Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this psalm.
The king's song[a]
101 I will sing and praise you, Lord!
I will sing about your faithful love and your justice.[b]
2 I will be careful to live in a completely good way.
When will you come to help me, Lord?
In my own home,
I will always be completely honest.
3 As for evil things,
I will not even think about them.
I hate the things that wicked people do.
They will not be my friends.
4 I will keep away from people with wrong thoughts.
I will not mix with them.
5 If anyone secretly speaks against his friend,
I will destroy them.
If anyone is proud and they boast about themselves,
I will send them away from me.
6 Instead, I will work with people
that I can trust.
I will let them live with me and be my guides.
My servants will be people
who live in an honest way.
7 People who deceive others or who tell lies
will not have a place in my home.
8 Every morning I will remove
any wicked person who lives in our land.[c]
Nobody who does evil things
will remain in the city of the Lord.
David wrote this psalm for the music leader.
A prayer for help in trouble[a]
109 You are the God that I praise.
Let me hear you speak!
2 Wicked people are saying bad things against me.
They are telling lies about me.
3 They are all round me,
and they say cruel things.
I have done nothing against them,
but they still attack me.
4 I have loved them,
but they still accuse me.
I will continue to pray for them.[b]
5 I have been kind to them,
but they do bad things to me in return.
I have loved them,
but they hate me in return.
6 Find an evil man to judge my enemy!
Put somebody at his right side to accuse him!
7 When they judge him,
show that he is guilty.
Show that even his prayers are a sin.
8 Make his life very short!
Let somebody else do the job which he did.
9 May he soon die,
so that his children have no father,
and his wife has no husband.
10 Cause his children to have no home,
so that they go from place to place,
and ask people to give them food.
11 May the people who lent money to my enemy,
take away everything that belonged to him.
Let strangers take everything
that he worked hard to get for himself.
12 Do not let anyone be kind to him.
Do not let anyone help his children,
even when they have no father.
13 Remove all the descendants in his family.
When his children die,
may nobody remember his family any more!
14 Lord, please remember his ancestors sins.
Please do not forgive his mother's sins.
15 Lord, never forget his family's sins.
May nobody on earth remember his family's name.
16 My enemy was never kind to anyone.
He was cruel to poor, weak, and helpless people.
He even caused them to die,
17 He loved to curse people.
Now may those curses happen to him!
He never asked God to bless other people,
so nobody will ask God to bless him!
18 He always cursed others,
as he always put on clothes.
So those curses have become like his food and drink.
May they go deep inside him,
like olive oil that goes into his bones.
19 Then curses will truly be his clothes.
They will be like the belt that he wears every day.
20 Yes, Lord, please punish all my enemies like that,
because they say evil things to accuse me!
21 You, Almighty Lord, must help me!
Show that your name is great.
Rescue me,
because your faithful love is good.
22 I am weak and helpless.
My heart beats fast inside me.
23 I will soon be gone,
like a shadow that disappears in the evening.
I am like an insect
that the wind blows away.
24 I am so hungry that my knees shake.
I am so thin that my bones show.
25 My enemies laugh at me!
When they see me,
they shake their heads at me.
26 Lord my God, please help me!
Please rescue me,
because of your faithful love.
27 Lord, cause my enemies to know
that you are the one who has rescued me.
28 They may curse me,
but you will bless me.
When they attack me,
they will become ashamed.
But I will be very happy,
as your servant.
29 Shame will come on my enemies.
It will cover them like a coat.
30 I will thank the Lord with a loud voice!
I will praise him,
in front of a big crowd of people.
AYIN
121 I have done what is fair and right.
Do not leave me alone
so that my cruel enemies can hurt me.
122 Promise to take care of me, your servant.
Do not let proud people hurt me.
123 I have been waiting a long time for you to save me.
My eyes have become tired.
I am waiting for you to save me,
as your true promise has said.
124 Please be kind to me, your servant,
so that I see your faithful love.
Continue to teach me your laws.
125 I am your servant. Help me to be wise,
so that I can understand your rules.
126 It is time for you to do something, Lord,
because people have turned against your Law.
127 That is why I love your commands.
They are more valuable to me than very pure gold.
128 So I carefully obey your teaching.
I hate everything that is false.
PE
129 Your laws are wonderful, Lord!
So I obey them.
130 Your message brings light to people,
when they understand it.
It helps ordinary people to become wise.
131 I want very much to know your commands,
like a thirsty dog needs water to drink.
132 Turn towards me and be kind to me,
as you always do for those who serve you.
133 Use your word to lead me along the right way.
Do not let sin rule over me.
134 Keep me safe from cruel people,
so that I can obey your teaching.
135 Show a kind face to me, your servant.
Teach me your laws.
136 I weep with streams of tears,
because people do not obey your Law.
TSADHE
137 Lord, you are righteous
and your laws are completely fair.
138 The rules that you have given to us are good and right.
We can trust them completely.
139 I am so upset that it almost kills me,
because my enemies do not accept your message.
140 I know that your promises are completely true.
I love them more than anything.
141 I am not important enough for people to respect me,
but I do not forget your teaching.
142 You will always do what is right
and your law is completely true.
143 I have much trouble and it makes me afraid,
but your commands make me happy.
144 Your rules are always fair.
Help me to understand them,
so that I may find true life.
God has loved Jacob but not Esau
1 This is the message that the Lord told to Malachi.[a] Malachi knew that he must tell this message to the Israelites.
The priests do not respect God
6 The Lord Almighty says this to the priests:
‘A son respects his father. A servant respects his master. If I am really your father and your master, why do you not respect me? You are my priests, but you insult my name.[a]
But then you ask, “What have we done to insult your name?”
7 You insult my name when you offer unclean sacrifices to me on my altar.
But you ask, “How have we offered unclean sacrifices to you?”
You have shown that you do not respect the Lord's altar as important.[b] 8 You offer blind animals as a sacrifice to me. You know that is wrong. You offer to me animals that cannot walk or animals that are ill. That is also a wrong thing to do. You would not give gifts like that to your city's ruler. If you did, he would surely not accept them. He would not be happy with your gifts.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
9 ‘Now you ask me to be kind to you. You want me to forgive you. But when you offer unclean animals as gifts to me, I will not be happy with your gifts.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
10 ‘It would be better if one of you shut the temple doors! Then you would not be able to offer useless sacrifices on my altar. I am not happy with you. I will not accept any more gifts from you.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
11 ‘People in every nation of the whole world will respect my name. People everywhere will offer incense and pure sacrifices to worship me. They will all know that I am great.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
12 ‘But you priests insult my name. You say that the Lord's altar is not special. You think that the food which you offer to me has no value. 13 You also say, “It is too much trouble to serve the Lord.” You think that you are too important to serve me.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
‘You offer to me animals that cannot walk or that are ill. You have even robbed other people to get some of these animals. Do you think that I will accept these unclean animals from you? Will I be happy with them?’
That is what the Lord says.
14 ‘You may promise to offer to me a valuable male animal from among your sheep. But then you change your mind. Instead, you offer to me an animal that has no value. I will surely punish you when you cheat me like that. Remember that I am a great king. People of all nations in the world respect my name with fear.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
How to be wise
13 Do some of you think that you are wise? Do you think that you are clever? If so, show that you are wise by the way that you live. Be kind to other people. Do things that are good. That is what it means to be wise. 14 But if you live in a bad way, do not think that you are wise. Are you jealous of other people so that you hate them? Do you want to make yourself important? If you live like that, do not say that you are great and wise. You are not saying what is true. 15 You are not being wise in the way that God wants you to be wise. Instead, you are thinking like people who do not know God. Your thoughts do not come from God's Spirit. They come from demons. 16 If you are jealous of other people and you want to make yourself important, that will cause trouble. People will argue and fight against one another. They will do all kinds of bad things. 17 But if God makes you really wise, you will live in a completely good way. That is the most important thing. Also, you will live in a way that brings peace. You will be kind to other people so that they become your friends. You will listen to them and not argue. You will forgive them and do many good things to help them. You will not choose between people. And you will not be a hypocrite.
18 Those who bring peace to other people help them to live together in peace. As a result, people choose to do what is right and good.
Do not turn away from God
4 You fight and quarrel among yourselves. Do you know why that happens? It is because of the troubles in your thoughts. You want to do bad things that you think will make you happy. 2 You want to have something for yourself, but you do not get what you want. You even kill other people. You try to take things that are not yours. But you cannot get them. So you fight and you quarrel with each other. But you do not have these things because you do not ask God for them. 3 Even when you do ask God, you do not receive anything. That is because you ask for the wrong reason. You just want to use these things to make yourselves happy.
4 You are turning away from God, like a woman who is not faithful to her husband. You choose to be friends with people who are against God. So you yourselves become enemies of God. You should know that! 5 The Bible says, ‘God has caused his Spirit to live in us. He wants very much to keep us for himself.’ Do you think that is not true? 6 But God will be very kind to us and he will help us. That is why the Bible says, ‘God is against those people who think that they are important. But he is kind to people who do not feel important.’ 7 So obey God's authority. Be strong against the Devil and he will run away from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Be clean in the way that you live. Stop doing wrong things. Make your minds clean. You cannot love sin and love God at the same time. 9 Be sorry about your sins and weep. Stop laughing and instead be sad. Do not be happy but be very upset.
10 Be humble in front of the Lord God. Then he will lift you up to a good place.
11 My Christian friends, do not say bad things against each other. If you speak against another believer, you are really speaking against God's Law. If you judge another believer, then you are judging the law too. When you do that, you are not obeying the Law. You are giving yourself authority to decide what the Law says. 12 God is the one who gave his Law to people. Only he has the authority to judge whether people have done what is right. Only he can decide to save people or to destroy them. So you must not judge your friends. You do not have that authority.
Ten men that had a bad disease of the skin
11 On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 When he was going into a village, ten men came towards him. These men had a bad disease of the skin. They stopped and stood a long way away from Jesus. 13 They shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, please be kind to us.’
14 Jesus saw them and said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’
While they were going on their way, they became well again. 15 One of these ten men saw that Jesus had made him well. He turned back and he praised God in a loud voice. 16 He went down on his knees in front of Jesus and thanked him. This man was from Samaria.
17 Then Jesus said, ‘I made ten men well again, didn't I? There should be another nine men somewhere! 18 But only this one man came back to thank God. And he is a foreign man from Samaria!’
19 Then Jesus spoke to the man. ‘Stand up and go on your way. You believed in me, so now you are really well.’
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