Book of Common Prayer
The Lord Is King
1 Our Lord, you are King!
Majesty and power
are your royal robes.
You put the world in place,
and it will never be moved.
2 You have always ruled,
and you are eternal.
3 The ocean is roaring, Lord!
The sea is pounding hard.
4 Its mighty waves are majestic,
but you are even more majestic,
and you rule over all.
5 Your decisions are firm,
and your temple will always
be beautiful and holy.
Sing a New Song to the Lord
1 Sing a new song to the Lord!
Everyone on this earth,
sing praises to the Lord,
2 sing and praise his name.
Day after day announce,
“The Lord has saved us!”
3 Tell every nation on earth,
“The Lord is wonderful
and does marvelous things!
4 The Lord is great and deserves
our greatest praise!
He is the only God
worthy of our worship.
5 Other nations worship idols,
but the Lord created
the heavens.
6 Give honor and praise
to the Lord,
whose power and beauty
fill his holy temple.”
7 (A) Tell everyone of every nation,
“Praise the glorious power
of the Lord.
8 He is wonderful! Praise him
and bring an offering
into his temple.
9 Everyone on earth, now tremble
and worship the Lord,
majestic and holy.”
10 Announce to the nations,
“The Lord is King!
The world stands firm,
never to be shaken,
and he will judge its people
with fairness.”
11 Tell the heavens and the earth
to be glad and celebrate!
Command the ocean to roar
with all its creatures
12 and the fields to rejoice
with all their crops.
Then every tree in the forest
will sing joyful songs
13 to the Lord.
He is coming to judge
all people on earth
with fairness and truth.
(Written by David when he pretended to be crazy in front of Abimelech, so that Abimelech would send him away, and David could leave.)
Honor the Lord
1 (A) I will always praise the Lord.
2 With all my heart,
I will praise the Lord.
Let all who are helpless,
listen and be glad.
3 Honor the Lord with me!
Celebrate his great name.
4 I asked the Lord for help,
and he saved me
from all my fears.
5 Keep your eyes on the Lord!
You will shine like the sun
and never blush with shame.
6 I was a nobody, but I prayed,
and the Lord saved me
from all my troubles.
7 If you honor the Lord,
his angel will protect you.
8 (B) Discover for yourself
that the Lord is kind.
Come to him for protection,
and you will be glad.
9 Honor the Lord!
You are his special people.
No one who honors the Lord
will ever be in need.
10 Young lions[a] may go hungry
or even starve,
but if you trust the Lord,
you will never miss out
on anything good.
11 Come, my children, listen
as I teach you
to respect the Lord.
12 (C) Do you want to live
and enjoy a long life?
13 Then don't say cruel things
and don't tell lies.
14 Do good instead of evil
and try to live at peace.
15 If you obey the Lord,
he will watch over you
and answer your prayers.
16 But God despises evil people,
and he will wipe them all
from the earth,
till they are forgotten.
17 When his people pray for help,
he listens and rescues them
from their troubles.
18 The Lord is there to rescue
all
who are discouraged
and have given up hope.
19 The Lord's people
may suffer a lot,
but he will always
bring them safely through.
20 (D) Not one of their bones
will ever be broken.
21 Wicked people are killed
by their own evil deeds,
and if you hate God's people
you will be punished.
22 The Lord saves the lives
of his servants.
Run to him for protection,
and you won't be punished.
9 I will tell your enemies
to leave your nation bare
like a vine stripped of grapes.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have spoken.
Jeremiah's Anger
10 I have told the people
that you, Lord,
will punish them,
but they just laugh
and refuse to listen.
11 Your anger against Judah
flames up inside me,
and I can't hold it in
much longer.
The Lord's Anger Will Sweep Everyone Away
The Lord answered:
Don't hold back my anger!
Let it sweep away everyone—
the children at play
and all adults,
young and old alike.
12 (A) I'll punish the people of Judah
and give to others
their houses and fields,
as well as their wives.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
13 Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
cannot be trusted.
14 (B) All they ever offer
to my deeply wounded people
are empty hopes for peace.
15 They should be ashamed
of their disgusting sins,
but they don't even blush.
And so, when I punish Judah,
they will end up on the ground,
dead like everyone else.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
Honor God with Your Body
12 (A) Some of you say, “We can do anything we want to.” But I tell you not everything is good for us. So I refuse to let anything have power over me. 13 You also say, “Food is meant for our bodies, and our bodies are meant for food.” But I tell you that God will destroy them both. We are not supposed to do indecent things with our bodies. We are to use them for the Lord who is in charge of our bodies. 14 God will raise us from death by the same power he used when he raised our Lord to life.
15 Don't you know that your bodies are part of the body of Christ? Is it right for me to join part of the body of Christ to a prostitute? No, it isn't! 16 (B) Don't you know that a man who does that becomes part of her body? The Scriptures say, “The two of them will be like one person.” 17 But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him.
18 Don't be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way no other sin is. 19 (C) You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. 20 God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.
A Man with Evil Spirits
(Matthew 8.28-34; Luke 8.26-39)
5 Jesus and his disciples crossed Lake Galilee and came to shore near the town of Gerasa.[a] 2 When he was getting out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit quickly ran to him 3 from the graveyard[b] where he had been living. No one was able to tie the man up anymore, not even with a chain. 4 He had often been put in chains and leg irons, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one could control him. 5 Night and day he was in the graveyard or on the hills, yelling and cutting himself with stones.
6 When the man saw Jesus in the distance, he ran up to him and knelt down. 7 He shouted, “Jesus, Son of God in heaven, what do you want with me? Promise me in God's name that you won't torture me!” 8 The man said this because Jesus had already told the evil spirit to come out of him.
9 Jesus asked, “What is your name?”
The man answered, “My name is Lots, because I have ‘lots’ of evil spirits.” 10 He then begged Jesus not to send them away.
11 Over on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. 12 So the evil spirits begged Jesus, “Send us into those pigs! Let us go into them.” 13 Jesus let them go, and they went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd of about 2,000 pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
14 The men taking care of the pigs ran to the town and the farms to spread the news. Then the people came out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had once been full of demons. He was sitting there with his clothes on and in his right mind, and they were terrified.
16 Everyone who had seen what had happened told about the man and the pigs. 17 Then the people started begging Jesus to leave their part of the country.
18 When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man begged to go with him. 19 But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how good he has been to you.”
20 The man went away into the region near the ten cities known as Decapolis[c] and began telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone who heard what had happened was amazed.
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