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.
The Lord is a great Judge
66 This is what the Lord says:
‘Heaven is my throne.
The earth is the place where I put my feet.
So you could not build a house for me to live in.
Where would I lie down to rest?
2 I made all these things with my own hands.
That is how everything began.’
The Lord says,
‘I am pleased with people who are humble.
Those people are sorry when they do wrong things.
They respect my teaching.
3 You may kill a bull as a sacrifice to me,
but you might also kill a man.
You may offer a lamb to me as a sacrifice,
but you might also break a dog's neck to offer to your idols.
You may give me a grain offering,
but you also offer pigs' blood.
You may burn incense to worship me
but you also worship false gods.
Yes, these people have chosen how they want to live.
They love to do these disgusting things.
4 So I will cause great trouble to come to them.
It will be the trouble that they are so afraid of.
When I called out to them,
nobody answered me.
When I spoke to them,
nobody listened.
They did evil things against me.
They chose to do things that I would hate.’
5 Hear this message from the Lord, you people who respect his teaching. Some of your own people hate you. They throw you out, because you are faithful to me. They laugh at you and they say, ‘Let the Lord show how great he is! We want to see him make you happy!’
But it is those people who will be ashamed.
6 Listen to the loud noise that is coming from the city! It is a noise that comes from the temple. The Lord is punishing his enemies as they deserve. That is what is making the noise!
6 What makes our life really rich? We should serve God in a way that pleases him and be happy with the things that we have.[a] 7 When we were born, we brought nothing with us into this world. When we die, we cannot take anything with us out of the world. 8 So, if we have enough food and clothes, we should be happy with that.
9 But some people want to have lots of money. This causes them to do wrong things. They cannot get free from their bad ways, like an animal in a trap. They want many things for themselves. Their foolish thoughts hurt them and finally destroy their lives. 10 When people like to have lots of money, it causes all kinds of bad things to happen. Some people have stopped believing the message about Christ because they want to get more money. As a result, they have caused themselves to become sad with many troubles.
Continue to serve God
11 But you, Timothy, are a servant of God. So keep away from all bad things like that. Instead, always try to do what is right. Serve God in a way that pleases him. Choose to trust God and to love other people. Continue to be strong when you have trouble. Be kind to people. 12 Continue to believe God's true message. Be like someone who fights well to keep it safe. God has chosen you to live with him for ever. You stood in front of many people and said clearly that you believed in Jesus Christ. So live in a way that shows that you belong to him.
13 Christ Jesus himself spoke God's true message clearly when he stood in front of Pontius Pilate.[b] I now say this to you, in front of God who causes all things to be alive, and in front of Jesus. 14 You must obey the commands that you have received. Obey them completely without any mistake until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 15 God will cause Christ to appear at the proper time. God is great, and he alone rules with all authority. He is the greatest King and the most powerful Lord. 16 God alone lives for ever. He lives in very bright light that nobody can come near. Nobody has ever seen God. Nobody is able to see him. So we praise him! He will rule for ever with great authority! Amen! This is true.
Rich people must be careful how they live
17 Warn those people who are rich with many things that belong to this world. Tell them not to think that they are more important than other people. They must not think that their money will keep them safe. They could easily lose all of it. Instead, they should trust God. He gives us many things, so that we can enjoy all of them. 18 Tell those rich people to do many good things to help other people. They should be very kind to other people and share their things with them. 19 In that way they will store valuable things for themselves in heaven. These things will be a strong help for them in the future. As a result, they will have true life with God.
Timothy must continue to teach the true message
20 Timothy, God has given you his true message to tell people. You must keep that message safe. Do not listen to people who say a lot of silly things that are not important to God. Those people think that they have special knowledge. But their ideas are against God's true message. 21 Some people have believed those wrong ideas and now they no longer trust God.
I pray that God will continue to be very kind to all of you.
Jesus teaches the people about the Messiah
35 Jesus was teaching people in the yard at the temple. He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that the Messiah is King David's son.[a] What do you think about that? 36 The Holy Spirit helped David himself to say:[b]
“The Lord God said to my Lord:
Sit at my right side until I win against your enemies.
The you will be able to put your feet on them.”[c]
37 In these words, David himself calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’[d]
The large crowd liked to listen to the things that Jesus was saying. It made them happy.
38 As Jesus was teaching the people, he said, ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. 39 They want to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. They choose the most important places at special meals. 40 But these men take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’
Jesus talks about people who give to God
41 Many people were giving their gifts for the temple. There was a box for money there. People threw their coins into it. Jesus sat near the box and he watched them. Many rich people put a lot of money into the box. 42 But then a woman came there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box.
43 Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘I tell you this: This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there. 44 All those rich people have plenty of money. They only put a small part of that into the box. But this woman has almost nothing. She put in all the money that she had. That was all the money that she needed to live.’
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