Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Protection
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Of David.
61 God, hear my cry.
Listen to my prayer.
2 I call to you from the ends of the earth.
I am afraid.
Carry me away to a high mountain.
3 You have been my protection,
like a strong tower against my enemies.
4 Let me live in your Holy Tent forever.
Protect me as a bird protects its young under its wings. Selah
5 God, you have heard my promises.
You have given me the things that belong to those who fear you.
6 Give the king a long life.
Let him live many years.
7 Let him rule in the presence of God forever.
Protect him with your love and truth.
8 Then I will praise your name forever.
And every day I will keep my promises.
Trust Only in God
For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A song of David.
62 I wait patiently for God.
Only he can save me.
2 He is my rock, who saves me.
He protects me like a strong, walled city.
I will not be defeated.
3 How long will you attack me?
Will all of you throw me down?
I am like a leaning wall, like a fence ready to fall.
4 You are planning to make me fall.
You enjoy telling lies about me.
With your mouth you bless me.
But in your heart you curse me. Selah
5 I wait patiently for God to save me.
Only he gives me hope.
6 He is my rock, who saves me.
He protects me like a strong, walled city.
I will not be defeated.
7 My honor and salvation come from God.
He is my mighty rock and my protection.
8 People, trust God all the time.
Tell him all your problems.
God is our protection. Selah
9 People are only a breath.
Even the greatest men are just a lie.
On the scales, they weigh nothing.
Together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in force.
Stealing is of no use.
Even if you gain more riches,
don’t put your trust in them.
11 God has said this,
and I have heard it over and over:
God, you are strong.
12 Lord, you are loving.
You reward a person for what he does.
Praise God Who Saved the Nation
For the director of music. A song of David.
68 Let God come and scatter his enemies.
Let those who hate him run away.
2 Blow them away as smoke
is driven away by the wind.
As wax melts before a fire,
let the wicked be destroyed before God.
3 But those who do right should be glad.
They should rejoice before God.
They should be happy and glad.
4 Sing to God. Sing praises to his name.
Prepare the way for him
who rides through the desert.
His name is the Lord.
Rejoice before him.
5 God is in his holy Temple.
He is a father to orphans.
He defends the widows.
6 God gives the lonely a home.
He leads prisoners out with joy.
But those who turn against God will live in a dry land.
7 God, you led your people out.
You marched through the desert. Selah
8 The ground shook,
and the sky poured down rain
before God, the God of Mount Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 God, you sent much rain.
You refreshed your tired land.
10 Your people settled there.
God, in your goodness
you took care of the poor.
11 The Lord gave the command.
And a great army told the news:
12 “Kings and their armies run away.
The women at home divide the wealth taken in war.”
13 Those who stayed behind by the sheepfold
will get the riches taken in battle.
14 God scattered kings
like snow on Mount Zalmon.
15 The mountains of Bashan are great mountains.
Mount Bashan has many peaks.
16 Why do you mountains with many peaks look down
on Mount Zion, which God chose for his home?
The Lord will live there forever.
17 God comes with millions of chariots.
The Lord comes from Mount Sinai to his holy place.
18 He went up to the heights.
He led a parade of captives.
He received the payment he demanded from the people,
even from those who turned against him.
And the Lord God will live there.
19 Praise the Lord, day by day.
God our Savior helps us. Selah
20 Our God is a God who saves us.
The Lord God saves us from death.
21 God will crush his enemies’ heads,
the hairy skulls of those who continue to sin.
22 The Lord said, “I will bring the enemy back from Bashan.
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea.
23 Then you can stick your feet in their blood.
And your dogs can lick their share.”
24 God, people have seen your victory march.
God my King marched into the holy place.
25 The singers are in front, and the instruments are behind.
In the middle are the girls with the tambourines.
26 Praise God in the meeting place.
Praise the Lord in the gathering of Israel.
27 There is the smallest tribe, Benjamin, leading them.
And there are the leaders of Judah with their group.
There also are the leaders of Zebulun and of Naphtali.
28 God, order up your power.
Show the mighty power you have used for us before.
29 Kings will bring their wealth to you,
to your Temple in Jerusalem.
30 Punish Egypt, the beast among the tall grass along the river.
Punish the leaders of nations, those bulls among the cows.
Then they will bring you their silver.
Scatter those nations that love war.
31 Messengers will come from Egypt with forced payment.
The people of Cush will pray to God.
32 Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God.
Sing praises to the Lord. Selah
33 Sing to the one who rides through the skies, which are from long ago.
He speaks with a thundering voice.
34 Announce that God is powerful.
He rules over Israel.
His power is in the skies.
35 God, you are wonderful in your Temple.
The God of Israel gives his people strength and power.
Praise God!
Israel Turns from God
2 The Lord spoke this word to me: 2 “Go and speak to the people of Jerusalem. Say to them: This is what the Lord says:
‘When you were a young nation, you were faithful to me.
You loved me like a young bride.
You followed me through the desert.
It was a land that had never been planted.
3 The people of Israel were holy to the Lord.
They were like the first fruits from his harvest.
Those who tried to hurt Israel were judged guilty.
Disasters happened to them,’” says the Lord.
4 Hear the word of the Lord, family of Jacob.
Hear the message, all you family groups of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says:
“I was fair to your ancestors.
Why did they turn away from me?
Your ancestors worshiped useless idols.
And they became useless themselves.
6 Your ancestors didn’t say,
‘The Lord brought us out of Egypt.
He led us through the desert.
He led us through a dry and rocky land.
He led us through a dark and dangerous land.
He led us where no one travels or lives.
But where is he now?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land.
I did this so you could eat its fruit and produce.
But you came and made my land unclean.
You made it a hated place.
8 The priests didn’t ask,
‘Where is the Lord?’
The people who know the teachings didn’t know me.
The leaders turned against me.
The prophets prophesied in the name of Baal.
They worshiped useless idols.
9 “So now I will again tell what I have against you,” says the Lord.
“And I will tell what I have against your grandchildren.
10 Go across the sea to the island of Cyprus and see.
Send someone to the land of Kedar to look closely.
See if there has ever been anything like this!
11 Has a nation ever exchanged their old gods for new ones?
(Of course, their gods are not really gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for idols worth nothing!
12 Skies, be shocked at the things that have happened.
Shake with great fear!” says the Lord.
13 “My people have done two sins.
They have turned away from me.
And I am the spring of living water.
And they have dug their own wells.
But they are broken wells that cannot hold water.
16 I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power God uses to save everyone who believes—to save the Jews first, and then to save the non-Jews. 17 The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself. God’s way of making people right with him begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “The person who is made right with God by faith will live forever.”[a]
All People Have Done Wrong
18 God’s anger is shown from heaven against all the evil and wrong things that people do. By their own evil lives they hide the truth. 19 God shows his anger because everything that may be known about God has been made clear. Yes, God has clearly shown them everything that may be known about him. 20 There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand. They are made clear by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do. 21 They knew God. But they did not give glory to God, and they did not thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish minds were filled with darkness. 22 They said they were wise, but they became fools. 23 They gave up the glory of God who lives forever. They traded that glory for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people. They traded God’s glory for things that look like birds, animals, and snakes.
24 People were full of sin, wanting only to do evil. So God left them to follow their evil desires, and they made one another’s bodies impure by what they did. 25 They traded the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served things that were made by man. But they did not worship and serve the God who made those things. God should be praised forever. Amen.
Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son
43 Two days later, Jesus left and went to Galilee. 44 (Jesus had said before that a prophet is not respected in his own country.) 45 When Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem. They had been at the Passover Feast, too.
46 Jesus went to visit Cana in Galilee again. This is where Jesus had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers lived in the city of Capernaum. This man’s son was sick. 47 The man heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was now in Galilee. He went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son. His son was almost dead. 48 Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”
49 The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”
50 Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. 51 On the way the man’s servants came and met him. They told him, “Your son is well.”
52 The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”
They answered, “It was about one o’clock yesterday when the fever left him.”
53 The father knew that one o’clock was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people of his house believed in Jesus.
54 That was the second miracle that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.