Book of Common Prayer
33-34 In places where people are wicked,
God makes the streams and rivers become dry,
so that the land becomes a desert.
He makes good land
become a salty wilderness.
35 But for his people, he changes deserts
to become pools of water.
He makes springs of water in dry land.
36 He lets hungry people live there safely.
They can build a city for themselves.
37 They plant crops in their fields,
and they plant vines to grow grapes.
They have plenty of food to eat.
38 He blesses them,
so that they have many children.
Their animals also grow in number.
39 But they may become weak and few in number,
because of cruel enemies who give them trouble.
40 Then God causes the enemy's leaders to become ashamed.
He makes them travel on roads that go nowhere.
41 But for people who are poor and weak,
he rescues them from their trouble.
He gives them many children,
so that they have big families.
42 Good people see what God has done,
and it makes them happy.
Wicked people have nothing to say!
43 Wise people should think about these things.
They should understand the Lord's faithful love for his people.
This psalm is a song that David wrote.
A prayer for help[a]
108 God, I have decided to trust you always.
I will sing songs to praise you,
with all that I am.
2 I will pick up my harp and my lyre.
I will make music as the sun rises!
3 Lord, I will thank you in front of all the people.
I will sing to praise you,
so that all nations hear.
4 Your faithful love is great.
It is higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches beyond the clouds.
5 God, show how great you are,
high above the sky!
Let everybody on the earth see your glory.
6 Use your power to rescue us!
Answer our prayers!
Then the people that you love will be safe.
7 God has spoken from his holy place![b]
He has promised:
‘I will show my power!
I will make Shechem into separate pieces.
I will measure Succoth Valley.
8 Gilead belongs to me,
and so does Manasseh.
Ephraim is like my helmet for war.
Judah has the authority of my royal sceptre.[c]
9 But Moab is the place where I wash my hands.
Edom is my servant.
I can throw my shoes at him!
I will shout aloud,
because I have won against the Philistines.’[d]
10 Who will lead me into the strong city?
Who will take me to fight and win against Edom?[e]
11 God, have you really turned against us?
Will you not lead our armies into battle?
12 Help us to fight against our enemies,
because help from men is useless!
13 With God's help, we will win!
He will beat down our enemies for us.
Praise the Lord![a]
33 You righteous people,
sing to praise the Lord,
and be happy!
It is right for good, honest people to do that.
2 Pick up your harp
and praise the Lord!
Make music for him
with a lyre that has ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song!
Make beautiful music,
as you sing aloud to praise him.
4 Yes! The Lord's message is true.
We can always trust him to do what is right.
5 He loves everything that is right and fair.
The world is full of his faithful love.
6 The word of the Lord made the heavens.
When he spoke,
all the stars in the sky appeared.
7 He put the water of the sea together in a heap.
He made the deep seas stay in their right places.
8 Everyone who lives on the earth should respect the Lord.
They should bend down to worship him.
9 The Lord spoke,
and the world began!
He spoke his command,
and everything became fixed in its place.[b]
10 Nations decide what they want to do,
but the Lord causes their plans to be useless.
11 But whatever the Lord decides to do
will always happen.
His thoughts will not change
from one century to the next.
12 The Lord blesses the nation
that has him as their God.
He has chosen them to belong to him,
as his own special people.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven.
He sees every man, woman and child.
14 From the place where he lives,
he watches everyone that lives on the earth.
15 He made each person and all their thoughts.
He knows everything that they do.
16 A great army will not save their king.
A soldier does not stay alive because he is strong.
17 In war, do not hope that even a strong horse will help you to win.
You can not trust it to save you.
18 Remember, the Lord takes care of people who respect him.
Those people trust him for his faithful love.
19 They trust him to keep them safe from death,
and to keep them alive during a time of famine.
20 Yes! We will trust the Lord to come and help us.
He is our helper who keeps us safe,
like a soldier's shield.
21 We are happy because he loves us.
We trust in his holy name.
22 Lord, help us to know your faithful love,
because we are trusting in you.
13 The Lord says, ‘You have spoken bad words against me.
But you ask, “What have we said against you?”
14 You have said, “We serve God, but that has not helped us at all. We are careful to do what he tells us to do. When we do wrong things, we have sad faces to show the Lord Almighty that we are sorry. 15 But it is proud people that God blesses! Yes, it is the people who do evil things who become rich! God does not even punish people who like to test him. That is what we think.” ’
The great day of the Lord
16 Then the people who respected the Lord talked to each other. The Lord listened to what they said. While the Lord watched, someone wrote names on a scroll. Those were the names of the people who worshipped the Lord and respected the Lord's name. They wrote down their names so that people would remember them.
17 The Lord Almighty says, ‘These people will belong to me. One day I will come to judge everyone. At that time I will bring together all my own special people. I will not punish them. I will take care of them, like a father takes care of his son who serves him. 18 Because of that, you will see again that I am kind to good people, but I punish wicked people. I show the difference between people who serve me well and those who do not.’
4 ‘The great day when I come to judge people will certainly happen. Punishment will come like the great fire of a hot oven. It will destroy all the proud people who do evil things. It will completely destroy them, like a fire that destroys dry grass. Nothing will remain.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
2 ‘But it will be different for you who respect my name. My power to make you well again will come to you. It will be like the sun that rises to shine on you. When that happens, you will be very happy. You will jump up and down like young cows when someone lets them go free.[a] 3 Then you will walk over the wicked people. They will be like ashes under your feet. That will happen on the day when I do these things.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
4 ‘Remember the rules that I gave to my servant Moses at Sinai mountain. Those rules and laws were for all the Israelites to obey.[b]
5 Look! I will send my prophet Elijah to you.[c] He will come before that great day of the Lord arrives. That will be a day that makes people afraid. 6 He will speak my message, so that fathers and their children return together to me.[d] Then I will not have to come and bring punishment on the land.’
Prayer
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Then they should pray to God about it. Or, is anyone feeling happy? They should praise God with songs. 14 Is anyone ill? They should ask the leaders of the church to come and to pray for them. The leaders should put some olive oil on the sick person. They should pray for him with the authority of the Lord Jesus. 15 If they pray in that way and they trust that God will answer them, the sick person will become well again. The Lord will cause him to become well. And God will forgive him if he has done any wrong things.
16 So you should tell each other about any wrong things that you have done. Then you will be able to pray for each other, so that God makes you well again. When a good person prays to God, God does powerful things. 17 For example, God's prophet Elijah was an ordinary person, as we are. He prayed to God that it would not rain. He continued to pray and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 After that time, he prayed to God to send rain again. After that, rain came down from the sky. The seeds that were in the ground began to grow and give food for people to eat.
19 My Christian friends, if anyone among you turns away from God's true message, you should help him. Try to bring him back to God. 20 Understand this: if you turn a person back from their bad ways, you will save them from death. And God will forgive that person for his many sins.
Jesus tells a story about two men who were praying
9 Jesus told a story to teach other people. These people thought that they were very good in front of God. They thought that they were much better than other people.
10 Jesus said, ‘One day, two men went into the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee. The other man took taxes from people. 11 The Pharisee stood there by himself. He prayed like this: “Thank you, God, that I am different from all these other people. They are bad people. They rob other people. They have sex with women who are not their wife. Thank you, God, that I am not like this man who takes taxes on behalf of the government. 12 I fast for two days of each week. I give to you one tenth of all the things and money that I receive.”
13 But the other man stood far away. He would not even look up towards heaven. He was hitting his body with his hands to show how sorry he was. He prayed like this: “Please, God, be kind to me. I have done many bad things.” ’
14 Jesus then said, ‘Let me tell you about these men when they went home. The man that took taxes from people was now right with God. But the Pharisee was still guilty. Some people lift themselves up to be important. But God will bring all of them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’
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