Book of Common Prayer
A Song of Victory
For the director of music. By the Lord’s servant, David. David sang this song to the Lord. He sang it when the Lord had saved him from Saul and all his other enemies.
18 I love you, Lord. You are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my protection, my Savior.
My God is my rock.
I can run to him for safety.
He is my shield and my saving strength, my high tower.
3 I will call to the Lord.
He is worthy of praise.
And I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death bound me.
The deadly rivers overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of death wrapped around me.
The traps of death were before me.
6 In my trouble I called to the Lord.
I cried out to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice.
My call for help reached his ears.
7 The earth trembled and shook.
The foundations of the mountains began to shake.
They shook because the Lord was angry.
8 Smoke came out of his nose.
Burning fire came out of his mouth.
Burning coals went before him.
9 He tore open the sky and came down.
Dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He rode a creature with wings and flew.
He flew on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his shelter around him,
surrounded by fog and clouds.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence came clouds.
They came with hail and lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven.
God Most High raised his voice.
And there was hail and lightning.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies.
His many bolts of lightning confused them with fear.
15 Lord, you spoke strongly.
The wind blew from your nose.
The valleys of the sea appeared.
The foundations of the earth were seen.
16 The Lord reached down from above and took me.
He pulled me from the deep water.
17 He saved me from my powerful enemies.
Those who hated me were too strong for me.
18 They attacked me at my time of trouble.
But the Lord supported me.
19 He took me to a safe place.
Because he delights in me, he saved me.
20 The Lord spared me because I did what was right.
Because I have not done evil, he has rewarded me.
21 I have followed the ways of the Lord.
I have not done evil by turning away from my God.
22 I remember all his laws.
I have not broken his rules.
23 I am innocent before him.
I have kept myself from doing evil.
24 The Lord rewarded me because I did what was right.
I did what the Lord said was right.
25 Lord, you are loyal to those who are loyal.
You are good to those who are good.
26 You are pure to those who are pure.
But you are against those who are bad.
27 You save those who are not proud.
But you make humble those who are proud.
28 Lord, you give light to my lamp.
My God brightens the darkness around me.
29 With your help I can attack an army.
With God’s help I can jump over a wall.
30 The ways of God are without fault.
The Lord’s words are pure.
He is a shield to those who trust him.
31 Who is God? Only the Lord.
Who is the Rock? Only our God.
32 God is my protection.
He makes my way free from fault.
33 He makes me like a deer, which does not stumble.
He helps me stand on the steep mountains.
34 He trains my hands for battle.
So my arms can bend a bronze bow.
35 You protect me with your saving shield.
You support me with your right hand.
You have stooped to make me great.
36 You give me a wide path on which to walk.
My feet have not slipped.
37 I chased my enemies and caught them.
I did not quit till they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so they couldn’t rise up again.
They fell beneath my feet.
39 You gave me strength in battle.
You made my enemies bow before me.
40 You made my enemies turn back.
I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They called for help,
but no one came to save them.
They called to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
42 I beat my enemies into pieces.
They were like dust in the wind.
I poured them out like mud in the streets.
43 You saved me when the people attacked me.
You made me the leader of nations.
People I never knew serve me.
44 As soon as they hear me, they obey me.
Foreigners obey me.
45 They all become afraid.
They tremble in their hiding places.
46 The Lord lives!
May my Rock be praised.
Praise the God who saves me!
47 God gives me victory over my enemies.
He brings people under my rule.
48 He saves me from my enemies.
You set me over those who hate me.
You saved me from cruel men.
49 So I will praise you, Lord, among the nations.
I will sing praises to your name.
50 The Lord gives great victories to his king.
He is loyal to his appointed king,
to David and his descendants forever.
31 “My king, in your dream you saw a large statue in front of you. It was huge, shiny and frightening. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold. Its chest and arms were made of silver. Its middle and the upper part of its legs were made of bronze. 33 The lower part of the legs were made of iron. Its feet were made partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were looking at the statue, you saw a rock cut free. But no human being touched the rock. It hit the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver and gold broke to pieces at the same time. They became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summertime. The wind blew them away, and there was nothing left. Then the rock that hit the statue became a very large mountain. It filled the whole earth.
36 “That was your dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. 37 My king, you are the greatest king. God of heaven has given you a kingdom. He has given you power, strength and glory. 38 God has given you power over people, wild animals and birds. Wherever they live, God has made you ruler over them all. King Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold on that statue.
39 “Another kingdom will come after you. But that kingdom will not be as great as yours. Next a third kingdom will rule over the earth. That is the bronze part. 40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron. Iron crushes and smashes things to pieces. In the same way the fourth kingdom will smash and crush all the other kingdoms.
41 “You saw that the statue’s feet and toes were partly baked clay and partly iron. That means the fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of iron in it. As you saw, iron was mixed with clay. 42 The toes of the statue were partly iron and partly clay. So the fourth kingdom will be partly strong like iron and partly breakable like clay. 43 You saw the iron mixed with clay. But iron and clay don’t mix completely together. In the same way the people of the fourth kingdom will be a mixture. Those people will not be united as one people.
44 “During the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up another kingdom. It will never be destroyed. And it will not be given to another group of people. This kingdom will crush all the other kingdoms. It will bring them to an end. But that kingdom itself will continue forever.
45 “King Nebuchadnezzar, you saw a rock cut from a mountain. But no human being touched it. The rock broke the iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold to pieces. In this way the great God showed you what will happen. The dream is true, and you can trust this explanation.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell facedown on the ground in front of Daniel. The king honored him. He ordered that an offering and incense be presented to Daniel. 47 Then the king said to Daniel, “Truly I know your God is the greatest of all gods. And he is the Lord of all the kings. He tells people about things they cannot know. I know this is true. You were able to tell these secret things to me.”
48 Then the king gave Daniel an important position in his kingdom. And he gave many gifts to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar made him ruler over the whole area of Babylon. And he put Daniel in charge of all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Daniel asked the king to make Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego important leaders over the area of Babylon. And the king did as Daniel asked. Daniel himself became one of the important people who stayed at the royal court.
Reject the Enemies of Christ
18 My dear children, the end is near! You have heard that the Enemy of Christ is coming. And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is near. 19 Those enemies of Christ were in our group. But they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, then they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.
20 You have the gift[a] that the Holy One gave you. So you all know the truth.[b] 21 Why do I write to you? Do I write because you do not know the truth? No, I write this letter because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.
22 So who is the liar? It is the person who says Jesus is not the Christ. A person who says Jesus is not the Christ is the enemy of Christ. He does not believe in the Father or in his Son. 23 If anyone does not believe in the Son, he does not have the Father. But whoever accepts the Son has the Father, too.
24 Be sure that you continue to follow the teaching that you heard from the beginning. If you continue in that teaching, you will stay in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what the Son promised to us—life forever.
26 I am writing this letter about those people who are trying to lead you the wrong way. 27 Christ gave you a special gift. You still have this gift in you. So you do not need any other teacher. The gift he gave you teaches you about everything. This gift is true, not false. So continue to live in Christ, as his gift taught you.
28 Yes, my dear children, live in him. If we do this, we can be without fear on the day when Christ comes back. We will not need to hide and be ashamed when he comes. 29 You know that Christ is righteous. So you know that all who do what is right are God’s children.
The Preaching of John
3 It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar. These men were under Caesar: Pontius Pilate was the ruler of Judea. Herod was the ruler of Galilee. Philip, Herod’s brother, was the ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis. And Lysanias was the ruler of Abilene. 2 Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time, a command from God came to John son of Zechariah. John was living in the desert. 3 He went all over the area around the Jordan River and preached to the people. He preached a baptism of changed hearts and lives for the forgiveness of their sins. 4 As it is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet:
“This is a voice of a man
who calls out in the desert:
‘Prepare the way for the Lord.
Make the road straight for him.
5 Every valley should be filled in.
Every mountain and hill should be made flat.
Roads with turns should be made straight,
and rough roads should be made smooth.
6 And all people will know about the salvation of God!’” Isaiah 40:3-5
7 Crowds of people came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You poisonous snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? 8 You must do the things that will show that you really have changed your hearts. Don’t say, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you that God can make children for Abraham from these rocks here. 9 The ax is now ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”[a]
10 The people asked John, “What should we do?”
11 John answered, “If you have two shirts, share with the person who does not have one. If you have food, share that too.”
12 Even tax collectors came to John to be baptized. They said to John, “Teacher, what should we do?”
13 John said to them, “Don’t take more taxes from people than you have been ordered to take.”
14 The soldiers asked John, “What about us? What should we do?”
John said to them, “Don’t force people to give you money. Don’t lie about them. Be satisfied with the pay you get.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.