Book of Common Prayer
[a] To the director: A song of David, the Lord’s servant. He sang this song to the Lord when the Lord 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 fortress, my place of safety.
He is my God, the Rock I run to for protection.
He is my shield; by his power I am saved.[b]
He is my hiding place high in the hills.
3 I called to the Lord for help,
and he saved me from my enemies!
He is worthy of my praise!
4 Death had its ropes wrapped around me.
A deadly flood was carrying me away.
5 The ropes of the grave wrapped around me.
Death set its trap right there in front of me.
6 In my trouble I called to the Lord.
Yes, I cried out to my God for help.
There in his temple he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for help.
7 The earth shook and shivered.
The foundations of the mountains trembled.
They shook because he was angry.
8 Smoke came from his nose.
Burning flames came from his mouth.
Red-hot coals fell from him.
9 He tore open the sky and came down!
He stood on a thick, dark cloud.
10 He flew across the sky, riding on a Cherub angel
racing on the wings of the wind.
11 He wrapped himself in darkness that covered him like a tent.
He was hidden by dark clouds heavy with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him,
hail broke through the clouds with flashes of lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from the sky;
God Most High let his voice be heard.[c]
14 He scattered his enemies with his arrows—
the lightning bolts that threw them into confusion.
15 Lord, you shouted your command,
and a powerful wind began to blow.[d]
Then the bottom of the sea could be seen,
and the earth’s foundations were uncovered.
16 He reached down from above and grabbed me.
He pulled me from the deep water.
17 He saved me from my powerful enemies, who hated me.
They were too strong for me, so he saved me.
18 They attacked me in my time of trouble,
but the Lord was there to support me.
19 He was pleased with me, so he rescued me.
He took me to a safe place.
20 The Lord rewarded me for doing what is right.
He was good to me because I am innocent.
21 The Lord did this because I have obeyed him.
I have not turned against my God.
22 I always remembered his laws.
I never rejected his rules.
23 He knows I did nothing that was wrong.
I have kept myself from sinning.
24 So the Lord rewarded me for doing what is right.
He could see that I am innocent.
25 Lord, you are faithful to those who are faithful.
You are good to those who are good.
26 You never do wrong to those who have done no wrong.
But you outsmart the wicked, no matter how clever they are.
27 You help those who are humble,
but you humiliate the proud.
28 Lord, you provide the flame for my lamp.
You, God, turn the darkness around me into light.
29 With your help I can defeat an army.
If my God is with me, I can climb over enemy walls.
30 God’s way is perfect.
The Lord’s promise always proves to be true.
He protects those who trust in him.
31 There is no God except the Lord.
There is no Rock except our God.
32 God is the one who gives me strength.
He clears the path I need to take.
33 He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer.
Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling.
34 He trains me for war
so that my arms can bend the most powerful bow.
35 Lord, you have given me your shield to protect me.
You support me with your right hand.
It is your help that has made me great.
36 You cleared a path for my feet
so that I could walk without stumbling.
37 I chased my enemies and caught them.
I did not stop until they were destroyed.
38 I struck them down, and they could not get up again.
They fell under my feet.
39 God, you made me strong in battle.
You made my enemies fall before me.
40 You made my enemies turn and run away.
I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out for help,
but there was no one to save them.
They cried out to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them to pieces like dust blown by the wind.
I smashed them like mud in the streets.
43 You saved me from those who fought against me.
You made me the ruler over nations.
People I never knew now serve me.
44 As soon as they heard about me, they were ready to obey.
Those foreigners fall helpless before me!
45 They lose all their courage
and come out of their hiding places shaking with fear.
46 The Lord lives!
I praise my Rock, the God who saves me.
How great he is!
47 He is the God who punishes my enemies for me,
the one who puts people under my control.
48 He saves me from my enemies!
You, Lord, help me defeat those who attack me.
You save me from cruel people.
49 Lord, that is why I praise you among the nations.
That is why I sing songs of praise to your name.
50 The Lord helps his king win battle after battle.
He shows his faithful love to his chosen one,[e]
to David and his descendants forever.
Proof of Solomon’s Wisdom
16 One day two prostitutes came to Solomon and stood before the king. 17 One of the women said, “Sir, this woman and I live in the same house. We were both pregnant and ready to give birth to our babies. I had my baby while she was there with me. 18 Three days later she also gave birth to her baby. There was no one else in the house with us, just the two of us. 19 One night while this woman was asleep with her baby, the baby died. 20 That night while I was asleep, she took my son from my bed and carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed. 21 In the morning I woke up and was about to feed the baby when I saw he was dead. When I looked at him more closely, I saw that he was not my baby.”
22 But the other woman said, “No! The dead baby is yours, and the one still alive is mine!”
But the first woman said, “No, you are wrong! The dead baby is yours! The one that is still alive is mine.” So the two women argued in front of the king.
23 Then King Solomon said, “Each of you says that the living baby is your own and that the dead baby belongs to the other woman.” 24 Then King Solomon sent his servant to get a sword. 25 He told the servant, “Cut the living baby in two and give one half of the baby to each woman.”
26 The second woman said, “Yes, cut him in two. Then neither of us will have him.” But the first woman, the real mother, loved her son and said to the king, “Please, sir, don’t kill the baby! Give him to her.”
27 Then King Solomon said, “Stop, don’t kill the baby. Give him to this woman. She is the real mother.”
28 The people of Israel respected the king when they heard about this decision. They saw he had the wisdom of God[a] to make the right decisions.
27 On the fourteenth night we were still being blown around in the Adriatic Sea. The sailors thought we were close to land. 28 They threw a rope into the water with a weight on the end of it. They found that the water was 120 feet[a] deep. They went a little farther and threw the rope in again. It was 90 feet[b] deep. 29 The sailors were afraid that we would hit the rocks, so they threw four anchors into the water. Then they prayed for daylight to come. 30 Some of the sailors wanted to leave the ship, and they lowered the lifeboat to the water. They wanted the other men to think that they were throwing more anchors from the front of the ship. 31 But Paul told the army officer and the other soldiers, “If these men do not stay in the ship, you will lose all hope of survival.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes and let the lifeboat fall into the water.
33 Just before dawn Paul began persuading all the people to eat something. He said, “For the past two weeks you have been waiting and watching. You have not eaten for 14 days. 34 Now I beg you to eat something. You need it to stay alive. None of you will lose even one hair off your heads.” 35 After he said this, Paul took some bread and thanked God for it before all of them. He broke off a piece and began eating. 36 All the men felt better and started eating too. 37 (There were 276 people on the ship.) 38 We ate all we wanted. Then we began making the ship lighter by throwing the grain into the sea.
The Ship Is Destroyed
39 When daylight came, the sailors saw land, but they did not know what land it was. They saw a bay with a beach and wanted to sail the ship to the beach if they could. 40 So they cut the ropes to the anchors and left the anchors in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that were holding the rudders. Then they raised the front sail into the wind and sailed toward the beach. 41 But the ship hit a sandbank. The front of the ship stuck there and could not move. Then the big waves began to break the back of the ship to pieces.
42 The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so that none of the prisoners could swim away and escape. 43 But Julius the army officer wanted to let Paul live. So he did not allow the soldiers to kill the prisoners. He told the people who could swim to jump into the water and swim to land. 44 The others used wooden boards or pieces of the ship. And this is how all the people went safely to land.
The Passover Meal(A)
12 It was now the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread—the day the lambs were killed for the Passover. Jesus’ followers came to him and said, “We will go and prepare everything for you to eat the Passover meal. Where do you want us to have the meal?”
13 Jesus sent two of his followers into the city. He said to them, “Go into the city. You will see a man carrying a jar of water. He will come to you. Follow him. 14 He will go into a house. Tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks that you show us the room where he and his followers can eat the Passover meal.’ 15 The owner will show you a large room upstairs that is ready for us. Prepare the meal for us there.”
16 So the followers left and went into the city. Everything happened the way Jesus said. So the followers prepared the Passover meal.
17 In the evening Jesus went to that house with the twelve apostles. 18 While they were all at the table eating, he said, “Believe me when I say that one of you will hand me over to my enemies—one of you eating with me now.”
19 The followers were very sad to hear this. Each one said to Jesus, “Surely I am not the one!”
20 Jesus answered, “It is one of you twelve—the one who is dipping his bread in the same bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will suffer what the Scriptures say will happen to him. But it will be very bad for the one who hands over the Son of Man to be killed. It would be better for him if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper(B)
22 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it. He broke off some pieces, gave them to his followers and said, “Take and eat this bread. It is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup of wine, thanked God for it, and gave it to them. They all drank from the cup. 24 Then he said, “This wine is my blood, which will be poured out for many to begin the new agreement from God to his people. 25 I want you to know, I will not drink this wine again until that day when I drink it in God’s kingdom and the wine is new.”
26 They all sang a song and then went out to the Mount of Olives.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International