Book of Common Prayer
A song of David.
26 Lord, you be the judge and prove that I have lived a pure life.
I have depended on you, Lord, to keep me from falling.
2 Look closely at me, Lord, and test me.
Judge my deepest thoughts and emotions.
3 I always remember your faithful love.
I depend on your faithfulness.
4 I don’t run around with troublemakers.
I have nothing to do with hypocrites.
5 I hate being around evil people.
I refuse to join those gangs of crooks.
6 Lord, I wash my hands to make myself pure,
so that I can come to your altar.
7 I sing a song to give you thanks,
and I tell about all the wonderful things you have done.
8 Lord, I love the house[a] where you live,
the place where your glory is.
9 Lord, don’t treat me like one of those sinners.
Don’t kill me with those murderers.
10 They are guilty of cheating people.
They take bribes to do wrong.
11 But I am innocent,
so be kind to me and save me.
12 I am safe from all danger
as I stand here praising you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
A song of David.
28 Lord, you are my Rock.
I am calling to you for help.
Don’t close your ears to my prayers.
If you don’t answer me,
I will be counted among the dead.
2 I lift my hands and pray toward your Most Holy Place.
Hear me when I call to you.
Show mercy to me.
3 Don’t treat me like the evil people
who do wicked things.
They greet their neighbors like friends,
but secretly plan to hurt them.
4 They do bad things to others,
so make bad things happen to them.
Give them the punishment they deserve.
5 They don’t notice what the Lord does.
They ignore all the good things he has made.
So instead of building them up,
he will destroy them.
6 Praise the Lord!
He has heard my prayer for mercy.
7 The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trusted him with all my heart.
He helped me, so I am happy.
I sing songs of praise to him.
8 The Lord protects his chosen one.[a]
He saves him and gives him strength.
9 Save your people.
Bless those who belong to you.
Lead them and honor them[b] forever.
To the director: A song of David, the Lord’s servant.
36 Deep in the hearts of the wicked a voice tells them to do wrong.
They have no respect for God.
2 They lie to themselves.
They don’t see their own faults,
so they are not sorry for what they do.
3 Their words are wicked lies.
They have stopped doing anything wise or good.
4 They make wicked plans in bed at night.
They choose a way of life that does no good.
And they never say no to anything evil.
5 Lord, your faithful love reaches to the sky.
Your faithfulness is as high as the clouds.
6 Your goodness is higher than the highest mountains.
Your fairness is deeper than the deepest ocean.
Lord, you protect people and animals.
7 Nothing is more precious than your loving kindness.
All people can find protection close to you.
8 They get strength from all the good things in your house.
You let them drink from your wonderful river.
9 The fountain of life flows from you.
Your light lets us see light.
10 Continue to love those who really know you,
and do good to those who are true to you.[a]
11 Don’t let proud people trap me.
Don’t let the wicked force me to run away.
12 Put this on their grave markers:
“Here fell the wicked.
They were crushed.
They will never stand up again.”
To the director, Jeduthun.[a] A song of David.
39 I said, “I will be careful about what I say.
I will not let my tongue cause me to sin.
I will keep my mouth closed[b]
when I am around wicked people.”
2 So I didn’t say anything.
I didn’t even say anything good,
but I became even more upset.
3 I was very angry,
and the more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
So I said something.
4 Lord, tell me, what will happen to me now?
Tell me, how long will I live?
Let me know how short my life really is.
5 You gave me only a short life.
Compared to you, my whole life is nothing.
The life of every human is like a cloud that quickly disappears. Selah
6 Our life is like an image in a mirror.[c]
We rush through life collecting things,
but we don’t know who will get them after we die.
7 So, Lord, what hope do I have?
You are my hope!
8 Save me from the bad things I did.
Don’t let me be treated like a fool.
9 I will not open my mouth.
I will not say anything.
You did what should have been done.
10 But please stop punishing me.
You will destroy me if you do not stop.
11 You punish people for doing wrong to teach them the right way to live.
As a moth destroys cloth, you destroy what people love.
Yes, our lives are like a small cloud that quickly disappears. Selah
The New Beginning
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Have many children. Fill the earth with your people. 2 Every animal on earth, every bird in the air, every animal that crawls on the ground, and every fish in the sea will be afraid of you. All of them will be under your control. 3 In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth—it is yours. 4 But I give you one command. You must not eat meat that still has its life (blood) in it. 5 Also, I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any person or animal that takes a human life.
6 “God made humans to be like himself.
So whoever kills a person must be killed by another person.
7 “Have many children and fill the earth with your people.”
8 Then God said to Noah and his sons, 9 “I now make my promise to you and to your people who will live after you. 10 I make my promise to all the birds, and to all the cattle, and to all the animals that came out of the boat with you. I make my promise to every living thing on earth. 11 This is my promise to you: All life on the earth was destroyed by the flood. But that will never happen again. A flood will never again destroy all life on the earth.”
12 And God said, “I will give you something to prove that I made this promise to you. It will continue forever to show that I have made an agreement with you and every living thing on earth. 13 I am putting a rainbow in the clouds as proof of the agreement between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, you will see the rainbow in the clouds. 15 When I see this rainbow, I will remember the agreement between me and you and every living thing on the earth. This agreement says that a flood will never again destroy all life on the earth. 16 When I look and see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the agreement that continues forever. I will remember the agreement between me and every living thing on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This rainbow is proof of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”
7 While Jesus lived on earth he prayed to God, asking for help from the one who could save him from death. He prayed to God with loud cries and tears. And his prayers were answered because of his great respect for God. 8 Jesus was the Son of God, but he still suffered, and through his sufferings he learned to obey whatever God says. 9 This made him the perfect high priest, who provides the way for everyone who obeys him to be saved forever. 10 God made him high priest, just like Melchizedek.
Warning Against Falling Away
11 We have many things to tell you about this. But it is hard to explain because you have stopped trying to understand. 12 You have had enough time that by now you should be teachers. But you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of God’s teaching. You still need the teaching that is like milk. You are not ready for solid food. 13 Anyone who lives on milk is still a baby and is not able to understand much about living right. 14 But solid food is for people who have grown up. From their experience they have learned to see the difference between good and evil.
16 Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son. 19 They are judged by this fact: The light[a] has come into the world. But they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light. They will not come to the light, because the light will show all the bad things they have done. 21 But anyone who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that whatever they have done was done through God.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International