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.
God Calls and Jonah Obeys
3 Then the Lord spoke his word to Jonah again. The Lord said, 2 “Get up. Go to the great city Nineveh. Preach against it what I tell you.”
3 So Jonah obeyed the Lord. He got up and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city. It took a person three days just to walk across it. 4 Jonah entered the city. When he had walked for one day, he preached to the people. He said, “After 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 The people of Nineveh believed in God. They announced they would stop eating for a while. They put on rough cloth to show how sad they were. All the people in the city wore the cloth. People from the most important to the least important did this.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard this news, he got up from his throne. He took off his robe. He covered himself with rough cloth and sat in ashes to show how upset he was.
7 He made an announcement and sent it through the city. The announcement said:
By command of the king and his important men: No person or animal should eat anything. No herd or flock will be allowed to taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. 8 But every person and animal should be covered with rough cloth. People should cry loudly to God. Everyone must turn away from his evil life. Everyone must stop doing harm. 9 Maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he will stop being angry. Then we will not die.
10 God saw what the people did. He saw that they stopped doing evil things. So God changed his mind and did not do what he had warned. He did not punish them.
God’s Mercy Makes Jonah Angry
4 But Jonah was very unhappy that God did not destroy the city. He was angry. 2 He complained to the Lord and said, “I knew this would happen. I knew it when I was still in my own country. It is why I quickly ran away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a God who is kind and shows mercy. You don’t become angry quickly. You have great love. I knew you would rather forgive than punish them. 3 So now I ask you, Lord, please kill me. It is better for me to die than to live.”
4 Then the Lord said, “Do you think it is right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out and sat down east of the city. There he made a shelter for himself. And he sat there in the shade. He was waiting to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord made a plant grow quickly up over Jonah. This made a cool place for him to sit. And it helped him to be more comfortable. Jonah was very pleased to have the plant for shade. 7 The next day the sun rose. And God sent a worm to attack the plant. Then the plant died.
8 When the sun was high in the sky, God sent a hot east wind to blow. The sun became very hot on Jonah’s head. And he became very weak. He wished he were dead. Jonah said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said this to Jonah: “Do you think it is right for you to be angry because of the plant?”
Jonah answered, “It is right for me to be angry! I will stay angry until I die!”
10 And the Lord said, “You showed concern for that plant. But you did not plant it or make it grow. It appeared in the night, and the next day it died. 11 Then surely I can show concern for the great city Nineveh. There are many animals in that city. And there are more than 120,000 people living there. Those people simply do not know right from wrong!”
27 On the fourteenth night we were floating around in the Adriatic Sea.[a] 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 deep. They went a little farther and threw the rope in again. It was 90 feet 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. These sailors wanted the other men to think that they were throwing more anchors from the front of the ship. 31 But Paul told the officer and the other soldiers, “If these men do not stay in the ship, your lives cannot be saved!” 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 14 days you have been waiting and watching. You have not eaten. 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. They all 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. They did not know what land it was, but they saw a bay with a beach. They 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 them could swim away and escape. 43 But Julius, the officer, wanted to let Paul live. He did not allow the soldiers to kill the prisoners. Instead he ordered everyone who could swim to jump into the water and swim to land. 44 The rest used wooden boards or pieces of the ship. And this is how all the people made it safely to land.
Jesus Is the Christ
18 One time when Jesus was praying alone, his followers came together there. Jesus asked them, “Who do the people say I am?”
19 They answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah.[a] And others say you are one of the prophets from long ago who has come back to life.”
20 Then Jesus asked, “And who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ from God.”
21 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone. Then he said, 22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. The Son of Man will be killed. But after three days he will be raised from death.”
23 Jesus went on to say to all of them, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must say ‘no’ to the things he wants. Every day he must be willing even to die on a cross, and he must follow me. 24 Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. And whoever gives his life for me will save it. 25 It is worth nothing for a man to have the whole world, if he himself is destroyed or lost. 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my teaching, then I[b] will be ashamed of him. I will be ashamed of him at the time I come with my glory and with the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth. Some of you people standing here will see the kingdom of God before you die.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.