Book of Common Prayer
A song to sing as we climb.
Lord, please help me[a]
120 I cried to the Lord to help me in my trouble.
He answered me.
2 I prayed, ‘Lord, keep me safe from people who tell lies.
Save me from people who want to deceive me.’
3 How will God punish you,
you people who deceive others?
He will punish you properly!
4 Yes, the sharp arrows of a soldier will hurt you.
They will give you pain, like wood that burns with fire.
5 I am so sad! I live in Meshek as a stranger.
I live among the people of Kedar.
6 I have lived too long with people that hate peace.
7 I want to live here in peace.
But when I say this, they only want war!
A song to sing as we climb.
Only God can keep me safe[b]
121 As I travel, I look up towards the hills.
I will find no help there.
2 My help comes from the Lord.
He made the heaven and the earth.
3 He will take care of you,
so that you do not fall.
The one who keeps you safe will not sleep.
4 Yes! The Lord keeps Israel's people safe.
He never gets tired or sleeps at all!
5 The Lord is the one who keeps you safe.
He is very near to you.
He will give you shade from the hot sun.
6 The hot sun will not hurt you in the daytime.
At night, the moon cannot hurt you.
7 The Lord is the one who takes care of you in all danger.
He keeps your life safe.
8 Whatever you do and wherever you go,
the Lord will always keep you safe,
now and for ever.
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.
122 It made me very happy when people said to me,
‘We will go to the house of the Lord.’[c]
2 Now we have arrived!
We are standing inside your gates, Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is a strong city where many people can meet together.
4 Israel's tribes who belong to the Lord go up there.[d]
They go there to thank the Lord,
as he has commanded them.
5 Israel's leaders sit there to judge the people.
They sit on the thrones of King David's descendants.
6 Pray that there will be peace in Jerusalem.
Pray that people who love Jerusalem will be safe.
7 Yes, I pray that there will be peace inside the city's walls.
I pray people will be safe in their strong houses.
8 Because of my family and my friends I will pray,
‘Please let there be peace in Jerusalem.’
9 Because of the house of the Lord our God,
I will pray for good things to happen in Jerusalem.
A song to sing as we climb.
Servants of the Lord
123 I look up to you, God,
as you rule from your throne in heaven.
2 Yes, our eyes look up to the Lord our God.
We want him to be kind to us, so we wait for his help.
We wait like servants who want help from their master.
3 Please be kind to us, Lord. Please forgive us.
People have insulted us more and more!
4 We have had too much!
Proud people laugh at us,
and they do not respect us.
Please stop them!
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.[e]
124 If the Lord was not fighting for us,
what would have happened?
Israel's people, now answer:
2 ‘If the Lord was not fighting for us when men attacked us,
3 our enemies would have eaten us alive![f]
They would have destroyed us,
because they were so angry against us.
4 They would have been too strong for us,
like rivers of waters that covered us,
5 They would have been like deep water over our heads
that drowned us.[g]
6 We should praise the Lord!
He did not let our enemies destroy us,
like wild animals that kill their food and eat it.
7 Now we have become free,
like a bird that got free out of a trap.
Our enemies lost their power, and we are free![h]
8 The one who helped us is the Lord.
He made the whole universe.’
A song to sing as we climb.
125 People who trust in the Lord are strong,
like Mount Zion.[i]
Nothing can shake it. It will always be there.
2 The Lord is always near to his people,
like the mountains round Jerusalem.
He keeps his people safe, now and for ever.[j]
3 Wicked people will not rule over God's own people.
They will not rule the land where righteous people live.
If they did, the righteous people might also do bad things.
4 Lord, please do good things to good, honest people.
Be kind to those who follow your good ways.
5 But as for people who follow their own bad ways,
Lord, please remove them!
Take them away, along with people who do evil things.
May Israel have peace!
A song to sing as we climb.
The Lord has done great things for us![k]
126 When the Lord turned us round,
so that we enjoyed a good life in Zion again,
we thought that we were dreaming!
2 At that time, we laughed a lot.
We shouted because we were so happy!
People in other countries said to each other,
‘The Lord has done great things for them!’
3 Yes, the Lord has done great things for us.
So we are very happy.
4 Lord, please bless us like before.
That will be like streams of water that return to the desert.[l]
5 When people went out to plant their seeds,
they were crying.
But they will be happy when they bring in the harvest!
6 People were weeping when they took their bags of seeds to plant.[m]
But when they carry their crops back home,
they will shout because they are so happy![n]
A song to sing as we climb.
Solomon wrote this song.
Every good thing comes from God[o]
127 The Lord must build your house.
If not, the work of the builders is useless.
The Lord must keep the city safe.
If not, the city guards are useless.
2 It will not help you to work all day for food, and never stop.
God gives food to the people that he loves.
Even while they sleep, God takes care of them.
3 Children are a gift from the Lord.
He blesses us with descendants.
4 If you have sons while you are a young man,
they are like a soldier's arrows.
5 If a man has many sons,
God has blessed him.[p]
When his enemies speak against him at the city gate,
they will not win.[q]
Ezekiel hears news about Jerusalem
21 This is what happened 12 years after we had come to Babylon as prisoners. It was on the 5th day of the 10th month of that year. A man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me in Babylon.[a] He said, ‘Enemies have taken Jerusalem for themselves.’ 22 Before that man arrived, the Lord had taken hold of me in the night. He had opened my mouth so that I was able to speak again.[b]
23 Then the Lord gave this message to me:
24 ‘Son of man, there are people who continue to live in the places in Israel that have become heaps of stones. Those Israelites are saying, “Abraham was only one man, but God gave him the whole land of Israel. We are many people. So we can be sure that the land now belongs to us.”
25 Because they say that, you must tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: You eat meat which still has blood in it. You worship your idols. You also murder people. So you do not deserve to have the land for yourselves. 26 You use violence to get the things that you want. You do disgusting things. You have sex with other men's wives. So you should certainly not have the land!”
27 Say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I promise you this, as surely as I live. Soldiers will kill the people who live among the heaps of stones. I will cause wild animals to eat the people who live in the fields. Diseases will kill the people who hide in strong buildings and in caves. 28 I will make the land become empty, like a desert. You will no longer be proud of your power. Israel's mountains will become empty places that nobody travels through. 29 I will cause the land to become heaps of stones where nobody lives. I will do that to punish the people for the disgusting things that they have done. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
30 Son of man, the Israelites who are here with you in Babylon are talking about you. They meet together near the walls of the city and at the doors of their houses. They are saying to each other, “Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.”
31 They are my people and they come as a crowd to listen to you. They sit and they listen to your words. But they do not obey what you say. They say that they love me. But really they like to cheat people to get things for themselves. 32 They like to hear your voice. For them, you are like someone who sings beautiful songs about love. They listen to your words but they do not obey them.
33 All these things that I have said will certainly happen. When my people see them happen, they will know that a prophet has lived among them.’
God forgives our sins because of Jesus' death
2 I am writing this letter to you, my friends who are like my little children. I am writing to you because I do not want you to do wrong things. But if anyone among you does something wrong, there is someone who will speak to God on our behalf. That person is Jesus Christ, who always does only what is right. He will ask our Father God to forgive you. 2 Jesus died as a sacrifice to take the punishment for our sin. Then God could forgive us. Jesus did that not only for us. He did it for all people in the world, so that God could forgive them for their sins.
3 This is how we can be sure that we know God: If we obey God's commands, we know that we belong to him. 4 Someone may say, ‘I belong to God.’ But if he does not obey God's commands, that person is telling a lie. He is not living in the way that God's true message teaches us. 5 But anyone who obeys God's message shows that he really loves God completely. So this is how we know that we belong to God. 6 If we say that we are living in God's true way, then we must live in the way that Jesus lived.[a]
God tells us to love each other
7 My friends, I am telling you to love one another. When I write this to you, I am not giving you a new rule. It is an old rule that you have had for a long time. We gave it to you when you began to obey Christ. It is the same message that you have already heard. 8 But there is something new about it. This rule has become true in the way that Christ lived. Now it has also become true in your lives. God's true message has brought light to shine in your lives. You no longer live in the dark where you do bad things. 9 A person may say that he is living in the light. But if that person hates another believer, then he is telling a lie. He is still living in the dark. 10 Anyone who loves other believers shows that he is living in the light. There is nothing that will make him turn away from God. 11 But if someone hates other believers, he is still living in a bad way. He is like someone who is walking in the dark. He cannot see where he is going. He is like a blind person. He cannot understand God's true message.[b]
Jesus wants God to send out more disciples
35 Jesus went to visit all the towns and villages near there. He taught the people in the Jewish meeting places. He told them the good news about God's kingdom. He also caused sick people to become well again from all their different pains and illnesses.
36 When Jesus saw the crowds of people, he felt sorry for them. They had trouble in their minds. They had nobody to help them. Jesus thought, ‘These people are like sheep that have nobody to take care of them.’ 37 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Many people are ready to believe God's message. They are like crops in the fields at harvest time. But there are very few workers to bring in the crops. 38 So pray to God to send out workers. The field and the crops belong to him.’[a]
Jesus chooses 12 men to be his apostles[b]
10 One day, Jesus asked his 12 disciples to come to him. He gave them authority over bad spirits so that they could send the spirits out of people. They could also make sick people well again from every kind of illness.
2 These are the names of the 12 apostles:
The first apostle is Simon, who was also called Peter.
Then Simon's brother, who was called Andrew.
Also James and his brother John, who were Zebedee's sons.
3 There were Philip and Bartholomew.[c]
There were Thomas and Matthew.[d] (Matthew's job was to take taxes from people.)
And James who was the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus.[e]
4 There was also Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who later gave Jesus to his enemies.[f]
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