Book of Common Prayer
Asaph wrote this psalm.
God is our judge[a]
50 God, the great God, the Lord, is speaking.
He is calling everybody on the earth,
from where the sun rises in the east,
to where it goes down in the west.
2 God is shining out from Zion,
that most beautiful place.
3 Our God is coming,
and he does not come quietly!
A fire burns up everything that is in front of him.
There is a great storm all round him.
4 He calls to the skies above,
and to the earth below.
They must watch while he judges his people.
5 He says, ‘Bring my people to me.
They are the people who offered sacrifices to me,
to agree our covenant.’
6 The skies above show that God is righteous,
and God himself is the judge.
Selah.
7 He says, ‘Listen to me, my people,
and I will speak to you.
I have something to say against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.
8 You offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to me all the time
but that is not why I speak against you.
9 I do not need a bull from your farm,
or goats from your fields.
10 All the wild animals of the forest belong to me!
All the cows on a thousand hills belong to me!
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
as well as all the insects.
12 Even if I did become hungry,
I would not tell you.
All the world belongs to me,
and everything that is in it.
13 Do I eat the meat of bulls? No!
Do I drink the blood of goats? No!
14 Say “thank you” to me as your offering.
Do whatever you have promised to do for me,
the Most High God.
15 Pray to me when you are in trouble.
Then I will rescue you,
and you will praise me.’[b]
16 But God says this to the wicked people:
‘It is useless for you to speak about my commands,
or about my covenant.
17 For you hate my teaching,
and you refuse to accept my message.
18 If you see a robber,
you run to help him!
You become friends with adulterers.
19 You speak about evil things,
and you are always telling lies.
20 You say bad things about your own brother,
and you speak against your own family!
21 You did all these things,
and I said nothing.
So you thought that I was as bad as you are.
But now I am warning you!
I will tell you clearly
what you have done wrong.
22 So think carefully about this,
all you people who have turned away from me.
If not, I will tear you into pieces,
and nobody will be able to save you.
23 If anyone wants to praise me,
they should say “thank you” to me as their offering.
If anyone obeys my commands,
I will show them my power to save people.’
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when King Saul sent men to catch David at his house and murder him.
A prayer[a]
59 My God, please save me from my enemies!
They are attacking me,
so please keep me safe from them.
2 Rescue me from those dangerous men,
who are doing evil things.
3 Look at them! They are waiting to kill me!
Cruel men are ready to attack me.
Lord, I have not done anything against them,
but they still want to kill me.
4 I have done nothing that is wrong,
but they are preparing to attack me.
Do something to help me!
Look at what they are doing!
5 For you are the Lord God Almighty,
the God that Israel serves.
Get up and punish all the foreign nations.
Do not forgive any wicked people
who have turned against us.
Selah.
6 Those bad people come back to the city every evening.
They go from place to place,
and they cry out like dogs.
7 They shout evil things,
and their words hurt like swords.
They think, ‘Nobody can hear what we say!’
8 But Lord, you laugh at them.
You laugh at all the foreign nations.
9 I will wait for you to help me,
because you are the one who gives me strength.
You, God, are the strong place
where I will be safe.
10 Yes God, you love me with a faithful love,
and you will come to help me.
God will let me see that he has won against my enemies.
11 Do not kill them yet,
or my people will soon forget.
Use your power to send them away without homes.
Then make them fall!
You are our Lord
who keeps us safe like a soldier's shield.
12 They speak bad words that are evil.
Let their own pride catch them in a trap,
because they curse people,
and they tell lies.
13 Because you are angry with them,
destroy them!
Destroy them completely,
so that they are no more.
Then everybody will know that God rules in Israel,
and he rules everywhere in the earth.
Selah.
14 Those bad people come back to the city every evening.
They go from place to place,
and they cry out like dogs.
15 They go from place to place
and they look for food to eat.
They will not rest until they are full.
16 But I will sing to praise you.
I will sing about your strength!
In the morning,
I will praise you for your faithful love.
Because you are the strong place where I can hide.
When I am in trouble,
you keep me safe.
17 You are the one who gives me strength.
I will sing songs to praise you.
You, God, are my strong, safe place.
You are the God who loves me with a faithful love.
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer to teach people. He wrote it when he fought wars in north Syria. After the battle, Joab's army killed 12,000 of Edom's people in Salt Valley.
God, please help us![b]
60 God, you have turned against us,
and you have broken down our strong walls.[c]
You are angry with us,
but please make us strong again!
2 You made the ground shake
and you tore it open.
Now mend the holes,
or everything will fall down.
3 You have given your people a time of difficult trouble.
You have given us strong wine to drink,
that has made us fall like drunk people.[d]
4 But you have lifted up a flag
for the people who serve you.
They can meet together there,
to be safe in the battle.
Selah.
5 Use your power to rescue us!
Answer our prayers!
Then the people that you love will be safe.
6 God has spoken from his holy place![e]
He has promised:
‘I will show my power!
I will make Shechem into separate pieces.
I will measure Succoth Valley.
7 Gilead belongs to me,
and so does Manasseh.
Ephraim is like my helmet for war.
Judah has the authority of my royal sceptre.[f]
8 But Moab is the place where I wash my hands.
Edom is my servant.
I can throw my shoes at him!
I will shout loudly,
because I have won against the Philistines.’[g]
9 Who will lead me into the strong city?
Who will take me to fight and win against Edom?[h]
10 God, have you really turned against us?
Will you not lead our armies into battle?
11 Help us to fight against our enemies,
because help from men is useless!
12 With God's help, we will win!
He will beat down our enemies for us.
Praise the Lord![a]
33 You righteous people,
sing to praise the Lord,
and be happy!
It is right for good, honest people to do that.
2 Pick up your harp
and praise the Lord!
Make music for him
with a lyre that has ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song!
Make beautiful music,
as you sing aloud to praise him.
4 Yes! The Lord's message is true.
We can always trust him to do what is right.
5 He loves everything that is right and fair.
The world is full of his faithful love.
6 The word of the Lord made the heavens.
When he spoke,
all the stars in the sky appeared.
7 He put the water of the sea together in a heap.
He made the deep seas stay in their right places.
8 Everyone who lives on the earth should respect the Lord.
They should bend down to worship him.
9 The Lord spoke,
and the world began!
He spoke his command,
and everything became fixed in its place.[b]
10 Nations decide what they want to do,
but the Lord causes their plans to be useless.
11 But whatever the Lord decides to do
will always happen.
His thoughts will not change
from one century to the next.
12 The Lord blesses the nation
that has him as their God.
He has chosen them to belong to him,
as his own special people.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven.
He sees every man, woman and child.
14 From the place where he lives,
he watches everyone that lives on the earth.
15 He made each person and all their thoughts.
He knows everything that they do.
16 A great army will not save their king.
A soldier does not stay alive because he is strong.
17 In war, do not hope that even a strong horse will help you to win.
You can not trust it to save you.
18 Remember, the Lord takes care of people who respect him.
Those people trust him for his faithful love.
19 They trust him to keep them safe from death,
and to keep them alive during a time of famine.
20 Yes! We will trust the Lord to come and help us.
He is our helper who keeps us safe,
like a soldier's shield.
21 We are happy because he loves us.
We trust in his holy name.
22 Lord, help us to know your faithful love,
because we are trusting in you.
The burning lights and the olive trees
4 The angel that talked with me before woke me. I, Zechariah, was like a man who wakes out of his sleep. 2 The angel said to me, ‘What do you see?’ I said, ‘I see a lampstand that is made from gold. It has seven lamps and a bowl on top which contains oil. And it has seven branches that take the oil to each lamp. 3 And two olive trees are standing by the lampstand. One tree is on the right and one tree is on the left.’
4 I, Zechariah, said to the angel that talked with me, ‘What does this light mean, my lord?’
5 He said, ‘Do you not know what these are?’
I said, ‘No, my lord.’
6 Then the angel said to me, ‘The Lord said this to Zerubbabel: “You will need my Spirit. You yourself are too weak.[a] And you do not have enough power.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: 7 “Big mountain, you are no problem. You will become flat ground in front of Zerubbabel. Then he will bring out the last and biggest stone of my house. The people will shout, ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ” ’
8 Then the Lord's message came to me, Zechariah. He said, 9 ‘Zerubbabel has put down the first stone of my house. He will also finish it.’[b] Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.
10 Everyone should know that the day of small things is important.
Men will see Zerubbabel. Then they will sing and they will be happy. They will see him with a line in his hand to measure the walls.
The Lord sees everything in the whole earth. (The seven lights are the seven eyes of the Lord.)
11 Then I said to the angel, ‘What are these two olive trees that stand on the right and on the left of the lampstand?’
12 A second time I spoke to the angel, ‘What are these two branches of the olive trees? They are next to the gold pipes and oil comes from those pipes.’
13 The angel replied, ‘Do you not know what these olive trees mean?’
‘No, my lord,’ I said.
14 So the angel said, ‘These are the two men that the Lord of all the earth has chosen to be his servants.’[c]
9 God sits on the throne and he is alive for ever. The four beings that are alive worship him and they thank him. 10 When they do this, the 24 leaders bend down to the ground. They also worship the Lord God, who sits on the throne and is alive for ever. They put their crowns in front of God's throne, and they praise him. They say:
11 ‘God, our Lord, you are very good!
Everyone should give you honour and say how great and powerful you are!
Everyone should worship you, because you created everything.
You decided to make them and so you made them!
That is why everything in the world is here.’
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]
Jesus tells a story about ten young women
25 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage party. They took their lamps with them and they went to meet the man who was marrying a wife. 2 Five of these young women were silly. The other five young women were wise. 3 The silly women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them. 4 The five wise women took jars of oil with their lamps. 5 The man who was marrying a wife did not come for a long time. So all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.
6 In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The man is coming! Come out to meet him!”
7 The ten young women woke up. Then they prepared their lamps to make them work well. 8 The five silly young women said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not giving much light.” 9 The wise women replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for yourselves.”
10 So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the man arrived for the marriage party. The five wise women were ready. They went with him into the house for the party. Then the servants shut the door.
11 Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.” 12 But he replied, “I tell you, I do not know you.” ’
13 Then Jesus said to the people, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’[a]
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