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.
The Israelites want to travel through Edom
14 From Kadesh, Moses sent men to the king of Edom with this message: ‘We are Israelites, your relatives. We should be friendly to each other. You know about all the troubles that have happened to us. 15 Our ancestors went to Egypt. We lived there for many years. The people in Egypt were cruel to us. 16 But when we asked the Lord to help us, he heard us. He sent an angel and he brought us out from Egypt.
Now we are here at Kadesh, which is a town at the border of your land. 17 Please let us travel through your land. We will not go through any fields or through any vineyards. We will not even drink water from your wells. We will go along the main road. We will not leave that road on either side until we have gone through all your land.’
18 The king of Edom said, ‘You must not travel through my country. If you do, we will bring our army to attack you.’
19 The Israelites replied, ‘We will stay on the main road. If our animals drink your water, we will pay for it. We only want to travel through your country. We do not want anything else.’
20 The king of Edom said, ‘No, you must not travel through our country.’ He sent many strong soldiers to attack the Israelites. 21 In that way, the Edomites stopped the Israelites from travelling through Edom. So the Israelites turned away from there.
Aaron dies
22 All the Israelites went from Kadesh to Hor mountain. 23 When they were there, at the border of Edom's land, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. 24 He said, ‘Aaron will soon die. He will not go in to the land that I am giving to the Israelites. That is because you both refused to obey me at Meribah. 25 Moses, you must take Aaron and his son Eleazar to climb up Hor mountain. 26 Take the priest's clothes from Aaron and put them on Eleazar. Aaron will die there.’
27 Moses did what the Lord told him to do. Moses, Aaron and Eleazar climbed up Hor mountain, while the Israelites watched. 28 Moses took the priest's clothes from Aaron and he put them on Eleazar. Then Aaron died there, at the top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar walked back down the mountain.[a] 29 The Israelites wept for 30 days because Aaron died.
Sin does not rule us any longer
6 Someone might say, ‘Perhaps we should continue to do wrong things. Then God can be kind to us in more and more ways.’ 2 No! Certainly we should not do that! Sin does not rule our lives any longer. That old life is dead! So it is not right that we should continue to do wrong things. 3 Remember what your baptism shows: When they baptized you, it shows that you are united with Christ Jesus. It also shows that, because Christ died, your old life also died.[a] 4 Your baptism shows that they buried you, just like they buried Christ after his death. It is like you died with him and they buried you with him. Because of that, God will also raise us, just as he raised Christ from death. God, the Father, is so great and powerful that he raised Christ to a new life. That means that we also can live our lives in a new way.
5 We have become united with Christ, and we have died like he died. Because of that, we will also be united with him in his new life. Just like Christ rose, we also will rise to a new life. 6 We know that God has caused our old nature to die with Christ on the cross. This happened so that God could make us free from the power of sin in our lives. We are no longer like slaves who have sin as their master. 7 Sin no longer has any authority over someone who has died.
8 So, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 God raised Christ, so that he became alive again after his death. Because of that, we know that he will never die again. Death has no authority over him any more. 10 When Christ died, he died once to destroy the power of sin for ever. Now that he is alive again, he lives to serve God. 11 So you also should think about yourselves in the same way. Sin has no power over you, as if you were dead. In your new life, you live to serve God, because you belong to Christ Jesus.
Jesus goes into Jerusalem
21 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage.[a] They were on the Mount of Olives.[b] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.
2 He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. 3 Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’
4 A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.
5 ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,
“Look, your king is coming to you.
He does not come like someone who thinks that he is important.
He is riding on a donkey.
Yes, he is riding on a young donkey.” ’[c]
6 So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. 7 They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus got up and sat on one of them. 8 Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.[d]
9 Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,
‘We praise the Son of David!
May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority!
We praise God in heaven above!’[e]
10 When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’
11 The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’
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