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.
13 At the time of the harvest, three of David's 30 bravest soldiers went to be with David near Adullam. He was hiding there in a cave. A group of Philistine soldiers had made their camp in Rephaim valley. 14 David was in his strong safe place. A group of Philistine soldiers had made their home in Bethlehem. 15 David was very thirsty. He said, ‘I want someone to bring water from the well near Bethlehem's gate for me to drink.’ 16 So the three brave soldiers fought through the Philistine camp and they reached Bethlehem's gate. They took some water from the well there and they carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it. He poured it on the ground as an offering to the Lord. 17 He said, ‘Lord, it is not right for me to drink this water. It would seem like the blood of the men who fetched it for me. The Philistines might have killed them on the way.’ So David refused to drink it.
Those were some of the great things that the three brave soldiers did.
John says ‘Hello’ to a special lady
1 This letter comes from me, the leader of the believers. I am writing to you, a special lady that God has chosen, and to your children. I love all of you, because you have believed God's true message. And I am not the only one who loves you. Everyone who knows the true message about God really loves you. 2 I love you because we have all come to understand what is true. It will remain with us for ever.[a]
3 God our Father, and his Son Jesus Christ will help us. He will be kind to us and he will give us peace in our minds. This will happen because God loves us and because we believe his true message.
4 I was very happy to hear about some of your children. I am happy because they are living in a good way. They are obeying the true message about God. They are doing what God our Father has told us to do.
Do not believe false teachers
5 So now, dear lady, I want you to do something. I want all of us to love one another. I am not telling you a new command to obey. This is a command that we have had from the beginning. 6 How do we show real love? We show it when we live in a way that makes God happy. We obey his commands. He tells us to love one another, and that is how you should live. You have heard that command from the beginning.
7 I say this because many false teachers are travelling around everywhere. They do not agree that Jesus Christ was born as a human baby. People like that are telling lies. They are enemies of Christ. 8 So be careful! Do not believe their lies. Do not lose the good things that we have worked for. Make sure that you receive all the good things that God has promised to give you. 9 Remember the message which Christ taught. Anyone who teaches his own ideas instead of Christ's true message does not belong to God. Continue to believe what Christ taught. Anyone who does that belongs to God the Father and to his Son, Jesus. 10 Someone may come to you and teach you something that is different. Do not receive that person into your house. Do not receive him as a Christian. 11 If you receive people like that as Christian people, you are making yourself the same as them. You also are doing the same kind of bad work.
12 I want to tell you many more things, but I do not want to write about them in a letter. Instead, I hope to come and visit you. Then I can see you and we can talk together. Then we will be completely happy.
13 The believers here say ‘hello’ to you. They are the children of your sister that God has chosen.[b]
The marriage at Cana
2 Two days after that, there was a marriage party. It was in the town of Cana, in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. 2 People had asked Jesus and his disciples to come to the party too. 3 When people had drunk all the wine, Jesus' mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ 4 Jesus replied, ‘Woman, why do you tell me this? It is not my time yet.’ 5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you to do.’
6 There were six big pots there. People had used stone to make them. Each pot could contain about 100 litres of water. The water was there so that the Jews could wash themselves in the way that their special rules taught. 7 Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the pots with water.’ So they filled the pots to the top. 8 Then he said, ‘Now take some of the water from the pots and give it to the master of the party.’ So they did that. 9 The master of the party tasted the water. The water had now become wine! The master did not know where the wine had come from. But the servants who had given it to him knew about it. Then the master asked the new husband to come to him. 10 The master said to him, ‘Everyone else brings out the best wine first. When people have had plenty to drink, then they give people cheaper wine. But you are different. You have kept the best wine until now.’
11 Jesus did this first miracle at Cana, in Galilee. In this way, Jesus showed how great and powerful he was. And his disciples believed in him.
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