Book of Common Prayer

God is good, so thank him^[a]

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

The king of Zion comes

⁹ Sing loudly, people in Zion.

Shout, people in Jerusalem.

Look! Your king comes to you.

He will save you because he does everything well.

But he is quiet and he is riding on a donkey.

He will ride on a young animal. Its mother is a donkey.

¹⁰ I will take away the chariots from Ephraim,^[a]

and the horses of war from Jerusalem.

The bows of war will be broken.

He will speak to all the countries and wars will finish.

He will rule from sea to sea. He will rule from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

¹¹ But I made a promise to you. I made that promise true with blood. I will free your people that are in a prison, in deep dark holes without water.

¹² All you people who hoped to see your own country again, return to Jerusalem.

I tell you this now: I will give back to you twice as much as you have lost.

¹³ I will use Judah and Israel to attack my enemies.

I will use you, men from Zion, to attack the men from Greece.

I will make you like the long metal knife of a soldier.

The Lord will appear

¹⁴ Then the Lord will appear above his people.

His arrows will be as fast as lightning in the sky.

The Lord God will make a loud sound with a trumpet.

He will march in a storm from the south to attack.

¹⁵ And the Lord Almighty will help his people.

They will throw great stones at their enemies.

When they go to war, they will shout loudly,

like men who have drunk too much wine.

They will be as full of joy as the priest's bowl is full of blood,

when he pours it on the altar.

¹⁶ On that day, the Lord will save them.

They are his people.

They will shine in his country

like beautiful stones that shine in a crown.

¹³ If you always try to do good things, then nobody should hurt you. ¹⁴ But somebody might give you trouble, even when you do what is right. If that happens, God will bless you. So do not be afraid of what people may do to you. Do not worry about it. ¹⁵ Instead, always remember that Christ is your Lord. Let him rule how you live. People may ask you, ‘Why do you trust God to help you?’ You must always be ready to answer them about that. ¹⁶ But when you tell them, be kind and polite. Do only what you know is right. Then those people will see that you live in a good way because you believe in Christ. When they say bad things against you they will become ashamed. ¹⁷ Sometimes God may let you have trouble and pain even when you have done good things. But that is better than if you have trouble and pain because you have done bad things.

¹⁸ Christ himself always did what was right. But he received pain on behalf of people who do what is wrong. He died once to take away all those wrong things. He did that to bring you near to God. People killed Christ's body, but God's Spirit made him alive again. ¹⁹ Like this, he went to the spirits who were in prison. He told them God's true message. ²⁰ Those were the spirits of people who had refused to obey God long ago. At that time God waited patiently for them to turn to him while Noah was building a large ship. But only a few people agreed to go into that ship. God saved only eight people when the ship sailed on the deep water.^{[a] 21} That shows how God now saves you. It is like a picture of baptism. The water of baptism does not wash dirt from a person's body. Instead, it shows that a person has decided to obey God. He is choosing to do what is right. That saves you, because Jesus Christ became alive again after his death. ²² After that, Jesus went into heaven. Now he is sitting at God's right side. He rules over angels and over everything that has authority and power.^[b]

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

21 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage.^[a] They were on the Mount of Olives.^[b] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’

⁴ A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.

⁵ ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,

⁶ So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus got up and sat on one of them. ⁸ Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.^[d]

⁹ Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹⁰ When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’

¹¹ The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Jesus visits the temple

¹² Jesus then went into the yard of the temple.^[f] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus made them all leave that place. He pushed over the tables of the men who changed coins.^[g] He also pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.

¹³ Jesus spoke to them all. He said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come together to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’^[h]