Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God has helped me[a]
40 I was patient while I waited for the Lord to help me.
He turned towards me,
and he heard me when I called to him.
2 He lifted me out of the deep hole of danger.
He picked me up out of the mud.
He put my feet on a rock.
Then I could walk and not slip.
3 He gave me a new song to sing.
It was a song to praise our God.
Many people will see what God has done to help me.
Then they will respect and obey him.
Yes, they will trust in the Lord.
4 If anyone trusts in the Lord
he blesses them!
They do not expect proud people to help them.
They do not join with those people who worship false gods.
5 Lord, my God, you have done many great things.
You have done so many things for us
that we cannot count them!
There is nobody else like you!
I want to talk about the things that you have done,
but there are too many things to speak about!
6 You do not really want sacrifices and offerings.
I understand that!
You do not ask for burnt offerings
or sin offerings.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am, my God!
The message that is written in the book
tells me what I must do.[b]
8 I want to do what pleases you.
Your law is always in my thoughts.’
9 In the great meeting of your people,
I have told them about your justice.
I cannot keep quiet!
You know that this is true, Lord.
10 I have not hidden the good news about your justice.
I have told everyone that they can trust you,
and that you have the power to save.
I tell the great meeting of your people about your faithful love.
11 You, Lord, will continue to be kind to me.
Please continue to keep me safe,
because of your faithful love.
12 There are many dangerous troubles all around me.
They are too many to count!
My sins are too strong for me.
They are more than all the hairs on my head!
So I am weak and I cannot see clearly.
13 Lord, please save me!
Lord, come quickly to help me!
14 Chase away the people who want to kill me!
Cause them to become ashamed and confused.
Chase away the people who want to hurt me,
so that they run away in shame.
15 When people laugh at me,
make them sorry for what they have done.
16 Lord, may those who come to you be very happy,
because you have saved them.
They should never stop saying,
‘Praise the Lord!’
17 But I am poor and weak, my Lord.
Please continue to think about me.
You are the one who helps me and who saves me.
My God, come quickly to help me!
David wrote this special song for the music leader. He must use stringed instruments. It was when the men of Ziph went to Saul and they said, ‘David is hiding with us.’
God keeps me safe[a]
54 God, you are great, so please help me!
Use your power to show that I am right.
2 God, hear my prayer,
and listen carefully to what I am saying.
3 Strangers are attacking me!
Cruel people want to kill me.
They do not respect you, God.[b]
Selah.
4 But I know that God is the one who gives me help.
My Lord takes care of me.
5 Pay back my enemies with their own evil.
Please do what you have promised
and destroy them.
6 I choose to offer a sacrifice to thank you.
Lord, you are always good,
so I want to praise your name.
7 Yes, God has saved me from all my trouble.
When I looked at my enemies,
I see that I have won against them.[c]
David wrote this psalm for the music leader.
It was when the prophet Nathan came to him, after David had sex with Bathsheba.
Please forgive me, Lord[a]
51 Please forgive me, God,
because of your faithful love.
Because you are so kind,
please clean away my sins.
2 I have done bad things,
so wash me to make me clean again.[b]
3 I know that I have not obeyed you.
I cannot forget that I am guilty.
4 It is you that I have done bad things against,
only you![c]
I have done things that are evil,
as you know.
And so you are fair when you speak against me.
You are right when you say that I am guilty.
5 Yes, even from the day I was born
I have done bad things.
I have always been guilty of sin.
6 But you want me to be completely good and honest.
You want to teach me to be wise
in the way that I live.
7 Splash water over me with a hyssop plant,
and I will be really clean.[d]
Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.[e]
8 Please forgive me so that I can be happy.
Then my whole body will feel well again.
9 Hide your face from my sins.
Clean away all the bad things that I have done.[f]
10 God, please make my heart new and clean.
And make my spirit strong and true,
deep inside me.
11 Do not send me away from you.
Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me.
12 Give me joy again,
because you have made me safe.
Make me strong and ready to obey you.
13 Then I will teach your ways
to people who have turned against you.
Then sinners will turn back
and they will obey you.
14 God, I am guilty of murder.
Please forgive me!
You are the one who saves me.
When you rescue me,
I will sing aloud about your righteousness.
15 My Lord, help me to speak,
and then I will praise you.
16 I would be happy to offer sacrifices to you,
but that is not what you really want.
You do not want a burnt offering from me.
17 You want me to be humble and sorry.
That is the sacrifice that you want.
When people are humble
and they turn away from their sins,
you will not refuse them.
18 God, please be kind and help Zion.
Make the walls of Jerusalem strong again.
19 Then you will accept our proper sacrifices.
Our burnt offerings and sacrifices of whole animals
will make you happy.
Once again, people will offer bulls to you,
on your altar.[g]
Saul and his sons die in the battle
31 The Philistines fought against the Israelites. The Israelites ran away, and the Philistines killed many of them on Gilboa mountain. 2 The Philistines chased after Saul and his sons to catch them. They killed Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.
3 The Philistines were fighting the battle all around Saul. Some of their soldiers saw Saul and they shot their arrows at him. The arrows hurt Saul very much and he was nearly dead. 4 He said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Kill me now with your sword. I do not want these foreign men to be cruel to me as they kill me.’ But the young man would not agree to kill Saul because he was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and he threw himself onto it so that he died. 5 The young man saw that Saul was dead. So he threw himself onto his own sword and he also died.
6 So Saul died there, with his three sons. The young man who carried Saul's armour and all Saul's men died too.
7 The Israelites who lived in the Jezreel valley and on the other side of the Jordan River saw what happened. They saw that the Israelite army had run away from the Philistines. They saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and they ran away. Then the Philistines came to live in those towns.
8 The day after the battle, the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers. They found the dead bodies of Saul and his three sons on Gilboa mountain. 9 They cut off Saul's head and they removed his armour. Then they sent men through all the country of the Philistines with the news of Saul's death. These men told the news everywhere that the Philistine people lived and in the temples of their idols. 10 They put Saul's armour in the temple of their god Ashtoreth. Then they hung Saul's dead body on the wall of Beth Shan town.[a]
11 The Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body.[b] 12 So all their brave soldiers left Jabesh Gilead and they marched all night to Beth Shan. They removed the dead bodies of Saul and his sons from the town's wall. Then they took them to Jabesh Gilead. They burned the dead bodies there. 13 Then they took the bones and they buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh Gilead. The men did not eat any food for seven days because they were so sad.
12 After Peter said this everybody in the group was quiet. Then Barnabas and Paul spoke to them. They said, ‘God helped us to do great miracles among the Gentiles. These showed that God was with us.’
13 When they had finished their report, James spoke to the group. He said, ‘Listen to me, my friends. 14 Simon Peter has just described to us what happened first with the Gentile believers. He explained how God chose some of them to belong to him as his own people.
15 The message of God's prophets agrees completely with this. They wrote long ago:
16 The Lord God said,
“Later I will return.
At that time I will make David's kingdom strong again.[a]
It has become like a house that has fallen down,
but I will build it again so that it is strong.
17 Then many other people will want to know me, the Lord God.
Those are the Gentiles that I have chosen to belong to me.
I, the Lord God, say this,
and I will make these things happen.
18 Long ago I caused people to know all these things.” ’[b]
19 James then said, ‘So this is what I have decided about this problem. Many Gentiles are now turning to God as believers. We should not make it difficult for them. 20 Instead of that, we should write a letter to tell them how to live as believers. We should say to them, “Do not eat any food which people have given to their idols. That food has become unclean. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to. If people have strangled an animal to kill it, do not eat its meat. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it.”[c] 21 These rules are important, because people have known the Law of Moses for a very long time. On every Jewish day of rest, someone teaches us about the Law in our Jewish meeting places in every city.’
Jesus makes a dead girl live
21 Jesus returned to the other side of the lake in the boat. While he was by the lake, a large crowd came to him. 22 A man called Jairus came to Jesus. He was a leader at the Jewish meeting place. When he saw Jesus, he went down on his knees in front of him. 23 He said, ‘My little daughter is very ill and she will die very soon. Please come to my house and put your hands on her. Then she will be well and she will live.’ 24 So Jesus went with Jairus.
A large crowd followed Jesus. The people were pushing against him. 25 There was a sick woman who had lost blood for 12 years. 26 She had paid many doctors to help her to become well. But they could not do anything. Now she had spent all her money. She had not become well. Instead, she was now worse. 27 People had told her about Jesus. So she came in the crowd behind him and she touched his coat. 28 She said, ‘Even if I can only touch his clothes, I will become well again.’ 29 As soon as she touched Jesus' coat, the blood stopped. She felt in her body that her illness was better. She knew that she was well again.
30 Jesus knew immediately that something powerful had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and he asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’
31 His disciples replied, ‘You can see that the crowd is pushing against you. So you cannot ask who touched you!’
32 But Jesus looked around him. He wanted to see who had touched him. 33 The woman knew what had happened to her. She felt very afraid. But she came to Jesus, and she went down on her knees in front of him. Then she told him everything that had happened to her. 34 Jesus said to her, ‘Young woman, you are now well again because you believed in me. Have peace in your mind. Go now and have no more pain.’
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some men arrived from the house of Jairus. He was the leader at the Jews' meeting place. The men said to Jairus, ‘Your daughter is dead. Do not ask any longer for the teacher to come.’
36 Jesus heard what the men said to Jairus. But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not be afraid. Instead, believe.’
37 Jesus took only Peter, James and James's brother, John, with him. He would not let anyone else go with him. 38 Then they came to Jairus's house. Jesus saw that there were many people there. They were crying and they were making a loud noise. 39 Jesus went into the house and he said to the people, ‘You should not be weeping and making a noise. The child is not dead. She is asleep.’ 40 The people laughed at Jesus when he said that.
Then Jesus sent them all out of the house. He went into the place where the child was lying. The child's father and mother went with him. He also took Peter, James and John with him. 41 Then Jesus held the girl's hand. He said to her, ‘Talitha koum.’ This means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, stand up!’[a] 42 The girl stood up immediately and she walked about. She was 12 years old. The people there were very surprised. 43 Jesus said to them, ‘You must not tell anyone what has happened here. Now give the girl something to eat.’
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