Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this prayer.
God will help me
16 Please keep me safe, God,
because I come to you for help.
2 I have said to the Lord,
‘You are my Lord.
All the good things that I have in my life
are gifts from you.’
3 When I think about your own people who live in this land,
it makes me happy!
They are truly great people!
4 But many troubles will come
to people who choose to worship other gods.
I will not join with them
to offer gifts of blood to their gods.
I will never use the names of their gods
to make promises.
5 You, Lord, are all that I need.
What you give to me is enough,
for me and for my descendants.
6 Yes, you have given to me a good way of life.
Your gifts are better than good fields
or valuable land.
7 I will praise the Lord,
who is my guide through life.
In the dark nights,
you help me to learn what is right.
8 I will always trust the Lord to be with me.
He is very near to me,
so I will not be upset.
9 I am truly happy and I thank God.
I know that my life is safe with God.
10 You, Lord, will not leave me
in the deep hole of death.
As one who belongs to you,
you will not leave my body to spoil in the grave.
11 You will lead me along the path of life.
Because you are with me,
I am very happy.
I know that I will be with you for ever,
and that makes me very happy!
David wrote this prayer.
A prayer for help
17 Lord, please listen to me.
I am asking you to do something that is right.
I am speaking what is true,
so please do what I ask you to do.
2 Say clearly that I am not guilty.
You can see for yourself that I am right.
3 You look deep into my mind.
You check my thoughts at night.
When you test me,
you find nothing that is wrong.
I have decided that I will never tell any lies.
4 I have watched people do bad things.
But I have obeyed your commands.
I have not joined with cruel people
to do what they do.
5 No, I carefully follow your ways.
I do not turn away from them.
6 I pray to you, God,
because you will answer me.
Please listen to me when I pray to you.
7 Do great things that show your faithful love!
You have the power to keep people safe from their enemies.
You help them when they trust you for help.
8 Please keep me safe,
in the same way that people take care of their eyes.
Keep me near to you,
in the way that birds protect their babies under their wings.
9 Keep me safe from the wicked men who attack me.
My enemies are all around me,
and they want to kill me!
10 They refuse to be kind to anyone.
They speak proud words.
11 Now they have found me. They are ready to attack!
They look for their chance
to knock me down to the ground.
12 They are like hungry lions.
They want to tear me into pieces.
They are hiding like young lions.
They are ready to jump out and catch me!
13 Lord, please do something!
Fight against them! Knock them down!
Take your sword and save me from those wicked men.
14 Lord, use your power to save me from them.
They only think about this world,
and they enjoy the good things that it gives them.
So give them all that you have ready for them.
Give them more than they want!
May their children also have plenty,
and enough left to give to their children too.
15 As for me, Lord, I am not guilty of sin.
So I will see your face.
When I wake up, I will see you clearly,
and I will be really happy!
The leader must use the music called ‘The Deer of the Dawn.’
This is a song that David wrote.
Please help me, God!
22 My God!
My God, why have you left me alone?
Why is my help far away?
I am crying out in great pain!
2 My God!
I call aloud to you for help every day,
all day and all night!
But you do not answer my prayers,
so I cannot sleep.
3 I know that you are the Holy God.
You sit on your throne as king,
and Israel's people praise you.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you.
When they trusted you, you saved them.
5 They called aloud to you and you saved them.
They trusted in you,
and you did not disappoint them.[a]
6 People insult me.
They think that I am worth nothing.
It seems that I am only a worm,
and I am not really a man.
7 Everyone that sees me laughs at me.
They laugh and they shake their heads.
8 They say, ‘He should trust in the Lord!
The Lord should save him.
If the Lord is really happy with him,
the Lord should rescue him.’
9 Lord, you brought me safely to birth.
You took care of me at my mother's breasts.
10 From the day that I was born,
I have always been in your care.
You have been my God since my mother gave birth to me.
11 So do not stay far from me now.
Trouble is near to me,
and there is nobody to help me.
12 There is danger all round me,
like the strong bulls of Bashan.[b]
I cannot move
because my enemies are very near, all around me.
13 They open their mouths like lions!
They are ready to eat me!
They are like lions that tear their food into pieces.
14 My strength has gone,
like water that is poured away.
My bones do not join together properly.
I feel weak inside
and hope has disappeared.
15 My mouth has become dry like a piece of a broken pot.
My tongue sticks to my mouth.
You have left me down in the dirt,
as good as dead!
16 Wicked people are everywhere around me.
They are ready to attack me,
like a group of wild dogs.
They tear apart my hands and my feet.
17 My body is so weak
I can count all my bones.
My enemies look at me and they laugh.
They are happy because I have pain.
18 They have taken my clothes,
and they choose what they want for themselves.
They throw dice to decide who receives each piece.
19 But Lord, please do not stay far away from me!
You can make me strong again.
Please hurry to help me!
20 Keep me safe!
My enemies want to kill me with their swords.
Save my life from those wild dogs!
21 Do not let those lions eat me!
Keep me safe from the horns of those wild bulls!
I know that you have answered my prayer!
22 I will tell my people how great you are.
I will praise you when we meet together.
23 Everyone who serves the Lord must praise him!
All Jacob's descendants must respect him!
Yes, all Israel's people must worship him!
24 God did not forget to help the man who was in pain.
He did not turn away from the one who suffered.
When he called to God for help,
God answered his prayer.[c]
25 Yes, I will praise you, God,
in the great meeting of your people.
I will give to you what I have promised to give.
Everyone who serves you, Lord, will see that.
26 Poor people will have plenty of food to eat.
Those who come to the Lord will praise him.
May God help you to live well for ever!
27 People everywhere in the world will respect the Lord.
They will turn to him for help.
Families from all nations will worship you.
28 The Lord rules as king over all the nations.
29 All the rich people on earth will bend down,
and they will worship God.
Everyone will die one day.
They must all bend down in front of God.
Nobody can keep himself alive.
30 Our children will also serve God.
And they will tell their children about our Lord.
31 They will speak about all the great things that God has done
to save his people.
People who have not yet been born
will learn about the things that God has done.[d]
King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah more questions
14 One day, King Zedekiah sent some men to bring Jeremiah to meet with him. They met at the third gate of the Lord's temple. The king said to Jeremiah, ‘I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me.’ 15 Jeremiah said to the king, ‘If I give you a true answer, you will surely kill me. If I give you advice, you will not agree.’
16 But King Zedekiah made a serious promise to Jeremiah. Nobody else knew about it. He said, ‘I promise you that this is true, as surely as the Lord lives. I promise that I will not kill you. And I will not give you to the men who want to kill you.’
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You must put yourself under the power of the king of Babylon's officers. If you do that, you will not die. Your enemies will not burn down this city. You and your family will continue to live. 18 But if you do not agree to be under their power, they will take this city for themselves. They will burn it down. You yourself will become their prisoner.” ’
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid to do that. Some of Judah's people have gone out of the city to help Babylon's army. Babylon's officers might give me to them and they will be very cruel to me.’
20 Jeremiah answered the king, ‘They will not give you to those people of Judah. Obey the Lord and do as I tell you. Then you will continue to enjoy your life. 21 But if you refuse to put yourself under the power of the enemy, a terrible thing will happen to you. The Lord has shown me this in a vision. 22 The enemy's soldiers will bring out all the women in the palace of Judah's king. They will give those women to the king of Babylon's officers. The women will say to you,
“Your friends that you trusted to help you have deceived you.
They have won against you.
Your feet are now deep in the mud and you cannot move.
So your friends have gone away and left you.”
23 Babylon's soldiers will take all your wives and your children for themselves. You yourself will not escape from them. The king of Babylon will take hold of you as his prisoner. His soldiers will burn down this city.’
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘Do not tell anyone what we have talked about. If you do tell anyone, you will surely die. 25 My officers may know that we have talked together. They may come to you and ask you, “Tell us what you talked about with the king. Tell us everything that you said. If not, we will kill you.” 26 If that happens, tell them, “I was asking the king to help me. I did not want him to send me back to be a prisoner in Jonathan's house. I did not want to die there.” ’
27 All the officers did come to Jeremiah to ask him about his meeting with the king. Jeremiah said to them everything that the king had told him to say. Nobody had heard what Jeremiah and the king had really talked about. So the officers stopped asking Jeremiah any more questions.
28 After that, Jeremiah stayed in the palace yard as a prisoner. He stayed there until the day when Babylon's army took Jerusalem for themselves.
Christ became alive again after he died
15 My Christian friends, I want you to remember the good news that I taught to you. You received it from me and you continue to believe it as a true message. 2 Because of the message that I spoke to you, God will save you. He will save you if you continue to trust that same good news. If you do not, you have believed it for nothing.
3 I received the good news from Christ, and I told that message to you. I told you the most important things:
Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins. The Bible already said how that would happen. 4 People buried his dead body. On the third day after that God raised him up to live again. The Bible already spoke about that too.
5 After that, Christ appeared to Peter. Later, he appeared to his 12 disciples. 6 And after that, he appeared to more than 500 believers at the same time. Most of those 500 people are still alive, but some of them have died. 7 Then Christ appeared to James. Later he appeared to all the apostles.
8 After all these people had seen him, Christ also appeared to me. I was like someone who was born at the wrong time. 9 Among all the apostles, I am the least important. I caused so much trouble for God's church that people should not really call me an apostle. 10 But God was very kind to me. He helped me to become a different person. And because God has been so kind to me, the result has been great. I have worked more than all the other apostles. But it was not really I myself who could do that work. No, I could do it because God was so kind to me. 11 So then, all of us apostles teach the same good news about Christ. That is the message that you have believed. It does not matter which of us told it to you, whether it was me or someone else.
Jesus talks about John the Baptist
11 Jesus taught all these things to his 12 disciples. After he had finished, he went away from that place. He went to the towns near there to teach his message to people.
2 At that time, John the Baptist was in prison. But people told him about all the things that Jesus the Messiah was doing. So John sent some of his own disciples to ask Jesus some questions.[a] 3 They said to him, ‘John the Baptist wants to know this: Are you the special person that God has promised to send to us? If not, should we still look for someone else?’
4 Jesus replied, ‘Go back to John. Tell him what you have been hearing. Also, tell him what you have been seeing. 5 Blind people can now see again. People who could not walk can now walk again. People who had a bad disease of the skin are now well again. Deaf people can now hear again. People who had died now live again. Poor people are hearing God's good news. 6 If anyone believes in me and does not turn away, he will be really happy.’
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