Book of Common Prayer
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when the Philistines took hold of him in Gath.
Trust in God[a]
56 God, please be kind to me, and help me,
because people are fighting me.
My enemies are attacking me every day.
2 They chase me all the time!
Those proud people want to catch me,
and there are many of them!
3 But when I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 By God's help, I will praise his word.
By God's help, I will trust in him.
I will not be afraid.
People can do nothing to hurt me![b]
5 All the time, they bring trouble on me.
They are always thinking of ways to hurt me.
6 They hide and they watch me.
They watch me wherever I go,
and they hope to kill me.
7 God, they want to do wicked things,
so punish them!
Destroy these people,
because you are angry with them.
8 Every time that I am upset,
you know about it.
Put all my tears in your bottle!
Yes, write down every tear in your book.[c]
9 When I call to you for help,
my enemies will turn back.
I am sure of this: God is with me,
to fight for me.
10 By God's help, I will praise his promise.
Yes, by the Lord's help,
I will praise his word.
11 I am not afraid,
because I trust in God.
People can do nothing to hurt me.
12 I have made special promises to you, God,
and I will do what I have promised.
I will offer to you a sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
13 You have saved my life from death.
You keep me safe so that I do not fall.
As a result, I will serve you, God,
as you give me light to live here on earth.
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when he ran away from King Saul to hide in a cave.
A prayer for help[d]
57 God, please be kind to me and help me!
Please help me!
I have come to you to keep me safe.
Until the danger has gone, keep me near to you,
in the way that birds protect their babies under their wings.
2 I will call to the Most High God to help me.
He is the God who stands beside me.
3 He will send help from heaven
and he will save me.
He will punish the people who attack me.
Selah.
God will show me his faithful love,
and he will do what he has promised.
4 My enemies are all round me,
like hungry lions!
I must lie down among wild animals,
that want to eat me!
They are men who use spears and arrows
to bite like teeth.
They use their tongues to hurt people,
like sharp swords.
5 God, show how great you are,
high above the sky!
Let everybody on the earth see your glory!
6 My enemies have prepared a trap to catch me.
That makes me very upset.
They have dug a deep hole on the path where I walk.
But they have fallen into it themselves!
Selah.
7 God, I have decided to trust you always.
Yes, I will trust you!
I will sing songs to praise you!
8 I will wake up now!
I will pick up my harp and my lyre.
I will make music as the sun rises![e]
9 My Lord, I will thank you
in front of all the people.
I will sing to praise you,
so that all nations hear.
10 Your faithful love is great,
higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches beyond the clouds.
11 God, show how great you are,
high above the sky!
Let everybody on the earth see your glory!
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer.
God will judge all people[f]
58 Do you rulers really say what is right?
Do you judge people in a fair way?
2 No! You do not!
You like to think of evil things to do.
You make cruel things happen
everywhere in the land.
3 Wicked people do wrong things from their birth.
As soon as they are born,
they start telling lies.
4 Their words hurt people
like a snake's poison.
They listen to nobody,
like a deaf cobra.
5 It does not obey the voice of the magician,
even if he sings very well![g]
6 God, break the teeth of my enemies!
Yes, Lord, break into pieces
the teeth of those lions!
7 Cause them to run away like water and disappear.
Cause them to die like dry grass in hot weather.
8 Cause them to be like a worm that melts as it moves along.
Cause them to be like a child that is born dead
and never sees the light of day.
9 Remove them quickly,
more quickly than pots become hot over a fire of thorn bushes.[h]
10 When God punishes those wicked people,
righteous people will be very happy.
They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked people!
11 People who see it will say,
‘It is true! God helps good people!
There is a God who judges people on earth in a fair way.’
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God will keep us safe[a]
64 God, please listen to me
as I tell you about my troubles.
Keep me safe from my enemies
when they attack me.
2 When evil men think of ways to hurt me,
hide me in a safe place.
Those people work together as a group
to do wicked things.
3 Their tongues are like
sharp swords that hurt people.
Their cruel words are like
arrows that they shoot at people.
4 They hide in secret places,
and they quickly shoot lies at good people.
They are not afraid that anyone will punish them.
5 They help each other to do evil things.
They decide where they will hide their traps,
and they say, ‘Nobody will see them!’
6 They think of wicked ideas to hurt people.
They say, ‘That is a great idea!’[b]
Nobody really understands what people think
deep inside themselves.
7 But God will punish them!
He will suddenly shoot an arrow at them
and it will hurt them a lot.[c]
8 Their own evil words will turn against them
and make them fall.
Everyone who sees them will shake their heads.
9 People will be afraid.
They will say, ‘Look at what God has done!’
They will think carefully about it all.
10 But people who serve the Lord should be happy
because of what he has done.
They should trust him to keep them safe.
Good, honest people should praise God,
because he is great!
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to save us[d]
65 God, it is right for us to praise you in Zion.
There, we will offer to you
the gifts that we have promised.
2 You answer our prayers.
All of us must come to you,
3 because of our many sins.
Our sins are too heavy for us to carry,
but you forgive the bad things that we do against you.[e]
4 You have blessed each person that you have chosen.
You let them live near to you in your home.
The good things that are in your holy temple
will make us very happy!
5 God, you are the one who saves us!
You answer our prayers,
and you do great things to rescue us.
People from everywhere on earth trust in you,
even those who live far away across the seas.
6 You used your power to make the mountains,
and you showed how strong you are.
7 You stop the seas from being angry,
so that their waters make no noise.[f]
You do the same with the angry nations.
8 People who live far away see
the great things that you have done.
It makes them afraid.
Everywhere on earth, east and west,
people sing happy songs to praise you.
9 You take care of the land.
You send rain to make the earth good for plants.
Your rivers are full of water.
You cause the earth to give good crops
so that the people have grain to eat.
10 When people plough their fields,
you send rain to make the earth wet.
You make the ground soft with the rain,
so that crops grow there.
11 Every year at harvest time,
you bless people with lots of good things.
Everywhere that you go,
there is plenty of food.[g]
12 Fresh grass covers the fields in the wilderness.
There are plenty of good things all over the hills,
so that people are very happy.
13 The fields are full of sheep.
The valleys are covered with crops.
Everywhere seems to shout and sing for joy!
Enemies try to frighten Nehemiah
6 We had finished building the city's wall. There were no holes in it now, but we had not fixed the doors in the gates. Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem (the Arab) and all our enemies heard that we had finished building the wall. 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent this message to me: ‘Come and meet with us in a village on the low land of Ono.’
I realized that they wanted to cause trouble for me. 3 So I sent this message back to them: ‘I am too busy to come and meet you. The work here is too important. I cannot stop the work here to come and meet you.’
4 They sent me the same message four times. Each time, I refused. 5 Then Sanballat sent his officer to me with a fifth message. He carried a letter that was open for anyone to read. 6 This is what the letter said: ‘To Nehemiah. Other nations have heard the news that you and the other Jews have decided to turn against the king. Geshem also says that this is true. This is why you are building the city's wall. People are saying that you want to rule the Jews as their king. 7 You have chosen some prophets to speak your message in Jerusalem. You have told them to say, “There is now a king in Judah!” The king of Persia will surely hear this news. So we must meet together and talk about it.’
8 I sent this reply: ‘What you say is not true. Nothing like that is happening. You are only speaking your own ideas.’
9 All our enemies wanted to frighten us. They thought, ‘The Jews will be so afraid that they will not be able to work well. They will not finish building the wall.’
So I prayed to God, ‘Give me strength to continue the work.’
10 One day I went to Shemaiah's house.[a] He was the son of Delaiah, Mehetabel's son. He could not go out of his house. He said to me, ‘Meet me inside the temple of God. We will close the temple's doors. Our enemies are coming to kill you. One night soon, they will come to kill you.’
11 But I said, ‘I am not a man who would run away to be safe. I will not go into the temple to save my life.’ 12 Then I realized that Shemaiah was not telling me a message from God. I knew that Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to say this to me. 13 They wanted to frighten me so that I would hide in the temple. My enemies knew that this would be a sin.[b] If I did that, I would be ashamed. People would no longer respect me.
14 My God, please remember all the bad things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. Also remember the prophetess, Noadiah, and the other prophets who have tried to frighten me.
The wall is finished
15 We finished the city's wall on the 25th day of the month Elul.[c] It had taken 52 days to build the wall again. 16 When our enemies heard this news, they were afraid. The people of all the nations who lived near Jerusalem were very afraid. They knew that our God had helped us to finish this great work.
17 During this time, the leaders in Judah were sending letters to Tobiah. Tobiah was also sending his replies to them. 18 Many people in Judah had promised to obey Tobiah. That was because his wife was the daughter of Arah's son, Shecaniah. Also, his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Berekiah's son, Meshullam.[d] 19 The leaders would often speak about the good things that Tobiah had done. They would then go and tell Tobiah everything that I had said. So Tobiah continued to send letters to frighten me.
The angel and the little book
10 Then I saw another powerful angel. He was coming down from heaven. He had a cloud all round him, like his clothes. There was a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun and his legs shone like fire. 2 He had a little book in his hand and it was open. He put his right foot on the sea and he put his left foot on the land. 3 Then he shouted with a loud voice, like a lion that roars. When he shouted, seven loud voices answered him. They were like the noise of thunder. 4 When the seven voices of thunder spoke, I was ready to write. But I heard a voice that came from heaven. The voice said to me, ‘Keep secret what the seven voices of thunder have said. Do not write it down.’
5 Then I looked again at the angel who stood with one foot on the sea and his other foot on the land. He raised his right hand towards heaven. 6 He made a strong promise by the name of God, who lives for ever. He created heaven, the earth and the sea, as well as everything that is in them. The angel said, ‘There is no more time to wait! 7 Now is the time when the seventh angel will make a sound with his trumpet. Then God will quickly finish what he wants to do. This has been a secret, but he told it long ago to the prophets who were his servants.’
8 Then I heard again the voice that spoke to me from heaven. He said, ‘Go to the angel who is standing with one foot on the sea and his other foot on the land. Go and take the book that is open in his hand.’ 9 So I went to the angel. I asked him to give me the little book. He said to me, ‘Take the book and then eat it. It will be very sweet like honey in your mouth. But it will hurt your stomach like bad food.’ 10 So I took the little book from the angel's hand and I ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten the book, it hurt my stomach. 11 Then the voice said to me, ‘You must continue to tell God's message to people. You must say what will happen to people from everywhere in the world. They are the people of many nations, and people who speak many languages, and also their kings.’[a]
Jesus explains the story about the weeds
36 Then Jesus told the crowds of people to go away. He went into the house where he was staying. His disciples also went into the house with him. They said to him, ‘Explain to us the story about the weeds that were growing in the field.’
37 Jesus replied, ‘The Son of Man is like the farmer who planted the good seed in the field. 38 The field is like the world. The good seeds are like the people who belong to God's kingdom. The weeds are like the people who belong to the Devil. 39 The Devil is the bad person who planted the weed seeds in the field. The time for harvest is like the end of time. God's angels are the workers who cut the plants down.
40 In the story, the workers cut down the weeds and they burned them in the fire. When this world comes to an end, it will happen like that. 41 The Son of Man will send his workers, who are his angels. They will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin. They will take away everyone who does evil things. 42 The angels will throw those bad people into the great fire. There the people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.[a] 43 The people who obeyed God will shine like the sun. They will be in the kingdom of their Father. You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’
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