Book of Common Prayer
120 In my troubles I pled with God to help me and he did!
2 Deliver me, O Lord, from liars. 3 O lying tongue, what shall be your fate? 4 You shall be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals.[a]
5-6 My troubles pile high among these haters of the Lord, these men of Meshech and Kedar. I am tired of being here among these men who hate peace. 7 I am for peace, but they are for war, and my voice goes unheeded in their councils.
121 Shall I look to the mountain gods for help? 2 No! My help is from Jehovah who made the mountains! And the heavens too! 3-4 He will never let me stumble, slip, or fall. For he is always watching, never sleeping.
5 Jehovah himself is caring for you! He is your defender.[b] 6 He protects you day and night. 7 He keeps you from all evil and preserves your life. 8 He keeps his eye upon you as you come and go and always guards you.
122 I was glad for the suggestion of going to Jerusalem, to the Temple of the Lord. 2-3 Now we are standing here inside the crowded city. 4 All Israel—Jehovah’s people—have come to worship as the law requires, to thank and praise the Lord. 5 Look! There are the judges holding court beside the city gates, deciding all the people’s arguments.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. 7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. 8 This I ask for the sake of all my brothers and my friends who live here; 9 and may there be peace as a protection to the Temple of the Lord.
123 O God enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes to you.
2 We look to Jehovah our God for his mercy and kindness just as a servant keeps his eyes upon his master or a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
3-4 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. For we have had our fill of contempt and of the scoffing of the rich and proud.
124 If the Lord had not been on our side (let all Israel admit it), if the Lord had not been on our side, 2-3 we would have been swallowed alive by our enemies, destroyed by their anger. 4-5 We would have drowned beneath the flood of these men’s fury and pride.
6 Blessed be Jehovah who has not let them devour us. 7 We have escaped with our lives as a bird from a hunter’s snare. The snare is broken and we are free!
8 Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
125 Those who trust in the Lord are steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.
2 Just as the mountains surround and protect Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds and protects his people. 3 For the wicked shall not rule the godly, lest the godly be forced to do wrong. 4 O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are right with the Lord; 5 but lead evil men to execution. And let Israel have quietness and peace.
126 When Jehovah brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! 2 How we laughed and sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
3 Yes, glorious things! What wonder! What joy! 4 May we be refreshed[c] as by streams in the desert.
5 Those who sow tears shall reap joy. 6 Yes, they go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, and return singing, carrying their sheaves.
127 Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders’ work is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, sentries do no good. 2 It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.
3 Children are a gift from God; they are his reward. 4 Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows to defend him.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. That man shall have the help he needs when arguing with his enemies.[d]
1 This is the vision God gave to Nahum, who lived in Elkosh, concerning the impending doom of Nineveh:[a]
2 God is jealous over those he loves; that is why he takes vengeance on those who hurt them. He furiously destroys their enemies. 3 He is slow in getting angry, but when aroused, his power is incredible, and he does not easily forgive. He shows his power in the terrors of the cyclone and the raging storms; clouds are billowing dust beneath his feet! 4 At his command the oceans and rivers become dry sand; the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade away; the green forests of Lebanon wilt. 5 In his presence mountains quake and hills melt; the earth crumbles, and its people are destroyed.
6 Who can stand before an angry God? His fury is like fire; the mountains tumble down before his anger.
7 The Lord is good. When trouble comes, he is the place to go! And he knows everyone who trusts in him! 8 But he sweeps away his enemies with an overwhelming flood; he pursues them all night long.
9 What are you thinking of, Nineveh, to defy the Lord? He will stop you with one blow; he won’t need to strike again. 10 He tosses his enemies into the fire like a tangled mass of thorns. They burst into flames like straw. 11 Who is this king[b] of yours who dares to plot against the Lord? 12 But the Lord is not afraid of him! “Though he build his army millions strong,” the Lord declares, “it will vanish.
“O my people, I have punished you enough! 13 Now I will break your chains and release you from the yoke of slavery to this Assyrian king.”
13 So now you can look forward soberly and intelligently to more of God’s kindness to you when Jesus Christ returns.
14 Obey God because you are his children; don’t slip back into your old ways—doing evil because you knew no better. 15 But be holy now in everything you do, just as the Lord is holy, who invited you to be his child. 16 He himself has said, “You must be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And remember that your heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge you with perfect justice for everything you do; so act in reverent fear of him from now on until you get to heaven. 18 God paid a ransom to save you from the impossible road to heaven which your fathers tried to take, and the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver as you very well know. 19 But he paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but only recently was he brought into public view, in these last days, as a blessing to you.
21 Because of this, your trust can be in God who raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. Now your faith and hope can rest in him alone. 22 Now you can have real love for everyone because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts.
23 For you have a new life. It was not passed on to you from your parents, for the life they gave you will fade away. This new one will last forever, for it comes from Christ, God’s ever-living Message to men. 24 Yes, our natural lives will fade as grass does when it becomes all brown and dry. All our greatness is like a flower that droops and falls; 25 but the Word of the Lord will last forever. And his message is the Good News that was preached to you.
13 Little children were brought for Jesus to lay his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded those who brought them. “Don’t bother him,” they said.
14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and don’t prevent them. For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” 15 And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.
16 Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Good master, what must I do to have eternal life?”
17 “When you call me good you are calling me God,” Jesus replied, “for God alone is truly good.[a] But to answer your question, you can get to heaven if you keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man asked.
And Jesus replied, “Don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, 19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself!”
20 “I’ve always obeyed every one of them,” the youth replied. “What else must I do?”
21 Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sadly, for he was very rich.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.