Book of Common Prayer
The two paths[a]
1 If someone does not do what wicked people tell him to do,
if he does not join with sinners,
if he does not meet with those who laugh at God,
God has blessed that person!
2 He is happy when he obeys the Law of the Lord.[b]
He thinks about God's Law during the day and at night.
3 He will become like a tree that grows beside streams of water.
It gives its fruit at the right season.
Its leaves do not fall off.
Everything that person does will have a good result.
4 But wicked people are as empty as chaff.
The wind blows them away.[c]
5 So they will not go free when God judges them.
Sinners cannot join with God's people,
the people who are right with God.[d]
6 The Lord takes care of people who respect him.
But wicked people are living in a way that will take them to a bad end.
The Lord's king rules[e]
2 Why are nations making plans to turn against the Lord?
All their plans will fail!
2 Kings and rulers decide to work together,
to fight against the Lord
and the king that he has chosen.
3 They say, ‘We will not accept their authority over us!
We will get free from their power!’[f]
4 The Lord who sits on his throne in heaven laughs at them.
He says that their plans are useless.
5 Then he becomes very angry and he frightens them.
He warns them with strong words and he says,
6 ‘I have put my king on his throne in Zion.[g]
I have put him on my holy mountain.’
7 I will tell you what the Lord has promised to me, his king.
He said to me, ‘You are my son.
Yes, today I have become your father![h]
8 Ask me and see what I will do!
I will give you all the nations on the earth.
They will all belong to you.
9 You will break them with an iron sceptre,
as if they are clay pots.’
10 So, you kings, think carefully!
You who rule the nations of the world, learn this lesson:
11 Respect the Lord and serve him.
Enjoy his rule with fear!
12 Bend down low in front of his son!
If not, the Lord will be angry.
He will quickly become very angry.
You will suddenly die!
But as for those who serve the Lord as their king,
he blesses them and he takes care of them all.
This is a song that David wrote when he ran away from his son, Absalom.[i]
A morning song
3 Lord, every day I have more enemies.
Many people fight against me.
2 They say about me,
‘God will not save him.’
Selah.
3 But Lord, you are like a shield for me.[j]
You are the one who gives me honour.
You lift my head up high.
4 I called aloud to the Lord.
He answered me from his holy mountain.
Selah.
5 I lie down and I sleep.
Then I wake up, because the Lord takes care of me.
6 Even if 10,000 enemies are all around me to attack me,
I will not be afraid of them.
7 Lord, stand up! My God, save me from my enemies!
Hit all my enemies in the face.
Break the teeth of those bad people.
8 Lord, it is you that saves us.
You bless your people.
Selah.
This is a song that David wrote.
Tell the music leader to use stringed instruments.
An evening song
4 God, please answer me when I call aloud for help.
You are the one who shows that I am right.
Help me in my trouble.
Show me that you are kind.
Listen to me when I pray.
2 Tell me this, you people:
How long will you refuse to respect me?
How long will you love stupid ideas?
How long will you agree with lies?
Selah.
3 The Lord is very kind to those who serve him.
He has chosen them to belong to himself.
So he listens when I pray to him.
4 Shake with fear and stop doing wrong things!
Lie on your bed and think quietly about your life.
Selah.
5 Offer the right sacrifices to the Lord.
Continue to trust in him.
6 Many people say, ‘Will anyone do a good thing for us?’
Lord, let your face smile on us.
7 You have made me very happy.
I am happier than anyone who has lots of food and wine.
8 I will lie down and I will sleep in peace.
You, Lord, are the one who takes care of me,
and you keep me safe.
A song with music that David wrote.
He sang this song to the Lord about Benjamin's descendant, Cush.
God always does what is right[a]
7 Lord, my God, I come to you to keep me safe.
Please save me from all those people who want to catch me.
2 If you do not keep me safe,
my enemies will tear me into pieces.
They will attack me like lions do,
and nobody will be able to save me.
3-5 Lord, my God, if I have done a wrong thing,
then let my enemies chase me and catch me.
If I have done a bad thing against a friend,
let my enemies catch me.
If I have helped a friend's enemy to attack him,
let my enemies catch me!
If I am guilty of any of these things,
let my enemies knock me down to the ground.
They should leave me there,
so that I lie as a dead person in the dirt.
Selah.
6 But Lord, now do something!
Wake up and help me!
Show how angry you are against my enemies.
Punish them in the way that you know is right!
7 Bring together the people of all nations,
to stand in front of you.
Rule over them from high above.
8 You, Lord, judge the people of all nations.
Lord, Most High God, say that I am not guilty.
Truly, I am righteous and honest.
9 Stop wicked people from doing evil things.
Keep your own people safe.
You always do what is right,
and you know how we think and feel.
10 The Most High God is like a shield to keep me safe.
He takes care of good, honest people.
11 God is a judge who is fair.
Every day he is angry against wicked people.
12 If they do not change the way that they live,
God will prepare to punish them.
He will make his sword sharp,
and he will put an arrow in his bow.
13 He will prepare his dangerous weapons.
He is ready to shoot his arrows that burn with fire.
14 Look! Wicked people prepare to do evil things!
They want to cause trouble.
Like a pregnant woman,
what starts inside them comes out into the open!
They give birth to lies that deceive people.
15 Wicked people want to hurt people.
They are digging a deep hole for people to fall into.
But they fall into the hole themselves!
16 The ideas that they have to hurt other people
bring trouble on themselves!
They want to be cruel to other people,
but they themselves receive the pain!
17 So I will thank the Lord
because he does what is right.
The Lord is the Most High God,
so I will sing to praise his name!
12 Nobody has done what God has done!
He measured all the water of the seas in one hand.
He used his hand to measure the whole sky.
He carefully weighed the soil of the earth.
He carefully weighed the mountains in his scales,
and the hills too.
13 Nobody understands the mind of the Lord.
Nobody can be his advisor,
to tell him what he should do.
14 He does not ask anyone to be his guide.
Nobody can teach him the proper way to do things.
Nobody can give him knowledge.
Nobody can teach him how to understand things.
15 The Lord looks at the nations
as if they are a little bit of water in a bucket.
They are like dust on his scales.
He weighs the islands as he would weigh dust.
16 All the trees from Lebanon's forests are not enough
to make a fire for his altar.
All its animals are not enough to offer to him
as burnt offerings.
17 All the nations in the world are not important to the Lord.
He sees them as empty and useless.
18 You cannot find anyone else who is like God.
There is no image that you can make to be like him.
19 A worker may use special skill to make an idol.
Another worker may cover it with gold.
He may use silver chains to make it beautiful.
20 A poor person may choose special wood for his idol.
He chooses wood that will not quickly become spoiled.
Then he finds a worker to make an idol for him.
He makes it so that it will not fall over!
21 You must surely know what is true!
You must have heard about it.
Somebody must have told you these things
from the beginning.
You should have understood it all
since the time that God made the earth.
22 God sits high above on his throne
where the earth and the sky meet.
The people on the earth seem like grasshoppers to him.
He hangs out the sky like a curtain.
He makes it like a tent for him to live in.
23 He takes away the power of kings.
He causes the rulers of the world to be useless.
Paul says ‘Hello’
1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
I am writing to you, God's own people who live in Ephesus. You are those who continue to believe in Christ Jesus, and so you belong to him.
2 I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
God blesses us as Christians
3 We praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in very many ways. Because we belong to Christ, we enjoy all the good things that come from heaven. God blesses our spirits with those good things. 4 Before God made the world, he chose us to be his people because of Christ. He chose us so that we would please him. Because we belong to Christ, God accepts us as completely good. This shows how much he loves us. 5 Long ago, he already decided to accept us into his family as his children, because of Jesus Christ. He chose us to belong to him because it made him very happy. 6 As a result, we praise him, because he is great and he has been so kind to us. He has given us so much because of his Son, whom he loves very much. 7 When Christ died as a sacrifice on the cross, he paid the price to make us free. Because of Christ's death on our behalf, God has forgiven our sins. God is so very kind that he has done all this for us!
8 Even more than that, God has shown how wise he is. He understands what we need. 9 He has let us know his great purpose, which had been a secret before. That plan would make him very happy. It would be possible because of Christ. 10 God will make that plan happen when the time is completely right. At that time, he will bring everything together so that Christ rules all of them. That includes the things that are in heaven, and the things that are on earth.
11 God is able to make all things happen just like he decides. He chose us to be his own people, because we are united with Christ. In the beginning, God had already decided that this was his purpose. 12 We were the first people to trust in Christ, God's special Messiah.[a] God wanted us to show how great he is. He wanted people to praise him because of us. 13 You believers in Ephesus also heard God's true message. You heard the good news about how God saves you. When you believed in Christ, God gave his Holy Spirit to you. He had promised to do that, to show that you belong to him. 14 God has put his Holy Spirit inside us now. As a result, we know that one day we will receive all the good things that God has promised. At that time we will be completely free, because we belong to God. So we praise God and we say that he is great!
The start of the good news
1 This is the start of the good news about Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. 2 The prophet Isaiah wrote this message from God in his book:[a]
‘Listen! I will send someone to prepare a way for you.
He will tell people my message.
3 His voice will shout in the wilderness:
“The Lord will come soon, so prepare a way for him.
Make the paths straight for him.” ’[b]
4 So John went to a place in the wilderness. He baptized people and he spoke a message from God.[c] He said to people, ‘You have done many wrong things. You must turn away from them and change how you live. Then God will forgive you and I will baptize you.’
5 Many people who lived in Jerusalem and in the country of Judea went to listen to John.[d] The people told God about all the wrong things that they had done. Then John baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothes made from the hair of a camel. He also wore a belt made from leather. His usual food was locusts and honey from the wilderness.
7 John said to the people, ‘Another person will come soon. He is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him. 8 I have baptized you with water. But this man will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
John baptizes Jesus
9 Soon after this, Jesus came from the town of Nazareth in Galilee. John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 While Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the skies open. The Holy Spirit came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus. 11 A voice spoke from heaven: ‘You are my Son and I love you. You make me very happy.’
Satan tries to cause Jesus to do wrong things
12 Immediately, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus out into the wilderness. 13 Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. During this time, Satan tried to cause him to do wrong things. There were wild animals with Jesus in the wilderness. God's angels took care of him.
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