Book of Common Prayer
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.
131 Lord, I am not proud.
I do not think that I am a great person.
I do not try to do great things.
I do not worry about things that are too hard for me to understand.
2 Instead, I am quiet
and there is peace in my mind.
I am like a young child who sits on his mother's knee.
Yes, I have peace in my mind.
3 Israel's people, trust the Lord to help you,
now and for ever.
A song to sing as we climb.
The house of God
132 Lord, remember King David
and all the troubles that he suffered.
2 He made a special promise to the Lord.
He promised you, the Mighty One of Jacob.[a]
3 He said, ‘I will not go into my house or get into my bed;
4 I will not sleep even for a moment,
5 until I find a house for the Lord.
Yes, the Mighty One of Jacob needs a proper home.’[b]
6 Listen! We heard the news at Ephrathah.[c]
We found God's Covenant Box in the fields of Jaar.[d]
7 We will go to the Lord's home!
We will worship him on his throne!
8 Lord, come now and stay here, in your home!
Come with the Covenant Box that shows your great power.[e]
9 May your priests serve you in a good way.
Cause your faithful people to shout with joy!
10 Remember your servant, King David.
Do not turn away from your chosen king.[f]
11 The Lord made a strong promise to David.
He will not change what he has promised to do.
The Lord said,
‘I will put one of your sons on your throne to rule as king.
12 If your sons obey my covenant and my rules,
their descendants will rule for ever.’
13 The Lord has chosen Zion to be his home.
14 He said, ‘This is where I will live for ever.
This is where I want my home to be.
15 I will give Zion's people everything that they need.
Zion's poor people will have plenty of food to eat.
16 I will keep Zion's priests safe.
The people who serve God faithfully will shout loudly,
because they are so happy.
17 In Zion I will give strength to King David's family.
My chosen king will continue to rule well,
like a light that shines brightly.
18 I will cause his enemies to be ashamed.
But his own kingdom will be great!’
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.
133 It is good for a family of God's people to live together in peace.
Yes! It brings great pleasure!
2 It brings pleasure like valuable olive oil
that is poured on your head,
and it goes down onto your beard.
They poured it onto Aaron's head and his beard,
and it went down onto his clothes.[g]
3 It brings pleasure like the dew on Hermon.[h]
It makes the mountains of Zion become wet.[i]
That is the place where the Lord has promised to bless his people.
He blesses them with life for ever.
A song to sing as we climb.
A song at night
134 Listen, all you servants of the Lord,
come and praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord,
all you who serve him in his temple during the night.
2 Lift up your hands towards his Holy Place,
and praise him.
3 The Lord made the heaven and the earth.
From his home in Zion, may he bless you!
A song to praise God
135 Hallelujah![j]
Praise the name of the Lord!
Praise him, you servants of the Lord!
2 You serve the Lord in his temple.
You serve him in the temple yards.
3 The Lord is good, so praise him!
His name is good and great,
so praise him with songs!
4 The Lord chose Jacob's family for himself.
Yes, he chose Israel's people to belong to him.[k]
5 I know that the Lord is great.
Our Lord is greater than any other god.
6 He does whatever he decides to do.
He rules the sky and the earth,
and the deepest parts of the sea.
7 The Lord causes clouds to rise up all over the earth.
He sends lightning with the storms of rain.
He sends out the wind from its place,
so that it blows where he chooses.
8 God destroyed the firstborn sons in Egypt,
both men and animals.[l]
9 He did great miracles in Egypt.
He warned Pharaoh and his officers
that he would punish them.
10 He destroyed many nations
and he killed powerful kings.
11 He killed Sihon, the king of the Amorites.
He killed Og, the king of Bashan,
and all the other kings of Canaan.
12 He gave their land to his people, the Israelites.
The land would belong to them and to their descendants.
13 Lord, people will always remember your name.
You will always be famous.
14 The Lord shows that his people are right.
He is kind to those who serve him.
15 Other nations make idols with silver and gold.
People worship things that they have made with their hands!
16 Their idols have mouths, but they cannot speak!
They have eyes, but they cannot see!
17 They have ears, but they cannot hear!
They cannot even breathe!
18 The people who made them will become as they are.
Everyone who trusts in idols
will become as useless as their idols are.[m]
19 Israel's family, praise the Lord!
Descendants of Aaron, praise the Lord!
20 Descendants of Levi, praise the Lord!
Everyone who serves the Lord, praise him!
21 Everyone in Zion should praise the Lord.
He is the one who has his home in Jerusalem.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The Lord will punish Jerusalem
3 It will be very bad for the city!
It is like something that is dirty.
Its people will not obey me. They like to fight weak people. They also like to do bad things.
2 They do not listen to anyone's voice.
Nobody can warn them that they are doing wrong things.
They do not trust in the Lord.
They do not come near to their God.
3 The rulers of the city make a very loud noise with their voices like big wild animals.
Its judges are like hungry wolves.
They are like wolves that have even eaten all an animal's bones before morning.
4 Its prophets do not know what to think.
People cannot trust them.
Its priests have done wrong things,
even in God's holy house.
They have also made changes to God's rules.
They have made changes that they want.
5 But the Lord is among all the people in the city.[a]
He will do what is right.
He is always the honest judge.
He never fails.
But the bad people do not know how to be ashamed.
6 ‘I have destroyed nations,’ the Lord says.
‘There is nobody in their strong towers now.
I have made their streets empty, so no people are there.
I have destroyed their cities.
So nobody lives in them now.
7 I said, “Now people in the city will respect me!
Now they will agree when people warn them.”
The people would have been safe if they had accepted it.
Then I would not have to destroy them.
But it did not happen. I had to punish them.
Still, the people got up early to do bad things.
8 So wait for me,
I will stand up and I will punish the nations.
I have decided to bring together the nations and the people that kings rule over.
Then I will punish them very, very much.
They will see how angry I am.
They will see it because, on that day, I will burn all the earth.’
That is what the Lord says.
The Lord will make the people pure
9 ‘Then I will give to people lips that I have made pure.
With those lips, they will call me Lord.[b]
And then, all the people will agree to work together for me.’
10 ‘Some people live a long way beyond the rivers of Cush.
Yes, my people who pray went away to many other countries.
They will return and they will carry their gifts to me.
11 At that time, you will not have to be ashamed
of the wrong things that you have done against me.
But I will take away those who do not see anything wrong in themselves.
Those people will not call each other
“the people who live on God's holy mountain”.
12 But I will let the poor people remain there.
These are the people who have had bad times.
These are the people who will trust me. And they will call me Lord.
13 I will let those people stay there.
They will not do any bad things.
They will only say things that are true.
They will say honest things.
They will eat well and they will sleep well.
Nobody will make them afraid.’
11 My friends, remember that you are really strangers in this world. You do not belong here. So I am telling you not to do the bad things that your bodies may want to do. Those bad things fight against what is good for your soul. 12 You are living among people who do not know God. So be very careful that you always live in a good way. Sometimes these people may wrongly say that you do bad things. But if you continue to live in a good way, they will see that you really do good things. As a result, on the day when God comes as judge, they will give honour to him.
Obey people who have authority over you
13 Obey all people who have authority in this world. Obey them, because you are servants of the Lord Jesus. First of all, obey the king, who rules everyone. 14 Also obey the officers that serve the king. He has sent them to punish people who do bad things. And they praise people who do good things. 15 God wants you to do only what is good. Then silly people will not be able to say bad things against you. Those people do not really know what is true.
16 You are free people. But you are servants of God. So do not think, ‘Because I am free, I can do any bad thing that I want to do.’ 17 Respect all people. Love the believers as you would love your family. Obey God as your master. Respect the king.
18 You who are slaves must obey your masters. Always respect them. Do that to every kind of master. Obey those who are good and kind. But also obey masters who are not fair to you. 19 This makes God happy. Maybe your master will punish you when you have done nothing wrong. If you know that you are serving God, continue to be patient and brave. 20 But if you do something wrong, then your master ought to punish you. That is only fair. Even if you are brave when he is cruel to you, nobody should praise you for that. But your master may punish you even when you have done good things. Then God will be happy if you are patient and brave. 21 When God chose you to be his servants, he wanted you to be brave like that. Christ had trouble and pain on your behalf. He has shown you how you should live when trouble comes. 22 The Bible says this:
‘He never did anything that was wrong.
He never said anything that was not true.’
23 People insulted Christ, but he did not say any bad thing to answer them. People caused him to have trouble, but he never tried to hurt them in return. Instead, Christ trusted God to help him. He knew that God always judges people fairly. 24 When Christ died on the cross, he carried our sins in his own body.[a] He took this punishment so that sin would no longer rule over us. Instead, we can now do the right things that God wants us to do. Because people hurt Christ's body, you have now become well.[b] 25 Before, you were like sheep that were going the wrong way. But now you have turned round and come to Christ. He is your Shepherd, and he keeps you completely safe.
Jesus tells a story about some workers in a field
20 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There was an important man who had a field where he grew grapes. He went out early in the morning. He wanted to find some people who would work in his field. 2 The master agreed with the workers that he would pay them one silver coin for a day's work.[a] Then he sent them to work in the field.
3 The master went out again about three hours later. He saw some other men standing in the market place. They had no work to do. 4 So the master said to these men, “You also go and work in my field. I will pay you the right amount of money.” 5 So the workers went to the master's field and started to work.
The master went out again at noon, and he went again three hours after that. Both times he sent men to his field to work. 6 Two hours later, at five o'clock, he went out again. He found more men who were standing there. And they had no work to do. The master asked them, “Why are you standing here all day and you are not working?”
7 The men said to the master, “Nobody has asked us to work for him.”
So the master said to them, “You also go now and work in my field.”
8 Then the evening came. The master of the field spoke to the man who had authority over the workers. He said to him, “Tell the workers to come here. Pay them their money. Begin with the workers who started to work at the end of the day. Finish with the workers who started first.”
9 The workers who had come to work at five o'clock in the evening received one silver coin each. 10 The workers who had come to work first thought that they would receive more than the other workers. But each of them also received one silver coin. 11 When they received their money, they were not happy. They told the master that he had not been fair to them. 12 They said to him, “Some of these other workers came last and only worked for one hour. But you have paid them the same money as you paid us. And we have worked all day in the hot sun.”
13 Then the master said to one of the workers, “My friend, I am being fair to you. You agreed to work for one day and to receive one silver coin. 14 Take your money and go home. I choose to give this last man the same amount of money as I gave to you. 15 It is my money. I can choose what to do with it. I want to be kind to people and give them more than we agreed. Does that make you upset?” ’
16 Jesus then said, ‘So, one day, those people who are not important now will become the most important. Those people who are very important now will become the least important.’
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