Book of Common Prayer
This psalm is a song that the sons of Korah wrote.
God's holy city[a]
87 The Lord built his city on the holy mountain.
2 The Lord loves Zion city,
more than any other place where Jacob's family lives.[b]
3 People say great things about you!
You are God's own city!
Selah.
4 I will speak about the nations that serve God.
Rahab and Babylon are now among them,
also Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia.[c]
They say about themselves,
‘This man was born in Zion.’
5 They say this about Zion:
‘Each one of these people was born there.’
It is the Most High God who makes that city strong.
6 The Lord will write a list of all their names.
For the people from different nations,
he will say, ‘This person was born in Zion.’
Selah.
7 The singers and the musicians will say,
‘All our blessings come from you, Zion.’
A prayer of Moses, God's servant.
God lives for ever![a]
90 Lord, from long ago,
you have always been a safe home for us.[b]
2 From before the mountains began,
and before you made the world,
you were already there, as God.
You have no beginning and no end.
3 People return to dust in the ground when they die.
You say, ‘Become dust again, you people.’[c]
4 For you, a thousand years is only a short time.
They pass as quickly as a day for you,
or just a few hours in the night.
5 You cause people's lives to end,
as a dream finishes when you wake up.
People are like grass that appears in the morning.
6 During the morning, it grows well.
By the evening,
it becomes dry and it dies.
7 Your anger destroys us,
and we become very afraid.
8 All our sins are there for you to see.
You even see the sins that we have tried to hide.
9 Your anger gives us trouble all through our lives.
Then our lives end in a short groan.
10 The number of our days make 70 years,
or maybe 80 years if we are strong enough.
But even in the best years of our lives,
we have trouble and pain.
Our lives quickly pass,
and we hurry towards death.
11 Lord, nobody knows all the power of your anger.
It is your anger that causes people to be afraid of you.
12 Teach us to count carefully the days of our short lives.
Then we will be wise in how we live.
13 Lord, return to help us!
How long will you be angry with us?
Please be kind to us, your servants!
14 Show your faithful love to us every morning.
Then we will sing with joy,
and we will be happy for as long as we live.
15 For many years you have sent trouble to us.
Now, please make us happy
for as many years as you have given us pain.
16 Do great things again,
so that we, your servants, see them!
Let our children see that you rule as King!
17 Yes, may the Lord our God bless us.
May everything that we do go well!
Yes, may everything go well!
The Lord's special love[a]
136 Thank the Lord, because he is good!
His faithful love will always continue.
2 Thank God, who rules all gods.
His faithful love will always continue.
3 Thank the Lord who rules all lords.
His faithful love will always continue.
4-9 The Lord himself does great miracles.
He was wise when he made the skies.
He put the earth across the water of the seas.
He made the great lights to shine in the sky.
He made the sun to rule over the day.
He made the moon and the stars to rule the night.
So thank the Lord!
His faithful love will always continue.[b]
10-16 The Lord destroyed the firstborn sons in Egypt.
He brought the Israelites out from among the Egyptians.
He did this with his great power and strength.
He cut the Red Sea into two separate parts.
He led the Israelites through the middle of the sea.
He threw Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea to drown.
The Lord led his people through the wilderness.
So thank the Lord!
His faithful love will always continue.[c]
17-22 The Lord destroyed great kings.
Yes, he killed powerful kings.
He killed Sihon, king of the Amorites.
He killed Og, the king of Bashan.
He gave their land to his people, the Israelites.
He gave it to them as their own land.
So thank the Lord!
His faithful love will always continue.[d]
23-25 The Lord thought about us when we were upset.
He saved us from the power of our enemies.
He gives food to everything that lives.
So thank the Lord!
His faithful love will always continue.[e]
26 Yes, thank the God of heaven!
His faithful love will always continue.
9 Tell this news to the people in all the countries:
Get ready for war!
Shout to the soldiers.
Make all the men who fight get ready to attack.
10 Make your ploughs into swords.
Make the tools that you use on the farm into spears.
The weak man must say, ‘I am strong!’
11 Come quickly, you people who live round Israel.
And get together in the valley.
Lord, send down your army to attack them.
12 ‘Wake up the people in all the countries!
Bring them into the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will sit there to judge the people from every place.
13 Now is the time to cut down the fruits.
They are ready for you to bring them in.
Walk all over the grapes.
The winepress is full of them.
They come over the top.
The people in all countries have done so many bad things.’
14 Many nations are in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
It is there that the day of the Lord will soon come.
15 The sun and moon will become dark.
The stars will not shine.
16 The Lord will shout from Zion.
He will make a great noise from Jerusalem.
The earth and the sky will move about.
But the Lord will keep his people safe.
God will bless his people
17 ‘Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.
You will know that I live in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy.
Strangers will never take it again.
Every person has equal value
2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.
2 When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. 3 You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ 4 If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.
5 My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. 6 But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. 7 It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.
8 But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. 9 But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. 10 Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. 11 For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.
12 Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. 13 God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!
10 If you can trust a person with a very small thing, you can also trust him with bigger things. And if you cannot trust a person with a very small thing, you cannot trust him with big things. 11 So if people cannot trust you with money in this world, nobody will trust you with really valuable things. 12 And if people cannot trust you with other people's things, nobody will give you things for yourself.
13 A slave cannot work for two masters at the same time. Maybe he will hate one of the masters, but he will love the other one. Or he will work well for one master, but he will think bad things about the other one. God and money are like different masters. You cannot work for both of them.’
14 The Pharisees heard all this. They loved money very much, so they laughed at Jesus. They said to him, ‘You are wrong.’ 15 Jesus replied, ‘You are happy when people like you. You want them to think that you are good people. But God sees inside you. He knows what you are thinking. The things that many people think are valuable are not valuable to God. He hates those things.’[a]
16 Jesus then said, ‘The books of God's Law and God's prophets spoke God's message until John the Baptist came. Since then, God's servants tell people the good news about the kingdom of God. Everyone is now trying very much to get into that kingdom. 17 But this does not mean that anyone can destroy God's Law. One day, the earth and the sky will finish. But until that time, nobody can remove even a small thing from God's Law.
18 A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, it is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. Also, if a woman has left her husband, another man must not marry her. That is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife.’
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