Book of Common Prayer
A song to sing as we climb.
Lord, please help me[a]
120 I cried to the Lord to help me in my trouble.
He answered me.
2 I prayed, ‘Lord, keep me safe from people who tell lies.
Save me from people who want to deceive me.’
3 How will God punish you,
you people who deceive others?
He will punish you properly!
4 Yes, the sharp arrows of a soldier will hurt you.
They will give you pain, like wood that burns with fire.
5 I am so sad! I live in Meshek as a stranger.
I live among the people of Kedar.
6 I have lived too long with people that hate peace.
7 I want to live here in peace.
But when I say this, they only want war!
A song to sing as we climb.
Only God can keep me safe[b]
121 As I travel, I look up towards the hills.
I will find no help there.
2 My help comes from the Lord.
He made the heaven and the earth.
3 He will take care of you,
so that you do not fall.
The one who keeps you safe will not sleep.
4 Yes! The Lord keeps Israel's people safe.
He never gets tired or sleeps at all!
5 The Lord is the one who keeps you safe.
He is very near to you.
He will give you shade from the hot sun.
6 The hot sun will not hurt you in the daytime.
At night, the moon cannot hurt you.
7 The Lord is the one who takes care of you in all danger.
He keeps your life safe.
8 Whatever you do and wherever you go,
the Lord will always keep you safe,
now and for ever.
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.
122 It made me very happy when people said to me,
‘We will go to the house of the Lord.’[c]
2 Now we have arrived!
We are standing inside your gates, Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is a strong city where many people can meet together.
4 Israel's tribes who belong to the Lord go up there.[d]
They go there to thank the Lord,
as he has commanded them.
5 Israel's leaders sit there to judge the people.
They sit on the thrones of King David's descendants.
6 Pray that there will be peace in Jerusalem.
Pray that people who love Jerusalem will be safe.
7 Yes, I pray that there will be peace inside the city's walls.
I pray people will be safe in their strong houses.
8 Because of my family and my friends I will pray,
‘Please let there be peace in Jerusalem.’
9 Because of the house of the Lord our God,
I will pray for good things to happen in Jerusalem.
A song to sing as we climb.
Servants of the Lord
123 I look up to you, God,
as you rule from your throne in heaven.
2 Yes, our eyes look up to the Lord our God.
We want him to be kind to us, so we wait for his help.
We wait like servants who want help from their master.
3 Please be kind to us, Lord. Please forgive us.
People have insulted us more and more!
4 We have had too much!
Proud people laugh at us,
and they do not respect us.
Please stop them!
A song to sing as we climb.
David wrote this song.[e]
124 If the Lord was not fighting for us,
what would have happened?
Israel's people, now answer:
2 ‘If the Lord was not fighting for us when men attacked us,
3 our enemies would have eaten us alive![f]
They would have destroyed us,
because they were so angry against us.
4 They would have been too strong for us,
like rivers of waters that covered us,
5 They would have been like deep water over our heads
that drowned us.[g]
6 We should praise the Lord!
He did not let our enemies destroy us,
like wild animals that kill their food and eat it.
7 Now we have become free,
like a bird that got free out of a trap.
Our enemies lost their power, and we are free![h]
8 The one who helped us is the Lord.
He made the whole universe.’
A song to sing as we climb.
125 People who trust in the Lord are strong,
like Mount Zion.[i]
Nothing can shake it. It will always be there.
2 The Lord is always near to his people,
like the mountains round Jerusalem.
He keeps his people safe, now and for ever.[j]
3 Wicked people will not rule over God's own people.
They will not rule the land where righteous people live.
If they did, the righteous people might also do bad things.
4 Lord, please do good things to good, honest people.
Be kind to those who follow your good ways.
5 But as for people who follow their own bad ways,
Lord, please remove them!
Take them away, along with people who do evil things.
May Israel have peace!
A song to sing as we climb.
The Lord has done great things for us![k]
126 When the Lord turned us round,
so that we enjoyed a good life in Zion again,
we thought that we were dreaming!
2 At that time, we laughed a lot.
We shouted because we were so happy!
People in other countries said to each other,
‘The Lord has done great things for them!’
3 Yes, the Lord has done great things for us.
So we are very happy.
4 Lord, please bless us like before.
That will be like streams of water that return to the desert.[l]
5 When people went out to plant their seeds,
they were crying.
But they will be happy when they bring in the harvest!
6 People were weeping when they took their bags of seeds to plant.[m]
But when they carry their crops back home,
they will shout because they are so happy![n]
A song to sing as we climb.
Solomon wrote this song.
Every good thing comes from God[o]
127 The Lord must build your house.
If not, the work of the builders is useless.
The Lord must keep the city safe.
If not, the city guards are useless.
2 It will not help you to work all day for food, and never stop.
God gives food to the people that he loves.
Even while they sleep, God takes care of them.
3 Children are a gift from the Lord.
He blesses us with descendants.
4 If you have sons while you are a young man,
they are like a soldier's arrows.
5 If a man has many sons,
God has blessed him.[p]
When his enemies speak against him at the city gate,
they will not win.[q]
9 During the battle, Absalom was riding on his mule and he met some of David's soldiers. His mule carried him under a big oak tree. The tree's branches caught Absalom's hair so that he hung there above the ground. His mule ran off and left him there.
10 One of David's men saw what had happened. He told Joab, ‘I have seen Absalom. He is hanging from an oak tree.’
11 Joab said to the man who told him the news, ‘You saw him there, did you? So why did you not kill him? I would have given you ten silver coins and a brave soldier's belt.’
12 But the man replied, ‘I would never hurt the king's son, even for a gift of 1,000 silver coins. We all heard the king give this command to you, Abishai and Ittai. He said, “Keep the young man Absalom safe, because he is my son.” 13 If I had killed Absalom, my own life would be in danger. The king knows everything that happens! You would not have tried to save me from the king's punishment.’
14 Joab said, ‘I cannot stay here while you talk like this.’ So he took three spears and he went to the tree where Absalom was hanging. While Absalom was still alive, Joab pushed the spears into Absalom's heart. 15 Then ten of Joab's own guards came around Absalom. They knocked him down and they killed him.
16 Then Joab made a sound with his trumpet to stop the battle. So his soldiers stopped chasing after Israel's soldiers. 17 They took Absalom's dead body and they threw it into a deep hole in the forest. They made a big heap of stones over the body.
All the Israelite soldiers ran back to their homes.
18 While Absalom was alive, he had built a tall pillar in the King's Valley. He built it so that people would remember him. He thought, ‘I have no son, so my family's name will not continue.’ He put his own name on the pillar, so people still call it Absalom's Pillar.
The Jews in Jerusalem decide to kill Paul
12 The next morning, a group of Jews talked together about how they might kill Paul. They agreed to make a promise to God. They would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. 13 More than 40 men were in the group that decided this. 14 They went to the leaders of the priests and the important Jews. They said to them, ‘We have agreed together to make a serious promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 So now we want you and the group of Jewish leaders to send a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. Ask him, “Please bring Paul to the meeting of the Jewish leaders. We want to know more about the wrong things that he has done.” That will be the message. But, we will wait for Paul and we will be ready to kill him. We will do this before he arrives here at the meeting.’
16 But the son of Paul's sister heard what the Jews had decided to do. He went into the soldiers' building and he told Paul about it.
17 So Paul asked one of the soldiers' officers to come to him. He said, ‘Please take this young man to your leader. He has something important to tell him.’ 18 Then the officer led the young man to the soldiers' leader. He said to him, ‘Paul, who is here in the prison, spoke to me. He asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.’
19 The leader of the soldiers held the young man's hand and he led him to another place. When they were alone, he asked the young man, ‘What do you want to tell me?’
20 The young man said, ‘Some Jewish men have agreed together to send a message to you. They will ask you to take Paul down to the meeting of the Jewish leaders tomorrow. They will say that they want to ask him more questions. But that is not true. 21 Do not agree to do what they want. There are more than 40 men who will be hiding somewhere. They are waiting for Paul. They have made a serious promise to God. They will not eat or drink anything until they have killed Paul. They are now ready to do this. They will be waiting to hear your answer.’
22 The leader of the soldiers said to him, ‘Do not tell anyone that you told me about this.’ Then he sent the young man away.
The soldiers' leader sends Paul to Felix
23 Then the soldiers' leader told two of his officers to come to him. He said to them, ‘Tell 200 of our soldiers to prepare themselves. They must go to Caesarea at nine o'clock tonight. 70 soldiers who ride on horses must also go. There must also be another 200 soldiers with their weapons. 24 Take some horses for Paul to ride on. Take him to Felix the Roman ruler, and keep him safe on the journey.’
Jesus talks about his authority
27 Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. 28 They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 30 John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’
31 Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But, if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 32 But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.
33 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Jesus tells a story about a garden
12 Then Jesus began to speak again to the important Jews. He told them stories. He said, ‘There was a man who made a garden. He planted vines to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground where he could make the grapes into wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.[a] He found some farmers who would work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country.[b]
2 At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers.[c] He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. 3 But the farmers took hold of the servant and they hit him with sticks. They sent him away with nothing. 4 So the man sent another servant to the farmers. They also hit this servant on the head, and they did other bad things to him. 5 The man then sent another servant, but the farmers killed this servant. He sent many other servants to them. The farmers hit some of these servants with sticks and they killed other servants.
6 The man had only one person that he could still send. This was his own son. The man loved him very much.[d] So, last of all, he sent his son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
7 But those farmers said to each other, “This is the son of our master. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. We should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” 8 So the farmers took the son and they killed him. Then they threw his dead body out of the garden.’[e]
9 Jesus then asked, ‘What will the master of the garden do then? I tell you, he will come and he will kill those farmers. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it. 10 I am sure that you have read these words in the Bible:[f]
“The builders refused to use a certain stone. [g]
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.
11 The Lord God did this.
And we can see that he did something great.” ’
12 The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and they went away.
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