Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 31
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 You are my shelter, O Eternal One—my soul’s sanctuary!
Shield me from shame;
rescue me by Your righteousness.
2 Hear me, Lord! Turn Your ear in my direction.
Come quick! Save me!
Be my rock, my shelter,
my fortress of salvation!
3 You are my rock and my fortress—my soul’s sanctuary!
Therefore, for the sake of Your reputation, be my leader, my guide, my navigator, my commander.
4 Save me from the snare that has been secretly set out for me,
for You are my protection.
5 I entrust my spirit into Your hands.[a]
You have redeemed me, O Eternal, God of faithfulness and truth.
6 I despise the people who pay respect to breathless idols,
and I trust only in You, Eternal One.
7 I will gladly rejoice because of Your gracious love
because You recognized the sadness of my affliction.
You felt deep compassion when You saw the pains of my soul.
8 You did not hand me over to the enemy,
but instead, You liberated me
and made me secure in a good and spacious land.
9 Show me Your grace, Eternal One, for I am in a tight spot.
My eyes are aching with grief;
my body and soul are withering with miseries.
10 My life is devoured by sorrow,
and my years are haunted with mourning.
My sin has sapped me of all my strength;
my body withers under the weight of this suffering.
11 To all my enemies I am an object of scorn.
My neighbors especially are ashamed of me.
My friends are afraid to be seen with me.
When I walk down the street, people go out of their way to avoid me.
12 I am as good as dead to them. Forgotten!
Like a shattered clay pot, I am easily discarded and gladly replaced.
13 For I hear their whispered plans;
terror is everywhere!
They conspire together,
planning, plotting, scheming to take my life.
14 But I pour my trust into You, Eternal One.
I’m glad to say, “You are my God!”
15 I give the moments of my life over to You, Eternal One.
Rescue me from those who hate me and who hound me with their threats.
16 Look toward me, and let Your face shine down upon Your servant.
Because of Your gracious love, save me!
17 Spare me shame, O Eternal One,
for I turn and call to You.
Instead, let those who hate me be shamed;
let death’s silence claim them.
18 Seal their lying lips forever,
for with pride and contempt boiling in their hearts,
they speak boldly against the righteous and persecute those who poured their trust into You.
19 Your overflowing goodness
You have kept for those who live in awe of You,
And You share Your goodness with those who make You their sanctuary.
20 You hide them, You shelter them in Your presence,
safe from the conspiracies of sinful men.
You keep them in Your tent,
safe from the slander of accusing tongues.
21 Bless the Eternal!
For He has revealed His gracious love to me
when I was trapped like a city under siege.
22 I began to panic so I yelled out,
“I’m cut off. You no longer see me!”
But You heard my cry for help that day
when I called out to You.
23 Love the Eternal, all of you, His faithful people!
He protects those who are true to Him,
but He pays back the proud in kind.
24 Be strong, and live courageously,
all of you who set your hope in the Eternal!
Psalm 35
A song of David.
1 Make a case against those who struggle with me, Eternal One.
Battle against those who battle against me.
2 Be my shield and protection;
stand with me and rescue me!
3 Draw the spear and javelin
to meet my pursuers.
Reassure my soul and say,
“I will deliver you.”
4 Shame and dishonor those ruthless enemies
who wish to end my life.
Turn back those who conspire against me,
defeated and humiliated!
5 Let them be separated from the righteous as chaff is separated from the grain,
blown by the wind,
driven far, far away by the Eternal’s messenger.
6 Make their way unsure and dangerously dark,
a gauntlet of gloom
chased through the darkness by the Eternal’s messenger.
7 For no reason at all, they set a trap for me—a net, a snare—
then, without cause, they disguised a pit to capture my soul—another cowardly snare.
8 May they be surprised by their own destruction.
May they become tangled in their own net
and fall into the pit which they, themselves, dug.
9 When that day comes, my soul will celebrate the Eternal
and be glad in His salvation.
10 Every fiber of my being[a] will shout,
“Eternal One, there is none like You!
You save the poor
from those who try to overpower them
and rescue the weak and the needy from those who steal from them.”
11 False witnesses step forward;
they ask me strange questions for which I have no answers.
12 When I do good to them, they do evil to me,
bringing misery to my soul.
13 When they were sick,
I mourned for them and wore sackcloth;
I chose to humble myself by fasting.
But my prayers came back unanswered.
14 So I mourned more deeply as if I grieved for my brother or friend;
I went around bowed down by sorrow, dressed in black,
as if I were weeping for my mother.
15 But when I stumbled, they gathered together
and celebrated my fall with joy;
People attacked me when I wasn’t expecting it;
they slandered me with no end.
16 Like godless mockers at a festival,[b]
their words tore at me.
17 Lord, how long will You do nothing but watch?
Save me from their evil assaults, plots, and plunder;
rescue my life from these hungry beasts, these ruthless lions!
18 Then I will praise You and thank You at the great gathering,
in the company of the entire congregation.
19 Do not allow my enemies to boast at my expense,
for they despise me without any cause—[c]
yet they wink at me—malicious, taunting winks.
20 Their words have no ring of peace.
They plan evil rumors and incriminations
against those who live peacefully in the land.
21 They speak lying accusations against me;
they say, “Aha! Aha! We know what you’ve been up to.
We’ve seen it with our own eyes!”
22 You have seen what’s happening, Eternal One; don’t remain silent!
Lord, do not stay far away from me!
23 Wake up; come to my defense!
Fight for me, my Lord and my God!
24 Pass Your judgment, Eternal One, my True God;
do it by the standards of Your righteousness.
Do not allow my enemies to boast over me.
25 Do not allow them to gloat over me,
“Aha, we have won! We got what we wanted!”
Do not allow them to brag,
“We chewed him up and spit him out.”
26 Shame and confuse those who celebrate my suffering;
may those who exalt themselves above me be covered with shame—
wrapped in a cloak of dishonor!
27 As for those who desire my vindication,
may they be joyful and glad.
May they forever say,
“The Eternal is indeed great!
He takes pleasure when good things happen to His servant!”
28 That’s why I will speak of Your righteousness
and sing praises to You all day long.
26 Solomon had a servant named Jeroboam whose mother, Zeruah, was a widow. His father was Nebat (an Ephraimite from Zeredah). Jeroboam grew resentful and rebelled against his king, Solomon, and became one of his enemies. 27 This is the reason Jeroboam rebelled against the king: Solomon constructed the Millo and sealed up the gap in the wall of his father’s city—the city of David. 28 Jeroboam was a strong and fierce warrior. Solomon recognized that Jeroboam was a hard worker and put him in charge of all the workers from Joseph’s tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.
29 When Jeroboam was traveling outside of Jerusalem, he encountered the prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite, on the road. Ahijah was dressed in a new robe, and there was no one else anywhere around except for him and Jeroboam. 30 Ahijah then did something unexpected. He pulled his new robe off his body and tore it into a dozen pieces.
Ahijah (to Jeroboam): 31 Take ten pieces, because the Eternal One, Israel’s True God, has said, “I am going to rip the kingdom out from under Solomon’s corrupted reign and grant you ten tribes. 32 Solomon will still reign over one tribe. I will allow this for two reasons only: for Jerusalem (the city I chose from all of Israel’s tribes) and for the honor of David who served Me during his lifetime. 33 I am giving you these ten tribes because Solomon and his people have turned away from Me and given themselves to other gods besides Me. They now offer their worship to Ashtoreth (the Sidonians’ goddess), Chemosh (Moab’s god), and Milcom (the Ammonites’ god). They have strayed from My path, are no longer concerned with what I see as right, and have forgotten My laws and judgments. Solomon and his people are not like David, who followed My path.
34 “But I am not going to take the entire kingdom away from Solomon; he will be prince his entire life because of My promise to My servant David, whom I handpicked from the pastures and who lived by My commands and laws. 35 Instead I will take the kingdom away from his son’s power and give ten tribes over to you. 36 I will leave one tribe for his son so that David, the lamp of Israel,[a] will always have a place with Me in Jerusalem, the city I have appointed as My city.”
The preservation of Judah as the home of God’s temple demonstrates the centrality of David in His plan. As “the lamp of Israel,” David represents the hope of Judah. In Israel, lamps are so central to daily life that when a new building is founded, often a perfectly formed, unused lamp is buried beneath the floors in the corner of a room. These ancient “cornerstones” signify the builder’s hope for light and life in the house. Likewise everything in Israel is founded on David; the idea of his perfect reign is the hope and cornerstone of the nation.
Ahijah (to Jeroboam with the Eternal’s message): 37 “I will allow you to rule over anything you want, and you will be Israel’s new king. 38 If you then give yourself to Me and heed all My commands, honor My laws, and live by My way just as My servant David did, then I will be near to you and will build you a great dynasty like the one I built for David. Israel will be yours; I will hand it over to you. 39 I will afflict David’s offspring because of what Solomon has done, but I won’t cause this suffering forever.”
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam because of this, but Jeroboam ran away to Egypt to seek shelter with Shishak, Egypt’s king. Jeroboam remained in Egypt until Solomon died.
41 Is not the rest of Solomon’s story—his actions and his wisdom—documented in the book of the acts of Solomon?
The Book of Kings is not the only historical record of Judah’s and Israel’s monarchies. This book is based on several source materials, including the book of the acts of Solomon, the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings, and the book of the chronicles of Israel’s kings. Although these books and the stories they tell are lost, the simple citation of these sources reveals a lot about Kings: the editor of this book is writing at the end of Judah’s time as an independent nation, the memory of the monarchy is important enough to have been recorded by several independent sources, and the editor is keenly concerned with narrating the stories that occurred centuries before he lived.
42 In all Solomon ruled over Jerusalem for 40 years. 43 Solomon left this world to sleep with his fathers. He was laid to rest in his father’s city, the city of David. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, then inherited the throne.
13 Listen carefully, those of you who make your plans and say, “We are traveling to this city in the next few days. We’ll stay there for one year while our business explodes and revenue is up.” 14 The reality is you have no idea where your life will take you tomorrow. You are like a mist that appears one moment and then vanishes another. 15 It would be best to say, “If it is the Lord’s will and we live long enough, we hope to do this project or pursue that dream.” 16 But your current speech indicates an arrogance that does not acknowledge the One who controls the universe, and this kind of big talking is the epitome of evil. 17 So if you know the right way to live and ignore it, it is sin—plain and simple.
5 Hey, you rich folk, misery is on its way; so cry and moan 2 because you will watch your riches rot before your eyes as the moths devour your fine clothes. 3 Your stockpile of silver and gold is tarnished and corroded, and this rust will stand up in the final judgment and testify against you. It will eat your flesh like fire and become a permanent and painful reminder that you have hoarded your wealth through these last days. 4 Listen. You held back a just wage from the laborers who mowed your fields, and that money is crying out against you, demanding that justice be done. The cries of the people who harvested your crops and made you a profit have fallen upon the ears of the supreme Lord of heavenly armies. 5 Your life on the earth has been one of luxury, pleasure, and endless consumption; you have feasted to your hearts’ content on animals you slaughtered, but now the day of slaughter comes for you. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous man, and he did not defend himself.
22 And so they came at last to the execution site, a hill called Golgotha, which means the “Place of a Skull.”
23 The soldiers offered Jesus wine mixed with myrrh to dull His pain, but He refused it. 24 And so they crucified Him, divided up His clothes, and cast lots (an ancient equivalent of rolling dice) to see who would keep the clothes they had stripped from Him.
25 His crucifixion began about nine o’clock in the morning. 26 Over His head hung a sign that indicated the charge for which He was being crucified. It read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 27 On either side of Him were two insurgents who also had received the death penalty. [28 And the Hebrew Scripture was completed that said, “He was considered just another criminal.”][a]
29 Those passing by on their way into or out of Jerusalem insulted and ridiculed Him.
Some in the Crowd: So You’re the One who was going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? 30 Well, if You’re so powerful, then why don’t You rescue Yourself? Come on down from the cross!
Chief Priests and Scribes (mocking Jesus among themselves): 31 He rescued others, but He can’t rescue Himself. 32 Let the Anointed—the King of Israel—come down from the cross now, and we will see it and believe.
Even the insurgents who were being crucified next to Him taunted Him and reviled Him.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.