Book of Common Prayer
33 He changed rivers into a desert,
and springs of water into dry ground.
34 He made fertile land salty
because the people there did evil.
35 He changed the desert into pools of water
and dry ground into springs of water.
36 He had the hungry settle there.
They built a city to live in.
37 They planted seeds in the fields and vineyards.
And they had a good harvest.
38 God blessed them, and they grew in number.
Their cattle did not become fewer.
39 Because of disaster, troubles and sadness,
their families grew smaller and weaker.
40 He showed he was displeased with their important men.
He made them wander in a pathless desert.
41 But he lifted the poor out of their suffering.
And he made their families grow like flocks of sheep.
42 Good people see this and are happy.
But the wicked say nothing.
43 Whoever is wise will remember these things.
He will think about the love of the Lord.
A Prayer for Victory
A song of David.
108 God, my heart is right.
I will sing and praise you with all my being.
2 Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.
3 Lord, I will praise you among the nations.
I will sing songs of praise about you to all the nations.
4 Your love is so great that it is higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches to the clouds.
5 God, you are supreme over the skies.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Answer us and save us by your power.
Then the people you love will be rescued.
7 God has said from his Temple,
“When I win, I will divide Shechem
and cut up the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead and Manasseh are mine.
Ephraim is like my helmet.
Judah holds my royal scepter.
9 Moab is like my washbowl.
I throw my sandals at Edom.
I shout at Philistia.”
10 Who will bring me to the strong, walled city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 God, surely you have rejected us.
You do not go out with our armies.
12 Help us fight the enemy.
Human help is useless.
13 But we can win with God’s help.
He will defeat our enemies.
Praise God Who Creates and Saves
33 Sing to the Lord, you who do what is right.
Honest people should praise him.
2 Praise the Lord on the harp.
Make music for him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing a new song to him.
Play well and joyfully.
4 God’s word is true.
Everything he does is right.
5 He loves what is right and fair.
The Lord’s love fills the earth.
6 The sky was made at the Lord’s command.
By the breath from his mouth, he made all the stars.
7 He gathered the water in the sea into a heap.
He made the great ocean stay in its place.
8 All the earth should worship the Lord.
The whole world should fear him.
9 He spoke, and it happened.
He commanded, and it appeared.
10 The Lord upsets the plans of nations.
He ruins all their plans.
11 But the Lord’s plans will stand forever.
His ideas will last from now on.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Happy are the people he chose for his very own.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven.
He sees every person.
14 From his throne he watches
everyone who lives on earth.
15 He made their hearts.
He understands everything they do.
16 No king is saved by his great army.
No warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 Horses can’t bring victory.
They can’t save by their strength.
18 But the Lord looks after those who fear him.
He watches over those who put their hope in his love.
19 He saves them from death.
He spares their lives in times of hunger.
20 So our hope is in the Lord.
He is our help, our shield to protect us.
21 We rejoice in him.
We trust his holy name.
22 Lord, show your love to us
as we put our hope in you.
False Prophets
9 A message to the prophets:
My heart is broken.
All my bones shake.
I’m like a man who is drunk.
I’m like a man who has been overcome with wine.
This is because of the Lord
and his holy words.
10 The land of Judah is full of people who are guilty of adultery.
Because of this, the Lord cursed the land.
And it has become very dry.
The pastures have dried up.
The people are evil.
They use their power in the wrong way.
11 “Both the prophets and the priests are evil.
I have seen them doing evil things even in my own Temple,” says the Lord.
12 “So they will be in danger.
They will be forced into darkness.
There they will be defeated.
I will bring disaster on them.
At that time I will punish those prophets and priests,” says the Lord.
13 “I saw the prophets of Samaria
do something wrong.
I saw those prophets prophesy by the false god Baal.
And they led my people, the Israelites, away.
14 And I have seen the prophets of Jerusalem
do some terrible things.
These prophets are guilty of adultery
and live by lies.
They encourage evil people to keep on doing evil.
So the people don’t stop sinning.
All of those people are like the city of Sodom.
The people of Jerusalem are like the city of Gomorrah to me!”
15 So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says about the prophets:
“I will make those prophets eat bitter food.
I will make them drink poisoned water.
This is because the prophets of Jerusalem spread wickedness
through the whole country.”
God and the Jewish People
9 I am in Christ, and I am telling you the truth. I do not lie. My feelings are ruled by the Holy Spirit, and they tell me that I am not lying. 2 I have great sorrow and always feel much sadness for the Jewish people. 3 I wish I could help my Jewish brothers, my people. I would even wish that I were cursed and cut off from Christ if that would help them. 4 They are the people of Israel. They were God’s chosen children. They have the glory of God and the agreements that God made between himself and his people. God gave them the law of Moses and the right way of worship. And God gave his promises to them. 5 They are the descendants of our great ancestors, and they are the earthly family of Christ. Christ is God over all. Praise him forever![a] Amen.
6 I do not mean that God failed to keep his promise to them. But only some of the people of Israel are truly God’s people.[b] 7 And only some of Abraham’s[c] descendants are true children of Abraham. But God said to Abraham: “The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac.”[d] 8 This means that not all of Abraham’s descendants are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise God made to Abraham. 9 God’s promise to Abraham was this: “At the right time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”[e] 10 And that is not all. Rebekah also had sons. And those sons had the same father, our father Isaac. 11-12 But before the two boys were born, God told Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.”[f] This was before the boys had done anything good or bad. God said this before they were born so that the one chosen would be chosen because of God’s own plan. He was chosen because he was the one God wanted to call, not because of anything he did. 13 As the Scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”[g]
14 So what should we say about this? Is God unfair? In no way. 15 God said to Moses, “I will show kindness to anyone I want to show kindness. I will show mercy to anyone I want to show mercy.”[h] 16 So God will choose the one he decides to show mercy to. And his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. 17 The Scripture says to the king of Egypt: “I made you king so I might show my power in you. In this way my name will be talked about in all the earth.”[i] 18 So God shows mercy where he wants to show mercy. And he makes stubborn the people he wants to make stubborn.
The Words of Eternal Life
60 The followers of Jesus heard this. Many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61 Jesus knew that his followers were complaining about this. So he said, “Does this teaching bother you? 62 Then will it also bother you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from? 63 It is not the flesh that gives a person life. It is the spirit that gives life. The words I told you are spirit, and so they give life. 64 But some of you don’t believe.” (Jesus knew who did not believe. He knew this from the beginning. And he knew who would turn against him.) 65 Jesus said, “That is the reason I said, ‘If the Father does not let a person come to me, then he cannot come.’”
66 After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him. They stopped following him.
67 Jesus asked the 12 followers, “Do you want to leave, too?”
68 Simon Peter answered Jesus, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God.”
70 Then Jesus answered, “I chose all 12 of you. But 1 of you is a devil.”
71 Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was 1 of the 12. But later he was going to turn against Jesus.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.