Book of Common Prayer
This psalm is a song that Asaph wrote.
Israel's enemies
83 God, do not continue to be silent!
Do not remain quiet.
Please do something!
2 Look! Your enemies are causing trouble.
The people who hate you are ready to attack.
3 They decide carefully how they will attack your people.
They want to hurt the people that you love.
4 They say, ‘Come now! We will destroy them.
They will no longer be a nation.
Nobody will remember the name of Israel any more.’
5 They agree together what they will do.
They join one another to fight against you.
6 Those enemies are Edomites and Ishmaelites,
Moabites and Hagrites.
7 They also come from Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia and Tyre.
8 Even the Assyrian army has joined with them.
They have given strength to Lot's descendants,
the Moabites and the Ammonites.
Selah.
9 God, punish them as you punished Midian.
Do what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon.[a]
10 You destroyed them at Endor.
Their bodies remained on the ground, like dirt.
11 Do to their leaders
what you did to Oreb and Zeeb.
Let their rulers die,
like Zebah and Zalmunna.[b]
12 Those people said,
‘Let us take God's valuable country for ourselves!’
13 God, blow them away like dust,
like chaff that blows away in the wind!
14 Go after them,
like a fire that burns both forest and mountains.
15 Chase them away with your storms.
Frighten them with your strong winds.
16 Cause them to be very ashamed, Lord,
so that they might turn to you.
17 May they always be ashamed and frightened.
Let them die with shame![c]
18 Then they will understand that you are the Lord.
They will know that you are the Most High God
who rules over all the earth.
The 1st Hallelujah Psalm[a]
146 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
2 I will praise the Lord through all my life.
While I am alive, I will always sing to praise my God.
3 Do not trust in human leaders.
No human can save you.
4 When they die, they return to the ground.
On that day, their plans come to an end.
5 The person who knows that the God of Jacob will help him is a happy person![b]
If he trusts in the Lord as his God, he is happy.
6 The Lord made the skies, the earth and the sea.
He also made everything that is in them.
He always does what he has promised to do.
7 He helps poor people to receive justice.
He gives food to the hungry.
He makes people that are in a prison go free.
8 The Lord makes blind people see again.
The Lord lifts up people who have fallen down.
The Lord loves people who are righteous.
9 The Lord takes care of strangers who live among us.
He helps widows and children who have no family.
But he stops wicked people doing what they want.
10 The Lord will rule as king for ever!
Zion's people, he will always be your God
and your descendants' God.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The 2nd Hallelujah Psalm
147 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
It is good to sing to praise our God!
Yes, it is right to praise him and it makes us happy.
2 The Lord is building Jerusalem again.
He is bringing home the Israelite exiles.
3 He makes people who are very sad well again.[c]
He helps their wounds to get better.
4 He decided how many stars there should be in the sky.
He has given a name to each of them.
5 Our Lord is great and very powerful.
He understands everything!
6 The Lord gives help to poor people,
but he knocks down wicked people to the ground.
7 Offer a song to the Lord,
to thank him for what he has done.
Make music with a harp
to praise our God.
8 He fills the sky with clouds.
He sends rain to make the earth wet.
He causes grass to grow on the hills.
9 He gives food for the animals to eat.
He feeds the young ravens when they cry.[d]
10 If a horse is very strong,
that does not please him.
If a soldier is brave,
that does not make him happy.
11 Who does make the Lord happy?
People who respect him and serve him well.
People who trust him because they know he loves them.
12 Jerusalem's people, praise the Lord!
Yes, Zion's people, praise your God![e]
13 Praise him because he makes your city's gates strong.
He blesses the people who live there.
14 He causes your borders to be safe from your enemies.
He gives you lots of the best wheat to eat.
15 He sends his commands to reach all the earth.
Very soon the whole world knows what he wants.
16 He covers the earth with snow,
like a white blanket.
He puts white frost everywhere,
like ashes that the wind blows.
17 He throws hail from the sky,
like small stones.
When he sends a cold wind,
nobody can continue to stand.
18 Then he commands it all to melt.
He makes the warm wind blow,
and the ice becomes streams of water.
19 He sends his message to Jacob's descendants.
He gives his rules and laws to Israel's people.[f]
20 He has not done that for any other nation.
They do not know his laws.[g]
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
A prayer for peace[a]
85 Lord, you have blessed your land.
You have made Jacob's descendants strong again.[b]
2 You forgave your people's sins.
You took away their guilt.
Selah
3 You stopped being so angry with them.
You did not punish them any more.
4 But now turn back to us,
and make us strong again, God.
You are the one who rescues us.
Please stop being angry with us.
5 Will you continue to be angry with us for ever?
Will you be angry with our children too?
6 Please turn back to us
and give us new life!
Then your people will be happy
and they will praise you.
7 Lord, show us again your faithful love!
Please rescue us!
8 Now I will listen to what the Lord God says.
He will give peace to his people,
to those who serve him.
But they must not turn back
to do foolish things again.
9 Yes, God will soon rescue his people who serve him.
Then we will see his glory again in our land.
10 God will be faithful to us
and he will love us with his faithful love.
His justice and his peace will join together,
like dear friends.
11 Faithful truth will grow like a plant in the ground.
Justice will look down from the sky above.[c]
12 Yes! The Lord will bless us with many good things.
Plenty of food will grow in our land.
13 Justice will go before our God,
and it will make a way for him to walk on.
David's prayer.
A prayer for help
86 Lord, please listen to me,
and answer me!
I am weak and I need help.
2 I am your faithful servant,
so keep my life safe!
Please save me, my God,
for I trust in you.
3 My Lord, be kind to me.
All through the day,
I am calling to you for help.
4 Please make me happy deep inside,
for you are the one that I pray to, my Lord.
5 Yes, my Lord, you are very kind,
and you are ready to forgive people.
When anyone calls to you for help,
you love them with your faithful love.
6 Lord, hear my prayer!
Please listen when I call to you for help.
7 Whenever trouble comes to me,
I will pray to you.
I know that you will answer me.
8 There is no one like you, my Lord,
among all the gods.
Nobody can do the great things that you do.
9 You have made all the nations of the world,
and they will all come to worship you, my Lord.
They will agree that your name is great.
10 For you are great and you do great things.
You alone are God.
11 Lord, teach me how I should live.
Then I will obey your truth.
Teach me to serve you with all that I am,
so that I respect you with fear.
12 My Lord and my God,
I will thank you with all my strength.
I will praise your name for ever!
13 I know that you love me very much
with your faithful love.
You will continue to keep my life safe,
so that I do not go down into the deep hole of death.
14 God, proud people are attacking me.
Cruel men have joined together to kill me.
They do not respect you at all.
15 But you, my Lord, are a kind God
who forgives people.
You do not quickly become angry,
and your faithful love is very great.
We can always trust you
to do what you have promised.
16 Turn to me and be kind to me.
I am your servant, so make me strong.
Please rescue your slave!
17 Help me, so that I know you are pleased with me.
Then my enemies will see it,
and they will be ashamed.
They will know that you, Lord,
have helped me and comforted me.
Haman dies
7 King Xerxes and Haman went to the meal that Queen Esther had prepared. 2 This was the second day that they ate a special meal together. While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, ‘Queen Esther, what do you want me to do for you? I will give you whatever you want. Even if you want half of my kingdom, I will give it to you.’
3 Queen Esther replied, ‘Sir, I hope that you are pleased with me. If you agree, I ask you to save my life. Also save the lives of my people. That is what I ask you to do. 4 Someone has sold me and my people as if we are animals. Now they will kill us and completely destroy us all. If we had been sold to become slaves, I would not have spoken to the king. It would not have been important enough for that.’
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is this man? Who would even think of anything like that? Where is he?’
6 Esther replied, ‘The enemy of our people is this wicked man Haman!’
Then Haman became very afraid, as he sat there with the king and the queen.[a]
7 The king was very angry and he stood up. He left his wine and he went into the palace garden. Haman realized that the king wanted to destroy him. So he stayed with Queen Esther and he asked her to save his life. 8 Queen Esther was lying down on a bed. Haman threw himself down beside her. At that moment, the king returned from the garden. The king shouted, ‘What is this man doing? He even attacks the queen when she is with me in my palace!’[b]
While the king was still saying this, his servants covered Haman's head.[c]
9 One of the king's eunuchs, Harbona, said, ‘There is a wooden tower near Haman's home. It is 22 metres high. His men built it so that he could hang Mordecai on it. Mordecai is the man who saved the king's life.’
The king said, ‘Hang Haman on the tower until he is dead.’
10 So they took Haman and they hanged him on the tower until he was dead. It was the same tower that Haman had wanted to kill Mordecai on. After that, the king did not feel so angry.
The sons of Sceva tell bad spirits to leave people
11 God was helping Paul to do special miracles. 12 Because of this, people were taking pieces of cloth and clothes that Paul gave to them. Paul had used these things, and people took them to those who were ill. After they touched these cloths, the sick people would become well again. Bad spirits also left them.
13 There were some Jewish men who travelled about to different places. They caused bad spirits to leave people. Some of them wanted to use the name of the Lord Jesus when they did this. These Jews said to the bad spirits, ‘We tell you to come out of these people. We say this with the authority of Jesus, the man that Paul teaches people about.’
14 Sceva was a leader of the Jewish priests in that place. He had seven sons who were telling bad spirits to come out of people. They used the name of Jesus when they did this. 15 But one day the bad spirit in a man said to them, ‘I know who Jesus is. I also know about Paul. But I do not know who you are.’ 16 The man who had the bad spirit in him then jumped up. He fought with the seven sons and he was too strong for them. He hurt them badly and he tore their clothes off. So the sons ran away from the man's house. Their bodies were bleeding and they wore no clothes.
17 All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this. They became very afraid. Now they respected the name of the Lord Jesus very much. They knew that he was very powerful. 18 Many of the believers agreed that they had done wicked things. They told other believers about this. 19 Some of them had used magic to do powerful things. These people brought all their special books and they burned them in a fire. Everybody saw what they did. The books had cost a lot of money. The value of all the books was 50,000 silver coins. 20 As a result of this, more and more people heard the good news about the Lord Jesus. The message was powerful and people's lives changed.
Jesus goes to Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee. The Holy Spirit continued to give him power. Everyone who lived near there heard the news about him. 15 He taught people in the Jewish meeting places.[a] Everyone said good things about him.
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. On the Jewish day of rest, he went to their meeting place.[b] This was what he usually did. He stood up to read aloud from the Bible.[c]
17 They gave him the scroll that had the messages of God's prophet Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll. He found the place where Isaiah wrote:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.
He has chosen me to tell good news to poor people.
He has sent me to tell people who are in prison, “You can go free!”
I must say to people that cannot see, “See again!”
I must cause people that are like slaves to become free.
19 I must tell everyone, “This is the year when God will be kind to his people.” ’[d]
20 When Jesus had read this to the people, he closed the scroll. He gave it back to an officer of the meeting place. Then he sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the meeting place was looking carefully at him.
21 Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’
22 Everyone was talking about Jesus. They were surprised at the good way in which he spoke. They said to each other, ‘We know that he is only Joseph's son.’
23 Jesus then said to them, ‘Now you will tell me the proverb, “Doctor, make yourself well!” You will also say, “We have heard that you did many surprising things in Capernaum. This is your home town, so do the same things here!” 24 I tell you this: People do not accept a prophet of God who comes from their own town.
25 What I tell you is true. There were many widows in the country of Israel when Elijah was alive. At that time, it did not rain for three and a half years. So people were very hungry in all the country. 26 But God did not send Elijah to help a widow in Israel. Instead, God sent Elijah to the country called Sidon. There he helped a widow in a place called Zarephath.[e]
27 Here is another example: When God's prophet Elisha was alive, there were many people in Israel with a bad disease of the skin. But God did not make any of them well. Instead, he made a man well who was from the country called Syria. That man was called Naaman.’[f]
28 The people in the meeting place heard what Jesus said.[g] They became very angry. 29 They stood up and they made him leave the town. They took him to the top of the hill outside the town. They wanted to throw him over the edge to the bottom. 30 But Jesus walked through the middle of the crowd and he went away.
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