Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 106
Israel’s Unfaithfulness to God
1 Hallelujah!
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.(A)
2 Who can declare the Lord’s mighty acts
or proclaim all the praise due Him?(B)
3 How happy are those who uphold justice,
who practice righteousness at all times.(C)
4 Remember me, Lord,
when You show favor to Your people.(D)
Come to me with Your salvation
5 so that I may enjoy the prosperity
of Your chosen ones,
rejoice in the joy of Your nation,
and boast about Your heritage.(E)
6 Both we and our fathers have sinned;
we have done wrong and have acted wickedly.(F)
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp
the significance of Your wonderful works
or remember Your many acts of faithful love;
instead, they rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.(G)
8 Yet He saved them because of His name,
to make His power known.(H)
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
He led them through the depths as through a desert.(I)
10 He saved them from the hand of the adversary;
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.(J)
11 Water covered their foes;
not one of them remained.(K)
12 Then they believed His promises
and sang His praise.(L)
13 They soon forgot His works
and would not wait for His counsel.(M)
14 They were seized with craving in the wilderness
and tested God in the desert.(N)
15 He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.(O)
16 In the camp they were envious of Moses
and of Aaron, the Lord’s holy one.(P)
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it covered the assembly of Abiram.(Q)
18 Fire blazed throughout their assembly;
flames consumed the wicked.(R)
19 At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped the cast metal image.(S)
20 They exchanged their glory[a][b]
for the image of a grass-eating ox.(T)
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who did great things in Egypt,(U)
22 wonderful works in the land of Ham,[c]
awe-inspiring acts at the Red Sea.(V)
23 So He said He would have destroyed them—
if Moses His chosen one
had not stood before Him in the breach
to turn His wrath away from destroying them.(W)
24 They despised the pleasant land
and did not believe His promise.(X)
25 They grumbled in their tents
and did not listen to the Lord’s voice.(Y)
26 So He raised His hand against them with an oath
that He would make them fall in the desert(Z)
27 and would disperse their descendants[d]
among the nations,
scattering them throughout the lands.(AA)
28 They aligned themselves with Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.[e](AB)
29 They provoked the Lord with their deeds,
and a plague broke out against them.(AC)
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was stopped.(AD)
31 It was credited to him as righteousness
throughout all generations to come.(AE)
32 They angered the Lord at the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[f] because of them;(AF)
33 for they embittered his spirit,[g]
and he spoke rashly with his lips.(AG)
34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them(AH)
35 but mingled with the nations
and adopted their ways.(AI)
36 They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.(AJ)
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.(AK)
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
so the land became polluted with blood.(AL)
39 They defiled themselves by their actions
and prostituted themselves by their deeds.(AM)
40 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against His people,
and He abhorred His own inheritance.(AN)
41 He handed them over to the nations;
those who hated them ruled them.(AO)
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were subdued under their power.(AP)
43 He rescued them many times,
but they continued to rebel deliberately
and were beaten down by their sin.(AQ)
44 When He heard their cry,
He took note of their distress,(AR)
45 remembered His covenant with them,
and relented according to the riches
of His faithful love.(AS)
46 He caused them to be pitied
before all their captors.(AT)
47 Save us, Yahweh our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so that we may give thanks to Your holy name
and rejoice in Your praise.(AU)
Saul Received as King
17 Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah(A) 18 and said to the Israelites, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:(B) ‘I brought Israel out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God,(C) who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions. You said to Him, ‘You[a] must set a king over us.’(D) Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”(E)
20 Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was selected. 21 Then he had the tribe of Benjamin come forward by its clans, and the Matrite clan was selected.[b] Finally, Saul son of Kish was selected.(F) But when they searched for him, they could not find him. 22 They again inquired of the Lord,(G) “Has the man come here yet?”
The Lord replied, “There he is, hidden among the supplies.”
23 They ran and got him from there. When he stood among the people, he stood a head taller than anyone else.[c](H) 24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one the Lord has chosen?(I) There is no one like him among the entire population.”
And all the people shouted,[d] “Long live the king!”(J)
25 Samuel proclaimed to the people the rights of kingship.(K) He wrote them on a scroll, which he placed in the presence of the Lord.(L) Then Samuel sent all the people away, each to his home.
26 Saul also went to his home in Gibeah,(M) and brave men whose hearts God had touched went with him. 27 But some wicked men said, “How can this guy save us?” They despised him and did not bring him a gift,(N) but Saul said nothing.[e][f]
God’s Real Tabernacle
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.(A) 45 Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers,(B) until the days of David. 46 He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God[a] of Jacob.(C) 47 But it was Solomon who built Him a house.(D) 48 However, the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:(E)
49 Heaven is My throne,
and earth My footstool.
What sort of house will you build for Me?
says the Lord,
or what is My resting place?
50 Did not My hand make all these things?(F)[b]
Resisting the Holy Spirit
51 “You stiff-necked(G) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!(H) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?(I) They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers(J) you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels(K) and yet have not kept it.”
The First Christian Martyr
54 When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts[c] and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with[d] Jesus standing at the right hand of God,(L) and he said, 56 “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”(M)
57 Then they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. 58 They threw him out of the city and began to stone(N) him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.(O) 59 They were stoning Stephen as he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”(P) 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,(Q) “Lord, do not charge them with this sin!” And saying this, he fell asleep.(R)
Saul the Persecutor
8 Saul agreed with putting him to death.
On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.(S)
52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, temple police, and the elders who had come for Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal?[a] 53 Every day while I was with you in the temple complex,(A) you never laid a hand on Me. But this is your hour(B)—and the dominion of darkness.”(C)
Peter Denies His Lord
54 They seized Him, led Him away, and brought Him into the high priest’s house. Meanwhile Peter(D) was following at a distance. 55 They(E) lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard(F) and sat down together, and Peter sat among them. 56 When a servant saw him sitting in the firelight, and looked closely at him, she said, “This man was with Him too.”
57 But he denied it: “Woman, I don’t know Him!”
58 After a little while, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too!”
“Man, I am not!” Peter said.
59 About an hour later, another kept insisting, “This man was certainly with Him, since he’s also a Galilean.”
60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter.(G) So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”(H) 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.
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