Old/New Testament
This is a song that David wrote.
The storm[a]
29 All you angels in heaven,
say how great the Lord is!
Say that the Lord rules with power!
2 Say that the Lord's name is great!
Worship the Lord for who he is,
and remember that he is holy.
3 The voice of the Lord shouts over the water.
The God of glory makes the noise of thunder.
The Lord appears over the great sea.[b]
4 The Lord's voice is powerful.
It has the authority of a king!
5 When the Lord shouts,
even the cedar trees break!
Yes! The Lord breaks the great cedar trees of Lebanon.[c]
6 He makes Lebanon jump like a calf.
He causes Hermon mountain to shake
like a young bull jumps.
7 The Lord's voice makes fire
like lightning in the sky.
8 When the Lord shouts,
the desert shakes!
He makes the Kadesh desert shake!
9 When the Lord shouts,
the big oak trees bend over.
The leaves fall off all the trees in the forests.
But in his temple,
everyone says, ‘He is great!’
10 The Lord rules as king over the deep waters.[d]
The Lord will be king for ever.
11 The Lord makes his people strong.
The Lord blesses his people with peace.
David wrote this song. He asks God to bless the Temple.
Thank you, Lord[e]
30 Lord, I will praise you,
because you have saved me from death.
You have not let my enemies laugh at me.
2 Lord, my God, I called to you for help,
and you have made me well again.
3 Lord, you pulled me up
out of the deep hole of death.
You saved me
from among those who are going into the grave.
4 Sing to the Lord,
you people who trust him.
Praise his holy name.
5 His anger continues only for a moment,
but he is kind to us for our whole life.
You may be sad all through the night,
but in the morning, you will be happy again.[f]
6 When I was feeling safe and strong,
I thought, ‘Nothing can ever destroy me.’
7 But Lord, it was you who made my kingdom strong,
because you are so kind.
But then you turned away from me,
and I became very afraid.[g]
8 I called to you for help, Lord.
I asked you to be kind to me, my Lord.
9 If I go down into the deep hole of death,
that will not help you!
My dead body cannot praise you there!
It cannot tell people to trust you!
10 Lord, please listen to me!
Please be kind to me!
Lord, please be my helper!
11 Now you have caused me to stop crying,
so that I dance instead!
I do not need to wear sackcloth,
because I am no longer sad.
Instead, you have made me very happy.[h]
12 So I am truly happy and I will sing to praise you.
I cannot stay quiet!
Lord, my God,
I will continue to thank you for ever.
Paul speaks to the meeting of Jewish leaders
23 Paul looked at the group of Jewish leaders and he said to them, ‘My Jewish friends, God knows that I have nothing to be ashamed about today. I have always respected God's Laws.’ 2 The most important priest, who was called Ananias, heard Paul's words. He said to the men who were near Paul, ‘Hit that man on his mouth!’ 3 Paul said to him, ‘God will certainly hit you! You are a hypocrite![a] You are sitting there and you are judging me. You are asking if I obey the Law of God. But you yourself do not obey the Law! You should not have said, “Hit that man!” ’
4 The men who were standing near Paul said to him, ‘You must not say bad things against our most important priest!’
5 Paul replied, ‘My brothers, I did not know that this man is the most important priest.[b] Our Jewish law says, “Do not say bad things against the man who rules your people.” So I should not have said anything bad against him.’
6 Then Paul saw that there were some Sadducees and also some Pharisees in the meeting. So he shouted out to the whole group of Jewish leaders, ‘My brothers, I am a Pharisee! My father was also a Pharisee. I believe that dead people will certainly rise and they will live again. That is the reason why you are judging me today.’
7 As soon as Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to argue with each other. People in the group thought different things about Paul. 8 (The Sadducees do not believe that dead people will live again. They do not believe that there are angels or spirits. But the Pharisees believe in all these things.)
9 The Sadducees and the Pharisees began to shout louder and louder against each other. There were some teachers of God's Law who were in the group of Pharisees. They stood up in the meeting and they said, ‘We do not believe that this man has done anything wrong. What he says may be true. A spirit or an angel may have spoken to him.’
10 The two groups argued more and more strongly. The leader of the soldiers thought that the people there might hurt Paul badly. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Go down into the group and take Paul away from them. Take him back with you into our strong building.’
11 The next night, the Lord Jesus came and he stood near Paul. He said to Paul, ‘Do not be afraid! You have told people here in Jerusalem about me. You must also do the same thing in Rome.’
The Jews in Jerusalem decide to kill Paul
12 The next morning, a group of Jews talked together about how they might kill Paul. They agreed to make a promise to God. They would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. 13 More than 40 men were in the group that decided this. 14 They went to the leaders of the priests and the important Jews. They said to them, ‘We have agreed together to make a serious promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 So now we want you and the group of Jewish leaders to send a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. Ask him, “Please bring Paul to the meeting of the Jewish leaders. We want to know more about the wrong things that he has done.” That will be the message. But, we will wait for Paul and we will be ready to kill him. We will do this before he arrives here at the meeting.’
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