Book of Common Prayer
A song of David.
101 I will sing about love and justice.
Lord, I will sing to you.
2 I will be careful to live a pure life.
I will live in my house with complete honesty.
When will you come to me?
3 I will not even look at anything shameful.[a]
I hate all wrongdoing.
I want no part of it!
4 I will not be involved in anything dishonest.
I will have nothing to do with evil.
5 I will stop anyone who secretly
says bad things about a neighbor.
I will not allow people to be proud
and think they are better than others.
6 I will look throughout the land for those who can be trusted.
Only such people can live with me.
Only those who live pure lives can be my servants.
7 I will never let a dishonest person live in my house.
I will not let liars stay near me.
8 My goal each day will be to destroy the wicked living in our land.
I will force all who do evil to leave the city of the Lord.
To the director: A praise song of David.
109 God, I praise you!
Hear my prayer and do something!
2 Wicked people are telling lies about me.
They are saying things that are not true.
3 They are saying hateful things about me.
They are attacking me for no reason.
4 I loved them, but they were against me.
So I said a prayer.
5 I did good things to them,
but they are doing bad things to me.
I loved them,
but they hated me.
6 They said, “Choose someone evil to represent him.
Let the one at his side really be his accuser.
7 Let even his prayer be used as evidence against him,
and let the court find him guilty.
8 Let his life be cut short,
and let someone else take over his work.
9 Let his children become orphans and his wife a widow.
10 Make his children wander around as beggars,
forced from homes that lie in ruins.
11 Let the people he owes take everything he owns.
Let strangers get everything he worked for.
12 Let no one be kind to him.
Let no one show mercy to his children.
13 May his family come to an end.
May his name be unknown to future generations.
14 May the Lord remember the sins of his father,
and may his mother’s sins never be erased.
15 May the Lord remember their sins forever,
and may he cause people to forget his family completely.
16 He never did anything good.
He never loved anyone.
He made life hard for the poor and the helpless.
17 He loved to curse others,
so let those bad things happen to him.
He never blessed others,
so don’t let good things happen to him.
18 Cursing was a daily part of his life,
like the clothes he wears.
Cursing others became a part of him,
like the water he drinks and the oil he puts on his body.
19 So let curses cover him like the robe he wears
and always surround him like a belt.”
20 My enemies said these evil things against me.
But may those curses be the way the Lord punishes them.
21 My Lord God, treat me in a way that brings honor to your name.
Save me because of your faithful love.
22 I am only a poor, helpless man.
I am so sad; my heart is broken.
23 I feel my life is over, fading like a shadow at day’s end.
I feel like a bug that someone brushed away.
24 My knees are weak from fasting.
I have lost weight and become thin.
25 My enemies insult me.
They look at me and shake their heads.
26 Lord my God, help me!
Show your faithful love and save me!
27 Then they will know that you did it.
They will know that it was your power, Lord, that helped me.
28 They curse me, but you can bless me.
They attacked me, so defeat them.
Then I, your servant, will be happy.
29 Humiliate my enemies!
Let them wear their shame like a coat.
30 I give thanks to the Lord.
I praise him in front of everyone.
Ain
121 I have done what is right and good.
Don’t let me fall into the hands of those who want to hurt me.
122 Promise to be good to me, your servant.
Don’t let those proud people do harm to me.
123 I have worn out my eyes looking for your help,
waiting for you to save me, as you promised.
124 Show your faithful love to me, your servant.
Teach me your laws.
125 I am your servant.
Give me wisdom to understand your rules.
126 Lord, it is time for you to do something.
The people do what is against your teachings.
127 I love your commands more than gold,
more than the purest gold.
128 I carefully obey all your commands.
So I hate anything that leads people the wrong way.
Pe
129 Lord, your rules are wonderful.
That is why I follow them.
130 As people understand your word, it brings light to their lives.
Your word makes even simple people wise.
131 My desire to hear your commands is so strong
that I wait with open mouth, gasping for breath.
132 Look at me, and be kind to me,
just as you always are to those who love your name.
133 Guide me, as you promised.
Don’t let evil rule over me.
134 Save me from those who want to hurt me,
and I will obey your instructions.
135 Accept your servant,
and teach me your laws.
136 I have cried a river of tears
because people don’t obey your teachings.
Tsadhe
137 Lord, you do what is right,
and your decisions are fair.
138 The rules you have given us are right.
We can trust them completely.
139 Something that really upsets me is the thought
that my enemies ignore your commands.
140 I love your word.
Time and again it has been proven true.
141 I am young, and people don’t respect me.
But I have not forgotten your instructions.
142 Your goodness is forever,
and your teachings can be trusted.
143 Even though I have troubles and hard times,
your commands give me joy.
144 Your rules are always right.
Help me understand them so that I can live.
The Potter and the Clay
18 This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Jeremiah, go down to the potter’s house. I will give you my message there.”
3 So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working with clay at the wheel. 4 He was making a pot from clay. But there was something wrong with the pot. So the potter used that clay to make another pot. With his hands he shaped the pot the way he wanted it to be.
5 Then this message from the Lord came to me: 6 “Family of Israel, you know that I can do the same thing with you. You are like the clay in the potter’s hands, and I am the potter.” This message is from the Lord. 7 “There may come a time when I will speak about a nation or a kingdom that I will pull up by its roots or tear down and destroy it. 8 But if the people of that nation change their hearts and lives and stop doing evil things, I will change my mind and not bring on them the disaster I planned. 9 There may come another time when I speak about a nation that I will build up or plant. 10 But if I see that nation doing evil things and not obeying me, I will think again about the good I had planned to do for them.
11 “So, Jeremiah, say to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am the potter preparing troubles for you and making plans against you. So stop doing the evil things you are doing. Each person must change and start doing good.’
Life in the Spirit
8 So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. 2 That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you[a] free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. 3 The law was without power because it was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do: He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that everyone else uses for sin. God sent him to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. 4 He did this so that we could be right just as the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.
5 People who live following their sinful selves think only about what they want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about what the Spirit wants them to do. 6 If your thinking is controlled by your sinful self, there is spiritual death. But if your thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. 7 Why is this true? Because anyone whose thinking is controlled by their sinful self is against God. They refuse to obey God’s law. And really they are not able to obey it. 8 Those who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.
9 But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. 10 Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. 11 God raised Jesus from death. And if God’s Spirit lives in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. Yes, God is the one who raised Christ from death, and he will raise you to life through his Spirit living in you.
27 But earthly food spoils and ruins. So don’t work to get that kind of food. But work to get the food that stays good and gives you eternal life. The Son of Man will give you that food. He is the only one qualified by God the Father to give it to you.”
28 The people asked Jesus, “What does God want us to do?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: to believe in the one he sent.”
30 So the people asked, “What miraculous sign will you do for us? If we can see you do a miracle, then we will believe you. What will you do? 31 Our ancestors were given manna to eat in the desert. As the Scriptures say, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a]”
32 Jesus said, “I can assure you that Moses was not the one who gave your people bread from heaven. But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 God’s bread is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 The people said, “Sir, from now on give us bread like that.”
35 Then Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who believes in me will ever be thirsty. 36 I told you before that you have seen me, and still you don’t believe. 37 The Father gives me my people. Every one of them will come to me. I will always accept them. 38 I came down from heaven to do what God wants, not what I want. 39 I must not lose anyone God has given me. But I must raise them up on the last day. This is what the one who sent me wants me to do. 40 Everyone who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life. I will raise them up on the last day. This is what my Father wants.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International