Book of Common Prayer
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
A prayer for peace[a]
85 Lord, you have blessed your land.
You have made Jacob's descendants strong again.[b]
2 You forgave your people's sins.
You took away their guilt.
Selah
3 You stopped being so angry with them.
You did not punish them any more.
4 But now turn back to us,
and make us strong again, God.
You are the one who rescues us.
Please stop being angry with us.
5 Will you continue to be angry with us for ever?
Will you be angry with our children too?
6 Please turn back to us
and give us new life!
Then your people will be happy
and they will praise you.
7 Lord, show us again your faithful love!
Please rescue us!
8 Now I will listen to what the Lord God says.
He will give peace to his people,
to those who serve him.
But they must not turn back
to do foolish things again.
9 Yes, God will soon rescue his people who serve him.
Then we will see his glory again in our land.
10 God will be faithful to us
and he will love us with his faithful love.
His justice and his peace will join together,
like dear friends.
11 Faithful truth will grow like a plant in the ground.
Justice will look down from the sky above.[c]
12 Yes! The Lord will bless us with many good things.
Plenty of food will grow in our land.
13 Justice will go before our God,
and it will make a way for him to walk on.
David's prayer.
A prayer for help
86 Lord, please listen to me,
and answer me!
I am weak and I need help.
2 I am your faithful servant,
so keep my life safe!
Please save me, my God,
for I trust in you.
3 My Lord, be kind to me.
All through the day,
I am calling to you for help.
4 Please make me happy deep inside,
for you are the one that I pray to, my Lord.
5 Yes, my Lord, you are very kind,
and you are ready to forgive people.
When anyone calls to you for help,
you love them with your faithful love.
6 Lord, hear my prayer!
Please listen when I call to you for help.
7 Whenever trouble comes to me,
I will pray to you.
I know that you will answer me.
8 There is no one like you, my Lord,
among all the gods.
Nobody can do the great things that you do.
9 You have made all the nations of the world,
and they will all come to worship you, my Lord.
They will agree that your name is great.
10 For you are great and you do great things.
You alone are God.
11 Lord, teach me how I should live.
Then I will obey your truth.
Teach me to serve you with all that I am,
so that I respect you with fear.
12 My Lord and my God,
I will thank you with all my strength.
I will praise your name for ever!
13 I know that you love me very much
with your faithful love.
You will continue to keep my life safe,
so that I do not go down into the deep hole of death.
14 God, proud people are attacking me.
Cruel men have joined together to kill me.
They do not respect you at all.
15 But you, my Lord, are a kind God
who forgives people.
You do not quickly become angry,
and your faithful love is very great.
We can always trust you
to do what you have promised.
16 Turn to me and be kind to me.
I am your servant, so make me strong.
Please rescue your slave!
17 Help me, so that I know you are pleased with me.
Then my enemies will see it,
and they will be ashamed.
They will know that you, Lord,
have helped me and comforted me.
God is a safe place[a]
91 If anyone lives in Almighty God's safe place,
the Most High God protects that person.
2 I will say to the Lord,
‘You are the strong place where I will be safe.
You are my God,
and I trust in you.’
3 God will keep you safe,
so that no trap will catch you.[b]
He will not let any illness kill you.
4 He will keep you safe,
like a bird keeps its babies safe under its wings.
Because he keeps his promises,
he will keep you safe like a shield and armour.
5 Do not be afraid of troubles that come in the night,
or of your enemy's arrows during the day.
6 Do not be afraid of any illness that comes when it is dark,
or any trouble that comes in the middle of the day.
7 A thousand people may die near you.
Even ten thousand people may die at your side.
But nothing will hurt you.
8 Your own eyes will see this happen.
You will see wicked people
receive the punishment that they deserve.
9 You have come to the Lord to make you safe.
The Most High God has become your home.
10 No bad thing will happen to you.
No illness will come to your home.
11 For God will tell his angels to keep you safe.[c]
They will protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you safely in their hands,
so that you do not hurt your foot on a stone.[d]
13 You will win against lions and snakes.
You will walk over them!
14 The Lord says, ‘If someone loves me,
I will keep him safe.
Because he worships me,
I will protect him.
15 When he calls to me for help,
I will answer him.
When he has trouble,
I will be with him.
I will rescue him,
and people will respect him.
16 I will give to him a long life,
so that he is happy.
He will see that I have the power to save people.’
This psalm is a song to sing on Sabbath days.
A song to praise God
92 It is good to thank the Lord!
We sing to praise your name, Most High God.
2 We sing in the morning
to thank you for your faithful love.
We sing at night
to say that you are always faithful.
3 We make beautiful music
with lutes, harps and lyres.[e]
4 The things that you do, Lord,
make me very happy.
I sing with joy
because of the things that your hands have made!
5 Yes, Lord, you have done great things!
Your thoughts are more than we can understand!
6 Here is something that stupid people do not know.
Fools do not understand it.
7 Wicked people may continue to grow,
like green grass.
Evil people may grow like weeds.
But in the end you will destroy them
and they will never grow again.[f]
8 You, Lord, will rule as King for ever!
9 Yes, Lord, look at your enemies!
Your enemies will all die!
Those people who do evil things will all disappear!
10 You have made me as strong as a wild bull.
You have poured pure olive oil on me.[g]
11 With my own eyes,
I have seen my enemies fall.
With my own ears,
I have heard them cry out in pain.
12 Righteous people will do well,
like a palm tree that makes new leaves.
They will become strong,
like a tall cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 They are like trees that someone has planted in the Lord's house.
They grow well in the yard of our God's temple.
14 When they are old,
they will still give fruit!
They will always be strong,
with fresh, green leaves.
15 They will tell everyone,
‘The Lord always does what is right.
He is my strong, safe rock.
There is nothing bad in him.’
28 It shone with the colours of a rainbow in the clouds when there is rain. This bright light showed the glory of the Lord, who was there.
When I saw this, I bent down low with my face on the ground. I heard a voice that was speaking to me.
God chooses Ezekiel to be his messenger
2 The voice said to me, ‘Son of man, you must stand up on your feet. Then I will speak to you.’ 2 A spirit came into me while he spoke.[a] He made me stand up and I heard him speak to me.
3 He said, ‘Son of man, I am sending you to Israel's people. They are a nation of people who have turned against me. They and their ancestors have refused to obey me, even until today. 4 I am sending you to speak to these people. They do not accept my authority and they refuse to change. But you must say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says.”
5 The Israelites may listen to what you say, or they may not listen. They do not want to obey me. But they will know that I have sent a prophet to them. 6 You must not be afraid of them, son of man. Do not be afraid of their words either. It may seem that you are living with thorn bushes all around you. You may think that they can hurt you like dangerous scorpions. But do not be afraid of what they say to you, or how they look at you. Remember that they refuse to obey me. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they listen to you or not. They are people who refuse to obey me. 8 But you must listen to what I say to you, son of man. Do not refuse to obey me, as those people refuse to obey me. Open your mouth and eat what I will give to you.’
9 When I looked, I saw a hand! It held out a scroll towards me.[b] 10 He opened the scroll so that I could see inside it. I saw words that were written on both sides of the scroll. There were sad funeral songs, and words about great trouble that make you weep.
3 He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you can see in front of you. Eat this scroll with words on it. Then go and speak to the Israelites.’ 2 So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3 He said, ‘Son of man, I am giving you this scroll. Eat it all and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it. It had a sweet taste like honey in my mouth.[c]
Jesus is our great priest
14 Jesus, the Son of God, helps us as God's most important priest. He is our great priest who has gone up into heaven. We say that we believe in him. So we must continue to show people that we trust him. 15 Jesus, our great priest understands us. He knows how weak we are. He knows that we sometimes want to do wrong things. The Devil tried to make him do all those same kinds of wrong things. But Jesus never did anything wrong. 16 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. God is our King. We can ask him to help us when we need help. We know that he will forgive us and he will be kind to us in whatever way we need.[a]
5 Every leader of God's priests comes from among the people. That special priest's work is to serve God on behalf of God's people. He offers gifts and sacrifices to God, so that God will forgive the people's sins. 2 That priest himself may often do wrong things, because he is weak and human. As a result, he understands other people who make mistakes. He can be kind to people who do wrong things. 3 But, because he himself does wrong things, he must offer sacrifices to God on behalf of himself, as well as on behalf of the people.
4 Nobody decides for himself to become a leader of the priests. God himself must choose him. That is how Aaron became a priest.[b]
5 It is the same with Christ. He did not choose himself to be God's special priest. He did not choose to make himself important like that. God chose him. God showed that Christ was very important. God said to him:
‘You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.’[c]
6 And in another place in the Bible God says this:
‘You will be a priest for ever,
in the same way that Melchizedek was a priest long ago.’[d]
28 About eight days after Jesus had said these things, he went up a mountain to pray. He took Peter, John and James with him. 29 While Jesus was praying, his face became different to look at.[a] His clothes also became very white. They were shining brightly.
30 Then two men appeared and they were talking with him. They were Moses and Elijah.[b] 31 They were very bright to look at. They talked with Jesus about how he would soon die in Jerusalem. This was how God wanted him to leave this world.
32 While this was happening, Peter and his friends were sleeping. Then they really woke up and they saw that Jesus was very great and beautiful. They also saw the two men that were standing near to him. 33 Then the two men began to leave. So Peter said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, it is good that we are here. Please, let us build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses and one hut will be for Elijah.’ But Peter did not really know what he was saying.[c]
34 While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared. It covered them all. When the cloud came over them, the three disciples were afraid. 35 Then a voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son. He is the one that I have chosen. Listen to him.’
36 The voice stopped speaking. Then the three disciples saw that only Jesus was there with them now.
They did not tell anyone at this time about what they had seen.
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