Book of Common Prayer

David wrote this psalm when he was in the Judah wilderness.

A morning song^[a]

God rules the world^[a]

This is a song that David wrote.

The love of God^[a]

¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up at dawn again. They marched round the city as they had done before. But this time they did it seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time, the priests made a long, loud noise on their trumpets. Joshua told the people, ‘Shout aloud to attack! The Lord has given the city to you! ¹⁷ The city and everything that is in it belongs to the Lord, so destroy it all. Only the prostitute Rahab and all the people who are with her in her house will live. This is because she hid the two men that we sent. ¹⁸ Be careful! Do not take for yourselves the valuable things that belong to the Lord. If you do that, you will cause bad trouble to come to the whole Israelite army. The Lord will destroy us all. ¹⁹ Everything that is made from silver, gold, bronze and iron belong to the Lord as his holy things. You must store them with his other valuable things.’

²⁰ When the trumpets made a noise, all the people gave a loud shout to attack the city. When they did this, the walls of the city fell down. All the soldiers went up into the city. They went straight in and they took the city for themselves. ²¹ They destroyed everything that lived in the city, as a gift to the Lord. With their weapons, they killed men and women, young people and old people, as well as cows, sheep and donkeys.

²² Joshua said to the two men that Rahab had hidden, ‘Go into her house. Bring her out, with all her family who are there with her. That is what you promised to do for her.’ ²³ So the young men who had been to look at the city went to her house. They brought out Rahab and her whole family. That was her father and her mother, and her brothers and all who belonged to her. They took them to a place that was near the Israelite tents.

²⁴ Then they burned the whole city and everything that was in it. They stored the gold, silver, bronze and iron things with the Lord's valuable things. ²⁵ But Joshua kept Rahab safe, as well as her family and everyone who belonged to her. Rahab had hidden the men that Joshua sent to find out about Jericho city. Because she did that, her family still lives among the Israelites, even today.^[a]

²⁶ At that time, Joshua made a strong promise. He said, ‘If anyone tries to build Jericho city again, the Lord will punish him as a guilty man. When he starts to build, his oldest son will die. When he puts up the city's gates, his youngest son will die.’

²⁷ So the Lord was with Joshua to help him. Joshua became famous everywhere in the land.

³⁰ The soldiers' leader wanted to find the reason why the Jews had said bad things against Paul. He wanted to know what was really true. So the next day, he told his soldiers to remove the chains from Paul. He sent a message to the most important priest and to all the group of Jewish leaders. He told them to meet together with him. Then he took Paul to their meeting. He made Paul stand in front of them.

Paul speaks to the meeting of Jewish leaders

23 Paul looked at the group of Jewish leaders and he said to them, ‘My Jewish friends, God knows that I have nothing to be ashamed about today. I have always respected God's Laws.’ ² The most important priest, who was called Ananias, heard Paul's words. He said to the men who were near Paul, ‘Hit that man on his mouth!’ ³ Paul said to him, ‘God will certainly hit you! You are a hypocrite!^[a] You are sitting there and you are judging me. You are asking if I obey the Law of God. But you yourself do not obey the Law! You should not have said, “Hit that man!” ’

⁴ The men who were standing near Paul said to him, ‘You must not say bad things against our most important priest!’

⁵ Paul replied, ‘My brothers, I did not know that this man is the most important priest.^[b] Our Jewish law says, “Do not say bad things against the man who rules your people.” So I should not have said anything bad against him.’

⁶ Then Paul saw that there were some Sadducees and also some Pharisees in the meeting. So he shouted out to the whole group of Jewish leaders, ‘My brothers, I am a Pharisee! My father was also a Pharisee. I believe that dead people will certainly rise and they will live again. That is the reason why you are judging me today.’

⁷ As soon as Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to argue with each other. People in the group thought different things about Paul. ⁸ (The Sadducees do not believe that dead people will live again. They do not believe that there are angels or spirits. But the Pharisees believe in all these things.)

⁹ The Sadducees and the Pharisees began to shout louder and louder against each other. There were some teachers of God's Law who were in the group of Pharisees. They stood up in the meeting and they said, ‘We do not believe that this man has done anything wrong. What he says may be true. A spirit or an angel may have spoken to him.’

¹⁰ The two groups argued more and more strongly. The leader of the soldiers thought that the people there might hurt Paul badly. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Go down into the group and take Paul away from them. Take him back with you into our strong building.’

¹¹ The next night, the Lord Jesus came and he stood near Paul. He said to Paul, ‘Do not be afraid! You have told people here in Jerusalem about me. You must also do the same thing in Rome.’

Jesus helps a man who cannot walk

2 Several days after that, Jesus returned to Capernaum. People heard the news that he had come back to his home. ² Many people came into the house. The house was so full that there was no room, even outside the door. Jesus was teaching people about the good news. ³ Four men came. They were carrying another man on a mat. That man could not move his legs. ⁴ They could not reach Jesus because of the crowd. So they made a hole in the roof above the place where Jesus was.^[a] They helped the man to go down through the hole. He was still lying on his mat. ⁵ Jesus saw the man and his friends. He knew that they believed in him. So he said to the man who could not walk, ‘My friend, I forgive you for your sins.’

⁶ But some teachers of God's Law were sitting there. They thought about the words that Jesus had spoken to the man. ⁷ They thought, ‘This man Jesus should not have said that. He is speaking as if he is God. Only God can forgive people for their sins.’

⁸ Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit what the teachers were thinking. He said to them, ‘You should not think these things. ⁹ I said to this man who cannot walk, “I forgive you for your sins.” Instead, I could have said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Which of those is easier for me to say? ¹⁰ But I want you to know this. I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth to forgive people for their sins.’^[b] Then he said to the man who could not walk, ¹¹ ‘I am saying to you, stand up! Pick up your mat and go home.’ ¹² Immediately, the man stood up. He picked up his mat and he walked out of the house. Everyone watched him do this. The people were very surprised. They praised God and they said, ‘God is great. We have never seen anything like this before.’