Book of Common Prayer
ZAYIN
49 Remember the word that you have spoken to me, your servant.
You have made me put my hope in it.
50 When I have trouble,
your promise gives me peace in my mind.
It makes my life strong again.
51 Proud people laugh at me all the time.
But I do not turn away from your Law.
52 Lord, I remember the rules that you made long ago.
When I do that, I feel happy.
53 When wicked people turn against your Law,
I become very angry.
54 Wherever I live, I sing songs about your rules.
55 In the night, Lord, I think about who you are.
I will continue to obey your Law.
56 This is what I do every day:
I obey your teaching.
HETH
57 Lord, you are everything that I need.
I promise to obey your rules.
58 I ask you, ‘Please, please take care of me.
Be kind and forgive me,
as you have promised to do.’
59 I have thought about the way that I live.
I have decided to return to your teaching.
60 I will be quick to obey your commands.
I will not be slow to do that.
61 Wicked people try to catch me in their traps,
but I will not forget your Law.
62 I get up in the middle of the night to praise you.
I thank you for your fair rules.
63 I am a friend of everyone who respects you,
and who obeys your teaching.
64 Lord, your faithful love is everywhere!
Please teach me your commands.
TETH
65 Lord, you have blessed me, your servant,
as you have promised to do.
66 Teach me to understand what is right,
because I trust your commands.
67 Before you showed me what was right, I made mistakes,
but now I obey your teaching.
68 You are good and you do good things.
So please teach me your laws.
69 Proud people have told many lies against me,
but I love to obey your rules.
70 Those people do not understand anything,
but your Law makes me very happy.
71 When I suffered, it was good for me.
It helped me to learn your commands.
72 The rules that you have taught me are very valuable.
They are more valuable to me
than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
Riches cannot save you
49 Listen to this, people from every nation.
Yes, listen carefully,
everyone who lives in this world!
2 All people must listen, whoever you are,
whether you are rich people or poor people.
3 I will speak wise words to you.
When you know my thoughts,
you will understand things better.
4 I have studied proverbs.
I explain what they mean
as I make music on my harp.
5 When trouble comes,
why am I afraid?
When cruel people are all round me,
and they want to hurt me,
why am I afraid?
6 Those people think that their money will keep them safe.
They are proud about their riches.
7 Nobody can pay the price to save another person.
Nobody can pay God the price for their life.
8 A human life costs too much to buy it back.
Nobody could ever pay enough.
9 So nobody can live for ever.
Everyone goes to their grave one day.
10 Surely you see that even wise people die,
in the way that fools and stupid people also die.
Then their money will belong to someone else.
11 Their graves will be their homes for ever.
They had their own land,
which was called by their name,
12 but people do not live for ever,
even if they are very rich.
They will die, just like the animals.
13 The same thing will happen to fools,
and to those who copy their way of life.
Selah.
14 They will follow one another like sheep.
Death will be their shepherd
that leads them into their graves.
But when the day arrives,
righteous people will rule over them.
They will no longer live in their great houses,
but death will destroy their bodies in their graves.
15 But God will save my life from the power of death.
He will take me to a safe place with him.
Selah.
16 If somebody becomes rich
and he has more and more things,
do not be afraid![a]
17 He cannot take anything with him when he dies.
His riches cannot go with him into death.
18 While he lived, he was happy with his life.
He thought, ‘People will praise me,
because I am rich.’
19 But he will join his ancestors in death.
He will never see the light of day again.
20 Rich people do not always understand the truth.
They will die, just like the animals.
David wrote this special song for the music leader. Use the music called Mahalath.
People are wicked[a]
53 A fool thinks that there is no God.
People like that are bad.
They do evil things.
None of them does anything that is good.
2 God looks down from heaven
at the people on earth.
He wants to see if there is anyone who is really wise
and who wants to know God.
3 But they have all turned away.
They have all become evil.
Nobody does anything that is good,
not even one person.
4 People who do wicked things understand nothing.
They destroy my people
as easily as they eat bread.
They never pray to God.
5 But now they are very afraid
when there is nothing to be afraid of!
God has completely won against his enemies,
the people that attack you, his people.
God has turned against them,
so you are able to make them ashamed!
6 God, you are the one who saves your people, Israel!
Leave your home in Zion
and make your people strong again!
When God blesses his people,
Jacob's descendants will sing!
Yes, Israel's people will be very happy![b]
King Darius replies
6 King Darius told his officers to look in the books in the royal library. That was in Babylon, in the place where they stored important things. 2 But it was in the region of Media that they found a scroll about the temple in Jerusalem. It was stored in a strong building in Ecbatana. This is what the scroll said:
‘This is an important note.
3 King Cyrus gave a command about God's temple in Jerusalem, in the first year that he ruled in Babylon. He said:
“The Jews must build their temple as a place where they can offer sacrifices to their God. They must build it on its foundations. They must make it 30 metres wide and 30 metres high. 4 They must build the walls with three rows of big stones, and then a row of wooden beams. They should take money from the king's palace to pay for the work. 5 We will give back to them the silver and gold things that belong in their God's temple. King Nebuchadnezzar took them from the temple in Jerusalem and he brought them here to Babylon. Now they must return to the place where they belong, in God's house in Jerusalem.”
6 So listen to me, Tattenai, my ruler of the region on the west side of the Euphrates river. You, Shethar-Bozenai and your other officers in that region must all stay away from the temple! 7 You must not do anything to stop the work on God's temple. The Jewish ruler and their leaders must continue to build this house of God. They must build it in its proper place.
8 So I will now tell you what you must do for the Jewish leaders. You must help them to build this temple again. Use the king's money to pay for everything that they need to continue the work. Use the taxes that we receive from people in the region west of the Euphrates river. The work on the building must not stop. 9 Also give to the priests the things that they need each day for their sacrifices to the God of heaven. Give them young bulls, male sheep and lambs to use as burnt offerings. Give them grain, salt, wine and olive oil. Whenever the priests in Jerusalem ask for something, you must be sure to give it to them. 10 Then their offerings will make the God of heaven happy. They will pray for God to bless the king and his family.
11 Nobody may change what I have commanded in this letter. If anyone does not obey this command, men must remove a beam from the roof of his house. They must push the point of the beam through his body and lift him up on it. Then they must destroy his house so that it becomes a heap of stones. That is what he deserves.
12 No king or nation should try to change my command. They must never destroy God's temple in Jerusalem. That is the place that he has chosen for people to worship him. I pray that he will remove anyone who tries to attack that place.
I, Darius, have made this command. Everyone must obey it completely.’
They finish the temple
13 Tattenai, ruler of the region west of the Euphrates river, Shethar-Bozenai and their friends carefully obeyed King Darius's command. 14 So the leaders of the Jews continued to build the temple. The work went very well. They listened to the messages from God that the prophet Haggai and Iddo's grandson, Zechariah, were teaching them. They finished building the temple. Israel's God had commanded them to do that. Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, the kings of Persia, had also commanded them to do it. 15 They finished building the temple on the third day of Adar month. King Darius had then been king for six years.
16 Then the Israelite people offered the temple to God, so that he would bless it. The priests, the Levites and the other people who had returned from Babylon were all very happy. 17 They offered 100 bulls, 200 male sheep and 400 lambs. Then they sacrificed 12 male goats as a sin offering for all Israel. There was one goat for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. 18 They decided how each group of priests and Levites should work in God's temple in Jerusalem. Moses had written in his book how they should do this.
The Passover feast
19 On the 14th day of the first month, the people ate the Passover feast.[a] 20 The priests and Levites had all made themselves clean for their special work. The Levites killed the lambs for the Passover sacrifice. They did that on behalf of all the people, the priests and themselves. 21 So all the people who had returned from Babylon ate the feast. Other Israelites in Jerusalem had turned away from the bad things that other nations who lived there did. They had decided to worship the Lord, Israel's God. So they also ate the feast. 22 Then they ate the Feast of Flat Bread for seven days.[b] The Lord had caused them to be very happy, because the king of Assyria had helped them. The Lord had made the king think in a different way about the Jews in Jerusalem. He had decided to help them to build the God of Israel's temple.
The book and the Lamb
5 Then I looked at the one who was sitting on the throne. I saw that he held a book in his right hand.[a] Words were written on both sides, the inside and the outside. Seven seals kept the book closed. 2 Then I saw a powerful angel. He said with a loud voice, ‘Who is so good that they can break the seals? Who can open the book?’ 3 But nobody in heaven could open the book and look inside it. Neither could anyone on the earth or anyone under the earth open it.[b]
4 I wept much because there was nobody who was good enough. Nobody was so good that they could open the book. Nobody could look inside it. 5 Then one of the leaders said to me, ‘Do not weep! Look! There is someone who can break the seven seals and then open the book. His name is the Lion from Judah's tribe. He is called the Root of King David. He has won over all his enemies.’[c]
6 Then I saw a Lamb. He was standing in the middle of the throne. The four beings that are alive and the leaders were around him. The Lamb appeared to be like a lamb that someone had killed. He had seven horns and seven eyes. His eyes are the seven spirits of God, that God has sent into all parts of the world. 7 The Lamb came and he took the book. He took it from the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. 8 When he had taken the book, the four beings and the 24 leaders fell down to the ground in front of the Lamb. They worshipped him. Each leader had a harp to make music. They were also holding gold bowls which were full of incense. That nice smell shows what it is like when God's people pray to him. 9 The beings that are alive and the leaders sang a new song. They sang:
‘You are so good!
You are good enough to take the book.
You can break its seals and open it.
You can do this because they killed you.
When you died, you bought people for God with your blood.
You bought them from every tribe,
from every language and every nation.
10 You have caused them to belong to the kingdom of our God.
You have made them priests,
so that they serve God.
And they will rule on the earth.’
Jesus explains to his disciples why he teaches with stories
10 Then Jesus' disciples came to him. They asked him, ‘Why do you use stories to speak to the crowd?’
11 Jesus replied, ‘God has let you know what these stories mean. You understand how God rules in the lives of his people. But these other people do not understand what the stories mean. 12 A person who has received some things will receive even more. He will have lots of good things. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. 13 The reason I use stories to talk to other people is this:
These people look. But they do not really see clearly.
They hear the words. But they do not really understand.[a]
14 Long ago, the prophet Isaiah spoke a message from God about those people.[b] Now it has become true. God said:
“You will listen and listen. But you will not understand.
You will look and look. But you will not see anything.
15 These people do not really want to understand.
They are like people who have shut their ears.
They are like people who have shut their eyes.
If they did want to look, then they would really see.
If they did want to listen, then they would really hear.
They would understand my message.
They would turn back to obey me.
Then I would forgive them and I would make them well.” ’
16 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘But as for you, be happy because God has helped you to see. He has helped you to hear and understand his message. 17 I tell you this: Many prophets and good people from a long time ago wanted to see these things. But they did not see the things that you are seeing. They wanted to hear the message that you are hearing. But they did not hear it.’
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