Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
Lord, please help me!
31 Lord, I have come to you to keep me safe.
Never let me become ashamed.
You always do what is right
so please save me!
2 Listen to me,
and quickly send help to me.
Lord, be a rock where I can hide.
Be a strong place to keep me safe.
3 You are my high rock and my strong place.
Because of your good name,
lead me and be my guide.[a]
4 You are the place where I can hide,
so keep me safe.
Do not let my enemies' traps catch me.
5 I put my life into your hands.
I know that you will save me, Lord,
because you are a God that I can trust.
6 I hate people who worship useless idols.
As for me, I trust in the Lord.
7 I am very happy because of your faithful love.
You see when I suffer.
You know when I am very upset.
8 You have not put me under the power of my enemies.
You have led me into an open place,
where I can be safe.
9 Lord, I am very upset,
so please be kind to me.
My eyes are tired because I weep so much.
My whole body has become very weak.
10 I am near to death, because I am so sad.
I am crying with pain as my life comes to an end.
I have so much trouble
that I have no strength at all.
Even my bones have become weak.
11 All my enemies hate me.
My friends insult me.
Everyone who knows me is afraid of me.
They run away when they see me in the street.
12 Everybody has forgotten about me.
I might as well be dead!
They think that I am useless,
like a broken plate.
13 I hear what many people are saying against me.
News from everywhere makes me afraid.
They are deciding together
how to kill me.
14 But I continue to trust you, Lord.
I say, ‘You are my God!’[b]
15 You are the one who decides
what will happen to me in my whole life.
Save me from the power of my enemies
and from the people who want to catch me.
16 Turn towards me, your servant,
and be kind to me!
Keep me safe,
because of your faithful love.
17 Lord, do not let me become ashamed.
I call to you for help.
Cause evil people to become ashamed.
Let them go to their graves
and be silent there!
18 May people that tell lies become silent.
They insult righteous people.
They are proud people,
and they boast about themselves.
19 You have prepared many good things
to bless people who respect you.
While everyone watches,
you bless those who come to you for help.
20 You give them a place to hide,
and you keep them safe with you.
When their enemies want to attack them,
you take care of them.
When their enemies speak lies against them,
they are safe with you.
21 Praise the Lord!
When my enemies were all around me,
he showed me that his faithful love is very great.
22 When I was afraid, I said,
‘God is no longer with me!’
But I spoke too soon.
When I called to you for help,
you heard me and you answered me.
23 Love the Lord, all you people who belong to him!
If people serve the Lord faithfully,
he keeps them safe.
But if people are proud,
he punishes them as they deserve.
24 All you people who trust the Lord to help you,
you should be strong and very brave!
David wrote this song.
God, please help me
35 Lord, please attack those people who are attacking me.
Fight against those people who are fighting against me.
2 Yes, pick up your shield
and put on your armour!
Prepare to fight and give me help!
3 Take your spears and throw them,
to stop the people who are chasing me.
Say to me, ‘I will make you safe.’
4 Cause the people who want to kill me
to become ashamed.
Chase away the people who want to hurt me,
so that they become confused.
5 Make them become like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Send the angel of the Lord
to chase them away.
6 Make their way dark and dangerous,
as the angel of the Lord chases after them.
7 They hid a trap to catch me.
There was no reason for them to do that.
They even dug a deep hole for me to fall into.
8 Surprise my enemies and destroy them!
Let their own traps catch them!
Let them fall to their own death!
9 Then I will be happy
because of what the Lord has done.
I will be happy
because he has made me safe.
10 I will shout with all my strength,
‘Lord, who is like you?
When strong people try to hurt weak people,
you are the one who keeps the weak people safe.
You also keep poor people safe
when robbers try to take things from them.’
11 Cruel people tell lies against me in court.
I do not even know what they are talking about.
12 When I do good things to help them,
they pay me back with evil things!
That makes me feel very sad and upset.
13 When they were ill,
I wore rough clothes,
and I stopped eating food.
I bent down my head as I prayed for them.
14 I wept as I prayed,
as I would weep when a friend or my mother had died.
15 But when I had troubles myself,
they were happy.
They stood together
and they laughed at me.
Even strangers attacked me
and they would not stop.
16 Useless people like that insulted me,
and they showed their teeth to frighten me.
17 My Lord, how long will you continue to watch
as they do this to me?
Keep me safe when they attack me.
They attack me like hungry lions.
Do not let them kill me!
18 Then I will praise you
in the great meeting of your people.
I will thank you so that everyone hears me.
19 My enemies tell lies about me.
Do not let them win against me,
and be happy.
They have no reason to hate me,
so do not let them laugh at me.
20 They do not talk in a way that brings peace.
Instead, they try to deceive people who want to live quietly.
21 They open their mouths wide
to speak against me.
They say, ‘Aha![a]
We have seen the bad things that you do!’
22 Lord, you have seen all this.
Do not remain silent, my Lord.
Do not stay far away from me.
23 Wake up! Get ready to give me justice!
Show that I am not guilty,
my Lord and my God.
24 Lord, you are righteous.
Give me justice, my God.
Do not let them laugh at me.
25 Do not let them say,
‘Aha! This is what we wanted.’
Do not let them say,
‘We have eaten him alive!’
26 Punish those people who are happy when I have troubles.
Make them ashamed and confused!
Bring down those proud people who laugh at me.
Make them feel very ashamed.
27 But for those who want justice for me,
let them shout aloud in their pleasure.
May they always say, ‘The Lord is great!
He is happy when his servant is safe and well!’
28 Then I will tell everyone that you are righteous.
I will praise you all through each day.
David goes to the town of Nob
21 David went to visit Ahimelech the priest. He lived in the town of Nob.[a] Ahimelech shook with fear when he saw David. He asked David, ‘Why are you alone? Why is nobody with you?’[b]
2 David answered, ‘The king has asked me to do something special. He said to me, “Do not tell anyone where I have sent you. Do not say what I have told you to do.” So I have sent my soldiers to wait for me at a certain place. 3 Do you have anything to eat here? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else that you have.’
4 The priest answered David, ‘I do not have any ordinary bread that I can give to you. There is only the special holy bread. You can take it for your men to eat only if they have not had sex with women.’
5 David replied, ‘We have not been near women since we left our homes. The young men always keep themselves clean, even on ordinary journeys. So for today's important journey, they will certainly be clean.’
6 So the priest gave the holy bread to David because he did not have any other bread. This was the bread which had been on the table in the Lord's tent. The priest would take it from there each day and he would put hot, fresh bread in its place.
7 One of Saul's servants was there that day. His name was Doeg. He came from Edom. He was the leader of Saul's shepherds. He was staying in Nob to make offerings to the Lord.
8 David asked the priest, Ahimelech, ‘Is there any sword or spear here that I could take? The king sent me quickly to do an important job. So I left home without my sword or any other weapon.’
9 Ahimelech answered, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here. After you killed him in the valley of Elah, we kept the sword here. We covered it with a cloth and we put it behind the ephod. If you want it, you can take it. We do not have any other weapon except that one.’
David said, ‘Give it to me. There is no sword as good as that one.’
David goes to Gath
10 So on that day, David escaped from Saul. He went to Gath and he visited King Achish there. 11 The servants of King Achish said to him, ‘This man is David, the king of his country! The people sing this song about him when they dance:
“Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.
But David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.” ’[c]
12 David thought carefully about what King Achish's servants were saying. It caused him to be very afraid of Achish, king of Gath. 13 So when David was with them, he pretended to be crazy. He made marks with his fingers on the doors of the city's gate. He let water run out of his mouth and go down his beard.
14 King Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at this man! He is completely crazy! Why did you bring him to me? 15 I have enough fools around me already. I do not need to see this crazy man as well. Keep him away from my house.’
Paul and Barnabas go to Antioch in Pisidia
13 Paul and the two other men got in a ship and they sailed away from Paphos. They arrived at a town called Perga, which is in the region called Pamphylia. John Mark left them there and he returned to Jerusalem. 14 Paul and Barnabas left Perga, and they went to a town called Antioch in Pisidia. On the Jewish day of rest, they went into the meeting place and they sat down. 15 Someone read aloud some words from the Bible. They read from God's Law and from the messages of God's prophets. After this, the leaders of the Jewish meeting place passed a note to Paul and Barnabas. The note said, ‘Friends, do you have a message that will help the people? If you do, please speak now.’
16 So Paul stood up. He raised his hand towards the people so that they would listen to him. Then he said to them, ‘Some of you are Jews, like us. Some of you are Gentiles who now worship our God. All of you, listen carefully to me.
17 The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors to be his people. While they lived in Egypt, God caused his people to become a very large group. They lived as foreign people in Egypt. But God used his great power to bring them out from that country.[a] 18 The people of Israel did not obey God. But God took care of them in the wilderness for 40 years. 19 He destroyed seven nations of people who lived in the land of Canaan. God gave their land to his own people so that they could live there. 20 All of these things happened during about 450 years.
After this, God gave to his people leaders who were called judges. They ruled Israel until the time when God's prophet Samuel was alive. 21 Then the people of Israel asked Samuel to choose a king for them. So God gave Saul to them as their king. Saul was the son of Kish and he was from the tribe of Benjamin. He ruled Israel for 40 years. 22 Then God removed Saul as king. He caused David to be their king instead.[b] God said this about David: “I have watched David, the son of Jesse. He does things that make me happy. I know that he will do everything that I want.”
23 God promised to send to the people of Israel someone who would save us. Jesus is the man that God sent to save us. He is a descendant of King David. 24 Before Jesus began his work in this world, John spoke a message to all the people of Israel. He told people to stop doing wrong things and to turn to God. Then he would baptize them.[c] 25 When John had almost finished his work, he said to the people, “Perhaps you think that I am the special man that God will send. I am not that man. But listen! That man will come soon. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him.” ’[d]
Crowds follow Jesus
7 Jesus left that place and he went away to Lake Galilee with his disciples. A large crowd of people from Galilee followed them. 8 Many people also came to him from Judea, from Jerusalem and from a region of Israel called Idumea. They also came from places on the other side of the Jordan River, and from the towns called Tyre and Sidon. Many people had heard about the things that Jesus was doing. That is why all these people came to him. 9 The crowd was very large. So Jesus asked his disciples to prepare a small boat for him. They did this so that the people would not push against him. 10 Sick people were pushing to the front, because they were trying to touch him. They knew that he had made many people well. 11 Often, a person with a bad spirit saw Jesus. Then, the spirit caused the person to fall down on the ground in front of Jesus. The spirit caused that person to shout out, ‘You are the Son of God.’ 12 Jesus often had to say to the bad spirits, ‘You must not tell anyone who I am.’
Jesus chooses 12 apostles
13 Jesus went up a mountain. He chose some men and he asked them to go there with him. So they met together with him there. 14 He chose a group of 12 men. He called them his apostles.[a] He wanted them to be with him. And he would send them to teach people about God. 15 He gave these men authority to cause bad spirits to leave people. 16 These are the names of the 12 apostles:
Simon, (Jesus called him Peter).
17 James and John who were the sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them ‘Boanerges’. It means ‘men who are like thunder’.
18 Andrew,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Matthew,[b]
Thomas,
James, who was the son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,[c]
Simon the Zealot
19 and Judas Iscariot, who later gave Jesus to his enemies.
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