Book of Common Prayer
Wishing to Be Near God
A psalm of David when he was in the desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I search for you.
I thirst for you
like someone in a dry, empty land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the Temple
and have seen your strength and glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
I will praise you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live.
I will lift up my hands in prayer to your name.
5 I will be content as if I had eaten the best foods.
My lips will sing, and my mouth will praise you.
6 I remember you while I’m lying in bed;
I think about you through the night.
7 You are my help.
Because of your protection, I sing.
8 I stay close to you;
you support me with your right hand.
9 Some people are trying to kill me,
but they will go down to the grave.
10 They will be killed with swords
and eaten by wild dogs.
11 But the king will rejoice in his God.
All who make promises in his name will praise him,
but the mouths of liars will be shut.
The Lord of Power and Justice
A psalm.
98 Sing to the Lord a new song,
because he has done miracles.
By his right hand and holy arm
he has won the victory.
2 The Lord has made known his power to save;
he has shown the other nations his victory for his people.
3 He has remembered his love
and his loyalty to the people of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
God’s power to save.
4 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth;
burst into songs and make music.
5 Make music to the Lord with harps,
with harps and the sound of singing.
6 Blow the trumpets and the sheep’s horns;
shout for joy to the Lord the King.
7 Let the sea and everything in it shout;
let the world and everyone in it sing.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the mountains sing together for joy.
9 Let them sing before the Lord,
because he is coming to judge the world.
He will judge the world fairly;
he will judge the peoples with fairness.
Praise to the Lord of Love
Of David.
103 All that I am, praise the Lord;
everything in me, praise his holy name.
2 My whole being, praise the Lord
and do not forget all his kindnesses.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He saves my life from the grave
and loads me with love and mercy.
5 He satisfies me with good things
and makes me young again, like the eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair
for all who are wronged by others.
7 He showed his ways to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord shows mercy and is kind.
He does not become angry quickly, and he has great love.
9 He will not always accuse us,
and he will not be angry forever.
10 He has not punished us as our sins should be punished;
he has not repaid us for the evil we have done.
11 As high as the sky is above the earth,
so great is his love for those who respect him.
12 He has taken our sins away from us
as far as the east is from west.
13 The Lord has mercy on those who respect him,
as a father has mercy on his children.
14 He knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.
15 Human life is like grass;
we grow like a flower in the field.
16 After the wind blows, the flower is gone,
and there is no sign of where it was.
17 But the Lord’s love for those who respect him
continues forever and ever,
and his goodness continues to their grandchildren
18 and to those who keep his agreement
and who remember to obey his orders.
19 The Lord has set his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over everything.
20 You who are his angels, praise the Lord.
You are the mighty warriors who do what he says
and who obey his voice.
21 You, his armies, praise the Lord;
you are his servants who do what he wants.
22 Everything the Lord has made
should praise him in all the places he rules.
My whole being, praise the Lord.
2 Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold.
3 He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai, 4 and where he had built an altar. So he worshiped the Lord there.
5 During this time Lot was traveling with Abram, and Lot also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together, 7 so Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.
8 Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, because we are brothers. 9 We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley and that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley, very near to Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were very evil and were always sinning against the Lord.
14 After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you—to the north and south and east and west. 15 All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. 17 Get up! Walk through all this land because I am now giving it to you.”
18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
Other Apostles Accepted Paul
2 After fourteen years I went to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas. I also took Titus with me. 2 I went because God showed me I should go. I met with the believers there, and in private I told their leaders the Good News that I preach to the non-Jewish people. I did not want my past work and the work I am now doing to be wasted. 3 Titus was with me, but he was not forced to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 We talked about this problem because some false believers had come into our group secretly. They came in like spies to overturn the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves. 5 But we did not give in to those false believers for a minute. We wanted the truth of the Good News to continue for you.
6 Those leaders who seemed to be important did not change the Good News that I preach. (It doesn’t matter to me if they were “important” or not. To God everyone is the same.) 7 But these leaders saw that I had been given the work of telling the Good News to those who are not Jewish, just as Peter had the work of telling the Jews. 8 God gave Peter the power to work as an apostle for the Jewish people. But he also gave me the power to work as an apostle for those who are not Jews. 9 James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be the leaders, understood that God had given me this special grace, so they accepted Barnabas and me. They agreed that they would go to the Jewish people and that we should go to those who are not Jewish. 10 The only thing they asked us was to remember to help the poor—something I really wanted to do.
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
31 Then Jesus left the area around Tyre and went through Sidon to Lake Galilee, to the area of the Ten Towns.[a] 32 While he was there, some people brought a man to him who was deaf and could not talk plainly. The people begged Jesus to put his hand on the man to heal him.
33 Jesus led the man away from the crowd, by himself. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and then spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to the man, “Ephphatha!” (This means, “Be opened.”) 35 Instantly the man was able to hear and to use his tongue so that he spoke clearly.
36 Jesus commanded the people not to tell anyone about what happened. But the more he commanded them, the more they told about it. 37 They were completely amazed and said, “Jesus does everything well. He makes the deaf hear! And those who can’t talk he makes able to speak.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.