Book of Common Prayer

Song of Thanks for Being Kept Safe

18 I love You, O Lord, my strength. ² The Lord is my rock, and my safe place, and the One Who takes me out of trouble. My God is my rock, in Whom I am safe. He is my safe-covering, my saving strength, and my strong tower. ³ I call to the Lord, Who has the right to be praised. And I am saved from those who hate me.

⁴ The ropes of death were all around me. The floods of death make me afraid. ⁵ The ropes of the grave were all around me. The traps of death were set for me. ⁶ I called to the Lord in my trouble. I cried to God for help. He heard my voice from His holy house. My cry for help came into His ears.

⁷ Then the earth shook. The mountains were shaking. They shook because He was angry. ⁸ Smoke went out from His nose and the fire that kept coming from His mouth burned everything around it. ⁹ He parted the heavens and came down. Dark clouds were under His feet. ¹⁰ He sat upon a cherub and flew. He traveled on the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He made darkness His hiding place, the covering around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. ¹² Through the light before Him passed His dark clouds, hail stones and fire. ¹³ The Lord made thunder in the heavens. The voice of the Most High spoke out, hail stones and fire. ¹⁴ He sent out His arrows and divided them. He threw down lightning and sent them running. ¹⁵ Then the deep part of the sea could be seen. And the deep part of the earth was opened up, because of Your sharp words, O Lord, because of the powerful breath from Your nose.

¹⁶ He sent from above, and took me. He lifted me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He took me away from the powerful one who fights against me, and from those who hated me. They were too strong for me. ¹⁸ They stood against me in the day of my trouble. But the Lord was my strength. ¹⁹ He brought me out into a big place. He gave me a safe place, because He was pleased with me.

²⁰ The Lord has paid me because of my being right with Him. Because of my clean hands He has paid me. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord. And I have not sinned by turning from my God. ²² All His Laws are in front of me. I have not set His Laws aside. ²³ Before Him I was without blame. And I have kept myself from sin. ²⁴ So the Lord has paid me back for being right with Him, and for my hands being clean in His eyes.

²⁵ To the faithful, You show Yourself faithful. To those without blame, You show Yourself without blame. ²⁶ With the pure, You show Yourself pure. With the sinful You show Yourself to be against them. ²⁷ You save those who are suffering, but You bring low those who have pride in their eyes. ²⁸ You make my lamp bright. The Lord my God lights my darkness. ²⁹ With Your help I can go against many soldiers. With my God I can jump over a wall.

³⁰ As for God, His way is perfect. The Word of the Lord has stood the test. He is a covering for all who go to Him for a safe place. ³¹ For Who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? ³² It is God Who covers me with strength and makes my way perfect. ³³ He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. And He sets me on my high places. ³⁴ He teaches me how to fight, so that I can use a bow of brass. ³⁵ You have also given me the covering that saves me. Your right hand holds me up. And Your care has made me great. ³⁶ You make the road wide for my steps, and my feet have not tripped.

³⁷ I went after those who fight against me, and caught them. And I did not return until they were destroyed. ³⁸ I hit them so they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. ³⁹ You have given me strength for war. You have put under me those who have fought against me. ⁴⁰ You have made them turn their backs to me also. And I destroyed those who hated me. ⁴¹ They cried for help, but there was no one to save. They cried to the Lord, but He did not answer them. ⁴² Then I beat them as small as the dust in the wind. I emptied them out like mud in the streets.

⁴³ You have taken me away from the fighting of the people. You have made me the leader of nations. People whom I have not known will serve me. ⁴⁴ As soon as they hear, they obey me. Those from other lands obey me. ⁴⁵ These people from other lands lose their strength of heart. And they come shaking from behind their walls. ⁴⁶ The Lord lives! How great is my Rock! Praise be to the God Who saves me! ⁴⁷ He is the God Who punishes those who have done wrong to me. He puts nations under my rule. ⁴⁸ He saves me from those who hate me. Yes, You lift me above those who rise up against me. You save me from those who want to hurt me. ⁴⁹ So I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord. And I will sing praises to Your name. ⁵⁰ He gives His king great power over trouble. And He shows loving-kindness to His chosen one, to David, and to his children after him forever.

Israel Did Not Learn

⁶ “I kept food from your teeth in all your cities. I did not let you have enough bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. ⁷ “I kept the rain from you while there were still three months until gathering time. Then I would send rain on one city, but would send no rain on another city. One part would receive rain, while the part which did not receive rain would dry up. ⁸ People would go from city to city to drink water, but would not get enough. Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. ⁹ “I sent hot wind to dry up your fields. The locust destroyed your many gardens and grape-fields, fig trees and olive trees. Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. ¹⁰ “I sent a very bad disease upon you as I had done to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword and took your horses away. I filled your nose with the bad smell of your camp. Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. ¹¹ “I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire. Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. ¹² “So I will do this to you, O Israel. And because I will do this to you, get ready to meet your God, O Israel.” ¹³ He is the One Who makes the mountains and the wind. He makes His thoughts known to man. He turns the morning into darkness, and walks on the high places of the earth. The Lord God of All is His name.

¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, you should think about the kind of life you are living. It should be holy and God-like. ¹² You should look for the day of God to come. You should do what you can to make it come soon. At that time the heavens will be destroyed by fire. And the sun and moon and stars will melt away with much heat. ¹³ We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there.

¹⁴ Dear friends, since you are waiting for these things to happen, do all you can to be found by Him in peace. Be clean and free from sin. ¹⁵ You can be sure the long waiting of our Lord is part of His plan to save men from the punishment of sin. God gave our dear brother Paul the wisdom to write about this also. ¹⁶ He wrote about these things in all of his writings. Some of these things are hard to understand. People who do not have much understanding and some who are not strong in the faith change the meaning of his letters. They do this to the other parts of the Holy Writings also. They are destroying themselves as they do this.

¹⁷ And so, dear friends, now that you know this, watch so you will not be led away by the mistakes of these sinful people. Do not be moved by them. ¹⁸ Grow in the loving-favor that Christ gives you. Learn to know our Lord Jesus Christ better. He is the One Who saves. May He have all the shining-greatness now and forever. Let it be so.

The Picture-Story of the Grape-Field ^(A)

³³ “Listen to another picture-story. A man who owned land planted grapes in a field and put a fence around it. He made a place for making wine. He built a tower to look over the grape-field. He let farmers rent it and then he went into another country. ³⁴ The time came for gathering the grapes. He sent his servants to the farmers to get the grapes. ³⁵ The farmers took his servants and hit one. They killed another and threw stones at another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants. He sent more than the first time. The farmers did the same to those servants. ³⁷ After this he sent his son to them. He said to himself, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ When the farmers saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the one who will get everything when the owner dies. Let us kill him and we will get it all.’ ³⁹ They took him and threw him out of the grape-field and killed him. ⁴⁰ When the owner of the grape-field comes, what will he do to those farmers?” ⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will put those bad men to death. Then he will rent the grape-field to other farmers who will give him the grapes when they are ready.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you not read in the Holy Writings, ‘The Stone that was put aside by the workmen has become the most important Stone in the building? The Lord has done this. We think it is great!’ ^{(B) 43} I say to you, because of this, the holy nation of God will be taken from you. It will be given to a nation that will give fruit. ⁴⁴ Whoever falls on this Stone will be broken. And on the one it falls, it will make him like dust.”

⁴⁵ When the religious leaders and the proud religious law-keepers heard this picture-story, they knew He spoke of them. ⁴⁶ When they tried to put their hands on Him, they were afraid of the many people. The people thought He was One Who spoke for God.