Book of Common Prayer
33 He dries up rivers 34 and turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt. 35 Again, he turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys. 36 He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities, 37 to sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops! 38 How he blesses them! They raise big families there and many cattle.
39 But others become poor through oppression, trouble, and sorrow. 40 For God pours contempt upon the haughty and causes princes to wander among ruins; 41 but he rescues the poor who are godly and gives them many children and much prosperity. 42 Good men everywhere will see it and be glad, while evil men are stricken silent.
43 Listen, if you are wise, to what I am saying. Think about the loving-kindness of the Lord!
108 O God, my heart is ready to praise you! I will sing and rejoice before you.
2 Wake up, O harp and lyre! We will meet the dawn with song. 3 I will praise you everywhere around the world, in every nation. 4 For your loving-kindness is great beyond measure, high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the skies. 5 His glory is far more vast than the heavens. It towers above the earth. 6 Hear the cry of your beloved child—come with mighty power and rescue me.
7 God has given sacred promises; no wonder I exult! He has promised to give us all the land of Shechem and also Succoth Valley. 8 “Gilead is mine to give to you,” he says, “and Manasseh as well; the land of Ephraim is the helmet on my head. Judah is my scepter. 9 But Moab and Edom are despised;[a] and I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”
10 Who but God can give me strength to conquer these fortified cities? Who else can lead me into Edom?
11 Lord, have you thrown us away? Have you deserted our army? 12 Oh, help us fight against our enemies, for men are useless allies. 13 But with the help of God we shall do mighty acts of valor. For he treads down our foes.
33 Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise him. 2 Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. 3 Compose new songs of praise to him, accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.
4 For all God’s words are right, and everything he does is worthy of our trust. 5 He loves whatever is just and good; the earth is filled with his tender love. 6 He merely spoke, and the heavens were formed and all the galaxies of stars. 7 He made the oceans, pouring them into his vast reservoirs.
8 Let everyone in all the world—men, women, and children—fear the Lord and stand in awe of him. 9 For when he but spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command! 10 And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, 11 but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. 13-15 The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.
16-17 The best-equipped army cannot save a king—for great strength is not enough to save anyone. A war horse is a poor risk for winning victories—it is strong, but it cannot save.
18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. He will keep them from death even in times of famine! 20 We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield. 21 No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name. 22 Yes, Lord, let your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.
15 The Lord had told Samuel the previous day, 16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. You are to anoint him as the leader of my people. He will save them from the Philistines, for I have looked down on them in mercy and have heard their cry.”
17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, “That’s the man I told you about! He will rule my people.”
18 Just then Saul approached Samuel and asked, “Can you please tell me where the seer’s house is?”
19 “I am the seer!” Samuel replied. “Go on up the hill ahead of me and we’ll eat together; in the morning I will tell you what you want to know and send you on your way. 20 And don’t worry about those donkeys that were lost three days ago, for they have been found. And anyway, you own all the wealth of Israel now!”
21 “Pardon me, sir,” Saul replied. “I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of the tribe! You must have the wrong man!”
22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the great hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. 23 Samuel then instructed the chef to bring Saul the choicest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. 24 So the chef brought it in and placed it before Saul.
“Go ahead and eat it,” Samuel said, “for I was saving it for you, even before I invited these others!”
So Saul ate with Samuel. 25 After the feast, when they had returned to the city, Samuel took Saul up to the porch on the roof and talked with him there. 26-27 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called up to him, “Get up; it’s time you were on your way!”
So Saul got up, and Samuel accompanied him to the edge of the city. When they reached the city walls, Samuel told Saul to send the servant on ahead. Then he told him, “I have received a special message for you from the Lord.”
10 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head, and kissed him on the cheek and said,
“I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the king of his people, Israel!
30 “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an Angel appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 Moses saw it and wondered what it was, and as he ran to see, the voice of the Lord called out to him, 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors—of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and dared not look.
33 “And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. 34 I have seen the anguish of my people in Egypt and have heard their cries. I have come down to deliver them. Come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 And so God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected by demanding, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Moses was sent to be their ruler and savior. 36 And by means of many remarkable miracles he led them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years.
37 “Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up a Prophet much like me[a] from among your brothers.’ 38 How true this proved to be, for in the wilderness, Moses was the go-between—the mediator between the people of Israel and the Angel who gave them the Law of God—the Living Word—on Mount Sinai.
39 “But our fathers rejected Moses and wanted to return to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make idols for us, so that we will have gods to lead us back; for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ 41 So they made a calf idol and sacrificed to it, and rejoiced in this thing they had made.
42 “Then God turned away from them and gave them up, and let them serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of Amos’ prophecies the Lord God asks, ‘Was it to me you were sacrificing during those forty years in the desert, Israel? 43 No, your real interest was in your heathen gods—Sakkuth, and the star god Kaiway, and in all the images you made. So I will send you into captivity far away beyond Babylon.’
39 Then, accompanied by the disciples, he left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. 40 There he told them, “Pray God that you will not be overcome by temptation.”[a]
41-42 He walked away, perhaps a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed this prayer: “Father, if you are willing, please take away this cup of horror from me. But I want your will, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him, 44 for he was in such agony of spirit that he broke into a sweat of blood, with great drops falling to the ground as he prayed more and more earnestly. 45 At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples—only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief.
46 “Asleep!” he said. “Get up! Pray God that you will not fall when you are tempted.”
47 But even as he said this, a mob approached, led by Judas, one of his twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus and kissed him on the cheek in friendly greeting.[b]
48 But Jesus said, “Judas, how can you do this—betray the Messiah with a kiss?”
49 When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Master, shall we fight? We brought along the swords!” 50 And one of them slashed at the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear.
51 But Jesus said, “Don’t resist anymore.” And he touched the place where the man’s ear had been and restored it.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.