Book of Common Prayer
To the director: To the tune “The Dove in the Distant Oak.” A miktam of David written when the Philistines captured him in Gath.
56 God, people have attacked me, so be merciful to me.
They have been chasing me all day, closing in to attack me.
2 My enemies come at me constantly.
There are too many fighters to count.[a]
3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 I trust God, so I am not afraid of what people can do to me!
I praise God for his promise to me.
5 My enemies are always twisting my words.
They are always making plans against me.
6 They hide together and watch every move I make,
hoping for some way to kill me.
7 God, send them away because of the bad things they did.
Show your anger and defeat those people.
8 You know I am very upset.
You know how much I have cried.
Surely you have kept an account of all my tears.
9 I know that when l call for help, my enemies will turn and run.
I know that because God is with me!
10 I praise God for his promise.
I praise the Lord for his promise to me.
11 I trust God, so I am not afraid
of what people can do to me!
12 God, I will keep the special promises I made to you.
I will give you my thank offering.
13 You saved me from death.
You kept me from being defeated.
So I will serve you in the light
that only the living can see.
To the director: To the tune “Don’t Destroy.” A miktam of David written when he escaped from Saul and went into the cave.
57 God, be merciful to me.
Be kind because my soul trusts in you.
I have come to you for protection,
while the trouble passes.
2 I pray to God Most High for help,
and he takes care of me completely!
3 From heaven he helps me and saves me.
He will punish the one who attacks me. Selah
God will remain loyal to me
and send his love to protect me.
4 My life is in danger.
My enemies are all around me.
They are like man-eating lions,
with teeth like spears or arrows
and tongues like sharp swords.
5 God, rise above the heavens!
Let all the world see your glory.
6 My enemies set a trap for my feet
to bring me down.
They dug a deep pit to catch me,
but they fell into it. Selah
7 God, I am ready, heart and soul,
to sing songs of praise.
8 Wake up, my soul!
Harps and lyres, wake up,
and let’s wake the dawn!
9 My Lord, I will praise you before all people.
I will sing praises about you to every nation.
10 Your faithful love is higher
than the highest clouds in the sky!
11 Rise above the heavens, God.
Let all the world see your glory.
To the director: To the tune “Don’t Destroy.” A miktam of David.
58 You judges are not being fair in your decisions.
You are not judging people fairly.
2 No, you only think of evil things to do.
You do violent crimes in this country.
3 Those wicked people started doing wrong as soon as they were born.
They have been liars from birth.
4 Their anger is as deadly as the poison of a snake.[b]
They shut their ears like a deaf cobra
5 that does not listen to the music of the snake charmers,
no matter how well they play.
6 God, they are like lions.
So, Lord, break their teeth.
7 May they disappear like water down a drain.
May they be crushed like weeds on a path.[c]
8 May they be like snails melting away as they move.
May they be like a baby born dead, who never saw the light of day.
9 May they be destroyed suddenly,
like the thorns that are burned to quickly heat a pot.
To the director: A song of David.
64 God, listen to my complaint.
Save me from the terrible threats of my enemies!
2 Protect me from the secret plans of the wicked.
Hide me from that gang of evil people.
3 They sharpen their tongues to use like swords.
They aim their poisonous words like arrows.
4 Suddenly, from their hiding places, they let their arrows fly.
They shoot to kill innocent people.
5 They encourage each other to do wrong.
They talk about setting traps and say, “No one will see them here!
6 No one will discover our crime.
We have the perfect plan!”
Yes, people can be very tricky and hard to understand.
7 But suddenly, God will shoot his arrows,
and those wicked people will be hit.
8 He will use their own words against them,
and they will be destroyed.
Then everyone who sees them
will shake their heads in amazement.
9 People will see what God has done.
They will tell other people about him.
Then everyone will learn more about God.
They will learn to fear and respect him.
10 Good people are happy to serve the Lord.
They depend on him to protect them.
All those who want to do right will praise him!
To the director: A praise song of David.
65 God in Zion, we praise you
and give you what we promised.
2 Anyone can come to you,
and you will listen to their prayers.
3 When our sins become too heavy for us,
you wipe them away.
4 Oh, how wonderful it is to be the people you chose
to come and stay in your Temple.
And we are so happy to have the wonderful things
that are in your Temple, your holy palace.
5 God, you answer our prayers and do what is right.
You do amazing things to save us.
People all over the world know they can trust in you,
even those who live across the sea.
6 You made the mountains.
We see your power all around us.
7 You can calm the roughest seas
or the nations raging around us.
8 People all around the world are amazed at the wonderful things you do.
You make all people, east and west, sing with joy.
9 You take care of the land.
You water it and make it fertile.
Your streams are always filled with water.
That’s how you make the crops grow.
10 You pour rain on the plowed fields;
you soak the fields with water.
You make the ground soft with rain,
and you make the young plants grow.
11 You start the new year with a good harvest.
You end the year with many crops.[a]
12 The desert and hills are covered with grass.
13 The pastures are covered with sheep.
The valleys are filled with grain.
Everything is singing and shouting for joy.
More Problems
6 Then Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and our other enemies heard that I had built the wall. We repaired all the holes in the wall, but we had not yet put the doors in the gates. 2 So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, Nehemiah, let’s meet together. We can meet in the town of Kephirim on the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to hurt me.
3 So I sent messengers to them with this answer: “I am doing important work, so I cannot come down. I don’t want the work to stop just so I can come down and meet with you.”
4 Sanballat and Geshem sent the same message to me four times, and I sent the same answer back to them each time. 5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his helper to me with the same message. And he had a letter in his hand that was not sealed. 6 This is what the letter said:
“There is a rumor going around. People are talking about it everywhere. And, by the way, Geshem says it is true. People are saying that you and the Jews are planning to turn against the king. This is why you are building the wall of Jerusalem. People are also saying that you will be the new king of the Jews. 7 And the rumor is that you have chosen prophets to announce this about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’
“Now I warn you, Nehemiah, King Artaxerxes will hear about this. So come, let’s meet and talk about this together.”
8 So I sent this answer back to Sanballat: “Nothing you are saying is happening. You are just making all that up in your own head.”
9 Our enemies were only trying to make us afraid. They are thinking to themselves, “The Jews will be afraid and too weak to keep on working. Then the wall will not be finished.”
But I prayed, “God, make me strong.”
10 One day I went to the house of a man named Shemaiah son of Delaiah. Delaiah was the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had to stay in his house. He said, “Nehemiah, let’s meet in God’s Temple. Let’s go inside the Holy Place[a] and lock the doors. Men are coming to kill you. Tonight they are coming to kill you.”
11 But I said to Shemaiah, “Should a man like me run away? You know that an ordinary man like me cannot go into the Holy Place without being put to death. I will not go!”
12 I knew that God had not sent Shemaiah. I knew that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to do that. 13 They hired Shemaiah to scare me and make me sin by going into that part of the Temple. They were planning those bad things against me so that they could shame me.
14 My God, please remember Tobiah and Sanballat and the bad things they have done. Also remember the woman prophet Noadiah and the other prophets who have been trying to scare me.
The Wall Is Finished
15 So the wall of Jerusalem was completed on the 25th day of the month of Elul.[b] It had taken 52 days to finish building the wall. 16 Then all our enemies heard that we had completed the wall, and all the nations around us saw that it was finished. So they lost their courage, because they understood that this work had been done with the help of our God.
17 Also in those days after the wall had been completed, the rich people of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and he was answering their letters. 18 They sent those letters because many people in Judah had promised to be loyal to him. The reason for this is that Tobiah was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah. And Tobiah’s son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam. Meshullam is the son of Berekiah. 19 And in the past, those people had made a special promise to Tobiah. So they kept telling me how good Tobiah was. And they kept telling Tobiah what I was doing. Tobiah kept sending me letters to make me afraid.
The Angel and the Little Scroll
10 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven. The angel was dressed in a cloud. He had a rainbow around his head. The angel’s face was like the sun, and his legs were like poles of fire. 2 The angel was holding a small scroll. The scroll was open in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. 3 He shouted loudly like the roaring of a lion. After he shouted, the voices of seven thunders spoke.
4 The seven thunders spoke, and I started to write. But then I heard a voice from heaven that said, “Don’t write what the seven thunders said. Keep those things secret.”
5 Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6 The angel made a promise by the power of the one who lives forever and ever. He is the one who made the skies and all that is in them. He made the earth and all that is in it, and he made the sea and all that is in it. The angel said, “There will be no more waiting! 7 In the days when the seventh angel is ready to blow his trumpet, God’s secret plan will be completed—the Good News that God told to his servants, the prophets.”
8 Then I heard the same voice from heaven again. It said to me, “Go and take the open scroll that is in the angel’s hand. This is the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take the scroll and eat it. It will be sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet like honey.” 10 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. In my mouth it tasted sweet like honey, but after I ate it, it was sour in my stomach. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many races of people, many nations, languages, and rulers.”
Jesus Explains a Hard Story
36 Then Jesus left the people and went into the house. His followers came to him and said, “Explain to us the meaning of the story about the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The man who planted the good seed in the field is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world. The good seed are the people in God’s kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One. 39 And the enemy who planted the bad seed is the devil. The harvest is the end of time. And the workers who gather are God’s angels.
40 “The weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire. It will be the same at the end of time. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will find the people who cause sin and all those who do evil. The angels will take those people out of his kingdom. 42 They will throw them into the place of fire. There the people will be crying and grinding their teeth with pain. 43 Then the godly people will shine like the sun. They will be in the kingdom of their Father. You people who hear me, listen!
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International