Book of Common Prayer
Worship God and obey him[a]
95 Come now! Let us sing together to worship the Lord!
We will shout aloud
to praise God, the strong Rock who makes us safe!
2 Let us come near to God
and thank him![b]
Let us sing songs to praise him,
because we are so happy!
3 Yes, the Lord is the great God.
He is the great king who rules over all gods.
4 The deepest places of the earth are in his hand.
The highest mountains belong to him.
5 The seas are his,
because he made them.
He also made the dry land,
with his own hands.
6 Come now! Let us bend down to worship him!
Let us bend our knees in front of the Lord.
He is the one who made us.
7 He is our God.
He takes care of us,
like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.[c]
As his sheep, he gives us what we need.
Today, you must listen to him
and obey him.
8 He says, ‘Do not refuse to obey me,
like my people did at Meribah.
They also did that one day at Massah,
in the desert.
9 Your ancestors tested me there,
to see if I would punish them.
But they had already seen the great things
that I had done for them!
10 So I was angry with those people
all the time for 40 years.
I said, “These people love to go the wrong way.
They refuse to follow my ways.”
11 I was very angry and I promised,
“They will never come into my place of rest.” ’[d]
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
Lord, please help me!
31 Lord, I have come to you to keep me safe.
Never let me become ashamed.
You always do what is right
so please save me!
2 Listen to me,
and quickly send help to me.
Lord, be a rock where I can hide.
Be a strong place to keep me safe.
3 You are my high rock and my strong place.
Because of your good name,
lead me and be my guide.[a]
4 You are the place where I can hide,
so keep me safe.
Do not let my enemies' traps catch me.
5 I put my life into your hands.
I know that you will save me, Lord,
because you are a God that I can trust.
6 I hate people who worship useless idols.
As for me, I trust in the Lord.
7 I am very happy because of your faithful love.
You see when I suffer.
You know when I am very upset.
8 You have not put me under the power of my enemies.
You have led me into an open place,
where I can be safe.
9 Lord, I am very upset,
so please be kind to me.
My eyes are tired because I weep so much.
My whole body has become very weak.
10 I am near to death, because I am so sad.
I am crying with pain as my life comes to an end.
I have so much trouble
that I have no strength at all.
Even my bones have become weak.
11 All my enemies hate me.
My friends insult me.
Everyone who knows me is afraid of me.
They run away when they see me in the street.
12 Everybody has forgotten about me.
I might as well be dead!
They think that I am useless,
like a broken plate.
13 I hear what many people are saying against me.
News from everywhere makes me afraid.
They are deciding together
how to kill me.
14 But I continue to trust you, Lord.
I say, ‘You are my God!’[b]
15 You are the one who decides
what will happen to me in my whole life.
Save me from the power of my enemies
and from the people who want to catch me.
16 Turn towards me, your servant,
and be kind to me!
Keep me safe,
because of your faithful love.
17 Lord, do not let me become ashamed.
I call to you for help.
Cause evil people to become ashamed.
Let them go to their graves
and be silent there!
18 May people that tell lies become silent.
They insult righteous people.
They are proud people,
and they boast about themselves.
19 You have prepared many good things
to bless people who respect you.
While everyone watches,
you bless those who come to you for help.
20 You give them a place to hide,
and you keep them safe with you.
When their enemies want to attack them,
you take care of them.
When their enemies speak lies against them,
they are safe with you.
21 Praise the Lord!
When my enemies were all around me,
he showed me that his faithful love is very great.
22 When I was afraid, I said,
‘God is no longer with me!’
But I spoke too soon.
When I called to you for help,
you heard me and you answered me.
23 Love the Lord, all you people who belong to him!
If people serve the Lord faithfully,
he keeps them safe.
But if people are proud,
he punishes them as they deserve.
24 All you people who trust the Lord to help you,
you should be strong and very brave!
David wrote this song.
God, please help me
35 Lord, please attack those people who are attacking me.
Fight against those people who are fighting against me.
2 Yes, pick up your shield
and put on your armour!
Prepare to fight and give me help!
3 Take your spears and throw them,
to stop the people who are chasing me.
Say to me, ‘I will make you safe.’
4 Cause the people who want to kill me
to become ashamed.
Chase away the people who want to hurt me,
so that they become confused.
5 Make them become like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Send the angel of the Lord
to chase them away.
6 Make their way dark and dangerous,
as the angel of the Lord chases after them.
7 They hid a trap to catch me.
There was no reason for them to do that.
They even dug a deep hole for me to fall into.
8 Surprise my enemies and destroy them!
Let their own traps catch them!
Let them fall to their own death!
9 Then I will be happy
because of what the Lord has done.
I will be happy
because he has made me safe.
10 I will shout with all my strength,
‘Lord, who is like you?
When strong people try to hurt weak people,
you are the one who keeps the weak people safe.
You also keep poor people safe
when robbers try to take things from them.’
11 Cruel people tell lies against me in court.
I do not even know what they are talking about.
12 When I do good things to help them,
they pay me back with evil things!
That makes me feel very sad and upset.
13 When they were ill,
I wore rough clothes,
and I stopped eating food.
I bent down my head as I prayed for them.
14 I wept as I prayed,
as I would weep when a friend or my mother had died.
15 But when I had troubles myself,
they were happy.
They stood together
and they laughed at me.
Even strangers attacked me
and they would not stop.
16 Useless people like that insulted me,
and they showed their teeth to frighten me.
17 My Lord, how long will you continue to watch
as they do this to me?
Keep me safe when they attack me.
They attack me like hungry lions.
Do not let them kill me!
18 Then I will praise you
in the great meeting of your people.
I will thank you so that everyone hears me.
19 My enemies tell lies about me.
Do not let them win against me,
and be happy.
They have no reason to hate me,
so do not let them laugh at me.
20 They do not talk in a way that brings peace.
Instead, they try to deceive people who want to live quietly.
21 They open their mouths wide
to speak against me.
They say, ‘Aha![a]
We have seen the bad things that you do!’
22 Lord, you have seen all this.
Do not remain silent, my Lord.
Do not stay far away from me.
23 Wake up! Get ready to give me justice!
Show that I am not guilty,
my Lord and my God.
24 Lord, you are righteous.
Give me justice, my God.
Do not let them laugh at me.
25 Do not let them say,
‘Aha! This is what we wanted.’
Do not let them say,
‘We have eaten him alive!’
26 Punish those people who are happy when I have troubles.
Make them ashamed and confused!
Bring down those proud people who laugh at me.
Make them feel very ashamed.
27 But for those who want justice for me,
let them shout aloud in their pleasure.
May they always say, ‘The Lord is great!
He is happy when his servant is safe and well!’
28 Then I will tell everyone that you are righteous.
I will praise you all through each day.
The Lord's blessings
12 Listen to these rules and be careful to obey them. If you do that, the Lord your God will be faithful to the covenant that he has made with you. He promised your ancestors that he would do this. 13 He will love you and he will bless you. He will give you many children so that you become a large nation. He will cause your fields to give you plenty of food: grain, wine and olive oil. He will cause your cows, sheep and goats to have many babies. That is how he will bless you in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. 14 God will bless you more than any other people on the earth. All your people and all your animals will have children of their own. 15 The Lord will keep you safe from all kinds of disease. He will not give you any of the terrible diseases that you saw in Egypt. Instead, he will cause those diseases to hurt the people who hate you.
16 You must remove the people of every nation that the Lord your God will put under your power. Do not be kind to them. Do not worship their gods. If you do that, they will make you turn away from God.
Titus must teach all the believers properly
2 But as for you, Titus, you must teach people to do what is right. Teach them only the things that belong to God's true message. 2 Tell the older men to control themselves properly. They must think carefully about how they live, so that people respect them. They must continue to believe in Christ. They must continue to love other people. They must continue to be patient and strong.
3 Also, tell the older women to live in a good way. Their lives must show that they respect God. They must not say bad things about other people. They must not be drunks. They must teach what is good. 4 In this way, they can teach the young women how they should live. As a result, the young women will love their husbands and their children. 5 The young women will control themselves well and be pure in how they live. They will be good housewives who are kind to other people.[a] They will respect their husbands. If they live in a good way like that, nobody will be able to say bad things about God's message.
6 As for the young men, tell them also to control themselves wisely in how they live. 7 You yourself must always do good things too. In that way, you will show the young men how they should live. When you teach the believers, be honest and serious. 8 Teach a message that is correct, so that nobody can say anything against it. Then our enemies will be ashamed, because they cannot say anything bad about us.
9 As for slaves, tell them to obey their masters always. They must not argue with their masters. Instead, they should work well to please their masters. 10 Slaves must not take things that belong to their masters. Their masters must be able to trust them completely. Then people will respect the message that we teach about God, our Saviour.
God gives believers a new life
11 God has shown us clearly how very kind he is. He has come to save all people. 12 Because God is kind, he teaches us to stop living in a bad way. We no longer do the bad things that do not make God happy. We turn away from the bad things that belong to this world. God teaches us to control ourselves wisely while we live in this world. He teaches us to do what is right. He teaches us to please him in the way that we live.
13 Remember this: We are waiting for Jesus Christ to return to this world. When he comes, that will make us very happy. Everyone will see how great Jesus Christ is. He is our great God. He is the one who saves us from our sins. 14 He gave himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He did that to make us free from every kind of bad thing. As a result, we can be completely good and clean inside ourselves. We can become his own special people, who want to do good things.
15 You must teach these things to the believers. Help them to live in a good way. Warn them when they do wrong things. Use all the authority that you have as a leader in the church. Make sure that everyone respects you properly.
Jesus' first disciples
35 John was standing there again the next day, with two of his disciples. 36 He saw Jesus, who was walking past them. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God.’ 37 When the two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned round. He saw that they were following him. He asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi (which means “Teacher”), where are you staying?’ 39 Jesus replied, ‘Come with me and you will see.’ So they went with him. They saw where he was staying. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. And they stayed with him that day.
40 Andrew was one of the two disciples who had followed Jesus. They had heard what John had said about Jesus. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. 41 The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ (‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ mean the same.) 42 Then he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and he said, ‘You are Simon, John's son. Your name will be Cephas.’ This name is the same as Peter, which means ‘rock’.
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