Book of Common Prayer
Tell the music leader to use flutes.
This is a song that David wrote.
Pray about your enemies[a]
5 Lord, listen to what I say to you.
I am upset, so think about what I am saying.
2 My King and my God, listen to my voice.
I am asking you to help me.
I am praying to you!
3 Lord, every morning you listen to my voice.
At sunrise I will turn to you for help,
and I will wait for you to answer.[b]
4 My God, you do not like anything that is bad.
Evil people cannot live near you.
5 Proud people cannot stand in front of you.
God, you hate everyone who does evil things.
6 You destroy those who tell lies.
The Lord hates murderers,
and those who deceive others.[c]
7 But I will come into your house,
because of your faithful love.
I will bend low in your holy temple,
and I will worship you.
8 Lord, help me to follow your right way.
My enemies are waiting to attack me.
Show the right way clearly to me,
so that I do not go the wrong way.
9 My enemies never speak what is true.
They only want to destroy people.
Their mouth has the smell of an open grave.[d]
Their tongues say nice things,
but they are all lies!
10 God, say that they are guilty!
Let their own wicked ideas bring punishment to them.
Send them away because they do so many bad things.
Yes, they have turned against you.
11 Please make people who turn to you happy.
Make them always sing with joy,
because you keep them safe.
Take care of those who are faithful to you.
Then they will be really happy.
12 Lord, you bless those who live in a right way.
Your love is like a shield that keeps them safe.
This is a song that David wrote.
Tell the music leader, ‘Use harps when you sing this song.’
David prays for health[e]
6 Lord, when you are angry,
please do not punish me.
2 I do not feel strong, Lord,
so please be kind to me.
Lord, please make me well again.
Even my bones are shaking.
3 I am very frightened.
Lord, when will you do something to help me?[f]
4 Lord, turn back to me. Give me back my life.
Make me safe because of your faithful love.
5 If I die, I will no longer remember you.
Nobody can praise you in their grave!
6 I am crying so much that I have no more strength.
My bed becomes wet because I weep all night.
My tears run into my pillow.[g]
7 I am so sad that my eyes do not see well any more.
They are becoming weak because of all my enemies.[h]
8 Go away from me, you people who do wicked things!
Now the Lord has heard me when I weep.[i]
9 I asked the Lord to be kind and to help me.
Now he has answered me!
10 All my enemies will become ashamed!
They will go away from me in fear!
Shame will suddenly come to them!
A prayer for help[a]
10 Must you stand so far away, Lord?
Why do you hide when there is trouble?
2 Wicked people are cruel to poor people.
They use their evil ideas
to take hold of weak people.
3 Not only do wicked people boast
because they get the things that they want.
They also praise robbers,
and they curse the Lord.
4 Wicked people are too proud to worry about God.
They think, ‘God will not give me any trouble.’
5 Often the wicked person seems to have success.
He does not respect your commands, God.
He laughs at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, ‘There will be no trouble for me.
Nothing bad will ever happen to me or to my children.’
7 Plenty of lies come from his mouth,
and he curses people.
The bad words that he speaks are very cruel,
and they hurt people.
8 He hides near the villages,
so that he can jump out and catch people.
He watches in secret to find a weak person that he can kill.
He murders people who have done nothing wrong.
9 Quietly, he hides like a lion among some bushes.
He waits there to catch a poor, weak person.
Like a hunter, he catches poor people in his net.
10 He stamps on the people that he catches,
and he knocks them down to the ground.
The weak person falls down,
because the wicked person is too strong.
11 The wicked person says to himself,
‘God will give me no trouble!
He does not even see what I do.’
12 Rise up, Lord!
Do something, God,
and knock down the wicked person!
Do not forget to help weak people.
13 Why do wicked people insult God?
They say to themselves,
‘God will not give me any trouble.’
14 Surely, God, you see what is happening.
You see how wicked people bring pain and trouble.
You decide what to do about it.
The weak person trusts that you will help him.
You take care of children who have no father.
15 Take hold of the arm of the wicked, evil man!
Break it and take away his strength!
Punish him for the bad things that he has done,
so that he has to stop.
16 The Lord will rule as king for ever!
The nations who do not serve him
will not remain in his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the prayers
of people who are suffering.
When they ask you to help them,
you make them feel strong.
18 You stand beside those who have no father,
and those who are poor and weak.
As a result, they will no longer be afraid.
No human on the earth can frighten them.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
Trust the Lord to keep you safe
11 I have run to the Lord to keep me safe.
So do not say this to me:
‘Fly away like a bird to the hills![b]
2 See what the wicked people are doing!
They are preparing their bows and arrows.
They are hiding in dark places,
to shoot their arrows at good, honest people.
3 When the law no longer has authority,
righteous people can do nothing!’
4 The Lord is in his holy temple.
He rules from his throne in heaven.
He carefully watches what people are doing.
He knows about each person.
5 The Lord watches both good people and wicked people.
Good people please him,
but he hates wicked people and cruel people.
6 He will send hot coal and sulphur
to fall like rain on wicked people.
A dangerous wind will be the punishment that they deserve.
7 The Lord always does what is right.
He loves people to do good things.
Those who do what is right will know that God loves them.
Choose what is good and right
4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Listen carefully so that you understand what is right. 2 My teaching will help you, so do not refuse it.
3-4 My father taught me when I was a little boy. My mother loved me as her only child. My father said to me,
‘Think carefully about what I tell you.
If you obey my commands, you will live well.
5 Learn to be wise and to understand things properly.
Do not forget my teaching or turn away from it.
6 If you keep hold of wisdom, she will keep you safe.
She will protect you if you love her.[a]
7 Learn to be wise, because wisdom is the most important thing to have.
Make sure that you learn to understand things well.
8 Respect wisdom as very valuable, then she will make you great.
If you make her your friend, she will give you honour.
9 Wisdom will bless you, as if you are wearing a beautiful crown on your head.’
10 So listen to me, my child, and accept my teaching. If you do, the years of your life will be many.
11 I am teaching you to be wise, so that you will know the right way to live. 12 As you walk through life, nothing will stop you. Even when you run, you will not fall.
13 Keep hold of my teaching. Do not forget it. Keep it safe because it will give you a good life.
14 Do not join with wicked or evil people. Do not do the things that they do. 15 Keep away from them! Be sure to keep to your own good way of life.
16 Wicked people have to do evil things. They cannot go to sleep unless they have been cruel to someone that day. 17 Evil acts are their food. Violence is their drink.
18 The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until midday. 19 But the life of wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall.
20 My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. 21 Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. 22 They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body.
23 Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.
24 Never tell lies or try to deceive other people.
25 Look straight in front of you to see clearly where you are going. 26 Decide carefully where you are going in life. Then you will be on a good, safe path. 27 Do not walk off your path, to the right side or the left side. Keep away from everything that is evil.
Love each other because God loved us
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.[a]
7 John's disciples went away again. Jesus spoke to the crowd about John. He said to them, ‘You went out to the wilderness. What did you go there to see? Was it a tall piece of grass which the wind was blowing this way and that? No, you did not go to see that. 8 Did you go to see a man who was wearing expensive clothes? No! People like that do not live in the wilderness. They live in kings' great houses. 9 So what did you go to see? Did you go to see a prophet sent by God? Yes! But I tell you, John was even more important than a prophet. 10 This is what someone wrote about him a long time ago in the Bible. God said:
“Listen! I will send someone to go in front of you.
He will speak my message.
He will prepare a way for you.” ’[a]
11 Jesus then said, ‘I tell you this: John the Baptist is greater than any person who has ever lived until now. But now, anyone who belongs in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Even the least important of them is greater than he is.[b] 12 From the time that John the Baptist began to teach until now, the kingdom of heaven is becoming very strong. Strong people are trying very much to attack it. 13 All the prophets and the books of the Law spoke God's message until the time that John the Baptist came. 14 The prophets wrote about Elijah. They said he would come again, to prepare for the Messiah. They were writing about John, and you should believe their message. 15 You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’
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