Book of Common Prayer
(A song for worship.)
A Prayer for the Lord's Help
1 When I am in trouble, I pray,
2 “Come and save me, Lord,
from deceitful liars!”
3 What punishment is fitting
for you deceitful liars?
4 Your reward should be
sharp and flaming arrows!
5 But I must live as a foreigner
among the people of Meshech
and in the tents of Kedar.[a]
6 I have spent too much time
living among people
who hate peace.
7 I am in favor of peace,
but when I speak of it,
all they want is war.
(A song for worship.)
The Lord Will Protect His People
1 I look to the hills!
Where will I find help?
2 It will come from the Lord,
who created heaven and earth.
3 The Lord is your protector,
and he won't go to sleep
or let you stumble.
4 The protector of Israel
doesn't doze
or ever get drowsy.
5 The Lord is your protector,
there at your right side
to shade you from the sun.
6 You won't be harmed
by the sun during the day
or by the moon[b] at night.
7 The Lord will protect you
and keep you safe
from all dangers.
8 The Lord will protect you
now and always
wherever you go.
(A song by David for worship.)
A Song of Praise
1 It made me glad when they said,
“Let's go to the house
of the Lord!”
2 Jerusalem, we are standing
inside your gates.
3 Jerusalem, what a strong
and beautiful city you are!
4 Every tribe of the Lord
obeys him and comes to you
to praise his name.
5 David's royal throne is here
where justice rules.
6 Jerusalem, we pray
that you will have peace,
and that all will go well
for those who love you.
7 May there be peace
inside your city walls
and in your palaces.
8 Because of my friends
and my relatives,
I will pray for peace.
9 And because of the house
of the Lord our God,
I will work for your good.
(A song for worship.)
A Prayer for Mercy
1 Our Lord and our God,
I turn my eyes to you,
on your throne in heaven.
2 Servants look to their master,
but we will look to you,
until you have mercy on us.
3 Please have mercy, Lord!
We have been insulted
more than we can stand,
4 and we can't take more abuse
from those proud,
conceited people.
(A song by David for worship.)
Thanking the Lord for Victory
1 The Lord was on our side!
Let everyone in Israel say:
2 “The Lord was on our side!
Otherwise, the enemy attack
3 would have killed us all,
because it was furious.
4 We would have been swept away
in a violent flood
5 of high and roaring waves.”
6 Let's praise the Lord!
He protected us from enemies
who were like wild animals,
7 and we escaped like birds
from a hunter's torn net.
8 The Lord made heaven and earth,
and he is the one
who sends us help.
(A song for worship.)
The Lord's People Are Safe
1 Everyone who trusts the Lord
is like Mount Zion
that cannot be shaken
and will stand forever.
2 Just as Jerusalem is protected
by mountains on every side,
the Lord protects his people
by holding them in his arms
now and forever.
3 He won't let the wicked
rule his people
or lead them to do wrong.
4 Let's ask the Lord to be kind
to everyone who is good
and completely obeys him.
5 When the Lord punishes
the wicked,
he will punish everyone else
who lives an evil life.
Pray for peace in Israel!
(A song for worship.)
Celebrating the Harvest
1 It seemed like a dream
when the Lord brought us back
to the city of Zion.[c]
2 We celebrated with laughter
and joyful songs.
In foreign nations it was said,
“The Lord has worked miracles
for his people.”
3 And so we celebrated
because the Lord had indeed
worked miracles for us.
4 Our Lord, we ask you to bless
our people again,
and let us be like streams
in the Southern Desert.
5 We cried as we went out
to plant our seeds.
Now let us celebrate
as we bring in the crops.
6 We cried on the way
to plant our seeds,
but we will celebrate and shout
as we bring in the crops.
(A song by Solomon for worship.)
Only the Lord Can Bless a Home
1 Without the help of the Lord
it is useless to build a home
or to guard a city.
2 It is useless to get up early
and stay up late
in order to earn a living.
God takes care of his own,
even while they sleep.[d]
3 Children are a blessing
and a gift from the Lord.
4 Having a lot of children
to take care of you
in your old age
is like a warrior
with a lot of arrows.
5 The more you have,
the better off you will be,
because they will protect you
when your enemies
attack you in court.
9 Absalom was riding his mule under a huge tree when his head[a] caught in the branches. The mule ran off and left Absalom hanging in midair. Some of David's soldiers happened by, 10 and one of them went and told Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging in a tree!”
11 Joab said, “You saw Absalom? Why didn't you kill him? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a special belt.”
12 The man answered, “Even if you paid me 1,000 pieces of silver here and now, I still wouldn't touch the king's son. We all heard King David tell you and Abishai and Ittai not to harm Absalom. 13 He always finds out what's going on. I would have been risking my life to kill Absalom, because you would have let me take the blame.”
14 Joab said, “I'm not going to waste any more time on you!”
Absalom was still alive, so Joab took three spears and stuck them through Absalom's chest. 15 Ten of Joab's bodyguards came over and finished him off. 16 Then Joab blew a trumpet to signal his troops to stop chasing Israel's soldiers. 17 They threw Absalom's body into a deep pit in the forest and put a big pile of rocks over it.
Meanwhile, the people of Israel had all run back to their own homes.
18 When Absalom was alive, he had set up a stone monument for himself in King's Valley. He explained, “I don't have any sons[b] to keep my name alive.” He called it Absalom's Monument, and that is the name it still has today.[c]
A Plot To Kill Paul
12-13 The next morning more than 40 Jewish men got together and vowed that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. 14 Then some of them went to the chief priests and the nation's leaders and said, “We have promised God that we would not eat a thing until we have killed Paul. 15 You and everyone in the council must go to the commander and pretend that you want to find out more about the charges against Paul. Ask for him to be brought before your court. Meanwhile, we will be waiting to kill him before he gets there.”
16 When Paul's nephew heard about the plot, he went to the fortress and told Paul about it. 17 So Paul said to one of the army officers, “Take this young man to the commander. He has something to tell him.”
18 The officer took him to the commander and said, “The prisoner named Paul asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.”
19 The commander took the young man aside and asked him in private, “What do you want to tell me?”
20 He answered, “Some men are planning to ask you to bring Paul down to the Jewish council tomorrow. They will claim they want to find out more about him. 21 But please don't do what they say. More than 40 men are going to attack Paul. They have made a vow not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him. Even now they are waiting to hear what you decide.”
22 The commander sent the young man away after saying to him, “Don't let anyone know you told me this.”
Paul Is Sent to Felix the Governor
23 The commander called in two of his officers and told them, “By nine o'clock tonight have 200 soldiers ready to go to Caesarea. Take along 70 men on horseback and 200 foot soldiers with spears. 24 Get a horse ready for Paul and make sure he gets safely through to Felix the governor.”
A Question about Jesus' Authority
(Matthew 21.23-27; Luke 20.1-8)
27 Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. And as he was walking through the temple, the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses came over to him. 28 They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
29 Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. 30 Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”
31 They thought it over and said to each other, “We can't say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. 32 On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet. So we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.”
They were afraid of the crowd 33 and told Jesus, “We don't know.”
Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”
Renters of a Vineyard
(Matthew 21.33-46; Luke 20.9-19)
12 (A) Jesus then told them this story:
A farmer once planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it and dug a pit to crush the grapes in. He also built a lookout tower. Then he rented out his vineyard and left the country.
2 When it was harvest time, he sent a servant to get his share of the grapes. 3 The renters grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him away without a thing.
4 The owner sent another servant, but the renters beat him on the head and insulted him terribly. 5 Then the man sent another servant, and they killed him. He kept sending servant after servant. They beat some of them and killed some.
6 The owner had a son he loved very much. Finally, he sent his son to the renters because he thought they would respect him. 7 But they said to themselves, “Someday he will own this vineyard. Let's kill him! That way we can have it all for ourselves.” 8 So they grabbed the owner's son, killed him, and threw his body out of the vineyard.
9 Jesus asked, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? He will come and kill those renters and let someone else have his vineyard. 10 (B) You surely know that the Scriptures say,
‘The stone the builders
tossed aside
is now the most important
stone of all.
11 This is something
the Lord has done,
and it is amazing to us.’ ”
12 The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.
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