grew as he gave glory to God 21 because he was supremely confident that God could deliver on His promise. 22 This is why, you see, God saw his faith and counted him as righteous; this is how he became right with God.
23 The story of how faith was credited to Abraham was not recorded for him and him alone, 24 but was written for all of us who would one day be credited for having faith in God, the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the realm of the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and raised so that we might be made right with God.
23 Jesus returned to the temple and began to teach. The chief priests and elders came to Him and wanted to know who had given Him permission to disturb the temple precincts and to teach His crazy notions in this most sacred of spots.
Chief Priests and Elders: Who gave You the authority to do these things?
Jesus: 24 I will answer your question if first you answer one of Mine: 25 You saw John ritually cleansing people through baptism[a] for the redemption of their sins. Did John’s cleansing come from heaven, or was he simply washing people of his own whim?
The elders knew that this question was tricky; there was no simple answer. If they acknowledged that John’s ritual cleansing was from heaven, Jesus would ask why they had not accepted John’s authority. 26 But if they said he had dipped people simply by his own accord, they would outrage the people who believed John was a prophet.
Chief Priests and Elders: 27 We don’t know.
Jesus: Then neither will I tell you about the authority under which I am working. 28 But I will tell you a story, and you can tell Me what you make of it: There was a man who had two sons. He said to his first son,
Father: Go and work in the vineyard today.
First Son: 29 No, I will not.
But later the first son changed his mind and went. 30 Then the father went to his second son.
Father: Go and work in the vineyard today.
Second Son: Of course, Father.
But then he did not go. 31 So which of the sons did what the father wanted?
Chief Priests and Elders (answering at once): The first.
Jesus: I tell you this: the tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 John came to show you the straight path, the path to righteousness. You did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Even as you saw the prostitutes and the tax collectors forgiven and washed clean, finding their footing on the straight path to righteousness, still you did not change your ways and believe.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.