Book of Common Prayer
A song by David for going up to worship.
131 O Lord, my heart is not conceited.
My eyes do not look down on others.
I am not involved in things too big or too difficult for me.
2 Instead, I have kept my soul calm and quiet.
My soul is content as a weaned child is content in its mother’s arms.
3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord now and forever.
A song for going up to worship.
132 O Lord, remember David and all the hardships he endured.
2 Remember how he swore an oath to the Lord
and made this vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 “I will not step inside my house,
4 get into my bed, shut my eyes, or close my eyelids
5 until I find a place for the Lord,
a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 Now, we have heard about the ark ⌞of the promise⌟ being in Ephrathah.
We have found it in Jaar.
7 Let’s go to his dwelling place.
Let’s worship at his footstool.
8 O Lord, arise, and come to your resting place
with the ark of your power.
9 Clothe your priests with righteousness.
Let your godly ones sing with joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
do not reject your anointed one.
11 The Lord swore an oath to David.
This is a truth he will not take back:
“I will set one of your own descendants on your throne.
12 If your sons are faithful to my promise [a]
and my written instructions that I will teach them,
then their descendants will also sit on your throne forever.”
13 The Lord has chosen Zion.
He wants it for his home.
14 “This will be my resting place forever.
Here I will sit enthroned because I want Zion.
15 I will certainly bless all that Zion needs.
I will satisfy its needy people with food.
16 I will clothe its priests with salvation.
Then its godly ones will sing joyfully.
17 There I will make a horn sprout up for David.
I will prepare a lamp for my anointed one.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but the crown on my anointed one will shine.”
A song by David for going up to worship.
133 See how good and pleasant it is
when brothers and sisters live together in harmony!
2 It is like fine, scented oil on the head,
running down the beard—down Aaron’s beard—
running over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like dew on ⌞Mount⌟ Hermon,
dew which comes down on Zion’s mountains.
That is where the Lord promised
the blessing of eternal life.
A song for going up to worship.
134 Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
all who stand in the house of the Lord night after night.
2 Lift your hands toward the holy place, and praise the Lord.
3 May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
135 Hallelujah!
Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise him, you servants of the Lord
2 who are standing in the house of the Lord,
in the courtyards of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord because he is good.
Make music to praise his name because his name is beautiful.
4 The Lord chose Jacob to be his own
and chose Israel to be his own special treasure.
5 I know that the Lord is great,
that our Lord is greater than all the false gods.
6 The Lord does whatever he wants in heaven or on earth,
on the seas or in all the depths of the oceans.
7 He is the one who makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth,
who makes lightning for the thunderstorms,
and who brings wind out of his storerooms.
8 He is the one who killed every firstborn male in Egypt.
He killed humans and animals alike.
9 He sent miraculous signs and amazing things into the heart of Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his officials.
10 He is the one who defeated many nations and killed mighty kings:
11 King Sihon of the Amorites,
King Og of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms in Canaan.
12 He gave their land as an inheritance,
an inheritance to his people Israel.
13 O Lord, your name endures forever.
O Lord, you will be remembered throughout every generation.
14 The Lord will provide justice for his people
and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are made of silver and gold.
They were made by human hands.[b]
16 They have mouths, but they cannot speak.
They have eyes, but they cannot see.
17 They have ears, but they cannot hear.
They cannot breathe.
18 Those who make idols end up like them.
So does everyone who trusts them.
19 Descendants of Israel, praise the Lord.
Descendants of Aaron, praise the Lord.
20 Descendants of Levi, praise the Lord.
You people who fear the Lord, praise the Lord.
21 Thank the Lord in Zion.
Thank the one who lives in Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
4 Then the king ordered the chief priest Hilkiah, the priests who served under Hilkiah, and the doorkeepers to take out of the Lord’s temple all the utensils that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the entire army of heaven. Josiah burned the utensils outside Jerusalem in an open field near the Kidron Brook. Then he carried their ashes to Bethel.
5 He got rid of the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to sacrifice at the illegal places of worship in the cities of Judah and all around Jerusalem. They had been sacrificing to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the zodiac, and the entire army of heaven. 6 He took the pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah from the temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. He burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust, and threw its ashes on the tombs of the common people. 7 He tore down the houses of the male temple prostitutes who were in the Lord’s temple, where women did weaving for Asherah.
8 He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah from Geba to Beersheba and made the places where those priests sacrificed unclean.[a] He tore down the worship site at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the gate named after the mayor of the city. (The worship site was to the left of anyone going through the city gate.)
9 The priests of the illegal worship sites had never gone to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem. Instead, they ate their unleavened bread among the other worshipers.
10 Josiah also made Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom unclean so that people would never again sacrifice their sons or daughters by burning them to the god Molech.
11 He removed the horses that Judah’s kings had dedicated to the sun god at the entrance of the Lord’s temple. They were in the temple courtyard near the room of the eunuch Nathan Melech. He also burned the chariots of the sun god, 12 the altars that Judah’s kings had made and placed on the roof of Ahaz’s upstairs room, and the altars Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. The king tore them down from there, crushed them, and dumped their rubble in the Kidron Valley.
13 The king made the illegal places of worship east of Jerusalem unclean. They were on the southern part of the Hill of Destruction. King Solomon of Israel had built them for Astarte (the disgusting goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (the disgusting god of Moab), and Milcom (the disgusting god of the Ammonites). 14 Josiah crushed the sacred stones, cut down the poles dedicated to Asherah, and filled their places with human bones. 15 He also tore down the altar at Bethel—the place of worship made by Jeroboam (Nebat’s son), who had made Israel sin. He tore down both the altar and the place of worship. They burned the worship site, crushing it to powder and burning the pole dedicated to Asherah.
16 When Josiah turned and saw the tombs on the hill there, he sent men to take the bones out of the tombs and burn them on the altar to make it unclean. This fulfilled the Lord’s word announced by the man of God. 17 Then he asked, “What is this monument that I see?”
The people of the city answered him, “It’s the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah to announce that you would do these things to the altar of Bethel.”
18 So Josiah said, “Let him rest. Don’t disturb his bones.” So they left his bones with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.
19 Josiah also got rid of all the temples at the illegal places of worship in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had built these places to make the Lord furious. He did to them everything that he had done to the worship places at Bethel. 20 He slaughtered all the priests of the illegal worship sites on their altars and then burned human bones on them. He went back to Jerusalem.
21 The king ordered all the people to celebrate the Passover for the Lord their God as it is written in this Book of the Promise. 22 The Passover had never been celebrated like this during the time of the judges who governed Israel or during the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem for the Lord.
24 Josiah also got rid of the mediums, psychics, family idols, other idols, and disgusting gods that could be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to confirm the words of the Teachings written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple.
25 No king before Josiah had turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and strength, as directed in Moses’ Teachings. No other ⌞king⌟ was like Josiah.
Spiritual Gifts
12 Brothers and sisters, I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding concerning spiritual gifts. 2 You know that when you were unbelievers, every time you were led to worship false gods you were worshiping gods who couldn’t even speak. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is cursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. 5 There are different ways of serving, and yet the same Lord is served. 6 There are different types of work to do, but the same God produces every gift in every person.
7 The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is given to each person for the common good of everyone. 8 The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with wisdom. The same Spirit gives another person the ability to speak with knowledge. 9 To another person the same Spirit gives ⌞courageous⌟ faith. To another person the same Spirit gives the ability to heal. 10 Another can work miracles. Another can speak what God has revealed. Another can tell the difference between spirits. Another can speak in different kinds of languages. Another can interpret languages. 11 There is only one Spirit who does all these things by giving what God wants to give to each person.
A Synagogue Leader’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding(A)
18 A ⌞synagogue⌟ leader came to Jesus while he was talking to John’s disciples. He bowed down in front of Jesus and said, “My daughter just died. Come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
19 Jesus and his disciples got up and followed the man.
20 Then a woman came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his clothes. She had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. 21 She thought, “If I only touch his clothes, I’ll get well.”
22 When Jesus turned and saw her he said, “Cheer up, daughter! Your faith has made you well.” At that very moment the woman became well.
23 Jesus came to the ⌞synagogue⌟ leader’s house. He saw flute players and a noisy crowd. 24 He said to them, “Leave! The girl is not dead. She’s sleeping.” But they laughed at him.
25 When the crowd had been put outside, Jesus went in, took her hand, and the girl came back to life.
26 The news about this spread throughout that region.
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