Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to help us[a]
20 May the Lord answer you
when you are in trouble and you call to him for help.
May Israel's great God keep you safe.
2 He will send help to you from his holy place,
from his temple in Zion.
3 He will remember the gifts that you have offered to him.
He will accept your burnt offerings
Selah
4 May God give to you
all the things that you really want.
He will help you to do everything that you want to do.
5 Then we will be happy and we will shout aloud
when you win against your enemies.
We will wave our flags to praise our God.
Yes, I pray that the Lord will do for you
everything that you ask him to do.
6 Now I know that the Lord will save
the king that he has chosen.
God will agree to help him from his holy place in heaven.
God will use his great power to make his king safe.
7 Some people hope that their chariots will keep them safe.
Other people trust their horses to save them.
But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 Those people will fall down,
and they will not get up again.
But we will get up and stand again,
and we will be strong.
9 Lord, help the king to win against his enemies!
Please answer us when we ask you for help.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We thank God for his help[b]
21 Lord, the king is happy,
because you help him with your great strength.
You have helped him to win against his enemies,
so he is very happy.[c]
2 You have given to him all the things
that he really wanted.
When he asked for them,
you have not refused to give them to him.
Selah.
3 You came to him,
and you blessed him with many good things:
You put a crown on his head.
It was made from the best gold.
4 He asked you to keep his life safe,
and you gave to him a long life.
His descendants will continue for ever.
5 People praise him,
because you have helped him to win against his enemies.
You have caused him to rule as a great king.
6 You will continue to bless him for ever.
Because you are very near to him,
he is very happy.
7 The king trusts in the Lord.
Because of the Most High God's faithful love,
the king will never fail.
8 You will use your strong power
to take hold of your enemies.[d]
You will catch everybody that hates you.
9 When you come out to fight against them,
you will destroy them like a hot fire.
The Lord destroys them,
because you are angry with them.
10 You will remove your enemies' children from the earth.
They will no longer have any descendants.
11 They decided to hurt you.
They thought how they would do that.
But they could not do anything bad against you.
12 No! You shoot your arrows at them,
so that they turn round and they run away!
13 Get up, Lord, and show your strength!
We will sing to praise you
because you have great power.
David wrote this psalm.
The Lord's great King[a]
110 The Lord God said to my Lord,[b]
‘Sit at my right side[c] until I win against your enemies.
Then you will be able to put your feet on them.’
2 The Lord will give you great authority,
as you rule from Zion.[d]
You will rule over all your enemies
that are round you.
3 When you go to fight your enemies,
your people will be happy to fight beside you.
As the sun rises on the day of battle,
your young men will be there,
on the hills round Zion.[e]
4 The Lord has made a strong promise.
He will not change it.
He has promised, ‘You will be a priest for ever,
in the same way that Melchizedek was my priest.’[f]
5 The Lord is standing at your right side.
When he becomes angry,
he will knock down kings!
6 He will punish the nations,
so that dead bodies cover the ground.
He will destroy kings everywhere on the earth.
7 He will drink from a stream at the side of the road.
With new strength, he will lift up his head.
God saved me from death[a]
116 I love the Lord,
because he heard me when I called to him.
2 He listened carefully to me.
When I need help, I will always pray to him,
for as long as I live.
3 The danger of death was very near to me.
I became afraid of the deep hole of death.
I was very sad and upset.
4 Then I called out to the Lord.
I said, ‘Lord, please save my life!’
5 The Lord is kind and fair.
Yes, our God is very kind.
6 The Lord takes care of weak people.
I was in danger of death,
and he saved me!
7 So now I know that I am safe again.
The Lord has been very good to me.
8 Yes, Lord, you saved me from death!
Because of that, my eyes no longer weep,
and I do not fall down to the ground.
9 Now I will serve the Lord
here in this world where people live.
10 I trusted in the Lord
even when I said, ‘I have much pain.’
11 I was confused and I said,
‘Everybody tells lies.’
12 The Lord has done many kind things to help me.
What can I give back to him?
13 I will offer a cup of wine to the Lord,
to thank him because he saved me!
I will worship him.
14 I will give to the Lord
everything that I have promised.
I will do that when all his people meet together.
15 The Lord is sad when one of his servants dies,
because their lives are valuable to him.
16 Lord, I really am your servant.
I am like a slave in your house.
You have saved me from death.
17 I will offer to you a special sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
I will worship you as Lord.
18 I will give to the Lord
everything that I have promised.
I will do that when all his people meet together,
19 in the yard of the Lord's temple.
Yes, I will worship you in your temple in Jerusalem.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord![b]
117 All you nations in the world,
praise the Lord!
People from every place,
praise him!
2 The Lord's faithful love for us is very strong.
He will always do what he has promised.
Praise the Lord!
Moses dies on Mount Nebo
34 Then Moses went up from Moab's desert land. He climbed up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah mountain. Jericho city was on the other side of the Jordan River. The Lord showed him the whole land, from the region of Gilead to Dan in the north. 2 He saw all the land that would belong to Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh and Judah, as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 3 He saw the Negev desert in the south. He saw the valley that goes from Jericho as far as Zoar. Jericho is called ‘The city of palm trees’.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘This is the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I told them that I would give it to their descendants. Now I have let you see the land, but you will not go across the river into it.’
5 So Moses, the Lord's servant, died there in Moab. The Lord had said that this would happen. 6 The Lord buried Moses in a valley in Moab, near the town of Beth-Peor. But even today, no one knows the place where God buried him.
7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. But he could still see well. His body was still strong. 8 The Israelites wept for 30 days because of Moses' death. They wept in Moab's desert land until the time for them to be sad came to an end.
9 Moses had already chosen Nun's son, Joshua, to take his place as the leader of the Israelites. So the Lord had filled Joshua with wisdom. The Israelites listened to Joshua. They obeyed the commands that the Lord had given to Moses.
10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The Lord spoke to him, face to face. 11 Moses did the miracles that the Lord had sent him to do in Egypt. Those miracles showed the Lord's power to Pharaoh and his officers, and to all the people in his country. 12 No other prophet has shown such great power and authority for all the Israelites to see.
14 But people will never ask Christ to help them if they have not believed in him. And they will never believe in him if they have not heard about him. And they will not hear about him unless somebody tells God's message to them. 15 And nobody can go to tell God's message to people unless God sends them. This is written in the Bible: ‘When people arrive to tell us good news, we say “welcome!” ’[a]
16 But not every person who hears the good news obeys its message. Isaiah said this: ‘Lord God, it seems that nobody has believed our message.’[b] 17 So then, people must hear the message before they can trust God. And people hear that message when someone tells them about Christ.
18 Let me ask you this: ‘Did Israel's people hear that message?’ They certainly did! The Bible says:
‘People have spoken God's message everywhere.
People have heard his message in every part of the world.’[c]
19 So I ask this too: ‘When Israel's people heard God's message, did they understand it?’ First, think about what Moses wrote. God said to Israel's people:
‘I will make you jealous because of people who are not my people.
I will make you angry because of people who know nothing about me.’[d]
20 Also, this is what Isaiah said very bravely:
‘God says: Those people who were not looking for me have found me.
I showed myself to people who were not even asking about me.’[e]
21 But Isaiah says this about Israel's people:
‘God says: For a very long time,
I have been asking my people to return to me.
But they refused to obey me.
They turned against me.’[f]
Jesus tells a story about a fig tree
32 ‘Here is a lesson for you to learn about the fig tree. When the new branches on the tree start to grow, the leaves appear. Then you know that the summer will come soon. 33 In the same way, you will see all these strange things happening. Then you will know that the Son of Man will come very soon. He will be like someone at the door who is ready to come in. 34 I tell you this: The people who are alive now will not all die until all these things happen. 35 One day, the earth and the sky will have an end. But my words will be there for ever.’
Nobody will know when the Son of Man will return
36 Jesus then said, ‘Nobody knows the day or the hour when all these things will happen. Only God the Father knows when they will happen. The angels who are in heaven do not know. Even the Son does not know. 37 Remember what happened when Noah was alive.[a] It will be like that when the Son of Man returns to the earth. 38 In Noah's time, in the days before the flood, people were eating their meals every day. Men married women and women married men. They continued to do all these things until the day that Noah went into his big boat. 39 The people did not know what would happen. Then rain fell for a long time and all these people died in the deep water. When the Son of Man returns, it will happen quickly in the same way. 40 At that time, it will be like this: Two men will be working in a field. God will take one man away, but he will leave the other man behind. 41 Two women will be preparing food together in the same place. God will take one of them away, but he will leave the other woman behind.
42 So you must watch carefully! You do not know the day when your Master will come back. 43 You can be sure about this. The master of a house does not know at what time of night a man would come to rob him. If he knew the time, he would watch his house more carefully. He would not let the robber come into his house and take away his things. 44 So you must also be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you are not thinking about it.’
Jesus tells a story about two servants
45 Jesus then said, ‘You should be like a wise servant. Be someone that the master can trust. The master will choose a man like that. He will say to him, “Rule over my house and all my other servants. Give everyone their food to eat at the right time.” 46 That servant will be very happy when his master comes home. His master will see that he has done everything well. 47 Yes, I tell you this: The master will give that servant authority to rule over everything in his house. 48 But another servant might be bad. He might say to himself, “My master will not come yet.” 49 Then he begins to hit the other servants. He eats too much and he drinks too much. He meets with other people who become drunk. 50 Then the master of that servant will come home and he will surprise the servant. He did not think that his master would come home on that day or at that time. 51 Then the master will punish him a lot. He will put the servant with those people who do not obey him. The people in that place will cry and they will bite their teeth together.’
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