Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this song for the music leader.
A prayer[a]
41 If someone is kind to poor people,
God blesses him.
When he is in trouble,
the Lord rescues him.
2 The Lord keeps him safe.
The Lord saves his life!
God causes him to be happy
here in the land where he lives.
The Lord will not put him under the power of his enemies.
3 The Lord takes care of him
when he is ill in bed.
Whenever he is ill,
you will make him completely well again.
4 I said, ‘Lord be kind to me
and forgive me.
I have done wrong things against you,
but please make me well again.’
5 My enemies say cruel things about me.
They say, ‘Surely he must die soon!
Then everyone will forget about him.’
6 When they come to see me,
they say that they are my friends.
But they think of ways to make me ashamed.
When they leave,
they tell everyone bad things about me.
7 All the people who hate me
insult me to other people.
My enemies make plans to hurt me.
8 They say, ‘He has a dangerous disease.
He will never get up from his bed.’
9 Even my special friend has turned against me.
He was someone that I trusted.
I often ate food with him in my home.[b]
10 But you, Lord, please be kind to me.
Raise me up to be well again.
Then I can punish my enemies as they have punished me.[c]
11 They have not won against me,
so I know that you are pleased with me!
12 You continue to help me because I do what is right.
You will let me stay near to you for ever.
13 Let us all praise the Lord,
who is Israel's great God!
Yes, praise him now and for ever!
Amen! Amen!
This is a special song that David wrote for the music leader.
It was when Doeg, the man from Edom, went to Saul and told him, ‘David went to the house of Ahimelech, the priest.’
Cruel words[a]
52 Strong man, why are you so proud
about the evil things that you like to do?
Remember that God's faithful love keeps me safe.
2 Your tongue is like a sharp knife!
You talk about how to hurt other people,
You speak nothing but lies.
3 You love to do evil things,
not good things.
You love to tell lies
more than the truth.
Selah.
4 You love to say cruel words.
You speak to deceive others.
5 But God will knock you down,
and he will break you into pieces.
He will take you away from your home.
He will remove you from this world where people live.
Selah.
6 Righteous people will see what has happened,
and they will be afraid.[b]
Then they will laugh at the wicked person,
and they will say,
7 ‘Look! This man did not trust God to keep him safe.
Instead, he trusted in his riches.
He thought that he could be cruel,
and that would keep him safe.’
8 But I am like a strong olive tree
that grows in the house of God.
I will always trust in God's faithful love for his people.
9 I will always praise you, God,
for what you have done.
I will trust you to help me,
together with all those who serve you.
This is a special song that the sons of Korah wrote for the music leader.
God, please help us![a]
44 God, we have heard it for ourselves.
Our ancestors told us
what you did for them a long time ago.
2 You used your power to chase away the other nations,
so that our ancestors could live in their land.
You punished those nations,
and you helped our ancestors to be free.
3 Our ancestors did not get the land
by the power of their own swords.
Their own strength did not win the fight.
It was your own power and strength that did it!
You were kind to them because you were their friend.
4 God, you are my king!
You command that Jacob's descendants
must win against their enemies.
5 Because of your power,
we can knock down our enemies.
Because of your strength,
we can beat them down.
6 I do not trust in my bow and arrows.
It is not my sword
that has helped me to win the fight.
7 It is you who rescues us from our enemies.
You bring shame on the people that hate us.
8 Every day, we praise you, God.
We will always thank you, all the time,
because you are great!
Selah.
9 But now you have turned against us.
You have made us ashamed.
When our armies go out to fight a battle,
you no longer go with us.
10 You make us run away from our enemies.
The people who hate us take from us whatever they like!
11 You have put us under their power,
so that they kill us like sheep for them to eat.
You have sent us away
to live in foreign countries.
12 You have sold your own people,
for almost nothing!
They had no value to you.
13 The people who live in countries near us
do not respect us.
They laugh at us
and they insult us.
14 The other nations tell jokes about us.
They think that we are nothing.
15 I feel ashamed all the time.
I do not know where to look.
16 This is because my cruel enemies are always insulting me.
All they want is to hurt me.
17 We have not turned away from you,
but all this has happened to us.
We have not turned against the covenant that you made with us.
18 We have continued to serve you
and obey your commands.
19 But you have broken us in pieces.
You have left us for wild dogs to eat.
You have covered us with the darkness of death.
20 We might have turned against you, our God,
and worshipped a strange god.
21 But if we had done that,
you would have discovered it.
You know even our most secret thoughts.
22 But, because we are your people, God,
people try to kill us all the time.
They think that we are like sheep
and we are ready to be killed.
23 Lord, do something!
Why are you sleeping? Wake up!
Do not turn away from us for ever!
24 Why do you turn away from us?
Why do you forget our troubles
and the way that people hurt us?
25 We have fallen down in the dirt.
Our bodies are lying on the ground.
26 Wake up and help us!
Save us, because of your faithful love.
Joseph and his brothers
37 Jacob lived in Canaan, the land where his father had lived.[a]
2 This is the report about Jacob and his family.
Joseph was Jacob's son. When he was 17 years old, he took care of his father's sheep and goats. He did this together with his brothers. These were the sons of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. Sometimes Joseph told his father bad things about his brothers.
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than he loved any of his other sons. This was because Joseph was born when Jacob was old. So Jacob made a special coat for Joseph. 4 Joseph's brothers knew that Jacob loved him more than he loved them. So they hated Joseph. They could not say anything nice to him.
5 One night, Joseph had a dream and he told his brothers about it. When they heard about the dream, Joseph's brothers hated him even more than they did before. 6 Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Listen to what happened in my dream: 7 We were out in the field tying the crops together into bundles. Then my bundle stood up. Your bundles stood in a circle round my bundle. And all your bundles bent down to respect my bundle.’
8 Joseph's brothers said to him, ‘Do you really think that you will be like a king and rule over us like that?’ They hated Joseph even more because of what he told them about his dream.
9 Then Joseph had another dream and he told his brothers about it. He said, ‘Listen to me. I have had another dream. This is what happened: The sun, the moon and 11 stars bent down in front of me.’ 10 Joseph told his father and his brothers about the dream. Jacob, his father, was angry with him. He said to Joseph, ‘You should not tell us about a dream like that! Do you really think that I, your mother and your brothers will come and bend down in front of you?’ 11 Joseph's brothers were very jealous of him. But Jacob thought carefully about what Joseph had said.
Paul says ‘Hello’
1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. That is what he wanted. Our Christian friend Sosthenes is with me here as I write to you.
2 I am sending this letter to you, the people of God's church in Corinth. God has made you clean because you belong to Christ Jesus. He has chosen you to be his special people. So you join together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is their Lord, as he is our Lord.
3 I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
Paul thanks God
4 I always thank God because of you. I thank him because he has been very kind to you. He has helped you like that because you belong to Christ Jesus. 5 As a result, God has given you all the things that you need. You are able to speak everything that he wants you to speak. You are able to understand everything that he wants you to know. 6 In that way, God has shown you that the message we told you about Christ is true. 7 As a result, God has given you every spiritual gift that you need. God has blessed you with those gifts as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to return. 8 God will also keep you safe and strong until the end. Then, on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns, you will not be guilty of anything wrong. 9 God always does what he has promised to do. He has chosen you to be friends with his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.
Christians must not quarrel
10 My Christian friends, I tell you this with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Please agree with each other. Do not become separate groups. Be united and think about things in the same way.’
11 Some people from Chloe's house have told me news about you. My friends, they say that you are quarrelling among yourselves. 12 It happens like this: One of you says, ‘I belong to Paul's group.’ Another person says, ‘I belong to Apollos's group.’ Another person says, ‘I belong to Peter's group.’ And another person says, ‘I belong to Christ's group.’
13 You should not speak like that! It seems that you are breaking Christ into several parts. I, Paul, did not die on a cross to save you. When they baptized you, it was not on my behalf. 14 I thank God that I myself did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15 So none of you can say, ‘I belong to Paul's group because he baptized me.’ 16 (Now I remember that I also baptized Stephanas and his family. I cannot remember that I baptized anyone else.) 17 Christ did not send me to baptize people. But he did send me to tell God's good news to people. When I speak his message, I do not use clever words. It is Christ's death on the cross that has power to save people. I do not want to spoil that power with clever words.
Christ's death on the cross
18 Some people think that the message about Christ's death on the cross is silly. Those people are destroying themselves. But it is different for us, the people that God is saving. The message about the cross shows us God's power to save us.
19 It says in the Bible:
‘I, God, will destroy all the clever thoughts of wise people.
I will show that their clever ideas are useless.’[a]
The start of the good news
1 This is the start of the good news about Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. 2 The prophet Isaiah wrote this message from God in his book:[a]
‘Listen! I will send someone to prepare a way for you.
He will tell people my message.
3 His voice will shout in the wilderness:
“The Lord will come soon, so prepare a way for him.
Make the paths straight for him.” ’[b]
4 So John went to a place in the wilderness. He baptized people and he spoke a message from God.[c] He said to people, ‘You have done many wrong things. You must turn away from them and change how you live. Then God will forgive you and I will baptize you.’
5 Many people who lived in Jerusalem and in the country of Judea went to listen to John.[d] The people told God about all the wrong things that they had done. Then John baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothes made from the hair of a camel. He also wore a belt made from leather. His usual food was locusts and honey from the wilderness.
7 John said to the people, ‘Another person will come soon. He is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him. 8 I have baptized you with water. But this man will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
John baptizes Jesus
9 Soon after this, Jesus came from the town of Nazareth in Galilee. John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 While Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the skies open. The Holy Spirit came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus. 11 A voice spoke from heaven: ‘You are my Son and I love you. You make me very happy.’
Satan tries to cause Jesus to do wrong things
12 Immediately, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus out into the wilderness. 13 Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. During this time, Satan tried to cause him to do wrong things. There were wild animals with Jesus in the wilderness. God's angels took care of him.
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