Book of Common Prayer
33-34 In places where people are wicked,
God makes the streams and rivers become dry,
so that the land becomes a desert.
He makes good land
become a salty wilderness.
35 But for his people, he changes deserts
to become pools of water.
He makes springs of water in dry land.
36 He lets hungry people live there safely.
They can build a city for themselves.
37 They plant crops in their fields,
and they plant vines to grow grapes.
They have plenty of food to eat.
38 He blesses them,
so that they have many children.
Their animals also grow in number.
39 But they may become weak and few in number,
because of cruel enemies who give them trouble.
40 Then God causes the enemy's leaders to become ashamed.
He makes them travel on roads that go nowhere.
41 But for people who are poor and weak,
he rescues them from their trouble.
He gives them many children,
so that they have big families.
42 Good people see what God has done,
and it makes them happy.
Wicked people have nothing to say!
43 Wise people should think about these things.
They should understand the Lord's faithful love for his people.
This psalm is a song that David wrote.
A prayer for help[a]
108 God, I have decided to trust you always.
I will sing songs to praise you,
with all that I am.
2 I will pick up my harp and my lyre.
I will make music as the sun rises!
3 Lord, I will thank you in front of all the people.
I will sing to praise you,
so that all nations hear.
4 Your faithful love is great.
It is higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches beyond the clouds.
5 God, show how great you are,
high above the sky!
Let everybody on the earth see your glory.
6 Use your power to rescue us!
Answer our prayers!
Then the people that you love will be safe.
7 God has spoken from his holy place![b]
He has promised:
‘I will show my power!
I will make Shechem into separate pieces.
I will measure Succoth Valley.
8 Gilead belongs to me,
and so does Manasseh.
Ephraim is like my helmet for war.
Judah has the authority of my royal sceptre.[c]
9 But Moab is the place where I wash my hands.
Edom is my servant.
I can throw my shoes at him!
I will shout aloud,
because I have won against the Philistines.’[d]
10 Who will lead me into the strong city?
Who will take me to fight and win against Edom?[e]
11 God, have you really turned against us?
Will you not lead our armies into battle?
12 Help us to fight against our enemies,
because help from men is useless!
13 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.
Jacob goes back to Bethel
35 After these things had happened, God said to Jacob, ‘Go to Bethel and live there. Build an altar to worship me. I am the God who appeared to you when you were running away from Esau.’ 2 So Jacob told the people in his house and everyone who was with him, ‘Throw out all the foreign idols that you have with you. Wash your body very well and put on clean clothes. 3 Then we will go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to worship God. He is the one who answered me when I was in trouble. And he has been with me everywhere that I went.’
4 So the people gave to Jacob all their idols and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob buried these things under the oak tree near Shechem city. 5 Then they began their journey. All the towns near there were afraid of God's power. So no one attacked Jacob and his people.
6 Jacob and everyone with him arrived at Luz, now called Bethel. That is in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there. He called the place El Bethel, because that was where God appeared to him.[a] God had appeared to him when he was running away from his brother Esau.
8 Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died at that time. Jacob buried her under the oak tree near Bethel. That is why they call the place Allon Bacuth.[b]
9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. God blessed Jacob. 10 He said to Jacob, ‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.’ So God gave the name Israel to Jacob.[c]
11 Then God said to him, ‘I am Almighty God. Give birth to many children so that your descendants become very many. They will become many nations and some of them will be kings. 12 I give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give this land to your descendants that come after you.’[d]
13 Then God went away from the place where he spoke to Jacob. 14 Jacob set up a special stone on the ground. It showed the place where God had spoken to him. He poured a drink offering on the stone. He also poured olive oil on it. 15 In that way, Jacob called the place where God spoke to him Bethel.
16 Then they left Bethel and they continued to travel. When they were still a long way from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth. She had a lot of pain. 17 As she was having even more pain, the woman who was helping her said, ‘Do not be afraid. You have another son!’ 18 But Rachel was dying. With her last breath, she gave to her son the name Ben-Oni. But Jacob, his father, called him Benjamin.[e]
19 After Rachel died, they buried near the road that goes to Ephrath.[f] 20 Jacob set up a special stone over the place where they buried Rachel. This stone still shows the place.
Christians must love one another
11 Yes, we must love one another. That is the message which you have heard from the beginning. 12 We should not be like Cain. He belonged to Satan and he even killed his brother, Abel. Why did he do that? Cain did bad things and he killed Abel because Abel did things that were right.
13 So, my Christian friends, do not be surprised when people who belong to this world hate you.
14 We know that we now have new life with God. Death no longer has power over us. We know this because we love our Christian friends. But anyone who does not love other believers is still under the power of death. 15 Anyone who hates other believers is like someone who murders other people. You know that a person like that does not have true life with God.
16 This is how we know what true love is: Jesus Christ gave his own life on the cross. He died on our behalf. So we too ought to give our lives for other believers. 17 When another believer has trouble, we need to be kind to him. Maybe you have all the things that you need to live. If you see another believer who needs things like that, you should help him. If you refuse to be kind to him, it shows that you do not belong to God. You do not love people in the way that God loves them.[a]
18 My little children, we should not show love for each other only by what we say. We should also show true love by the things that we do.
Lazarus dies
11 There was a certain man, who was called Lazarus. He lived at Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived too. He became ill. 2 It was this Mary who had poured oil with a nice smell over the feet of the Lord Jesus. Then she had cleaned his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was ill. 3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus to say, ‘Lord, the friend that you love is ill.’
4 Jesus heard the message. Then he said, ‘This illness will not finish with Lazarus's death. No, its purpose is to show how great God is. Because of this, people will see how great God's Son is.’ 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and their brother Lazarus, too. 6 He heard the news that Lazarus was ill. But then he stayed in the place where he was for two more days.
7 After that, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘We should return to Judea.’ 8 The disciples said, ‘Teacher, only a short time ago, the Jews there tried to kill you with stones. You should not return there!’ 9 Jesus answered, ‘You know that there are 12 hours in the day. Anyone who walks during the day will not fall down. He will not fall down because he sees this world's light. 10 But anyone who walks during the night will fall down. He will fall down because he has no light.’
11 After Jesus said that, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. But I will go there to wake him up.’ 12 So the disciples said to him, ‘If he is sleeping, Lord, he will get well again.’ 13 The disciples thought that Jesus was talking about sleep as rest. But Jesus meant that Lazarus had died. 14 So then, Jesus told them clearly, ‘Lazarus is dead. 15 But I am happy that I was not there with him. I am happy about that because it will help you. Now you will believe in me. We must go to him now.’ 16 Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to the other disciples, ‘We should go with our Teacher, so that we can die with him!’[a]
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.