Book of Common Prayer
This psalm is a song that the sons of Korah wrote for the music leader. Use special music. It is a special song by Heman the Ezrahite.
A sad cry[a]
88 Lord, you are the God who rescues me.
I call out to you in the day,
and I pray for help at night.
2 Please listen to my prayer!
I am calling to you for help!
3 There is a lot of trouble in my life.
I feel that I am near to death.
4 People see me as if I am already in my grave.
I feel completely helpless.
5 I am the same as people who have died.
Their bodies already lie in their graves.
You do not remember them any more
You cannot use your power to help them.
6 You have put me in the deep hole of death,
far down in a very dark place.
7 Your anger is very heavy on me.
It is like the waves of the sea that knock me down.
8 You have caused my best friends
to keep away from me.
They do not even want to look at me.
A trap has caught me
and I cannot escape.
9 My eyes have become weak
because I am so sad.
Lord, every day I call to you for help.
I lift my hands up to you as I pray.
10 Your great miracles do not help dead people!
Dead people cannot get up and praise you!
Selah.
11 People in their graves
cannot talk about your faithful love!
In the world of death,
they cannot say how faithful you are.
12 In those dark places,
they do not see your miracles.
In that place where people forget everything,
they cannot know about the good things that you do.
13 But as for me, Lord,
I call to you for help.
Every morning I pray to you.
14 Lord, why do you throw me out?
Why do you turn away from me?
15 Since I was young, I have been in pain.
I have always been near to death.
You have caused bad troubles to frighten me,
so that I feel helpless.
16 Your anger is too much for me!
You are attacking me and destroying me!
17 The troubles that you send are all round me,
like a flood of deep water.
They come very near to me,
on every side.
18 You cause my friends and my neighbours
to stay away from me.
All that I have near to me is darkness.
God is a safe place[a]
91 If anyone lives in Almighty God's safe place,
the Most High God protects that person.
2 I will say to the Lord,
‘You are the strong place where I will be safe.
You are my God,
and I trust in you.’
3 God will keep you safe,
so that no trap will catch you.[b]
He will not let any illness kill you.
4 He will keep you safe,
like a bird keeps its babies safe under its wings.
Because he keeps his promises,
he will keep you safe like a shield and armour.
5 Do not be afraid of troubles that come in the night,
or of your enemy's arrows during the day.
6 Do not be afraid of any illness that comes when it is dark,
or any trouble that comes in the middle of the day.
7 A thousand people may die near you.
Even ten thousand people may die at your side.
But nothing will hurt you.
8 Your own eyes will see this happen.
You will see wicked people
receive the punishment that they deserve.
9 You have come to the Lord to make you safe.
The Most High God has become your home.
10 No bad thing will happen to you.
No illness will come to your home.
11 For God will tell his angels to keep you safe.[c]
They will protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you safely in their hands,
so that you do not hurt your foot on a stone.[d]
13 You will win against lions and snakes.
You will walk over them!
14 The Lord says, ‘If someone loves me,
I will keep him safe.
Because he worships me,
I will protect him.
15 When he calls to me for help,
I will answer him.
When he has trouble,
I will be with him.
I will rescue him,
and people will respect him.
16 I will give to him a long life,
so that he is happy.
He will see that I have the power to save people.’
This psalm is a song to sing on Sabbath days.
A song to praise God
92 It is good to thank the Lord!
We sing to praise your name, Most High God.
2 We sing in the morning
to thank you for your faithful love.
We sing at night
to say that you are always faithful.
3 We make beautiful music
with lutes, harps and lyres.[e]
4 The things that you do, Lord,
make me very happy.
I sing with joy
because of the things that your hands have made!
5 Yes, Lord, you have done great things!
Your thoughts are more than we can understand!
6 Here is something that stupid people do not know.
Fools do not understand it.
7 Wicked people may continue to grow,
like green grass.
Evil people may grow like weeds.
But in the end you will destroy them
and they will never grow again.[f]
8 You, Lord, will rule as King for ever!
9 Yes, Lord, look at your enemies!
Your enemies will all die!
Those people who do evil things will all disappear!
10 You have made me as strong as a wild bull.
You have poured pure olive oil on me.[g]
11 With my own eyes,
I have seen my enemies fall.
With my own ears,
I have heard them cry out in pain.
12 Righteous people will do well,
like a palm tree that makes new leaves.
They will become strong,
like a tall cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 They are like trees that someone has planted in the Lord's house.
They grow well in the yard of our God's temple.
14 When they are old,
they will still give fruit!
They will always be strong,
with fresh, green leaves.
15 They will tell everyone,
‘The Lord always does what is right.
He is my strong, safe rock.
There is nothing bad in him.’
The king makes another law
8 That day, King Xerxes took everything that had belonged to Haman, the enemy of the Jews. He gave it all to Queen Esther. Esther told the king that Mordecai was her cousin.
So Mordecai came to meet the king. 2 The king had taken back his special ring from Haman. Now he took it off his own finger and he gave it to Mordecai. And Esther gave Mordecai authority over all the things that had belonged to Haman.
3 Then Esther went again to speak to the king. She threw herself down at his feet and she wept. She wanted him to stop Haman's evil idea to kill all the Jews. 4 The king held out his gold sceptre towards Esther. So she stood up to speak to the king.
5 Esther said to the king, ‘I hope that I have pleased the king. If you agree, and if you are pleased with me, please make another law. Stop the command that Haman, the descendant of Agag, wrote. He sent letters to all the regions of your kingdom, because he wanted to destroy all the Jewish people. 6 I cannot let this evil thing happen to my relatives. I have to do something to stop it.’
7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai, ‘You are right! I have already punished Haman with death because he wanted to destroy the Jews. I have also given all of his things to Esther. 8 Now you must use my authority to write another law. Write a law that you think will save your people. Then mark the letters with my special ring. Any letter that has my name and the mark of my ring on it has the king's authority. Nobody can ever change it.’
15 Then Mordecai left the king's palace. He was wearing royal clothes that were purple and white. He had a large gold crown on his head. He wore a beautiful coat made from purple linen. The people in Susa city shouted with joy because of the new law.
16 All the Jews were very happy. Everyone respected them and gave them honour. 17 When the new law reached every region and every city, the Jews became very happy. The other people who lived there were now afraid of the Jews. Because of that, many people said that they themselves had become Jews.
Bad troubles happen in Ephesus
21 After these things happened, Paul decided that he should go to Jerusalem. But first he wanted to visit the believers in Macedonia and Greece. He said, ‘After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also go to Rome.’ 22 At that time, Timothy and Erastus were helping Paul with his work. Paul sent them to Macedonia while he stayed longer in Asia region.
23 Soon after that, there was bad trouble in Ephesus. Some people began to speak strongly against the Way of the Lord Jesus. 24 In Ephesus there was a man called Demetrius. He used silver to make beautiful things. He made models that looked like the temple of Artemis.[a] He paid a lot of money to people who did this work for him. 25 So he told all his workers to meet with him. He also asked other workers to come, who did the same kind of work. He said to all these men, ‘Men, you know that our work has caused us to become rich. 26 Also, you can see what this man Paul is doing. You have heard his message. Many people here in Ephesus, and in nearly all the places in Asia region, believe what he says. Paul teaches people this: “Anything that men have made is not really a god.” 27 If people continue to believe Paul's message, it will be very bad for us. People will say bad things against our work. The house of our god Artemis will not be important any more. People will even think that Artemis herself is not a great god. As it is now, people in all of Asia region and everywhere else worship her. We do not want that to change.’
28 When the workers heard Demetrius, they became very angry. They all shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’ 29 More and more people in the whole city began to shout. There was trouble everywhere. Gaius and Aristarchus had been travelling with Paul. They had come with him from Macedonia. Some people from the crowd took hold of Gaius and Aristarchus. They pulled them quickly to the big public meeting place in the middle of the city.[b]
30 Paul himself wanted to go there. He wanted to speak to the crowd. But the other believers would not let him do that. 31 Some Roman officers in that region were Paul's friends. They also sent a message to him. They said to him, ‘Please, do not go to the meeting place.’
32 The crowd of people in the meeting place continued to shout loudly. Some people were shouting one thing and other people were shouting something different. Not many of the people even knew why they had all met together. 33 There was a Jewish man called Alexander in the crowd. The Jews pushed him to the front of the crowd. He raised his hands towards the people, so that they would be quiet. He wanted to explain to them that he and his Jewish friends had not caused the trouble. 34 But the crowd knew that Alexander was a Jew. So they continued to shout the same words for about two hours. All together they shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’
35 After two hours, an important officer of the city caused the crowd to be quiet. He said, ‘People of Ephesus! Everybody knows about our god Artemis who has her temple here in Ephesus. People come here to worship her. Her special stone that fell from the sky is also here in Ephesus. We take care of all her things. Everybody knows that! 36 Nobody can say that this is not true. So be careful! Do not quickly do anything that is silly. 37 You have brought Gaius and Aristarchus here to the city officers' meeting place. But what bad thing have they done? They have not robbed the house of Artemis. They have not said bad things against her. 38 Perhaps Demetrius and his workers think that someone has done a bad thing to them. If they think that, they should let a judge decide. There are officers for the government who will do this. If someone has done a wrong thing, people should tell a judge.
39 So, if you want to argue about these problems any more, do it properly. Go to the place where the judges meet. 40 Today, there is a crowd of people who are shouting and fighting. The Roman rulers may hear about what has happened. They will say that we have done bad things. We could not explain to them the reason why there is all this trouble.’ 41 When the officer had said all this, he said to the crowd, ‘All of you should go home now.’
Jesus causes a bad spirit to leave a man
31 Jesus went to a town in Galilee called Capernaum. On the Jewish day of rest, he taught the people there. 32 The people were very surprised at the things that Jesus taught them. He spoke with authority. 33 There was a sick man in the meeting place. He had a spirit of a bad demon that was living inside him. The spirit caused the man to shout loudly. 34 He said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone! Do not destroy us! I know who you are. You are God's Holy One!’
35 Jesus said to the spirit, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man!’ Then the bad spirit caused the man to fall to the ground in front of the people. It came out of the man but it did not hurt him.
36 All the people were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘Listen to what this man says! He has power and authority. He tells bad spirits to come out of people, and they come out.’ 37 So they began to tell everyone about Jesus. Because of this, people in all the places near Capernaum heard the news about Jesus.
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