Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this song.
Trust the Lord[a]
37 Do not become upset
because of what wicked people do.
Do not be jealous of people that do bad things.
2 Remember that they are soon gone!
They are like grass that quickly becomes dry.
They will soon die like green plants in hot weather.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good things.
Then you will live safely in the land.
4 Be happy that the Lord is your friend.
He will give you what you most want.
5 Let the Lord be your guide into the future.
Trust in him and he will help you.
6 He will show everyone that you are righteous.
People will know that you are a good person,
as clearly as the sun shines at noon.
7 Be patient as you wait for the Lord to help you.
Trust him to bring help.
Do not become upset when bad people seem to do well,
when their wicked ideas really happen.
8 Do not become angry or upset!
It will only bring trouble for you.
9 Wicked people will disappear one day!
But people who trust the Lord for help
will live safely in the land that he has given to them.
10 Evil people will soon be gone.
You may look for them,
but you will not find them.
11 Humble people will live safely in the land.
They will live in peace and they will enjoy good things.
12 Wicked people think about how to hurt righteous people.
They show their teeth to frighten good people.
13 But my Lord laughs at those wicked people,
because he knows that their day of punishment will come.
14 Wicked people get out their swords,
and they prepare to shoot their arrows.
They try to make poor and helpless people fall down.
They try to destroy people who do what is right.
15 But their swords will go into their own hearts.
Their bows will break in pieces.
16 It is better to do what is right and only have a few things,
than to be wicked and have many things.
17 The Lord keeps righteous people safe,
but he will destroy the power of wicked people.
18 If anyone lives a completely good life,
the Lord takes care of them.
His gifts to them will last for ever.
19 When times of trouble come,
they will still be safe.
In a time of famine,
they will have enough to eat.
20 But wicked people will die.
They are the Lord's enemies.
They will disappear like smoke from a fire that burns them up.
21 If you lend money to a wicked person,
he will not give it back to you.
But righteous people are kind to others
and they give things freely.
22 Yes, people that the Lord blesses
will live safely in the land.
But people that he has cursed
will disappear.
23 If the way that somebody lives pleases the Lord,
the Lord will lead him into good things.
24 Even if that person trips, he will not fall.
The Lord will hold his hand.
25 I was young once and now I am old.
But in all my life, I have never seen any good man that God has left alone.
I have not seen his children so hungry
that they ask people for food.
26 Good people are always kind.
They lend things to other people.
Their children also bring God's blessing.
27 Turn away from evil things!
Do what is right!
Then you will live safely in the land for ever.
28 The Lord loves justice.
He will never leave those who serve him.
He will take care of them for ever,
but he will remove the children of wicked people.
29 God's righteous people will take the land for themselves.
They will live there for ever.
30 Righteous people speak wise words.
What they say brings justice.
31 They think about God's Law all the time,
so that they do not make mistakes.
32 Evil people wait for a chance to kill righteous people.
33 But the Lord will not leave his righteous people,
so that their enemies have power over them.
When evil people accuse them,
the Lord will show that they are not guilty.
34 Be patient and continue to trust the Lord.
Obey his commands.
Then he will give you honour,
so that you live safely in the land.
You will see that the Lord destroys wicked people.
35 I have seen cruel, wicked people become very powerful,
like trees that grow well in good soil.
36 But soon after that,
I see that they have disappeared!
I looked for them,
but I could not find them anywhere.
37 Think about people who are honest
and who do what is right.
Those who help people to live in peace
will live to enjoy their children.
38 But God will destroy people that turn against him.
Evil people will not have descendants.
39 The Lord will make righteous people safe.
He will take care of them in times of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them.
He saves them from wicked people.
He keeps them safe
because they turn to him for help.
The Lord is God
32 Find out what happened many years ago. Think about everything that has happened since God created people to live on the earth. Go to anyone in the world and ask them. You will realize that nothing as great as this has ever happened before. People have never heard of anything like this. 33 Only you, the nation of Israel, have heard the voice of God that spoke to you from the middle of the fire. Only you have heard God speak and you still live! 34 No other god has tried to rescue a nation from the power of another nation. The Lord your God did this for you when you were in Egypt. You saw how he used his great authority and strength to punish the Egyptians. He did powerful miracles. He brought war and disease that made them very afraid.
35 The Lord has shown you all these things. So you know that he is the only true God. There is no other God. 36 God spoke to you from heaven so that he could teach you. Here on earth he let you see his great fire. He spoke from that fire and you heard him. 37 He chose you as his special people because he loved your ancestors. You are their descendants so he rescued you out of Egypt. He himself showed you his great power. 38 Now he is chasing out other nations so that you can take their land to live in. They are greater and stronger nations than you are, but he has given their land to you.
39 Remember today that the Lord is God. He rules in heaven above and on the earth below. Think about that! There is no other God. 40 Obey his commands and his rules that I am giving you today. If you do that, everything will be well for you and for your descendants. You will continue to live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It will belong to you for ever.
God's Holy Spirit gives us new life
3 We do not need any more to show that our work is good. Some people need to have letters from other people to say that they do good work. We do not need to show you letters like that. Nor do we need you to write a letter like that for us. 2 You yourselves show that we have done good work. You are like a letter that is written on our lives. Everybody can read that letter and they can understand it. 3 It is clear that you are a like a letter that Christ himself has written. We are the people who brought God's message to you. Now people see what God has done in your lives. That is like a letter that they read. But it is not a letter written on paper with ink. It is the Spirit of the living God who wrote it. He did not write it on pieces of stone. Instead, he wrote it deep inside you.[a]
4 We know that these things are true. Because of what Christ has done, we trust God to help us. 5 We know that we cannot do this work by ourselves. We never think that. But God makes us able to do it. 6 God has made us his servants. So we are able to tell people the message of his new agreement. This new agreement is not about rules. Rules tell people what they must do and they bring death. But God's new agreement comes from his Spirit. And the Spirit brings new life to us, not death.[b]
7 Moses wrote the words of the old agreement on pieces of stone. It showed how great and powerful God was. Moses' face shone brightly after God spoke to him. It did not stay bright, but the Israelite people still could not look at Moses' face. The old agreement that brought death was powerful. 8 So the new agreement, which comes from God's Spirit, will show the power of God even more. 9 The old agreement showed people that they were guilty. God's new agreement makes people right with him. So surely the new agreement shows God's power even more than the old one did!
10 The old agreement was great and powerful at one time. But now God's new agreement has come in its place. The great power of the new agreement shows that the old agreement is no longer powerful. 11 The old agreement was powerful, but it came to an end. God's new agreement will continue always. So it surely shows the power of God even more!
12 So, because we know all this, we speak God's message bravely. 13 We are not like Moses. His face did not continue to be bright with the light from God. So he covered his face with a cloth. He did not want the Israelite people to see that the light was coming to an end. 14 But those Israelite people could not think properly. Even today, they still do not understand the message of God's old agreement. When they read it, they are like people who have a cloth that covers their minds. It continues like that unless they believe in Christ. Then Christ removes the cloth so that they understand. 15 Even today, when the Israelite people read Moses' books, a cloth still covers their minds. 16 But when a person turns to trust the Lord, then God takes the cloth away.[c]
17 The Lord is the same as the Spirit. And when the Lord's Spirit is with anyone, that person is free. 18 We show the power of the Lord to other people. It is like God has removed a cloth from over our faces. He is changing us so that we become more and more like him. We show how great God is more and more clearly. It is the Lord who does all this, by the work of his Spirit.
A story about a man who thought carefully
16 Jesus told another story to his disciples: ‘A rich man had a servant who worked for him. The servant took care of the money and things that belonged to the man. Then some people told the rich man that his servant was wasting his master's things. 2 So the master sent someone to bring his servant to him. He said to his servant, “I am hearing bad stories about you. So write down everything that you have done with my money and my things. Then you must stop working for me.”
3 “I must think about what I can do,” the servant said to himself. “My master will not let me work for him any longer. I am not strong enough to dig in the ground. I would be ashamed to ask other people for money. 4 I must stop working for my master. But I know what I can do so that people will then accept me into their homes.”
5 Many people had a debt that they had not paid back to the master. So the servant told those people to come to him. He asked the first man, “How big is your debt to my master?” 6 The man replied, “I have to give him 100 barrels of oil.”[a] The servant said to him, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper. Sit down now and write 50 barrels there.”[b]
7 He asked the next man, “How big is your debt to my master?” The man replied, “I have to give him 100 baskets of wheat.” The servant replied, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper and write 80 baskets.” ’[c]
8 Jesus then said, ‘The servant in the story was not honest. But his master spoke well about what he had done. It would help the servant later in his life. People that do not obey God think carefully. They know how to do well with people who are like themselves. But people who live in God's light often think less carefully. 9 So I tell you this. People may get money in wrong ways. But you should use it to do good to those who need help. Then they will be your friends. You will die, one day. Then those people will be happy to see you in that place where people live for all time.
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