Book of Common Prayer
A Song of Victory
For the director of music. By the Lord’s servant, David. David sang this song to the Lord when the Lord had saved him from Saul and all his other enemies.
18 I love you, Lord. You are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my protection, my Savior.
My God is my rock.
I can run to him for safety.
He is my shield and my saving strength, my defender.
3 I will call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death came around me;
the deadly rivers overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of death wrapped around me.
The traps of death were before me.
6 In my trouble I called to the Lord.
I cried out to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my call for help reached his ears.
7 The earth trembled and shook.
The foundations of the mountains began to shake.
They trembled because the Lord was angry.
8 Smoke came out of his nose,
and burning fire came out of his mouth.
Burning coals went before him.
9 He tore open the sky and came down
with dark clouds under his feet.
10 He rode a creature with wings and flew.
He raced on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his shelter around him,
surrounded by fog and clouds.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence came clouds
with hail and lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High raised his voice,
and there was hail and lightning.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies.
His many bolts of lightning confused them with fear.
15 Lord, you spoke strongly.
The wind blew from your nose.
Then the valleys of the sea appeared,
and the foundations of the earth were seen.
16 The Lord reached down from above and took me;
he pulled me from the deep water.
17 He saved me from my powerful enemies,
from those who hated me, because they were too strong for me.
18 They attacked me at my time of trouble,
but the Lord supported me.
19 He took me to a safe place.
Because he delights in me, he saved me.
20 The Lord spared me because I did what was right.
Because I have not done evil, he has rewarded me.
21 I have followed the ways of the Lord;
I have not done evil by turning away from my God.
22 I remember all his laws
and have not broken his rules.
23 I am innocent before him;
I have kept myself from doing evil.
24 The Lord rewarded me because I did what was right,
because I did what the Lord said was right.
25 Lord, you are loyal to those who are loyal,
and you are good to those who are good.
26 You are pure to those who are pure,
but you are against those who are bad.
27 You save the humble,
but you bring down those who are proud.
28 Lord, you give light to my lamp.
My God brightens the darkness around me.
29 With your help I can attack an army.
With God’s help I can jump over a wall.
30 The ways of God are without fault.
The Lord’s words are pure.
He is a shield to those who trust him.
31 Who is God? Only the Lord.
Who is the Rock? Only our God.
32 God is my protection.
He makes my way free from fault.
33 He makes me like a deer that does not stumble;
he helps me stand on the steep mountains.
34 He trains my hands for battle
so my arms can bend a bronze bow.
35 You protect me with your saving shield.
You support me with your right hand.
You have stooped to make me great.
36 You give me a better way to live,
so I live as you want me to.
37 I chased my enemies and caught them.
I did not quit until they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so they couldn’t rise up again.
They fell beneath my feet.
39 You gave me strength in battle.
You made my enemies bow before me.
40 You made my enemies turn back,
and I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They called for help,
but no one came to save them.
They called to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
42 I beat my enemies into pieces, like dust in the wind.
I poured them out like mud in the streets.
43 You saved me when the people attacked me.
You made me the leader of nations.
People I never knew serve me.
44 As soon as they hear me, they obey me.
Foreigners obey me.
45 They all become afraid
and tremble in their hiding places.
46 The Lord lives!
May my Rock be praised.
Praise the God who saves me!
47 God gives me victory over my enemies
and brings people under my rule.
48 He saves me from my enemies.
You set me over those who hate me.
You saved me from violent people.
49 So I will praise you, Lord, among the nations.
I will sing praises to your name.
50 The Lord gives great victories to his king.
He is loyal to his appointed king,
to David and his descendants forever.
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole community of the Israelites, they looked toward the desert. There the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel. So tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and every morning you will eat all the bread you want. Then you will know I am the Lord your God.’”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost were on the desert ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked each other, “What is it?” because they did not know what it was.
So Moses told them, “This is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 The Lord has commanded, ‘Each one of you must gather what he needs, about two quarts for every person in your family.’”
17 So the people of Israel did this; some people gathered much, and some gathered little. 18 Then they measured it. The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little. Each person gathered just as much as he needed.
19 Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” 20 But some of the people did not listen to Moses and kept part of it to eat the next morning. It became full of worms and began to stink, so Moses was angry with those people.
21 Every morning each person gathered as much food as he needed, but when the sun became hot, it melted away.
22 On the sixth day the people gathered twice as much food—four quarts for every person. When all the leaders of the community came and told this to Moses,
Live for God
11 Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul. 12 People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again.
Yield to Every Human Authority
13 For the Lord’s sake, yield to the people who have authority in this world: the king, who is the highest authority, 14 and the leaders who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. 15 It is God’s desire that by doing good you should stop foolish people from saying stupid things about you. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Live as servants of God. 17 Show respect for all people: Love the brothers and sisters of God’s family, respect God, honor the king.
Follow Christ’s Example
18 Slaves, yield to the authority of your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and kind, but also those who are dishonest. 19 A person might have to suffer even when it is unfair, but if he thinks of God and can stand the pain, God is pleased. 20 If you are beaten for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for being patient in your punishment. But if you suffer for doing good, and you are patient, then God is pleased. 21 This is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and gave you an example to follow. So you should do as he did.
22 “He had never sinned,
and he had never lied.” Isaiah 53:9
23 People insulted Christ, but he did not insult them in return. Christ suffered, but he did not threaten. He let God, the One who judges rightly, take care of him. 24 Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. And you are healed because of his wounds. 25 You were like sheep that wandered away, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
12 “This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Jesus Warns His Followers
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it loves its own. But I have chosen you out of the world, so you don’t belong to it. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. If people did wrong to me, they will do wrong to you, too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours, too. 21 They will do all this to you on account of me, because they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me also hates my Father. 24 I did works among them that no one else has ever done. If I had not done these works, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen what I have done, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this happened so that what is written in their law would be true: ‘They hated me for no reason.’[a]
26 “I will send you the Helper[b] from the Father; he is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me, 27 and you also must tell people about me, because you have been with me from the beginning.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.