Book of Common Prayer

118 Oh, thank the Lord, for he’s so good! His loving-kindness is forever.

² Let the congregation of Israel praise him with these same words: “His loving-kindness is forever.” ³ And let the priests of Aaron chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.” ⁴ Let the Gentile converts chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.”

⁵ In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me. ⁶ He is for me! How can I be afraid? What can mere man do to me? ⁷ The Lord is on my side; he will help me. Let those who hate me beware.

⁸ It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in men. ⁹ It is better to take refuge in him than in the mightiest king!

¹⁰ Though all the nations of the world attack me, I will march out behind his banner and destroy them. ¹¹ Yes, they surround and attack me; but with his flag flying above me I will cut them off. ¹² They swarm around me like bees; they blaze against me like a roaring flame. Yet beneath his flag I shall destroy them. ¹³ You did your best to kill me, O my enemy, but the Lord helped me. ¹⁴ He is my strength and song in the heat of battle, and now he has given me the victory. ^15-16 Songs of joy at the news of our rescue are sung in the homes of the godly. The strong arm of the Lord has done glorious things! ¹⁷ I shall not die but live to tell of all his deeds. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me but not handed me over to death.

¹⁹ Open the gates of the Temple^[a]—I will go in and give him my thanks. ²⁰ Those gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. ²¹ O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.

²² The stone rejected by the builders has now become the capstone of the arch!^{[b] 23} This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see! ²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. ²⁵ O Lord, please help us. Save us. Give us success. ²⁶ Blessed is the one who is coming, the one sent by the Lord.^[c] We bless you from the Temple.

^27-28 Jehovah God is our light. I present to him my sacrifice upon the altar, for you are my God, and I shall give you this thanks and this praise. ²⁹ Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is so good! For his loving-kindness is forever.

145 ^1-2 I will praise you, my God and King, and bless your name each day and forever.

³ Great is Jehovah! Greatly praise him! His greatness is beyond discovery! ⁴ Let each generation tell its children what glorious things he does. ⁵ I will meditate about your glory, splendor, majesty, and miracles. ⁶ Your awe-inspiring deeds shall be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. ⁷ Everyone will tell about how good you are and sing about your righteousness.

⁸ Jehovah is kind and merciful, slow to get angry, full of love. ⁹ He is good to everyone, and his compassion is intertwined with everything he does. ¹⁰ All living things shall thank you, Lord, and your people will bless you. ¹¹ They will talk together about the glory of your kingdom and mention examples of your power. ¹² They will tell about your miracles and about the majesty and glory of your reign. ¹³ For your kingdom never ends. You rule generation after generation.

¹⁴ The Lord lifts the fallen and those bent beneath their loads. ¹⁵ The eyes of all mankind look up to you for help; you give them their food as they need it. ¹⁶ You constantly satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is fair in everything he does and full of kindness. ¹⁸ He is close to all who call on him sincerely. ¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who reverence and trust him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. ²⁰ He protects all those who love him, but destroys the wicked.

²¹ I will praise the Lord and call on all men everywhere to bless his holy name forever and forever.

⁹ “Seven weeks after the harvest begins, ¹⁰ there shall be another festival before the Lord your God called the Festival of Weeks. At that time bring to him a freewill offering proportionate in size to his blessing upon you as judged by the amount of your harvest. ¹¹ It is a time to rejoice before the Lord with your family and household. And don’t forget to include the local Levites, foreigners, widows, and orphans. Invite them to accompany you to the celebration at the sanctuary. ¹² Remember! You were a slave in Egypt, so be sure to carry out this command.

¹⁸ So they called them back in, and told them never again to speak about Jesus.

¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “You decide whether God wants us to obey you instead of him! ²⁰ We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we saw Jesus do and heard him say.”

²¹ The Council then threatened them further and finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this wonderful miracle—

²³ As soon as they were freed, Peter and John found the other disciples and told them what the Council had said.

²⁴ Then all the believers united in this prayer:

“O Lord, Creator of heaven and earth and of the sea and everything in them— ^25-26 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor King David, your servant, saying, ‘Why do the heathen rage against the Lord, and the foolish nations plan their little plots against Almighty God? The kings of the earth unite to fight against him and against the anointed Son of God!’

²⁷ “That is what is happening here in this city today! For Herod the king, and Pontius Pilate the governor, and all the Romans—as well as the people of Israel—are united against Jesus, your anointed Son, your holy servant. ²⁸ They won’t stop at anything that you in your wise power will let them do. ²⁹ And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and grant to your servants great boldness in their preaching, ³⁰ and send your healing power, and may miracles and wonders be done by the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹ After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly preached God’s message.

³² All the believers were of one heart and mind, and no one felt that what he owned was his own; everyone was sharing. ³³ And the apostles preached powerful sermons about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and there was warm fellowship among all the believers,^[a]

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. ²⁰ But say, tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,^[a] where our ancestors worshiped?”

^21-24 Jesus replied, “The time is coming, ma’am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us. But you Samaritans know so little about him, worshiping blindly, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes to the world through the Jews.”

²⁵ The woman said, “Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come—the one they call Christ—and when he does, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”