Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote.
I do what is right
26 Lord, I always try to do what is right.
I continue to trust you all the time.
So please show that I am not guilty of wrong things.
2 Test me, Lord, and see how I have lived.
Look into my mind and see my thoughts.
3 I always know that I can trust you,
because of your faithful love.
So I live to please you.
4 I do not become a friend of people who tell lies.
I do not join together with hypocrites.
5 I keep away from any crowd of evil people.
I do not become a friend of wicked people.
6 I wash my hands as a sign
that I live in a pure way.[a]
I will worship you at your altar, Lord.
7 I will sing aloud to thank you.
I will tell people about all the great things that you have done.
8 Lord, I love the temple that is your house.
It is the place where we clearly see your glory.
9 Do not take away my life,
as you do with sinners.
Do not punish me with death,
as you do with murderers.
10 Those wicked people are always ready to do evil things.
They use bribes to get what they want.
11 But I always try to do what is right.
Please save me and be kind to me!
12 Now I stand in a safe place.
I will praise the Lord
when his people meet together to worship him.
This is a song that David wrote.
God answers prayer
28 Lord, I am calling to you for help.
You are my safe place, like a high rock.[a]
Please do not refuse to listen to me.
If you do not answer me,
I will be like those who are going down
into the deep hole of death.
2 Hear me when I call to you for help.
Please be kind to me.
I am lifting up my hands
towards your Most Holy Place.[b]
3 Do not pull me away to punishment,
as you do with wicked people.
Those people do evil things.
They say kind words to their friends,
but really they want to hurt them.
4 Punish them for their sins.
Give back to them what they deserve!
Yes, punish them!
That is the fair thing to do.
5 They do not want to understand
the things that the Lord has done,
or the things that he has made.
The Lord will punish them,
and he will remove them for ever.
6 We should praise the Lord!
He has been kind to me,
when I called to him for help.
7 The Lord makes me strong.
He keeps me safe like a shield.
I trust in him completely,
and he has helped me.
I am very happy,
and I will thank him with my songs.
8 The Lord makes his people strong.
He protects the king that he has chosen.
The Lord keeps him safe.[c]
9 Lord, save your people!
Bless the people who belong to you!
Take care of your people like a shepherd.
Always carry them in your arms!
The Lord's servant, David, wrote this song for the music leader.
A message from God
36 A wicked person turns against God completely.
He does not respect God.
2 He is too proud to think about his sin,
so he does not hate it.
3 He speaks wicked things to deceive people.
He does nothing that is wise or good.
4 While he lies on his bed at night,
he thinks about bad things that he can do.
He lives only to do things that are not good.
He does not turn away from evil things.
5 Lord your faithful love reaches as high as the sky.
People can trust you beyond the clouds.
6 Your justice is like the strongest mountains.
You always do what is right,
more than the seas are deep.[a]
You take care of people and animals
and you keep them safe.
7 God, your faithful love has great value!
You keep all humans safe,
like birds protect their babies under their wings.
8 You have plenty of food in your house,
to give them all that they need.
You give them water from your river,
that makes them happy when they drink it.
9 Yes, you are the one who gives us light and life.
10 Continue to love those who serve you as your people.
Let good, honest people receive your justice.
11 Do not let proud people hurt me.
Do not let evil people chase me away from home.
12 Now I see that those wicked people have fallen down!
They are lying there on the ground,
and they cannot get up again!
David wrote this song for Jeduthun, the leader of the music.
Life is short[a]
39 I said, ‘I will be careful what I do,
so that I do not sin.
I will also be careful what I say.
When wicked people are listening,
I will not even open my mouth.’
2 So I did not speak a word,
even about good things.
That made me very upset.
3 It was like a fire inside me!
As I thought more about it,
I just had to say something!
So I said this:
4 ‘Lord, tell me about my life.
Tell me how long it will be,
and when it will finish.
I need to remember that life is only short.
5 Yes, you have made the days of my life only a few!
The time that I live seems very short to you.
Human life is only a breath,
even for those who seem to be strong.
Selah.
6 As we live, we are just like shadows.
We work to get things for ourselves.
We may get a lot of money,
but we do not know who will have it after we die.’
7 So, my Lord, what help can I hope to get?
You are the only one that I can really trust!
8 Save me from all my sins!
Do not let fools insult me.
9 I will not say anything more.
I will not open my mouth,
because it is you who have punished me!
10 Please do not hurt me any more!
You have already punished me enough,
so that I am almost dead!
11 When people do wrong things,
you warn them and you punish them.
You destroy their valuable things,
like a moth eats cloth![b]
Yes, our lives are only a breath!
Selah.
12 Lord, please hear my prayer.
Listen to me when I call to you for help.
Do not turn away from me when I weep.
I need your help,
like a foreign person who lives away from his home.
I live on earth as a stranger,
like all my ancestors did.
13 Stop being angry with me,
so that I can be happy again before I die.
28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 One year later, he was walking on the flat roof of the king's palace in Babylon. 30 The king said, ‘Look how great Babylon is! It is the city that I have built to be my home as king. It shows that I am a great and powerful king!’
31 While King Nebuchadnezzar was still boasting about his power, he heard a voice from heaven. It said, ‘I am speaking to you, King Nebuchadnezzar. I have taken away your authority to rule as king! 32 People will chase you away from the city so that you live with the wild animals. You will eat grass as cows do. I will cause you to live like that for seven years. Then you will understand that the powerful God above rules over human kingdoms. He gives authority to rule to anyone that he chooses.’
33 Immediately the message given to Nebuchadnezzar really happened. People chased him away from the city. He ate grass as cows do. Dew from the sky made his body wet. His hair grew very long, like the feathers of an eagle. His feet became like a bird's feet.
God makes Nebuchadnezzar better
34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up towards heaven. My own mind returned to me again. I praised the powerful God above who lives for ever. I worshipped him as a great God.
His kingdom will continue for ever.
He will always have authority to rule.
35 All the people on the earth seem like nothing to him.
He does whatever he wants among the angels in heaven,
and among the people on the earth too.
Nobody can stop him.
Nobody can ask him, ‘Why are you doing that?’
36 When my own mind returned to me, I also received my authority again as king. People respected me as a great king again. My officers and important men came back to work with me. I ruled again over my kingdom. I became even greater than I was before. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise the King of heaven as a great God. He always does what is right and fair. When people are proud, he can cause them to become humble.
Love each other because God loved us
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.[a]
Jesus causes a bad spirit to leave a man
31 Jesus went to a town in Galilee called Capernaum. On the Jewish day of rest, he taught the people there. 32 The people were very surprised at the things that Jesus taught them. He spoke with authority. 33 There was a sick man in the meeting place. He had a spirit of a bad demon that was living inside him. The spirit caused the man to shout loudly. 34 He said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone! Do not destroy us! I know who you are. You are God's Holy One!’
35 Jesus said to the spirit, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man!’ Then the bad spirit caused the man to fall to the ground in front of the people. It came out of the man but it did not hurt him.
36 All the people were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘Listen to what this man says! He has power and authority. He tells bad spirits to come out of people, and they come out.’ 37 So they began to tell everyone about Jesus. Because of this, people in all the places near Capernaum heard the news about Jesus.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.