Book of Common Prayer
The Glory of God’s Reign
97 The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are round about him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him,
and burns up his adversaries round about.
4 His lightnings lighten the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of thy judgments, O God.
9 For thou, O Lord, art most high over all the earth;
thou art exalted far above all gods.
Praise to God for His Holiness
99 The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name!
Holy is he!
4 Mighty King,[a] lover of justice,
thou hast established equity;
thou hast executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the Lord our God;
worship at his footstool!
Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept his testimonies,
and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, thou didst answer them;
thou wast a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy!
All Lands Summoned to Praise God
A Psalm for the thank offering.
100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands![b]
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;[c]
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
God the Avenger of the Righteous
94 O Lord, thou God of vengeance,
thou God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
render to the proud their deserts!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words,
they boast, all the evildoers.
5 They crush thy people, O Lord,
and afflict thy heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 Understand, O dullest of the people!
Fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who chastens the nations, does he not chastise?
He who teaches men knowledge,
11 the Lord, knows the thoughts of man,
that they are but a breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord,
and whom thou dost teach out of thy law
13 to give him respite from days of trouble,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake his people;
he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
thy steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
thy consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with thee,
who frame mischief by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will wipe them out.
A Call to Worship and Obedience
95 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it;
for his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would hearken to his voice!
8 Harden not your hearts, as at Mer′ibah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who err in heart,
and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they should not enter my rest.
25 Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and terror fell upon the Gentiles round about them. 26 His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked of the battles of Judas.
The Policy of Antiochus
27 When king Anti′ochus heard these reports, he was greatly angered; and he sent and gathered all the forces of his kingdom, a very strong army. 28 And he opened his coffers and gave a year’s pay to his forces, and ordered them to be ready for any need. 29 Then he saw that the money in the treasury was exhausted, and that the revenues from the country were small because of the dissension and disaster which he had caused in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from the earliest days. 30 He feared that he might not have such funds as he had before for his expenses and for the gifts which he used to give more lavishly than preceding kings. 31 He was greatly perplexed in mind, and determined to go to Persia and collect the revenues from those regions and raise a large fund.
32 He left Lys′ias, a distinguished man of royal lineage, in charge of the king’s affairs from the river Euphra′tes to the borders of Egypt. 33 Lys′ias was also to take care of Anti′ochus his son until he returned. 34 And he turned over to Lys′ias[a] half of his troops and the elephants, and gave him orders about all that he wanted done. As for the residents of Judea and Jerusalem, 35 Lys′ias was to send a force against them to wipe out and destroy the strength of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem; he was to banish the memory of them from the place, 36 settle aliens in all their territory, and distribute their land. 37 Then the king took the remaining half of his troops and departed from Antioch his capital in the one hundred and forty-seventh year.[b] He crossed the Euphra′tes river and went through the upper provinces.
Preparations for Battle
38 Lys′ias chose Ptol′emy the son of Dorym′enes, and Nica′nor and Gor′gias, mighty men among the friends of the king, 39 and sent with them forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry to go into the land of Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded. 40 So they departed with their entire force, and when they arrived they encamped near Emma′us in the plain. 41 When the traders of the region heard what was said of them, they took silver and gold in immense amounts, and fetters,[c] and went to the camp to get the sons of Israel for slaves. And forces from Syria and the land of the Philistines joined with them.
The New Heaven and the New Earth
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.[a] 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; 3 and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them;[c] 4 he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. 7 He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”[d]
Jesus Cures a Boy with a Demon
14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from hence to yonder place,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”[a]
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.