Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 148
1 Praise the Eternal!
All you in the heavens, praise the Eternal;
praise Him from the highest places!
2 All you, His messengers and His armies in heaven:
praise Him!
3 Sun, moon, and all you brilliant stars above:
praise Him!
4 Highest heavens and all you waters above the heavens:
praise Him!
5 Let all things join together in a concert of praise to the name of the Eternal,
for He gave the command and they were created.
6 He put them in their places to stay forever—
He declared it so, and it is final.
7 Everything on earth, join in and praise the Eternal;
sea monsters and creatures of the deep,
8 Lightning and hail, snow and foggy mists,
violent winds all respond to His command.
9 Mountains and hills,
fruit trees and cedar forests,
10 All you animals both wild and tame,
reptiles and birds who take flight:
praise the Lord.
11 All kings and all nations,
princes and all judges of the earth,
12 All people, young men and women,
old men and children alike,
praise the Lord.
13 Let them all praise the name of the Eternal!
For His name stands alone above all others.
His glory shines greater than anything above or below.
14 He has made His people strong;
He is the praise of all who are godly,
the praise of the children of Israel, those whom He holds close.
Praise the Eternal!
Psalm 149
1 Praise the Eternal!
Write new songs; sing them to Him with all your might!
Gather with His faithful followers in joyful praise;
2 Let all of Israel celebrate their Maker, their God, their friend;
let the children of Zion find great joy in their true King.
3 So let the music begin; praise His name—dance and sing
to the rhythm of the tambourine, and to the tune of the harp.
4 For the Eternal is listening, and nothing pleases Him more than His people;
He raises up the poor and endows them with His salvation.
5 Let His faithful followers erupt in praise,
singing triumphantly wherever they are, even as they lie down for sleep in the evening.
6 With the name of God and praise in their mouths,
with a two-edged sword in their hands,
7 Let them take revenge on all nations who deny God.
Let them punish the peoples.
8 Kings and nobles will be locked up,
and their freedom will be bound in iron shackles.
9 This judgment against them, decreed by a holy God, will be carried out.
It’s an honor for all His faithful followers to serve Him.
Praise the Eternal!
Psalm 150
If Psalm 150 is any indication, then the worship of the one True God ought to be full of life and energy. Consider what it must have looked and sounded like in those days: voices lifted, shouting for joy, trumpets blaring, stringed instruments playing, people dancing, pipes humming, tambourines keeping rhythm, cymbals crashing. There are times when worship ought to break out in joy. Is it possible that our worship is too quiet, too reserved, too structured?
1 Praise the Eternal!
Praise the True God inside His temple.
Praise Him beneath massive skies, under moonlit stars and rising sun.
2 Praise Him for His powerful acts, redeeming His people.
Praise Him for His greatness that surpasses our time and understanding.
3-4 Praise Him with the blast of trumpets high into the heavens,
and praise Him with harps and lyres
and the rhythm of the tambourines skillfully played by those who love and fear the Eternal.
Praise Him with singing and dancing;
praise Him with flutes and strings of all kinds!
5 Praise Him with crashing cymbals,
loud clashing cymbals!
6 No one should be left out;
Let every man and every beast—
every creature that has the breath of the Lord—praise the Eternal!
Praise the Eternal!
This doxology not only closes Book Five, but it also closes the entire Book of Psalms. Up until now, the songs in this book have reminded us of all the reasons we should praise God. Some songs have even commanded us to praise Him. But this closing remark takes the command to praise one step further: everything alive—humans, animals, and heaven’s creatures—must praise Him. Praise is what God created us to do; it is one of our highest purposes in life. So it is no wonder that the longest book of the Bible is purely devoted to helping us do just that.
Psalm 114
1 When the time came for Israel to leave Egypt—
for Jacob’s family to be free of those who spoke another language—
2 God chose to make Judah His sacred place,
and Israel became His realm.
3 And the waters of the sea witnessed God’s actions and ran away;
the Jordan, too, turned around and ran back to where it came from.
4 All of the mountains leapt with the strength of mighty rams,
and all of the hills danced with the joy of little lambs.
5 Why do you retreat, O sea?
Why do you roll back your waters, O Jordan?
6 Why, O mountains, do you leap with the strength of rams?
Why, O hills, do you dance with joy like little lambs?
7 Shudder and quake, O you earth, at the sight of the Lord.
The God of Jacob comes,
8 Who turns rock into pools of refreshing water
and flint into fountains of life-giving streams!
Psalm 115
1 Not for us, O Eternal One; this glory is not for us—but for Your name
because of Your loyal love and truth.
2 Why should the nations ask,
“Where is their God now?”
3 Our God is in heaven
doing whatever He chooses.
4 Those nations worship idols of silver and gold,
crafted by human hands:
5 They have given their gods mouths, but they cannot speak;
eyes, but they cannot see.
6 They have provided their idols with ears, but they cannot hear;
noses, but they cannot smell.
7 They have fashioned hands, but the idols cannot reach out and touch;
feet, but they cannot walk.
Their idols cannot make a sound in their finely crafted throats.
8 The people who make idols will become useless like them,
like all who trust in idols.
9 O Israel, put your trust in the Eternal.
He is their helper and defender.
10 O family of Aaron, put your trust in the Eternal.
He is their helper and defender.
11 All who fear and know the Eternal, put your trust in Him.
He is their helper and defender.
12 The Eternal has remembered us, and He will bless us.
He will bless the people of Israel.
He will bless the priestly family of Aaron.
13 The Eternal will bless those who worship and stand in awe of Him,
from the least to the greatest.
14 May the Eternal prosper your family,
growing both you and your descendants.
15 May the blessings of the Eternal,
maker of heaven and earth, be on you.
16 The heavens above belong to the Eternal,
and yet earth in all of its beauty has been given to humanity by Him.
17 The dead do not praise the Eternal,
nor do any who descend into the silent grave.
18 But we will praise and bless You—our Eternal One—
today and forever.
Praise the Eternal!
7 Eternal One (to Noah): It’s time! Go into the ark now. Take your entire household with you, because I see that you are the only one in this generation who lives right before Me. 2 Take the animals with you. Take seven pairs of all ritually acceptable animals, both the male and female; and take one pair of any animal that isn’t acceptable, both the male and female. 3 And take seven pairs of the birds of the sky, too, also male and female, so that we can keep each kind alive on the earth. 4 Seven days from now, I will send a massive rain to cover the earth. The rain will last 40 days and 40 nights, and every living thing I have made will be wiped off the face of the earth.
In distinguishing between animals that are ritually acceptable and unacceptable, God is anticipating the instructions He will give His people later regarding holiness and purity (Leviticus 11:1–47; Deuteronomy 14:4–20). Some animals are ritually acceptable for sacrifices, so they are suitable for food. Other animals are not to be offered to God or eaten. Ultimately, what enters human bodies matters to God; after all He made them.
5 Noah did everything the Eternal One asked him to do.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters swept over the earth. 7 Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, all went into the ark in order to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Noah made sure to take along all of the animals (both ritually acceptable and unacceptable), the birds, and all the small creeping creatures 9 in pairs by males and females, just as God had told him to do. They all went into the ark with him, two by two. 10 After seven days, the rains began and waters flooded the earth.
17 The deluge continued for 40 days on the earth. 18 The waters kept rising until they lifted up the ark so it floated safely over the land; 19 the torrent continued to swell and increase in momentum until the highest mountain peaks beneath the heavens were covered. 20 In fact, the waters rose and pitched so forcefully over the earth that the mountain peaks disappeared beneath 22 feet of water. 21 And all flesh that moved upon the earth died out—birds, domesticated animals, wild animals, all of the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all human beings. 22 Everything and everyone on the dry land in which God had breathed the breath of life died. 23 God wiped out every living thing from the face of the earth. Every creature He had made—humans, animals, creeping things, and birds—was wiped off the surface of the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him inside the ark.
4 As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you. 2 Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. 3 Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created, with peace binding you together.
Now that Paul has described the new world as God would have it, he urges believers to live out their callings with humility, patience, and love: to walk as Jesus walked. These are the ways of Jesus. Paul encourages them to do whatever it takes to hold onto the unity that binds people together in peace. He does not ask them to create that unity; this has already been accomplished through the work of the Rescuer and His Spirit. Rather, he calls believers to guard that unity—a more modest but no less significant task—because that unity is founded on God’s oneness and work in the world.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were all called to pursue one hope. 5 There is one Lord Jesus, one living faith, one ceremonial washing through baptism,[a] and 6 one God—the Father over all who is above all, through all, and in all. 7 This God has given to each of us grace in full measure according to the Anointed’s gift 8 as the Scripture says,
When He ascended to the heights,
He put captivity in chains;
And in His triumph, He gave gifts to the people.[b]
9 (Well, when it says “He ascended,” then that must mean that He had descended earlier to the lower levels, that is, to the earth. 10 The One who descended is the same One who rose from the dead to ascend far above all the heavens so that He could fill all things.)
11 It was the risen One who handed down to us such gifted leaders—some emissaries,[c] some prophets, some evangelists, as well as some pastor-teachers— 12 so that God’s people would be thoroughly equipped to minister and build up the body of the Anointed One. 13 These ministries will continue until we are unified in faith and filled with the knowledge of the Son of God, until we stand mature in His teachings and fully formed in the likeness of the Anointed, our Liberating King. 14 Then we will no longer be like children, tossed around here and there upon ocean waves, picked up by every gust of religious teaching spoken by liars or swindlers or deceivers. 15 Instead, by truth spoken in love, we are to grow in every way into Him—the Anointed One, the head. 16 He joins and holds together the whole body with its ligaments providing the support needed so each part works to its proper design to form a healthy, growing, and mature body that builds itself up in love.
7 Meanwhile Jesus and His followers traveled to the shore of the Sea of Galilee; as always, a huge crowd from Galilee and Judea gathered. 8 People had come from miles to see this man they were hearing so much about. They came from the big cities, including Jerusalem of Judea, Tyre and Sidon of Phoenicia, and from the region of Idumea, south of Judea. 9-10 Since Jesus had healed so many, the sick and the infirm pushed forward constantly to touch Him, to be healed, and to ask His blessing. The crowd pressed so closely around Jesus that He asked His disciples to get a boat He could board if the crush became too great.
11 Most wanted to be near Him, except for those possessed by unclean spirits. Those people fell down before Him.
Unclean Spirits: You are the Son of God.
12 But He ordered them not to reveal His true identity.
13 Jesus called together a select group of His followers and led them up onto a mountain. 14 There He commissioned them the twelve. [Later He calls them His emissaries.][a] He wanted them to be with Him. He sent them out to spread the good news 15 and to cast out evil spirits [and heal diseases].[b] 16 Here are the names of the original twelve: Simon (whom Jesus called Peter, meaning “the rock”), 17 James and John (the sons of Zebedee, whom Jesus called “the Sons of Thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew (the tax collector, also called Levi), Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon of Canaan (who was also called “the Zealot”), 19 and Judas Iscariot (who one day would betray Jesus to the authorities in Jerusalem so God’s purpose could be fulfilled).
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.