Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this song. Tell the music leader to use stringed instruments.
God will keep me safe[a]
61 God, please hear me when I call to you for help.
Listen carefully to my prayer.
2 I will call out to you from far away,
because I am sad and weak.
Lead me to a strong, safe rock
that is higher than I am.
3 You are the safe place where I can hide.
You are like a strong tower
that keeps me safe against my enemies.[b]
4 I want to live in your house for ever.
I want you to keep me safe,
like birds protect their babies under their wings.
Selah.
5 You, God, have heard my promises to you.
You have blessed me,
as you bless all those people who serve you.
6 Please give the king a long life.
Let him live to see many descendants.
7 Let him rule for ever
with your authority.
Cause your faithful love and your truth to keep him safe.[c]
8 Then I will always praise your name.
Every day I will give to you
the offerings that I have promised.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader, Jeduthun.
Only God can save me!
62 I will be patient as I wait for God to help me.
He is the only one who can make me safe.
2 He alone is the strong rock
where I can hide and be safe.
With him, nothing will make me fall.
3 How long will you all continue to attack me?
I am just one man,
and you want to kill me!
You want to knock me down,
like a weak wall or a fence that is falling down.[d]
4 You only want to push me off my high place.
You love to tell lies to deceive people.
When you say words to bless people,
you are cursing them in your thoughts.
Selah.
5 I must be patient as I wait for God to help me.
He is the only one that I can trust for help.
6 He alone is the strong rock
where I can hide and be safe.
With him, nothing will make me fall.
7 It is God who has kept me safe,
and he has made me great.
He is the strong place
where I can hide and be safe.
8 Yes, my friends,
you should always trust in God!
Tell him about all the troubles in your thoughts.
God is our safe place to hide!
Selah.
9 People are only as light as a breath!
Whoever they are, they are not important.
If you try to weigh them, all together,
they weigh less than a breath of air.[e]
10 Do not cheat people,
or rob them to get money!
That will not give you anything
that you can trust to help you.
Even if you become very rich,
do not think it is important.
11 I have heard God speak his truth
once, no twice!
God has great strength.
12 And also, my Lord, you have a faithful love.
You pay back to everybody what they should get
for the things that they have done.
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
God will win![a]
68 God will rise up
and he will chase his enemies away!
The people who hate him
will quickly run away from him![b]
2 God, blow them away,
as wind blows smoke away.
Destroy those wicked people,
as wax melts near a fire!
3 But righteous people will be happy,
when they come near to you.
They will shout with joy,
because they are so happy!
4 Sing songs to God!
Sing to praise his name!
He is the one who rides on the clouds,
so praise him aloud!
His name is the Lord!
Shout with joy to worship him!
5 God is a father for those who have no father.
He takes care of widows.
He rules from his holy home.
6 God gives homes and a family to lonely people.
He makes prisoners go free
so that they are happy.
But people who turn against him
have to live in a hot, dry land.[c]
7 God, you led your people out.
You took them across the desert.
Selah.
8 Then the ground shook,
and rain poured down from the sky.
You showed your power at Sinai mountain.
You are the God who rules at Sinai.[d]
You are the God that Israel's people serve.
9 God, you caused much rain to fall
on your special land.
You made it fresh again
when it had been dry.[e]
10 Your own people came to live in it.
God, because you are kind,
you gave many good things to poor people.
11 The Lord gives a command!
Very many women take his message to other places.
12 Kings with large armies quickly run away.
Yes, they run away!
The women at home share the valuable things
that the armies have left behind.
13 Even those who stayed to take care of the sheep
found valuable things,
like a dove with silver wings
and bright gold feathers.[f]
14 When the Almighty God chased away foreign kings,
it was like snow that fell on Mount Zalmon.
15 Bashan mountain is great, like God.
It has many high rocks.
16 You high mountains, why are you jealous
when you look at Zion mountain?
That is the mountain where God has chosen to live.
Yes, that is where the Lord will live for ever!
17 God has millions of chariots.
The Lord has come from Sinai mountain
to his own holy place.
18 When you went up to the highest place,
you took many prisoners with you.
You received gifts from men,
even from the men who had fought against you.
Yes, the Lord God lives there!
19 Praise the Lord, as he deserves!
Every day he helps us with our troubles.
He is the God who keeps us safe!
Selah.
20 Our God is the God who rescues people.
The Almighty Lord saves us from death.
21 He will knock down the heads of his enemies.
He will destroy their skulls and their long hair,
if they continue to turn against him.
22 The Lord says, ‘I will bring my enemies back from Bashan,
even from deep down in the sea.
23 Then you can wash your feet in their blood.
Your dogs can have as much as they want!’[g]
24 God, you are my God and my King.
People will see the great crowd that goes with you,
as you go to your holy temple.
25 The singers will march in front.
The musicians will follow them.
Young women will be with them
as they beat their tambourines.
26 They all sing,
‘Praise God, all you crowd of people!
All you people of Israel,
praise the Lord!’
27 Benjamin, the smallest tribe, will lead them all.
The leaders of Judah, with their big group, will follow.
Then will come the leaders of Zebulun and Naphtali.[h]
28 God has commanded that you should be strong.
God, please show again how strong you are,
as you have used your strength to help us in past times.
29 As you live in your temple in Jerusalem,
kings will bring gifts to you.
30 Speak against your enemies!
Some are like wild animals that live in the reeds.[i]
Some are proud nations,
like bulls among their young cows.
They must be humble and offer to you
gifts of valuable silver things.
Chase away those nations that like to fight wars.
31 Egypt's leaders will come with gifts.
People will come from Cush
and they will agree to serve God.[j]
32 All you kingdoms of the earth,
sing to God!
Yes, sing to praise the Lord!
Selah.
33 He is the one who rides in the sky,
as he has done from the beginning of time.
Listen! He shouts with a powerful voice.
34 Agree that God is very powerful!
He is the King who rules over Israel.
He shows his power in the skies.
35 God, how great you are,
as you come from your holy temple!
He is the God of Israel.
He gives power to his people,
and he makes them strong.
Praise God as he deserves!
14 But this is something else that is difficult to understand: Sometimes righteous people suffer in the way the wicked people deserve. And sometimes wicked people enjoy the good things that righteous people deserve. I think that this is difficult to understand.
Enjoy life
15 So I think that we should enjoy our lives. People should be happy to eat, drink and enjoy their lives. That is the best thing for them to do. It will help them to enjoy the work that they do during their lives. That is the life which God has given them on the earth.
16 I tried very much to become wise. I wanted to understand the things that people do on the earth. People work in the day and in the night and they do not sleep. 17 I thought about everything that God has done. I realized that nobody understands everything that happens on the earth. Even if they try very much, they will not know everything. A wise person may say that he understands all these things. But really that is not possible.
Everyone will die
9 I thought about all these things so that I could understand them. I realized that God controls what happens to people. That includes righteous people and wise people. God decides the things that they do. Nobody knows what will happen in their lives. Other people may love them, or they may hate them.
2 But there is something which happens to everyone. It happens to righteous people and it happens to wicked people. It happens to good people and it happens to bad people. It happens to people who are clean in front of God and it happens to people who are unclean. It happens to people who offer sacrifices to God and it happens to people who do not do that. It happens to good people and to people who turn away from God. It happens to people who make promises to God. It also happens to people who are afraid to do that. 3 Finally, the same thing happens to everyone on the earth. That seems to be a terrible thing. People choose to do evil things. While they are alive, they choose to live like fools. And after that, they die.
4 Anyone who is alive in the world has some hope for good things in the future. It is better to be a dog that is alive than to be a lion that is dead. 5 People who are alive know that they will die one day. But dead people do not know anything. No more good things can happen to them. Nobody remembers them. 6 Everything that they did in the world has finished. If they loved people, if they hated people, if they were jealous of people, all that has finished. They no longer having anything to do with the things that happen on the earth.
Enjoy life
7 So be happy as you eat your food. Be happy as you drink your wine. God is pleased with you as you do these things. 8 Always dress yourself well in good clothes. Use as much sweet oil as you need on your head. 9 Love your wife and enjoy your life together with her. God has given you your life. It is a short life and it is difficult to understand everything that happens. God wants you to enjoy these things as you do hard work during your life on the earth. 10 Use all your strength to do the work that you are doing. One day you will die and you will go into your grave. Then you will not have any work, or ideas, or knowledge or wisdom. So do your work well while you are alive.
A picture of Hagar and Sarah
21 I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says. 22 The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman. 23 Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.[a]
24 These two women are like pictures of two agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on Sinai mountain.[b] That agreement causes people to become slaves. 25 Hagar is like a picture of Sinai mountain in Arabia.[c] Also, she is like the city of Jerusalem here on earth now, because that city and its people are slaves under the authority of God's Law.
26 But Abraham's wife, Sarah, is a picture of the new Jerusalem that is above. Sarah was a free person, not a slave, and she is like our mother. 27 It says in the Bible:
‘Be happy, you woman who could not have any children!
You have never known the pain of a child's birth.
But now shout loudly because you are so happy!
Yes, be happy, because the lonely woman now has more children
than the woman who has a husband.’[d]
28 You, my Christian friends, are like Sarah's son, Isaac. Like him, you became God's children as a result of God's promise. 29 Isaac was born because of God's Spirit. The son who was born in the human way gave much trouble to Isaac at that time. You who are believers receive the same kind of trouble now. 30 But this is what it says in the Bible: ‘Send away the woman who is a slave and her son. That woman's son will never receive anything from his father. The son of the free woman will receive all those good things.’[e] 31 So then, my Christian friends, we are not children of the woman who is a slave. No, we are children of the free woman.
29 Jesus travelled on from that place and he walked along the shore of Lake Galilee. He climbed up a hill and he sat down there. 30 Large crowds of people came to him and they brought sick people with them. Some of these sick people could not walk very well, and some of them were blind. Some of them could not use their arms or their legs. Some of them could not speak. There were many other sick people who had different illnesses. Their friends put the sick people in front of Jesus. And Jesus caused them all to become well again. 31 When the large crowd saw all this, they were very surprised. People who could not speak could now speak again. People who could not use their arms or their legs were now well again. Those people who could not walk very well could now walk again. Blind people could now see again. All the people praised God, and they said, ‘God of Israel, you are great.’
Jesus feeds 4,000 men and their families
32 Then Jesus told his disciples to come to him. ‘I feel sorry for this crowd,’ he said to them. ‘They have been here with me now for three days. They do not have any food. I do not want to send them away while they are hungry. They might fall down during their journey because they are weak.’
33 The disciples said to Jesus, ‘This place is a long way from any houses. We cannot get enough bread here to feed so many people.’
34 Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves of bread do you have?’
They replied, ‘We have seven loaves and a few small fish.’
35 Jesus told the crowd that they should sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish in his hands and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the bread and the fish into pieces and he gave the food to his disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people. 37 All 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. 38 There were 4,000 men who ate the bread and fish. There were also women and children who ate. 39 Then Jesus sent the crowd of people away. After that, he got into the boat and sailed to the part of the country near Magadan.[a]
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