Book of Common Prayer
This song is for the music leader.
The Lord's servant, David, wrote it.
David sang these words to the Lord when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies. This was at the time when Saul was king.
Thank you, Lord![a]
18 I love you, Lord.
You make me strong.
2 The Lord keeps me safe.
He is my great rock and my strong place.
God is my high rock.[b]
I run to him to hide and be safe.
He keeps me safe like a soldier's shield.
He is the strong place where I can hide safely.
3 I praise the Lord because he deserves it!
When I called to him for help,
he saved me from my enemies.
4 Death was near enough to catch me!
Danger was like a river that poured over me.
5 Death was tying me up with ropes,
to pull me into the deep hole of the grave.
6 In my trouble, I prayed to the Lord.
I called to my God to help me.
He heard my voice from his home in heaven.
My prayer reached his ears.
7 Then the earth moved and it shook.
Even the strong mountains shook,
because God was angry.
8 He breathed out smoke from his nose.
Fire and hot coals came out from his mouth,
to destroy his enemies.
9 God caused the sky to bend as he came down.
Dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He sat on a cherub and he flew.
The wind carried him as he travelled.
11 God covered himself with darkness.
He hid himself in dark clouds that held rain.
12 Bright light went in front of him.
Hail and lightning fell from the clouds.
13 The Lord sent thunder from the sky.
People everywhere heard the voice of the Most High God.
14 The Lord shot his arrows of lightning.
He caused his enemies to run away.
15 When you shouted against your enemies, Lord,
even the bottom of the deep sea appeared.
People could see the foundations of the earth,
when you breathed out in anger.
16 The Lord reached down to me from above.
He took hold of me and he pulled me up out of the deep water.
17 Yes, he saved me from my powerful enemies.
The people who hated me were too strong for me,
but the Lord saved me from their power.
18 They attacked me when I was in trouble,
but the Lord helped me.
19 He led me out to a place where I would be safe.
He saved me because I made him happy.
20 The Lord was kind to me
because I do things that please him.
He blesses me
because I am not guilty of bad things.
21 I have obeyed the Lord's commands.
I have not turned against my God.
22 I understand all his rules,
and I do not refuse to obey them.
23 He knows that I have done nothing that is wrong.
I kept away from any sin.
24 The Lord has been kind to me,
because I did good things.
He sees that I am not guilty.
25 Lord, if people are faithful to you,
then you are faithful to them.
If people do nothing that is bad,
they can trust you to do nothing bad to them.
26 If people always do what is right,
they can trust you to be kind to them.
But if people are wicked,
you turn against them.
27 You save people who are humble.
But if people are proud, you bring them down very low.
28 Lord, you make my lamp burn brightly.
My God is my light in the dark.
29 You make me strong,
so that I can attack a whole army!
With the help of my God,
I can climb over any high wall.[c]
30 God's way is perfect.
Yes, the Lord's promises are always true.
He keeps safe everyone who goes to him for help,
like a shield that keeps a soldier safe.
31 We know that the Lord is God,
and no one else.
Only our God can keep us safe,
like a strong rock!
32 It is God who makes me strong.
He shows me the safe way through my life.
33 He makes my feet stand strongly on the ground.
Like a deer,
I can stand on high mountains and not fall.
34 He teaches me how to fight in war.
He makes my arms strong
to shoot arrows from a metal bow.[d]
35 Lord, your power has helped me to be strong.
You have kept me safe, like a shield.
Your kind help has made me great.
36 You have helped me to move safely,
so that my feet do not slip.
37 I ran after my enemies and I caught them.
I did not turn back until I had killed them.
38 I knocked them down to the ground.
They could not get up again.
They fell under my feet.
39 You have made me strong to fight battles,
so that I win against my enemies.
40 You cause my enemies to turn around,
and they run away from me.
I can destroy those who hate me.
41 They call out for help,
but nobody is there to help them.
They call to the Lord,
but he does not answer them.
42 I beat them into dust
that the wind blows away.
I walk over them,
like dirt that lies on the streets.
43 You have saved me from people who attacked me.
You made me a ruler of other nations.
People that I did not know before
now serve me as their ruler.
44 When foreign people hear about me,
they choose to obey me.
They cannot stand against me
because they are afraid.
45 They are not brave enough to fight me.
They shake with fear,
as they come out of their strong cities.
46 The Lord is alive! He is my strong Rock!
Everyone should praise him!
He rules as king!
He is the God who saves me.
47 He is the true God who punishes my enemies.
He makes the nations obey me.
48 He is the one who saves me from my enemies.
Yes, God, you give me power
to win against those who attack me.
You keep me safe from angry and cruel men.
49 Lord, I will thank you,
so that all the nations know about you.
I will sing to praise your name.
50 Yes, the Lord gives power to me, David, his king.
He gives me great strength to win against my enemies.
I am the special king that he has chosen.[e]
He will continue to be kind to me
and to my descendants for ever.
6 ‘Earlier I made you hungry in all your cities. There was no food anywhere. But you did not start to pray to me again.’ The Lord says this!
7 ‘Three months before your food was ready to pick, I did not send rain. So all the food became too dry. Sometimes I sent rain to one city, but I did not send it to other cities. I sent rain to one person's land, but I did not send it to another person's land. So that other person's land became too dry. 8 People became weak. They went from city to city to look for water. They were almost too weak to walk. There was not enough water. But still you did not start to pray to me again.’ The Lord says this!
9 ‘I sent hot winds from the east. They burned the small plants, so those plants died. Worms made the other plants sick. So the other plants died. Locusts ate your trees that give fruit. But still you did not start to pray to me again.’ The Lord says this!.
10 ‘I caused many people among you to become very sick. It was like what happened many years ago in Egypt. At that time, very many people got sick. Then I sent soldiers to you. And they killed your young men and they took away your horses. The smell from dead bodies was very bad. But you still did not start to pray to me again.’ The Lord says this!
11 ‘I killed many people among you, as I destroyed the cities called Sodom and Gomorrah. Some of you did not die. You were like a stick that is already burning. And someone saves it from the fire. But still you did not start to pray to me again.’ The Lord says this!
12 ‘So I will send trouble to you Israelites again. Get ready! You will see it. Then you will know that I have come to judge you.
13 I made the mountains and I made the wind. I tell people what I have decided to do. I change dawn into night. I walk on the high places of the earth. My name is the Lord God Almighty.’
11 Certainly, God will destroy everything in this way one day. So think about how you should live now. You should be the kind of people that God is happy about. You should show that you belong to God. 12 Yes, you should continue to obey God while you are waiting for Christ to return. God has chosen that day. Try to live in a way that will make that day come soon. On that day, fire will burn the whole sky. The sky will no longer be there. Heat will destroy the universe. 13 But God has promised to make a new sky and a new earth. That is what we are waiting for. That will be a home for everything that is good and right.[a]
Peter finishes his letter
14 So, my friends, live in a good way, because you are waiting for these things to happen. Try very much to do what makes God happy. Then, when you meet God, he will see that you are clean. He will see that there is no trouble in your minds. 15 Remember that our Lord wants to save people from their sins. That is why he is now waiting patiently for people to turn to him before he will return. Paul has also written to you about these things. He is our friend that we love like a brother. God helped him to understand these things. 16 He wrote about them in all his letters. Some things that he has written are difficult for people to understand. Some people have weak minds and they are not sure about what they believe. They explain Paul's teaching in a way that deceives people. They also explain other things in the Bible wrongly. As a result, those people will destroy themselves and God will punish them.
17 My friends, you already know about these false teachers. So be very careful that you do not believe those bad people. Do not let them lead you away from God. You know what is true, so do not leave that safe place. 18 Instead, you must grow as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us. Continue to know him better and better. He will be kind to you and he will help you more and more. We praise him as he deserves! He is great now and he will be great for ever!
Jesus tells a story about a farmer
33 Then Jesus said again to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a garden to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.[a]
The man then found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him the fruit that was his. 35 But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. 36 So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. 37 After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
38 The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” 39 Then the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the garden and they killed him.’
40 Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his garden. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’
41 The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those bad people. Then he will give the garden to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’
42 Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“The builders refused to use a certain stone.
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.[b]
The Lord God did this.
And we can see that he did something great.”[c]
43 I tell you this: Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.
44 When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’[d]
45 The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. 46 They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.