Book of Common Prayer
A psalm of David when he was in the Desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I seek you with all my heart.
With all my strength I thirst for you
in this dry desert
where there isn’t any water.
2 I have seen you in the sacred tent.
There I have seen your power and your glory.
3 Your love is better than life.
So I will bring glory to you with my lips.
4 I will praise you as long as I live.
I will call on your name when I lift up my hands in prayer.
5 I will be as satisfied as if I had eaten the best food there is.
I will sing praise to you with my mouth.
6 As I lie on my bed I remember you.
I think of you all night long.
7 Because you have helped me,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I hold on to you tightly.
Your powerful right hand takes good care of me.
9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed.
They will go down into the grave.
10 They will be killed by swords.
They will become food for wild dogs.
11 But the king will be filled with joy because of what God has done.
All those who make promises in God’s name will be able to brag.
But the mouths of liars will be shut.
A psalm.
98 Sing a new song to the Lord.
He has done wonderful things.
By the power of his right hand and his holy arm
he has saved his people.
2 The Lord has made known his power to save.
He has shown the nations that he does what is right.
3 He has shown his faithful love
to the people of Israel.
People from one end of the earth to the other
have seen that our God has saved us.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, everyone on earth.
Burst into joyful songs and make music.
5 Make music to the Lord with the harp.
Sing and make music with the harp.
6 Blow the trumpets. Give a blast on the ram’s horn.
Shout for joy to the Lord. He is the King.
7 Let the ocean and everything in it roar.
Let the world and all who live in it shout.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands.
Let the mountains sing together with joy.
9 Let them sing to the Lord,
because he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the nations of the world
in keeping with what is right and fair.
A psalm of David.
103 I will praise the Lord.
Deep down inside me, I will praise him.
I will praise him, because his name is holy.
2 I will praise the Lord.
I won’t forget anything he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins.
He heals all my sicknesses.
4 He saves my life from going down into the grave.
His faithful and tender love makes me feel like a king.
5 He satisfies me with the good things I desire.
Then I feel young and strong again, just like an eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair
for all who are treated badly.
7 He told Moses all about his plans.
He let the people of Israel see his mighty acts.
8 The Lord is tender and kind. He is gracious.
He is slow to get angry. He is full of love.
9 He won’t keep bringing charges against us.
He won’t stay angry with us forever.
10 He doesn’t punish us for our sins as much as we should be punished.
He doesn’t pay us back in keeping with the evil things we’ve done.
11 He loves those who have respect for him.
His love is as high as the heavens are above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins from us.
He has removed them as far as the east is from the west.
13 A father is tender and kind to his children.
In the same way, the Lord is tender and kind
to those who have respect for him.
14 He knows what we are made of.
He remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of human beings is like grass.
People grow like the flowers in the field.
16 When the wind blows on them, they are gone.
No one can tell that they had ever been there.
17 But the Lord’s love
for those who have respect for him
lasts for ever and ever.
Their children’s children will know
that he always does what is right.
18 He always loves those who keep his covenant.
He always does what is right for those who remember to obey his commands.
19 The Lord has set up his throne in heaven.
His kingdom rules over all.
20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his.
Praise him, you mighty ones
who carry out his orders and obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all you angels in heaven.
Praise him, all you who serve him and do what he wants.
22 Let everything the Lord has made praise him
everywhere in his kingdom.
I will praise the Lord.
Remember What the Lord Has Done
8 Make sure you obey every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live, and there will be many of you. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised to your people of long ago. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to test you to know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands. 3 He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell. 5 Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God guides you, just as parents guide their children.
6 Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him. 7 The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has brooks, streams and deep springs of water. Those springs flow in its valleys and hills. 8 It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. 9 There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you.
17 Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the good news. He commanded me not to preach with wisdom and fancy words. That would take all the power away from the cross of Christ.
Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 The message of the cross seems foolish to those who are lost and dying. But it is God’s power to us who are being saved. 19 It is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of those who are wise.
I will do away with the cleverness of those who think they are so smart.” (Isaiah 29:14)
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where are the great thinkers of our time? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 God wisely planned that the world would not know him through its own wisdom. It pleased God to use the foolish things we preach to save those who believe. 22 Jews require signs. Greeks look for wisdom. 23 But we preach about Christ and his death on the cross. That is very hard for Jews to accept. And everyone else thinks it’s foolish. 24 But there are those God has chosen, both Jews and Greeks. To them Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. 25 The foolish things of God are wiser than human wisdom. The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when God chose you. Not many of you were considered wise by human standards. Not many of you were powerful. Not many of you belonged to important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the things of this world that are common and looked down on. God chose things considered unimportant to do away with things considered important. 29 So no one can boast to God. 30 Because of what God has done, you belong to Christ Jesus. He has become God’s wisdom for us. He makes us right with God. He makes us holy and sets us free. 31 It is written, “The one who boasts should boast about what the Lord has done.” (Jeremiah 9:24)
Jesus Is Asked About Fasting
18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were going without eating. Some people came to Jesus. They said to him, “John’s disciples are fasting. The disciples of the Pharisees are also fasting. But your disciples are not. Why aren’t they?”
19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the groom go without eating while he is with them? They will not fast as long as he is with them. 20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. On that day they will go without eating.
21 “No one sews a patch of new cloth on old clothes. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old. That will make the tear worse. 22 No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins. Then the wine and the wineskins will both be destroyed. No, people pour new wine into new wineskins.”
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