Book of Common Prayer
49 Remember your promise to me, your servant.
It gives me hope.
50 When I suffer, this comforts me:
Your promise gives me life.
51 Proud people make fun of me all the time.
But I do not reject your teachings.
52 I remember your laws from long ago.
They comfort me, Lord.
53 I become angry with wicked people.
They have not kept your teachings.
54 I sing about your demands
wherever I live.
55 Lord, I remember you at night.
I will obey your teachings.
56 This is what I do:
I follow your orders.
57 Lord, you are my share in life.
I have promised to obey your words.
58 I prayed to you with all my heart.
Be kind to me as you have promised.
59 I thought about my life,
and I decided to obey your rules.
60 I hurried and did not wait
to obey your commands.
61 Wicked people have surrounded me.
But I have not forgotten your teachings.
62 In the middle of the night, I get up to thank you
because your laws are right.
63 I am a friend to everyone who fears you.
I am a friend to anyone who follows your orders.
64 Lord, your love fills the earth.
Teach me your demands.
65 You have done good things for me, your servant,
as you have promised, Lord.
66 Teach me wisdom and knowledge
because I trust your commands.
67 Before I suffered, I did wrong.
But now I obey your word.
68 You are good, and you do what is good.
Teach me your demands.
69 Proud people have made up lies about me.
But I will follow your orders with all my heart.
70 Those people have no feelings,
but I love your teachings.
71 It was good for me to suffer
so I would learn your demands.
72 Your teachings are worth more to me
than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.
Trusting Money Is Foolish
For the director of music. A song of the sons of Korah.
49 Listen to this, all you nations.
Listen, all you who live on earth.
2 Listen, both great and small,
rich and poor together.
3 What I say is wise.
My heart speaks with understanding.
4 I will pay attention to a wise saying.
I will explain my riddle on the harp.
5 Why should I be afraid of bad days?
Why should I fear when evil men surround me?
6 They trust in their money.
They brag about their riches.
7 No one can buy back the life of another person.
No one can pay God for his own life.
8 The price of a life is high.
No payment is ever enough.
9 Do people live forever?
Don’t they all face death?
10 See, even wise men die.
Fools and stupid people also die.
They leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves will always be their homes.
They will live there from now on,
even though they named places after themselves.
12 Even rich people do not live forever.
Like the animals, people die.
13 This is what will happen to people who trust in themselves.
And this will happen to their followers who believe them. Selah
14 Like sheep, they must die.
And death will be their shepherd.
Honest people will rule over them in the morning.
Their bodies will rot in a grave far from home.
15 But God will save my life.
He will take me from the grave. Selah
16 Don’t be afraid of a rich man
because his house is more beautiful.
17 He won’t take anything to the grave.
His wealth won’t die with him.
18 He was praised when he was alive.
(And people may praise you when you succeed.)
19 But he will go to where his ancestors are.
He will never see light again.
20 Rich people with no understanding
are just like animals that die.
The Unbelieving Fool
For the director of music. By mahalath. A maskil of David.
53 A wicked fool says to himself,
“There is no God.”
Fools are evil. They do terrible things.
None of them does anything good.
2 God looked down from heaven at all the people.
He looked to see if anyone was wise,
if anyone was looking to God for help.
3 But everyone has turned away.
Together, everyone has become evil.
None of them does anything good.
4 Don’t the wicked understand?
They destroy my people as if they were eating bread.
They have not asked God for help.
5 The wicked became filled with terror
where there had been nothing to be terrified of.
God will scatter the bones of your enemies.
You will defeat them,
because God has rejected them.
6 I pray that victory will come to Israel from Mount Zion!
May God give them back their riches.
Then the people of Jacob will rejoice.
And the people of Israel will be glad.
Hagar and Ishmael
16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children. She had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children. So have physical relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”
Abram did what Sarai said. 3 This was after Abram lived ten years in Canaan. And Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)
4 Abram had physical relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you. And when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert. The spring was by the road to Shur. 8 The angel said, “Hagar, you are Sarai’s slave girl. Where have you come from? Where are you going?”
Hagar answered, “I am running from my mistress Sarai.”
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”
11 The angel also said to her,
“You are now pregnant,
and you will have a son.
You will name him Ishmael,[a]
because the Lord has heard your cries.
12 Ishmael will be like a wild donkey.
He will be against everyone.
And everyone will be against him.
He will attack all his brothers.”
13 The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her. She said to him, “You are ‘God who sees me.’” This is because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” 14 So the well there was called Beer Lahai Roi.[b] It is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Christ brings a new agreement from God to his people. Those who are called by God can now receive the blessings that God has promised. These blessings will last forever. They can have those things because Christ died so that the people who lived under the first agreement could be set free from sin.
16 When there is a will,[a] it must be proven that the man who wrote that will is dead. 17 A will means nothing while the man is alive. It can be used only after he dies. 18 This is why even the first agreement could not begin without blood to show death. 19 First, Moses told all the people every command in the law. Next he took the blood of calves and mixed it with water. Then he used red wool and a branch of the hyssop plant to sprinkle the blood and water on the book of the law and on all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood which begins the agreement that God commanded you to obey.”[b] 21 In the same way, Moses sprinkled the blood on the Holy Tent and over all the things used in worship. 22 The law says that almost everything must be made clean by blood. And sins cannot be forgiven without blood to show death.
Christ’s Death Takes Away Sins
23 So the copies of the real things in heaven had to be made clean by animal sacrifices. But the real things in heaven need much better sacrifices. 24 For Christ did not go into the Most Holy Place made by men. It is only a copy of the real one. He went into heaven itself. He is there now before God to help us. 25 The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once every year. He takes with him blood that is not his own blood. But Christ did not go into heaven to offer himself many times. 26 Then he would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But Christ came only once and for all time. He came at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself. 27 Everyone must die once. After a person dies, he is judged. 28 So Christ was offered as a sacrifice one time to take away the sins of many people. And he will come a second time, but not to offer himself for sin. He will come again to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Jesus Has God’s Authority
19 But Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing alone. The Son does only what he sees his Father doing. The Son does whatever the Father does. 20 The Father loves the Son, and the Father shows the Son all the things he himself does. But the Father will show the Son greater things than this to do. Then you will all be amazed. 21 The Father raises the dead and gives them life. In the same way, the Son gives life to those he wants to. 22 Also, the Father judges no one. But the Father has given the Son power to do all the judging. 23 God did this so that all people will respect the Son the same way they respect the Father. He who does not respect the Son does not respect the Father. The Father is the One who sent the Son.
24 “I tell you the truth. Whoever hears what I say and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life. He will not be judged guilty. He has already left death and has entered into life. 25 I tell you the truth. The time is coming and is already here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who hear will have life. 26 Life comes from the Father himself. So the Father has allowed the Son to give life. 27 And the Father has given the Son the approval to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be surprised at this. A time is coming when all who are dead and in their graves will hear his voice. 29 Then they will come out of their graves. Those who did good will rise and have life forever. But those who did evil will rise to be judged guilty.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.