Book of Common Prayer
33-34 In places where people are wicked,
God makes the streams and rivers become dry,
so that the land becomes a desert.
He makes good land
become a salty wilderness.
35 But for his people, he changes deserts
to become pools of water.
He makes springs of water in dry land.
36 He lets hungry people live there safely.
They can build a city for themselves.
37 They plant crops in their fields,
and they plant vines to grow grapes.
They have plenty of food to eat.
38 He blesses them,
so that they have many children.
Their animals also grow in number.
39 But they may become weak and few in number,
because of cruel enemies who give them trouble.
40 Then God causes the enemy's leaders to become ashamed.
He makes them travel on roads that go nowhere.
41 But for people who are poor and weak,
he rescues them from their trouble.
He gives them many children,
so that they have big families.
42 Good people see what God has done,
and it makes them happy.
Wicked people have nothing to say!
43 Wise people should think about these things.
They should understand the Lord's faithful love for his people.
This psalm is a song that David wrote.
A prayer for help[a]
108 God, I have decided to trust you always.
I will sing songs to praise you,
with all that I am.
2 I will pick up my harp and my lyre.
I will make music as the sun rises!
3 Lord, I will thank you in front of all the people.
I will sing to praise you,
so that all nations hear.
4 Your faithful love is great.
It is higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches beyond the clouds.
5 God, show how great you are,
high above the sky!
Let everybody on the earth see your glory.
6 Use your power to rescue us!
Answer our prayers!
Then the people that you love will be safe.
7 God has spoken from his holy place![b]
He has promised:
‘I will show my power!
I will make Shechem into separate pieces.
I will measure Succoth Valley.
8 Gilead belongs to me,
and so does Manasseh.
Ephraim is like my helmet for war.
Judah has the authority of my royal sceptre.[c]
9 But Moab is the place where I wash my hands.
Edom is my servant.
I can throw my shoes at him!
I will shout aloud,
because I have won against the Philistines.’[d]
10 Who will lead me into the strong city?
Who will take me to fight and win against Edom?[e]
11 God, have you really turned against us?
Will you not lead our armies into battle?
12 Help us to fight against our enemies,
because help from men is useless!
13 With God's help, we will win!
He will beat down our enemies for us.
Praise the Lord![a]
33 You righteous people,
sing to praise the Lord,
and be happy!
It is right for good, honest people to do that.
2 Pick up your harp
and praise the Lord!
Make music for him
with a lyre that has ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song!
Make beautiful music,
as you sing aloud to praise him.
4 Yes! The Lord's message is true.
We can always trust him to do what is right.
5 He loves everything that is right and fair.
The world is full of his faithful love.
6 The word of the Lord made the heavens.
When he spoke,
all the stars in the sky appeared.
7 He put the water of the sea together in a heap.
He made the deep seas stay in their right places.
8 Everyone who lives on the earth should respect the Lord.
They should bend down to worship him.
9 The Lord spoke,
and the world began!
He spoke his command,
and everything became fixed in its place.[b]
10 Nations decide what they want to do,
but the Lord causes their plans to be useless.
11 But whatever the Lord decides to do
will always happen.
His thoughts will not change
from one century to the next.
12 The Lord blesses the nation
that has him as their God.
He has chosen them to belong to him,
as his own special people.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven.
He sees every man, woman and child.
14 From the place where he lives,
he watches everyone that lives on the earth.
15 He made each person and all their thoughts.
He knows everything that they do.
16 A great army will not save their king.
A soldier does not stay alive because he is strong.
17 In war, do not hope that even a strong horse will help you to win.
You can not trust it to save you.
18 Remember, the Lord takes care of people who respect him.
Those people trust him for his faithful love.
19 They trust him to keep them safe from death,
and to keep them alive during a time of famine.
20 Yes! We will trust the Lord to come and help us.
He is our helper who keeps us safe,
like a soldier's shield.
21 We are happy because he loves us.
We trust in his holy name.
22 Lord, help us to know your faithful love,
because we are trusting in you.
David and Ziba
16 When David had passed beyond the top of the Mount of Olives, he met Mephibosheth's servant Ziba.[a] Ziba was waiting there for him with two donkeys. The donkeys were ready for people to ride them. They also carried 200 loaves of bread, 100 blocks of raisins, 100 blocks of figs and a leather bag of wine.
2 The king asked Ziba, ‘Why have you brought all these things?’
Ziba answered, ‘The donkeys are for the king's family to ride. The bread and the fruit are for the young men to eat. The wine will help people who become weak when you travel through the desert.’
3 The king asked, ‘Where is your master's grandson?’[b]
Ziba answered, ‘He is staying in Jerusalem. He thinks that the Israelites will now give back to him his grandfather Saul's kingdom.’
4 Then the king said to Ziba, ‘Everything that Mephibosheth had will now belong to you.’
Ziba said, ‘Thank you, sir. I hope that you will always be pleased with me.’
Shimei curses David
5 King David and his people arrived near Bahurim town.[c] Gera's son Shimei came out to meet David. He was a relative of Saul. Shimei cursed David in a loud voice as he came towards him. 6 He threw stones at David and at the king's officers. There was a big group of people and brave soldiers all around David. 7 Shimei said, ‘Go away! Get out of here! You are a murderer, a wicked man! 8 The Lord has punished you because of all the people that you killed from Saul's family. You made yourself king, instead of Saul. But now the Lord has given the kingdom to your son, Absalom. All this trouble has come to you because you are a murderer!’
9 Then Zeruiah's son, Abishai, said to the king, ‘This man is only a useless dog! He must not curse you, my lord the king. I should go and cut off his head!’
10 The king said, ‘No! You sons of Zeruiah should not tell me what to do! Perhaps he is cursing me because the Lord has said to him, “Curse David.” Then we cannot say that he is wrong to curse me.’
11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his officers, ‘My own son is trying to kill me. Now this man from Benjamin's tribe wants to do the same thing. The Lord has told him to do this, so do not stop him cursing me. 12 Perhaps the Lord will understand my trouble. He may see how Shimei is cursing me and he may bless me instead.’
13 David and his men continued to walk along the road. Shimei walked along the side of the hill, near the road. As he went, he cursed David and he threw stones and dirt at David and his people. 14 When King David and all the people who were with him reached the Jordan River, they were tired and weak. So they rested there.
Ahithophel gives advice to Absalom
15 So Absalom and all the Israelites who were with him arrived in Jerusalem. Ahithophel came with him. 16 David's friend, Hushai the Arkite, had also come there. He went to Absalom and he said to him, ‘May the king live for ever! May the king live for ever!’
17 Absalom asked Hushai, ‘Why have you not been faithful to your friend David? Why did you not go with him?’
18 Hushai replied, ‘No, I will serve you. You are the king that the Lord has chosen. And all these people and the men of Israel have chosen you too. So I will stay with you. 19 I served your father when he was king. So now it is surely right for me to serve you, his son.’
20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, ‘What do you think that we should do now? What is your advice?’
21 Ahithophel answered, ‘Sleep with your father's slave wives that are here. He left them to take care of his palace. Then all the people in Israel will know that you have insulted your father. They will know that he must now hate you. That will help your own men to be strong.’
22 So they put up a tent for Absalom on the roof of the palace. There he had sex with his father's slave wives, and all the Israelites could see him.
23 In those days, people thought that Ahithophel's words were as good as a message from God. So Absalom trusted Ahithophel as his advisor, as David had done too.
17 So then I returned to Jerusalem. I went into the temple and I was praying there. I had a vision. 18 In the vision, I saw the Lord and he spoke to me. He said, “Hurry. Leave Jerusalem quickly. The people here will not believe what you say to them about me.”
19 I replied, “Lord, the people here know what I have been doing. They know that I wanted to take hold of all the people who believed in you. I went to all our Jewish meeting places to look for the believers. When I found them, I put them in prison and I hit them with sticks. 20 I myself was there when the people killed Stephen. He was your servant who told people your message. But I agreed that it was right to kill him. I even held the coats of the people while they killed him.”
21 But the Lord said to me, “Go! I will now send you a long way away. You must go to the Gentiles and tell them my message.” ’
The people in the crowd become very angry with Paul
22 The people listened carefully to Paul until he spoke about the Gentiles. Then they began to shout loudly, ‘Take him away! Kill him! It is not right that he should live any longer!’
23 While they were shouting this, they were taking off their coats. They also threw dirt from the ground up into the air.[a]
24 The leader of the soldiers said to his men, ‘Take this man into our building. Then hit him with whips. We must find out what he has done. He must tell us why the Jews are shouting so loudly against him.’[b]
25 So the soldiers tied Paul's arms and they were ready to hit him. But Paul spoke to the soldiers' officer who stood near to him. He said, ‘I am a citizen of Rome. So it is not right for you to hit me like that. No judge has agreed that I have done anything wrong.’
26 The officer heard what Paul said. So he went to the leader of the soldiers and he said, ‘That man is a citizen of Rome! Be careful what you do to him!’
27 So the soldiers' leader went to speak to Paul. He asked him, ‘Tell me. Are you really a citizen of Rome?’
Paul answered, ‘Yes, I am.’
28 The soldiers' leader said, ‘I paid a lot of money to the government so that I could become a citizen of Rome.’
Paul replied, ‘But I was already a citizen of Rome when I was born.’
29 Immediately, the men who wanted to hit Paul with whips moved away from him. The leader of the soldiers was also very afraid. He had tied chains around Paul's arms and legs. He knew that he should not have done that to a citizen of Rome.[c]
Jesus rides into Jerusalem
11 Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They were almost at the villages called Bethphage and Bethany. They were on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.[a]
2 He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has ever yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. 3 Someone may ask you, “Why are you doing this?” Then say, “The Master needs the donkey. He will send it back here soon.” ’
4 So the two disciples went into the village. They found the young donkey in the street. Someone had tied it outside, by a door. So the disciples undid the rope. 5 Some people were standing there. They asked the two disciples, ‘What are you doing? Why are you undoing the donkey's rope?’ 6 The disciples answered them. They repeated what Jesus had told them to say. The people then let them take the donkey away. 7 The two disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back and Jesus sat on it. 8 Many people then put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees in the fields. They put the branches down on the road as well.[b]
9 Many people went in front of Jesus, and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,
‘We praise God!
May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority!
10 Great will be the kingdom of King David, our ancestor!
We praise God above!’
11 Jesus went into Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked at everything there. It was late in the day, so he then went out of the city to Bethany. The 12 apostles went with him.
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