Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 20

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.

Psalm 21

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.

Psalm 110

A Psalm of David.

Psalm 116

Psalm 117

Noah and the Flood

⁹ These are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth and saw it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make an ark of cypress wood for yourself. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you must make it: The length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, the width of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.^{[a] 16} Make an opening^[b] one cubit^[c] below the top of the ark all around; and you must set the door of the ark on the side. Make it with a lower, a second, and a third story. ¹⁷ I will bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh, wherever there is the breath of life under heaven, and everything that is on the earth will die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Bring every living thing of all flesh, two of every kind, into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creeping thing of the earth will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ Also, take with you of every kind of food that is eaten and gather it to yourself, and it will be for food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest remains, let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it. ² For the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word preached did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed have entered this rest, as He has said,

However, His works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For He spoke somewhere about the seventh day like this: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”^{[b] 5} And again in the present passage He said, “They shall not enter My rest.”^[c]

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter due to unbelief, ⁷ again He establishes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David, after so long a time, as it has been said:

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have later spoken of another day. ⁹ Therefore a rest remains for the people of God. ¹⁰ For whoever enters His rest will also cease from his own works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Let us labor therefore to enter that rest, lest anyone fall by the same pattern of unbelief.

¹² For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. ¹³ There is no creature that is not revealed in His sight, for all things are bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

The Cleansing of the Temple^(A)

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. He poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”^[a]

¹⁸ Then the Jews said to Him, “What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking concerning the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them. And they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.