Old/New Testament
Prayer of Trust in God
31 O Lord, in You I have found a safe place. Let me never be ashamed. Set me free, because You do what is right and good. 2 Turn Your ear to me, and be quick to save me. Be my rock of strength, a strong place to keep me safe. 3 For You are my rock and my safe place. For the honor of Your name, lead me and show me the way. 4 You will free me from the net that they have hidden for me. For You are my strength. 5 I give my spirit into Your hands. You have made me free, O Lord, God of truth.
6 I hate those who worship false gods. But I trust in the Lord. 7 I will be glad and full of joy in Your loving-kindness. For You have seen my suffering. You have known the troubles of my soul. 8 You have not given me into the hand of those who hate me. You have set my feet in a large place.
9 Show me loving-kindness, O Lord, for I am in trouble. My eyes, my soul and my body are becoming weak from being sad. 10 For my life gets weaker with sorrow, and my years with crying inside myself. My strength has left me because of my sin. And my bones waste away. 11 Because of all those who hate me, I have become a shame to my neighbors. Even my friends do not want to be with me. Those who see me on the street run from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man and they do not think about me. I am like a broken pot. 13 For I have heard many say things to hurt me. Fear is on every side. They planned together against me. They thought of ways to take away my life.
14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord. I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in Your hands. Free me from the hands of those who hate me, and from those who try to hurt me. 16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant. Save me in Your loving-kindness. 17 Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord. For I call to You. Let the sinful be put to shame. Let them be quiet in the grave. 18 Let the lying lips be quiet. For they speak with pride and hate those who do right and good.
19 How great is Your loving-kindness! You have stored it up for those who fear You. You show it to those who trust in You in front of the sons of men. 20 You will hide them with You in secret from the sinful plans of men. You keep them in Your tent in secret from those who fight with tongues. 21 Honor and thanks be to the Lord. For He has shown His great loving-favor to me when I was in a city with armies all around. 22 In my fear I said, “You have closed Your eyes to me!” But You heard my cry for loving-kindness when I called to You.
23 Love the Lord, all you who belong to Him! The Lord keeps the faithful safe. But He gives the proud their pay in full. 24 Be strong. Be strong in heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
Joy of Being Forgiven
32 How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered! 2 How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false.
3 When I kept quiet about my sin, my bones wasted away from crying all day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as in the hot summer. 5 I told my sin to You. I did not hide my wrong-doing. I said, “I will tell my sins to the Lord.” And You forgave the guilt of my sin. 6 So let all who are God-like pray to You while You may be found, because in the floods of much water, they will not touch him. 7 You are my hiding place. You keep me safe from trouble. All around me are your songs of being made free.
8 I will show you and teach you in the way you should go. I will tell you what to do with My eye upon you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the donkey which have no understanding. They must be made to work by using bits and leather ropes or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the sinful. But loving-kindness will be all around the man who trusts in the Lord. 11 Be glad in the Lord and be full of joy, you who are right with God! Sing for joy all you who are pure in heart!
16 Paul’s nephew heard about the plan. He went to the soldiers’ building and told Paul. 17 Paul called one of the soldiers and said, “Take this young man to the captain. He has something to tell him.” 18 The soldiers brought the young man to the captain and said, “Paul asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.” 19 The captain took him by the hand and they walked over where they could be alone. He said, “What is it that you have to tell me?” 20 The young man said, “The Jews have made a plan to ask you to bring Paul to the courtroom tomorrow. It would look as if they were going to ask him some things. 21 Do not let them talk you into it. More than forty men are waiting in secret to kill him. They have promised each other not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him. They are all waiting for you to say the word.” 22 The captain told the young man to go. He said, “Do not tell anyone you have told me this.”
Paul Is Sent to Felix in Caesarea
23 Then the captain called two soldiers and said, “Get 200 men ready to go to the city of Caesarea by nine o’clock tonight. Also have seventy men ride on horses and 200 men carry spears. 24 Get horses ready for Paul to ride. Take him to Felix, the leader of the people.”
25 He wrote a letter which said, 26 “Claudius Lysias greets Felix, the best leader of the people. 27 This man Paul was taken by the Jews. He was about to be killed by them. But I came along with my soldiers and kept him from being killed. I did this when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 I wanted to know what they had against him. So I took him to the religious leaders’ court. 29 I learned they were holding him because of something about their Law. There was no reason for him to be killed or to be put in prison. 30 I was told that the Jews had a plan to kill this man. At once I sent him to you. I told the Jews who wanted to kill him to tell you what they have against him. Good-bye.”
31 The soldiers took Paul as they were told. They brought him during the night to Antipatris. 32 The next day they went back to their building in Jerusalem. The men riding horses went on with Paul. 33 When they came to Caesarea, they gave the letter to the leader of the people. They also handed Paul over to him. 34 After he read the letter, he asked what part of the country Paul was from. He was told that Paul was from the city of Cilicia. 35 He said, “I will listen to all of this when the men come who want to kill you.” He had Paul kept in King Herod’s building.
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