Book of Common Prayer

Asaph wrote this song for the music leader. He should use special music.

God judges people fairly

This psalm is a song that Asaph wrote for the music leader. Sing it with the music of stringed instruments.

God has great power

This is a song that David wrote.

God takes care of his people^[a]

This is a song that David wrote.

I trust God to keep me safe

²² Once again, the Philistine soldiers came and they covered the ground in Rephaim valley. ²³ So David again asked the Lord what he should do. This time the Lord said, ‘Do not march straight towards them. Instead, go round behind them. Then attack them from the other side, where the poplar trees are. ²⁴ When you hear a noise in the tops of the trees like marching men, go quickly to attack them. Then you will know that the Lord has gone in front of you. He will knock down the Philistine army for you.’

²⁵ So David did as the Lord had commanded him to do. His men chased the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

David brings the Covenant Box to Jerusalem

6 David chose 30,000 of the best soldiers in Israel. ² He took them with him to Baalah, a town in Judah. He wanted to bring God's Covenant Box from there to Jerusalem. The Israelites called it by the name of the Lord Almighty. He sits as King between the two cherubs that are on the top of the Covenant Box. ³ They put the Covenant Box on a new cart. They took it out of Abinadab's house which was on the hill. Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio, were leading the new cart ⁴ which had the Covenant Box on it. Ahio walked in front of the Covenant Box. ⁵ David and all Israel's people were singing and dancing with all their strength to praise the Lord. They made music with harps, lyres, tambourines, shakers and cymbals.^[a]

⁶ They reached the place of Nacon's threshing floor. There the oxen that were pulling the cart almost fell. So Uzzah reached out to hold God's Covenant Box to stop it falling. ⁷ The Lord was very angry with Uzzah because he did not respect God's rules.^[b] He immediately knocked Uzzah down to the ground. Uzzah died there, beside the Covenant Box.

⁸ David was angry because the Lord had punished Uzzah. So he called that place ‘Perez Uzzah’. That is still its name today.^[c]

⁹ So David now became afraid of the Lord. He said, ‘The Lord's Covenant Box is too holy to come with me!’ ¹⁰ He no longer wanted to take the Lord's Covenant Box to the City of David to be with him there. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom, who came from Gath. ¹¹ The Lord's Covenant Box stayed in Obed-Edom's house for three months. During that time, the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all the people in his house.

Paul visits Athens

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he walked around. He saw that the people in the city had many idols. When Paul saw this, he became very upset. ¹⁷ So he went to the Jewish meeting place and he talked with the Jews. He also talked there with those Gentiles who now worshipped God. Every day he also went to the market place in the city and he talked with the people there. ¹⁸ There were some teachers there who liked to talk about the things that people should believe. Some of them were called Epicureans and some were called Stoics.^[a] After they talked to Paul, some of them said to each other, ‘Who is this silly man? He knows nothing and he talks too much!’ But some of these teachers said, ‘We think that he is talking about strange gods.’ They said this because Paul was telling people the good news about Jesus. He was also talking about the time when God will cause dead people to live again.

¹⁹ So these men asked Paul to go with them to Areopagus hill. They wanted him to speak to the city's important officers who met there.^{[b] 20} The officers said, ‘These strange ideas that you are teaching surprise us. Please explain to us what these ideas mean.’ ²¹ (The people of Athens liked to talk about new ideas. So did the foreign people who lived there. They all wanted to hear new things and to talk about them. They seemed to do this all the time.)

²² So Paul stood up in front of the important officers of the city. He said to them, ‘People of Athens. I see that you have many gods. ²³ I have walked in the streets of your city. I see that you have built many special places where you worship your gods. I saw one altar with a notice on it. The notice said, “To the god that we do not know.” This shows that you want to worship a god that you do not know. Now I will tell you clearly about who this God is.

²⁴ The true God made the earth and everything that is in it. He rules everything in the earth and in heaven. He does not live in any buildings that people have made for him. ²⁵ People make things to give to God. But God does not need anything like that. It is God himself who causes everyone to live. He gives them everything that they need. ²⁶ God first made one man. From that one man he made all the different groups of people. He caused them to live in different places all over the world. He decided where each group of people should live. He also decided how long they should live in each place. ²⁷ God did all this so that people would want to know him. They would look carefully for him and perhaps they would find him. Really, God is near to each of us. ²⁸ Someone said this: “Because God gives us life, we are alive. Because of him, we can move about. Because of him we can be who we are.” One of your writers has also said, “We too are God's children.”

²⁹ So, because we are God's children, we should not think that he is a thing like an idol. Clever people use gold or silver or stone to make images of gods. But God is not like these things that people choose to make for themselves. ³⁰ In past times people did not know the true things about God. Because of this, God did not punish them. But now God tells people everywhere, “Stop doing bad things and turn to me!” ³¹ God has already chosen one special day. On that day he will judge everyone in the world in a completely right way. He has chosen a man who will do this for him. He has shown clearly to everyone who that man is. He showed it like this: People killed that man. But God caused him to live again.’

³² Paul had said, ‘God caused that man to live again.’ When the people heard this, some of them laughed at him. But other people said to Paul, ‘We want you to tell us more about this on another day.’ ³³ So then Paul left the meeting of the important officers of the city. ³⁴ Some of the people who had heard Paul's message joined his group. They believed the good news about Jesus. One of these believers was a man called Dionysius. He belonged to the group of important officers. A woman called Damaris also became a believer. Several other people also believed Paul's message about Jesus.

Jesus gives food to 4,000 people

8 At that time, another large crowd had come to hear Jesus. The people had nothing to eat. Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ² ‘I feel sorry for this crowd. They have been here with me now for three days and they do not have any food. ³ I do not want to send them back to their homes while they are hungry. They might fall down during their journey because they are weak. Some of them have travelled a long way to come here.’

⁴ The disciples replied, ‘This place is far from any houses. We cannot get enough bread to feed all these people.’

⁵ ‘How many loaves of bread do you have?’ Jesus asked. ‘We have seven loaves,’ they replied.

⁶ Jesus told the crowd that they should sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves in his hands and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the bread and he gave the pieces to his disciples. The disciples gave the bread to the people. ⁷ The disciples also had a few small fish, so Jesus thanked God for these. Then he told his disciples to give the fish to the people too. ⁸ The people ate, and they all had enough food. After the people had eaten, there were still lots of small pieces of food. Jesus' disciples filled seven baskets with these pieces. ⁹ About 4,000 people were there and ate the food. Then Jesus sent the people away. ¹⁰ Immediately, he got into the boat with his disciples. They all returned to the part of the country called Dalmanutha.^[a]