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.
Saul tries to kill David
19 Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan liked David very much. 2 So he told David, ‘My father Saul is trying to kill you. Be careful tomorrow morning. Hide in a secret place and stay there. 3 I will go out with my father. I will stand with him in the field where you are hiding. I will talk to him about you. Then I will tell you what he says.’
4 Jonathan spoke to his father Saul. He said good things about David. He said to Saul, ‘The king should not do anything bad against David. David is your servant. He has not done anything that is bad against you. Everything that he does really helps you. 5 David was not afraid to die when he fought against the Philistine, Goliath. When David killed Goliath, the Lord helped Israel to win a great battle. When you saw it, you were very happy. So why do you now want to kill David? He is not guilty of anything that is wrong. You have no reason to kill him.’
6 Saul agreed with Jonathan. He made a promise in the Lord's name that he would not kill David. 7 Then Jonathan called to David. He told David everything that the king had said. Jonathan took David back to Saul. So David served King Saul as he had done before.
8 The war with the Philistines started again. David went out with his soldiers to fight against them. He attacked them so strongly that the Philistine soldiers ran away.
9 Then the Lord caused an evil spirit to control Saul. Saul was sitting in his house. He had a spear in his hand. David was making music with his harp. 10 Saul threw his spear at David. He wanted to fix David to the wall. But David moved out of the way and the spear hit the wall. That night, David ran away to escape from Saul.
11 Saul sent some of his servants to watch David's house. Saul told them to kill David when he came out in the morning. But David's wife Michal warned him. She said, ‘You must run away tonight. If you do not escape, tomorrow you will die!’ 12 So Michal helped David to leave the house through a window. He ran away and he escaped.
13 Then Michal took an idol and she put it on the bed. She covered the idol with a blanket and she put a pillow of goat's hair at its head.
14 Saul sent some of his men to take hold of David. Michal told them that David was ill. 15 Saul then told the men to go back to David's house. He said to them, ‘Bring David to me on his bed. Then I will kill him.’ 16 The men returned to David's house. They found the idol on the bed and the pillow of goat's hair at its head.
17 Saul said to Michal, ‘You have deceived me! You have helped my enemy to escape!’ Michal said to him, ‘David told me that I must help him to escape. He said that he would kill me if I did not help him.’
18 David ran away and he escaped from Saul. He went to visit Samuel at Ramah. David told Samuel everything that Saul had done to him. Then David and Samuel went to live in Naioth.[a]
King Herod puts Peter in prison
12 At that time, King Herod took hold of some of the group of believers in Jerusalem. He wanted to cause them to suffer. 2 He sent his soldiers to cut off James's head. James was John's brother.[a]
3 King Herod saw that the Jews were happy because he had killed James. So he sent his soldiers to take hold of Peter too. This happened during the Festival of Flat Bread.[b]
4 After the soldiers caught Peter, they put him in prison. While he was in prison, four different groups of soldiers guarded him. There were four soldiers in each group.[c] Herod wanted to judge Peter in front of everybody. After the Passover festival had finished, he would bring Peter out of the prison to do this.
5 So Herod kept Peter in prison. But during that time, the group of believers prayed that God would help Peter.
Peter walks out of the prison
6 It was the night before King Herod wanted to bring Peter out of the prison and judge him. The soldiers had tied Peter to themselves with chains. So Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Some other soldiers were guarding the doors of the prison. 7 Then, an angel from the Lord God suddenly appeared in the prison. A bright light shone in the room where Peter was sleeping. The angel touched Peter's shoulder so that Peter woke up. He said to Peter, ‘Hurry! Stand up!’ Immediately the chains fell off Peter's hands.
8 Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and your shoes.’ Peter did what the angel told him to do. Then the angel said, ‘Now put on your coat and follow me.’ 9 So Peter followed the angel out of the prison. He was not sure that all these things were really happening to him. He thought that he might be dreaming. 10 Peter and the angel walked past the first group of soldiers in the prison. Then they walked past the second group of soldiers. After that, they came to the big metal gate in the wall of the prison. The city was outside this gate. The gate opened by itself in front of them. So Peter and the angel went out of the prison through the gate. They walked together along one street and then, suddenly, the angel went away.
11 Then Peter understood what had happened. He said to himself, ‘Now I know that these things really have happened to me. The Lord God sent one of his angels to rescue me from Herod's power. The Jewish leaders wanted Herod to cause me to suffer. But God has saved me from those bad things.’
12 When Peter realized what God had done for him, he went to Mary's house. She was the mother of John Mark. Many people were meeting together in her house. They were praying to God.[d]
13 Peter knocked on the outside door of the house. A servant girl called Rhoda came to the door. 14 She recognized Peter's voice and she was very happy. But she did not open the door. Instead, she ran back into the house and she said to all the people there, ‘Peter is standing outside the door!’
15 The people in the house said to her, ‘You are crazy.’ But she told them again that Peter really was there. So then they said, ‘It is not him, but it is his angel.’[e]
16 While all this was happening, Peter was still knocking at the door. Then someone went and opened the door. They were all very surprised when they saw him there. 17 Peter raised his hand towards them so that they would all be quiet. Then he explained to them how the Lord God had brought him out of the prison. He said to them, ‘Tell James and all the other believers what has happened to me.’[f] Then he left the house and he went away to another place.
Jesus helps a man who cannot walk
2 Several days after that, Jesus returned to Capernaum. People heard the news that he had come back to his home. 2 Many people came into the house. The house was so full that there was no room, even outside the door. Jesus was teaching people about the good news. 3 Four men came. They were carrying another man on a mat. That man could not move his legs. 4 They could not reach Jesus because of the crowd. So they made a hole in the roof above the place where Jesus was.[a] They helped the man to go down through the hole. He was still lying on his mat. 5 Jesus saw the man and his friends. He knew that they believed in him. So he said to the man who could not walk, ‘My friend, I forgive you for your sins.’
6 But some teachers of God's Law were sitting there. They thought about the words that Jesus had spoken to the man. 7 They thought, ‘This man Jesus should not have said that. He is speaking as if he is God. Only God can forgive people for their sins.’
8 Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit what the teachers were thinking. He said to them, ‘You should not think these things. 9 I said to this man who cannot walk, “I forgive you for your sins.” Instead, I could have said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Which of those is easier for me to say? 10 But I want you to know this. I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth to forgive people for their sins.’[b] Then he said to the man who could not walk, 11 ‘I am saying to you, stand up! Pick up your mat and go home.’ 12 Immediately, the man stood up. He picked up his mat and he walked out of the house. Everyone watched him do this. The people were very surprised. They praised God and they said, ‘God is great. We have never seen anything like this before.’
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