Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to help us[a]
20 May the Lord answer you
when you are in trouble and you call to him for help.
May Israel's great God keep you safe.
2 He will send help to you from his holy place,
from his temple in Zion.
3 He will remember the gifts that you have offered to him.
He will accept your burnt offerings
Selah
4 May God give to you
all the things that you really want.
He will help you to do everything that you want to do.
5 Then we will be happy and we will shout aloud
when you win against your enemies.
We will wave our flags to praise our God.
Yes, I pray that the Lord will do for you
everything that you ask him to do.
6 Now I know that the Lord will save
the king that he has chosen.
God will agree to help him from his holy place in heaven.
God will use his great power to make his king safe.
7 Some people hope that their chariots will keep them safe.
Other people trust their horses to save them.
But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 Those people will fall down,
and they will not get up again.
But we will get up and stand again,
and we will be strong.
9 Lord, help the king to win against his enemies!
Please answer us when we ask you for help.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We thank God for his help[b]
21 Lord, the king is happy,
because you help him with your great strength.
You have helped him to win against his enemies,
so he is very happy.[c]
2 You have given to him all the things
that he really wanted.
When he asked for them,
you have not refused to give them to him.
Selah.
3 You came to him,
and you blessed him with many good things:
You put a crown on his head.
It was made from the best gold.
4 He asked you to keep his life safe,
and you gave to him a long life.
His descendants will continue for ever.
5 People praise him,
because you have helped him to win against his enemies.
You have caused him to rule as a great king.
6 You will continue to bless him for ever.
Because you are very near to him,
he is very happy.
7 The king trusts in the Lord.
Because of the Most High God's faithful love,
the king will never fail.
8 You will use your strong power
to take hold of your enemies.[d]
You will catch everybody that hates you.
9 When you come out to fight against them,
you will destroy them like a hot fire.
The Lord destroys them,
because you are angry with them.
10 You will remove your enemies' children from the earth.
They will no longer have any descendants.
11 They decided to hurt you.
They thought how they would do that.
But they could not do anything bad against you.
12 No! You shoot your arrows at them,
so that they turn round and they run away!
13 Get up, Lord, and show your strength!
We will sing to praise you
because you have great power.
David wrote this psalm.
The Lord's great King[a]
110 The Lord God said to my Lord,[b]
‘Sit at my right side[c] until I win against your enemies.
Then you will be able to put your feet on them.’
2 The Lord will give you great authority,
as you rule from Zion.[d]
You will rule over all your enemies
that are round you.
3 When you go to fight your enemies,
your people will be happy to fight beside you.
As the sun rises on the day of battle,
your young men will be there,
on the hills round Zion.[e]
4 The Lord has made a strong promise.
He will not change it.
He has promised, ‘You will be a priest for ever,
in the same way that Melchizedek was my priest.’[f]
5 The Lord is standing at your right side.
When he becomes angry,
he will knock down kings!
6 He will punish the nations,
so that dead bodies cover the ground.
He will destroy kings everywhere on the earth.
7 He will drink from a stream at the side of the road.
With new strength, he will lift up his head.
God saved me from death[a]
116 I love the Lord,
because he heard me when I called to him.
2 He listened carefully to me.
When I need help, I will always pray to him,
for as long as I live.
3 The danger of death was very near to me.
I became afraid of the deep hole of death.
I was very sad and upset.
4 Then I called out to the Lord.
I said, ‘Lord, please save my life!’
5 The Lord is kind and fair.
Yes, our God is very kind.
6 The Lord takes care of weak people.
I was in danger of death,
and he saved me!
7 So now I know that I am safe again.
The Lord has been very good to me.
8 Yes, Lord, you saved me from death!
Because of that, my eyes no longer weep,
and I do not fall down to the ground.
9 Now I will serve the Lord
here in this world where people live.
10 I trusted in the Lord
even when I said, ‘I have much pain.’
11 I was confused and I said,
‘Everybody tells lies.’
12 The Lord has done many kind things to help me.
What can I give back to him?
13 I will offer a cup of wine to the Lord,
to thank him because he saved me!
I will worship him.
14 I will give to the Lord
everything that I have promised.
I will do that when all his people meet together.
15 The Lord is sad when one of his servants dies,
because their lives are valuable to him.
16 Lord, I really am your servant.
I am like a slave in your house.
You have saved me from death.
17 I will offer to you a special sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
I will worship you as Lord.
18 I will give to the Lord
everything that I have promised.
I will do that when all his people meet together,
19 in the yard of the Lord's temple.
Yes, I will worship you in your temple in Jerusalem.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord![b]
117 All you nations in the world,
praise the Lord!
People from every place,
praise him!
2 The Lord's faithful love for us is very strong.
He will always do what he has promised.
Praise the Lord!
The king punishes Daniel's three friends
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was even more angry with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. His face became red. He said to his servants, ‘Make the fire in the oven seven times hotter than usual.’ 20 He told the strongest men in his army, ‘Tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Then throw them into the very hot fire!’
21 So the soldiers tied up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with ropes. They were still wearing their coats, their hats and their other clothes when the soldiers took hold of them. The soldiers threw them into the middle of the hot fire with all their clothes on. 22 The soldiers needed to obey the king in a hurry. The fire was very hot. As a result, flames from the fire killed the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into it. 23 So the three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, fell into the middle of the hot fire. The ropes still held them very strongly.
24 What King Nebuchadnezzar saw next surprised him very much. He jumped up and he shouted to his officers, ‘We tied up three men and we threw them into the fire. Isn't that right?’ The officers answered the king, ‘Yes, sir, we certainly did that.’ 25 The king said, ‘But I see four men walking about in the fire! No ropes are holding them and the fire has not hurt them. The fourth man seems like a son of the gods.’
26 King Nebuchadnezzar went near to the door of the oven where the very hot fire was. He shouted aloud to the men inside, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, I see that you are servants of the powerful God who rules over everything. Now come out here!’
So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire. 27 Then the king's officers, his wise men and the government rulers and leaders came near to the three men. They saw that the fire had not hurt Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego. The fire had not even burnt their hair or their clothes. They did not even have any smell from the fire.
Nebuchadnezzar's new command
28 Then King Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise the God that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego serve! He sent his angel to keep his servants safe. They continued to trust in their God. So they did not obey the command that I had made as king. They would not agree to serve any other god except their own God. They would rather have died than worship any other god. 29 No other god can save people like their God has done for them. So I make a command for the people of every nation who speak any language. They must never say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. If anyone does that, my soldiers will cut them into pieces. They will knock down those people's houses so that they become heaps of stones.’
30 Then the king gave more authority to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to rule in the region of Babylon.
Christians must love one another
11 Yes, we must love one another. That is the message which you have heard from the beginning. 12 We should not be like Cain. He belonged to Satan and he even killed his brother, Abel. Why did he do that? Cain did bad things and he killed Abel because Abel did things that were right.
13 So, my Christian friends, do not be surprised when people who belong to this world hate you.
14 We know that we now have new life with God. Death no longer has power over us. We know this because we love our Christian friends. But anyone who does not love other believers is still under the power of death. 15 Anyone who hates other believers is like someone who murders other people. You know that a person like that does not have true life with God.
16 This is how we know what true love is: Jesus Christ gave his own life on the cross. He died on our behalf. So we too ought to give our lives for other believers. 17 When another believer has trouble, we need to be kind to him. Maybe you have all the things that you need to live. If you see another believer who needs things like that, you should help him. If you refuse to be kind to him, it shows that you do not belong to God. You do not love people in the way that God loves them.[a]
18 My little children, we should not show love for each other only by what we say. We should also show true love by the things that we do.
The Devil tries to make Jesus do wrong things
4 Then Jesus returned from the Jordan River.[a] He was full of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness. 2 He stayed there for 40 days and he did not eat anything. During this time the Devil tried to cause Jesus to do wrong things.[b] At the end of 40 days, Jesus was very hungry.
3 The Devil said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone. Tell it to become bread.’
4 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says that food alone cannot cause people to live.’[c]
5 After that, the Devil led Jesus up to a high place. In one moment, he showed Jesus all the countries in the whole world. 6 He said to Jesus, ‘I will let you rule the whole world. I will give you power over all these things. That power all belongs to me. So I can give it to anyone that I choose. 7 You must bend down low and worship me. Then I will give you power over the whole world.’[d]
8 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says,
“Only worship your Lord God.
He is the only one that you should obey.” ’[e]
9 The Devil now took Jesus to Jerusalem. He took him to stand on the highest part of the temple. Then he said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump down from here to the ground. 10 You know that the Bible says:
“God will tell his angels to keep you safe.”
11 “They will hold you safely in their hands.
They will not let you hurt your foot on a stone.” ’[f]
12 ‘No!’ Jesus replied. ‘The Bible says,
“Do not test the Lord God, to see if he will save you.” ’[g]
13 In those ways, the Devil tried to make Jesus do many wrong things. When he had finished this, he left Jesus alone. He waited for another chance.
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