Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this song. He asks God to bless the Temple.
Thank you, Lord[a]
30 Lord, I will praise you,
because you have saved me from death.
You have not let my enemies laugh at me.
2 Lord, my God, I called to you for help,
and you have made me well again.
3 Lord, you pulled me up
out of the deep hole of death.
You saved me
from among those who are going into the grave.
4 Sing to the Lord,
you people who trust him.
Praise his holy name.
5 His anger continues only for a moment,
but he is kind to us for our whole life.
You may be sad all through the night,
but in the morning, you will be happy again.[b]
6 When I was feeling safe and strong,
I thought, ‘Nothing can ever destroy me.’
7 But Lord, it was you who made my kingdom strong,
because you are so kind.
But then you turned away from me,
and I became very afraid.[c]
8 I called to you for help, Lord.
I asked you to be kind to me, my Lord.
9 If I go down into the deep hole of death,
that will not help you!
My dead body cannot praise you there!
It cannot tell people to trust you!
10 Lord, please listen to me!
Please be kind to me!
Lord, please be my helper!
11 Now you have caused me to stop crying,
so that I dance instead!
I do not need to wear sackcloth,
because I am no longer sad.
Instead, you have made me very happy.[d]
12 So I am truly happy and I will sing to praise you.
I cannot stay quiet!
Lord, my God,
I will continue to thank you for ever.
This is a special song that David wrote.
Tell God about your sins[a]
32 When God has forgiven someone's sins,
they are truly happy!
They may have turned against God,
but when God forgives them, they are happy.
2 They may have done something bad,
but when the Lord says, ‘Not guilty!’,
he has truly blessed them.
They are happy because they no longer try to hide their sins.
3 When I said nothing to God about my sin,
my whole body became weak.
I cried all the time because of the pain.
4 In the day and in the night,
you punished me very much.
It seemed as if the hot sun was taking away my strength.
Selah.
5 Then I told you about my sins.
I did not try to hide the bad things that I had done.
I said, ‘I will tell the Lord
about the things that I have done against him.’
When I did that, you forgave my sins.
Selah.
6 Because of this, all your own people should pray to you.
They should pray while they still have the chance.[b]
Then, when danger comes to them like a river of deep water,
they will still be safe.
7 Yes, Lord, you are a place where I can hide.
You will keep me safe from trouble.
I will hear happy songs all around me,
because you save your people from danger.
Selah.
8 I will teach you the right way to live.
I will be your guide
and I will take care of you.[c]
9 Do not be like a silly horse, or a mule.
You have to use a rope to show them which way to go.
Without that, they will not obey you.
10 Wicked people will receive a lot of trouble and pain.
But if anyone trusts in the Lord,
they will know that God always loves them.
11 So all you people who belong to the Lord,
praise him and be happy!
All of you who are good, honest people,
shout aloud because you are so happy!
This is a special song for the music leader. The sons of Korah wrote it.
A prayer when you are away from home[a]
42 God, I need you so much!
I look for you,
as a thirsty deer looks for streams of water.
2 Deep down inside me,
I am very thirsty!
You are the God who lives for ever,
and I need life from you!
When will I be able to come near to you
and see you face to face?[b]
3 All day and all night I weep.
My tears are my only food!
My enemies say to me all the time,
‘Where is your God?’
4 When I remember how my life was before,
I am very upset and I weep.
Once I walked with a big crowd of people
to worship God in his temple.
I led the people there as we sang happy songs,
and we praised God with loud voices.[c]
5 Now I ask myself,
‘Why am I so sad and upset?’
I must wait patiently for God to help me.
Then I will praise my God once again,
because he is the one who saves me.[d]
6 Deep inside me I am very sad.
So I will turn to you, my God, from where I am.
I will pray to you from Hermon mountain
where the Jordan River begins,
and from Mizar mountain.
7 I hear your waterfalls make a noise like thunder.
It seems like all that water is pouring over me
and it knocks me down to the ground.[e]
8 Each day, the Lord shows me that he loves me
with his faithful love.
Each night he gives me a song to sing,
as I pray to the God who lives for ever.[f]
9 I say to God, who is my high rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I be so sad?
How much longer must I continue to weep,
because my enemies do cruel things to me?’
10 My enemies laugh at me all the time.
It is like they are breaking all my bones.
They are always saying,
‘Where is your God?’
11 I ask myself again,
‘Why am I so sad and upset?’
I must wait patiently for God to help me.
Then I will praise my God once again,
because he is the one who saves me.
A prayer when you are in trouble[g]
43 My God, show that I am not guilty.
Make the people who do not respect you
know that I am right.
Rescue me from the evil people
who tell lies about me.
2 God, you are the safe place where I can hide.
Why have you pushed me away?
How much longer must I continue to weep,
because my enemies do cruel things to me?
3 Send to me your light and your truth.
Let them be my guide.
They will take me back to your holy mountain
and to the house where you live.[h]
4 Then I will go to your altar,
to worship you, the God who makes me happy.
You are my God and I will praise you there.
I will sing to thank you, God, with my harp.
5 I ask myself,
‘Why am I so sad and upset?’
I must wait patiently for God to help me.
Then I will praise my God once again,
because he is the one who saves me.
17 Perhaps you will say to each other, ‘The people of these nations are stronger than we are. We cannot chase them away.’ 18 But do not be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptian people. 19 You saw how he punished them. You saw how he used his strength and power to do great miracles. The Lord your God did all those things to rescue you from Egypt. He will use the same power against all the people that make you afraid. 20 Also, the Lord your God will send great fear among these people.[a] Even those people who hide from you will soon die. 21 When you fight against them, do not let them frighten you. The Lord your God is there to help you. He is a great and powerful God. 22 He will chase out the people of those nations, one at a time. He will not let you destroy them all immediately. If you did that, wild animals would become so many that they would be a danger to you.
23 But the Lord your God will put your enemies under your power. He will cause them to become completely confused, so that you can destroy them. 24 He will put their kings under your power. No one will remember their names any more. No one will be able to stop you. You will destroy them all. 25 You must burn the images of their gods with fire. Do not try to keep the silver or gold from those idols. The Lord your God hates those things. If you take it for yourselves, it will catch you like a trap. 26 Do not bring anything that God hates into your house. If you do that, God will be ready to destroy you as well as the thing itself. God has said that he hates things like that, so you must hate them too.
Do what is right
3 Tell the believers there to respect the government and those who have authority. They must remember to obey their rulers. They must always be ready to help other people. 2 They must not say bad things about anyone. They must not quarrel with people. Instead, they should be kind and polite to everyone.
3 Before we believed in Christ, we ourselves were fools too. We did not obey God. We believed a false message. We wanted to do many kinds of bad things to make us happy. We could not stop doing them. Every day we did evil things. We were jealous of other people. People hated us, and we hated each other.
4 But then God, our Saviour, showed clearly that he is very kind. He showed that he loves all people. 5 God did not save us because of any good things that we ourselves had done. He saved us because he chose to forgive us. God has washed us so that we are clean inside. We have been born again, so that we live a new life. God's Holy Spirit has done this for us. 6 Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice to save us. So now God has poured his Holy Spirit into us, to fill us. 7 Because God is very kind, he has accepted us as right with himself. As a result, we know that we will receive the good things that God has prepared for us. We know that we will live with God for ever.
8 That message is certainly true. So you must teach people the things that I have said in this letter. Make sure that they understand them well. Then the people who have believed in God will be careful to do good things. Good things like that will help everyone.
9 But stay away from people who argue about silly things. They study long lists of their families' names from years ago. Refuse to quarrel with people like that. Refuse to argue about the rules in God's Law. All those kinds of things have no value and they do not help anyone. 10 If someone teaches a false message that causes trouble, warn him. If you warn him twice and he still does not stop, stay away from him. 11 You know that a person like that has chosen not to believe the true message. He knows that he is doing a bad thing, but he continues to do it.
Paul finishes his letter
12 I will send either Artemas or Tychicus to you.[a] After one of them has arrived, please come to meet me in Nicopolis. Come as quickly as you can. I have decided that I will stay in Nicopolis during the winter.[b]
13 Please help Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos as much as you can.[c] Make sure that they have everything that they need for their journey. 14 Our Christian friends there must learn to do good things. They should supply things to people who need help. That will show that their lives are really useful.
15 Everyone who is here with me says ‘hello’ to you. Please say ‘hello’ on our behalf to the believers there who love us. I pray that God will continue to be very kind to all of you.
43 The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He met Philip, and Jesus said to Philip, ‘Follow me.’ 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, came from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip went to find Nathanael. He told Nathanael, ‘We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the book of God's Law. The prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, who is Joseph's son, from Nazareth.’ 46 Nathanael said, ‘I did not think that anything good could come from Nazareth!’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’
47 Jesus saw Nathanael, who was coming towards him. Jesus said, ‘Here is a completely honest man. That is what a person from Israel should really be like.’ 48 Nathanael asked, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you before Philip asked you to come. I saw you when you were under the fig tree.’ 49 Nathanael said, ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.’ 50 Jesus said to him, ‘I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. Now you believe me because I told you that. But you will see much greater things than that.’ 51 And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you this: You will see heaven open. You will see God's angels. They will be going up and they will be coming down on the Son of Man.’[a]
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