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]
Choose what is good and right
4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Listen carefully so that you understand what is right. 2 My teaching will help you, so do not refuse it.
3-4 My father taught me when I was a little boy. My mother loved me as her only child. My father said to me,
‘Think carefully about what I tell you.
If you obey my commands, you will live well.
5 Learn to be wise and to understand things properly.
Do not forget my teaching or turn away from it.
6 If you keep hold of wisdom, she will keep you safe.
She will protect you if you love her.[a]
7 Learn to be wise, because wisdom is the most important thing to have.
Make sure that you learn to understand things well.
8 Respect wisdom as very valuable, then she will make you great.
If you make her your friend, she will give you honour.
9 Wisdom will bless you, as if you are wearing a beautiful crown on your head.’
10 So listen to me, my child, and accept my teaching. If you do, the years of your life will be many.
11 I am teaching you to be wise, so that you will know the right way to live. 12 As you walk through life, nothing will stop you. Even when you run, you will not fall.
13 Keep hold of my teaching. Do not forget it. Keep it safe because it will give you a good life.
14 Do not join with wicked or evil people. Do not do the things that they do. 15 Keep away from them! Be sure to keep to your own good way of life.
16 Wicked people have to do evil things. They cannot go to sleep unless they have been cruel to someone that day. 17 Evil acts are their food. Violence is their drink.
18 The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until midday. 19 But the life of wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall.
20 My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. 21 Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. 22 They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body.
23 Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.
24 Never tell lies or try to deceive other people.
25 Look straight in front of you to see clearly where you are going. 26 Decide carefully where you are going in life. Then you will be on a good, safe path. 27 Do not walk off your path, to the right side or the left side. Keep away from everything that is evil.
Love each other because God loved us
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.[a]
30 Jesus had not arrived in the village yet. He was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 There were still Jews in the house who were with Mary to help her. They saw her get up quickly and go out. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the place where they had put Lazarus's dead body. They thought that she wanted to go there to weep.
32 Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was. When she saw Jesus, she bent down low at his feet. She said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ 33 Jesus saw that Mary was weeping. He saw that the Jews who had come with her were weeping too. When Jesus saw them, he felt very sad in his spirit. He was upset about Lazarus's death. 34 He asked them, ‘Where have you put his dead body?’ They answered, ‘Come and see, Lord.’ 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said to each other, ‘See how much he loved Lazarus!’ 37 But some of them said, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man. So surely he would have been able to stop the death of Lazarus.’
Jesus makes Lazarus alive again
38 Jesus arrived at the grave where they had put Lazarus's dead body. It was a cave. A large stone covered the front of the hole. Again, Jesus felt very upset. 39 He said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha, the dead man's sister, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, by now his dead body will have a bad smell. He has been dead for four days!’ 40 Jesus said to her, ‘I told you already that you must believe in me. Then you will see how great and how powerful God is.’ 41 So they moved the stone away. Jesus looked up towards the sky. He said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. 42 I know that you listen to me always. But I said this to help all the people who are standing here. I want them to believe that you sent me.’ 43 When Jesus had said this, he shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The dead man came out. There were pieces of cloth round his hands and round his feet. Another piece of cloth was round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Undo the cloths and let him go.’
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