Book of Common Prayer
God Will Reward Fairly
Of David.
37 Don’t be upset because of evil people.
Don’t be jealous of those who do wrong,
2 because like the grass, they will soon dry up.
Like green plants, they will soon die away.
3 Trust the Lord and do good.
Live in the land and feed on truth.
4 Enjoy serving the Lord,
and he will give you what you want.
5 Depend on the Lord;
trust him, and he will take care of you.
6 Then your goodness will shine like the sun,
and your fairness like the noonday sun.
7 Wait and trust the Lord.
Don’t be upset when others get rich
or when someone else’s plans succeed.
8 Don’t get angry.
Don’t be upset; it only leads to trouble.
9 Evil people will be sent away,
but those who trust the Lord will inherit the land.
10 In a little while the wicked will be no more.
You may look for them, but they will be gone.
11 People who are not proud will inherit the land
and will enjoy complete peace.
12 The wicked make evil plans against good people.
They grind their teeth at them in anger.
13 But the Lord laughs at the wicked,
because he sees that their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw their swords
and bend their bows
to kill the poor and helpless,
to kill those who are honest.
15 But their swords will stab their own hearts,
and their bows will break.
16 It is better to have little and be right
than to have much and be wrong.
17 The power of the wicked will be broken,
but the Lord supports those who do right.
18 The Lord watches over the lives of the innocent,
and their reward will last forever.
19 They will not be ashamed when trouble comes.
They will be full in times of hunger.
20 But the wicked will die.
The Lord’s enemies will be like the flowers of the fields;
they will disappear like smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and don’t pay back,
but those who do right give freely to others.
22 Those whom the Lord blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be sent away.
23 When people’s steps follow the Lord,
God is pleased with their ways.
24 If they stumble, they will not fall,
because the Lord holds their hand.
25 I was young, and now I am old,
but I have never seen good people left helpless
or their children begging for food.
26 Good people always lend freely to others,
and their children are a blessing.
27 Stop doing evil and do good,
so you will live forever.
28 The Lord loves justice
and will not leave those who worship him.
He will always protect them,
but the children of the wicked will die.
29 Good people will inherit the land
and will live in it forever.
30 Good people speak with wisdom,
and they say what is fair.
31 The teachings of their God are in their heart,
so they do not fail to keep them.
32 The wicked watch for good people
so that they may kill them.
33 But the Lord will not take away his protection
or let good people be judged guilty.
34 Wait for the Lord’s help
and follow him.
He will honor you and give you the land,
and you will see the wicked sent away.
35 I saw a wicked and cruel man
who looked strong like a healthy tree in good soil.
36 But he died and was gone;
I looked for him, but he couldn’t be found.
37 Think of the innocent person,
and watch the honest one.
The man who has peace
will have children to live after him.
38 But sinners will be destroyed;
in the end the wicked will die.
39 The Lord saves good people;
he is their strength in times of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them and saves them;
he saves them from the wicked,
because they trust in him for protection.
14 So the people left the place where they had camped, and they followed the priests who carried the Ark of the Agreement across the Jordan River. 15 During harvest the Jordan overflows its banks. When the priests carrying the Ark came to the edge of the river and stepped into the water, 16 the water upstream stopped flowing. It stood up in a heap a great distance away at Adam, a town near Zarethan. The water flowing down to the Sea of Arabah (the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed the river near Jericho. 17 The priests carried the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord to the middle of the river and stood there on dry ground. They waited there while all the people of Israel walked across the Jordan River on dry land.
Rocks to Remind the People
4 After all the people had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe. 3 Tell them to get twelve rocks from the middle of the river, from where the priests stood. Carry the rocks and put them down where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua chose one man from each tribe. Then he called the twelve men together 5 and said to them, “Go out into the river where the Ark of the Lord your God is. Each of you bring back one rock, one for each tribe of Israel, and carry it on your shoulder. 6 They will be a sign among you. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ 7 Tell them the water stopped flowing in the Jordan when the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord crossed the river. These rocks will always remind the Israelites of this.”
Give Your Lives to God
12 So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. 2 Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect. 3 Because God has given me a special gift, I have something to say to everyone among you. Do not think you are better than you are. You must decide what you really are by the amount of faith God has given you. 4 Each one of us has a body with many parts, and these parts all have different uses. 5 In the same way, we are many, but in Christ we are all one body. Each one is a part of that body, and each part belongs to all the other parts. 6 We all have different gifts, each of which came because of the grace God gave us. The person who has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in agreement with the faith. 7 Anyone who has the gift of serving should serve. Anyone who has the gift of teaching should teach. 8 Whoever has the gift of encouraging others should encourage. Whoever has the gift of giving to others should give freely. Anyone who has the gift of being a leader should try hard when he leads. Whoever has the gift of showing mercy to others should do so with joy.
The Plan to Kill Jesus
26 After Jesus finished saying all these things, he told his followers, 2 “You know that the day after tomorrow is the day of the Passover Feast. On that day the Son of Man will be given to his enemies to be crucified.”
3 Then the leading priests and the elders had a meeting at the palace of the high priest, named Caiaphas. 4 At the meeting, they planned to set a trap to arrest Jesus and kill him. 5 But they said, “We must not do it during the feast, because the people might cause a riot.”
Perfume for Jesus’ Burial
6 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. 7 While Jesus was there, a woman approached him with an alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. She poured this perfume on Jesus’ head while he was eating.
8 His followers were upset when they saw the woman do this. They asked, “Why waste that perfume? 9 It could have been sold for a great deal of money and the money given to the poor.”
10 Knowing what had happened, Jesus said, “Why are you troubling this woman? She did an excellent thing for me. 11 You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 This woman poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached in all the world, what this woman has done will be told, and people will remember her.”
Judas Becomes an Enemy of Jesus
14 Then one of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot, went to talk to the leading priests. 15 He said, “What will you pay me for giving Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty silver coins. 16 After that, Judas watched for the best time to turn Jesus in.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.