Book of Common Prayer
Let All Creation Praise Yahweh
148 Praise Yah.[a]
Praise Yahweh from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts.[b]
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all stars of light.
4 Praise him, highest heavens,[c]
and waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of Yahweh,
because he commanded and they were created.
6 And he put them in place forever and ever,
by a decree he gave that will not pass away.
7 Praise Yahweh from the earth—
great sea creatures and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and cloud,[d]
stormy wind doing his bidding,[e]
9 the mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 beasts and all cattle,[f]
creeping things and flying birds,[g]
11 kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all judges of the earth,
12 young men and young women as well,
the old together with the young—
13 let them praise the name of Yahweh,
because his name alone is is exalted.
His splendor is above earth and heavens.
14 And he has raised high a horn for his people,
praise for all his faithful—
for the children of Israel,
a people close to him.
Praise Yah.[h]
Praise to God for His Future Judgment
149 Praise Yah.[i]
Sing to Yahweh a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
2 Let Israel be glad in its maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing;
let them sing praises to him with tambourine and lyre.
4 For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people;
he glorifies the afflicted with salvation.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 Let the extolling of God be in their throat,
and a double-edged sword in their hand,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,[j]
8 to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles[k] with fetters of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment that is decreed.[l]
This will be honor for all his faithful ones;
Praise Yah.[m]
Let Everything Praise Yahweh
150 Praise Yah.[n]
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament.
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to the abundance of his greatness.
3 Praise him with blast of horn;
praise him with harp and lyre.
4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing;
praise him with strings and flute.
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with clashing cymbals.
6 Every breathing thing,
let it praise Yah.[o]
Praise Yah.[p]
Praise to God for His Works During the Exodus
114 When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled;
the Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.[a]
5 What’s with you, O sea, that you fled?
O Jordan, that you turned back?
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 At the presence of the Lord writhe, O earth,[b]
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
flinty stone into a spring of water.
Dead Idols and the Living God
115 Not to us, O Yahweh, not to us,
but to your name give glory,
because of your loyal love,
because of your faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where, pray tell,[c] is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
all that he desires, he does.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak;
they have eyes, but cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear;
they have noses, but cannot smell;
7 they have their hands, but they cannot feel,
their feet, but they cannot walk;
they cannot utter a sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them become like them,
as does everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust Yahweh;
he is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in Yahweh;
he is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh;
he is their help and their shield.
12 Yahweh remembers us; he will bless us.
He will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear Yahweh,
the small with the great.
14 May Yahweh give you increase,
you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by Yahweh,
who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens,
but the earth he has given to the children of humankind.
17 The dead do not praise Yah,[d]
nor any descending into silence.
18 It is we, we will bless Yah[e]
from now until forever.
Praise Yah![f]
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard[a] on a fertile hill.[b]
2 And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,[c]
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men[d] of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
5 And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
6 And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers[e] and thornbushes.[f]
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send[g] rain down upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man[h] of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,[i]
but look! Bloodshed![j]
For righteousness,[k]
but look! A cry of distress![l]
11 Because[a] all these things are being destroyed in this way, what sort of people must you be in holy behavior and godliness, 12 while[b] waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by[c] being burned up and the celestial bodies will melt as they[d] are consumed by heat! 13 But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness resides.
Final Exhortations and Conclusion
14 Therefore, dear friends, because you[e] are waiting for these things, make every effort to be found at peace, spotless and unblemished in him. 15 And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him, 16 as he does also in all his[f][g] letters, speaking in them about these things, in which there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures. 17 Therefore, dear friends, because you[h] know this beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position because you[i] have been led away by the error of lawless persons. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
28 I tell you, there is no one greater among those born of women than John, but the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 29 (And all the people, when they[a] heard this[b]—even the tax collectors—affirmed the righteousness of God, because they[c] had been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the legal experts rejected the purpose of God for themselves, because they[d] had not been baptized by him.)
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, who say,
‘We played the flute for you and you did not dance;
we sang a lament and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come not eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a man who is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 And wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
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