Book of Common Prayer
78 Hear my doctrine, O my people. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will declare high sentences of old
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the LORD, His power also, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 How He established a testimony in Jacob and ordained a Law in Israel. Which He commanded our fathers that they should teach their children,
6 so that the posterity might know it and the children which should be born should stand up and declare it to their children.
7 So that they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.
8 So that they not be as their fathers (a disobedient and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God).
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in His Law,
11 and forgot His acts and His wonderful works that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt (in the field of Zoan).
13 He divided the sea and led them through. He also made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 Also, in the daytime, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink, as with the great depths.
16 He also brought floods out of the stony rock, making the waters descend like the rivers.
17 But, they still sinned against Him and provoked the Highest in the wilderness
18 and tempted God in their hearts, requiring food for their lust.
19 They also spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread, or prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore, the LORD heard and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob; and wrath also came upon Israel
22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His help.
23 Still, He had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of Heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the wheat of Heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to pass in the sky; and through His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He also rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well-filled; for He gave them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lusts. The food was still in their mouths
31 when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest of them and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works.
33 Therefore, He ended their days in futility, and their years in dismay.
34 And when He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought God earnestly.
35 And they remembered that God was their strength, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not upright with Him; nor were they faithful in His Covenant.
38 Yet, He, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; but oftentimes called back His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert?
41 Indeed, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered neither His hand nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy
43 nor Him Who set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 Who turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent a swarm of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He also gave their fruits to the caterpillar, and their labor to the grasshopper.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48 He also gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, indignation and wrath, and troubled them by sending out evil angels.
50 He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life to the pestilence.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But, He made His people go out like sheep and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 Indeed, He carried them out safely, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the borders of His Sanctuary, to this Mountain which His right hand purchased.
55 He also cast out the heathen before them and caused them to fall to the lot of His inheritance; and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet, they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt falsely, like their fathers. They turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to wrath with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60 so that He abandoned the habitation of Shiloh, the Tabernacle where He dwelt among men,
61 and delivered His power into captivity, and His beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62 And He gave up His people to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not lament.
65 But the LORD awakened, as one out of sleep, as a strong man who cries out after wine,
66 and drove His enemies backwards and put them to a perpetual shame.
67 Yet, He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His Sanctuary as a high palace, like the Earth, which He established forever.
70 He also chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 Even from behind the ewes with young. He brought him to feed His people in Jacob, and His inheritance in Israel.
72 So, he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his hands. A Psalm committed to Asaph
18 Then, King David went in and sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that You have brought me here?
19 “And yet, this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD. Therefore, You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. And this is the manner of man, O Lord GOD.
20 “And what more can David say to You? For You, Lord GOD, know Your servant.
21 “For Your Word’s sake, and according to Your own Heart, have You done all these great things, to make them known to Your servant.
22 “Therefore, You are great, O Lord GOD! For there is none like You. Nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 “And what one people on the Earth is like Your people, like Israel, whose God went and redeemed them to Himself, so that they might be His people, and that He might make a Name for Himself and do great and mighty things for Yourself and for Your land, O LORD. You have redeemed Your people to Yourself out of Egypt, the nations, and their gods!
24 “For You have ordained Your people Israel to Yourself, to be Your people forever! And You, LORD, have become their God.
25 “Now, therefore, O Lord GOD, confirm forever the Word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, and do as You have said.
26 “And let Your Name be magnified forever by those who shall say, ‘The LORD of Hosts is the God over Israel,’ and let the House of Your servant David be established before You.
27 “For You, O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a House.’ Therefore, Your servant has been bold to pray this prayer to You.
28 “Therefore, now, O Lord GOD (You are God and Your Words are true and You have told this goodness to Your servant),
29 “therefore, now let it please You to bless the House of Your servant, so that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord GOD, have spoken it. And let the House of Your servant be blessed forever with Your blessing.”
12 Now when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one mind against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,
13 saying, “This fellow persuades man to worship God differently than the Law appoints.”
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong, or an evil deed, O Jews, I would, according to reason, tolerate you.
15 “But if it is a question of words and names, and of your Law, resolve it yourselves. For I will be no judge of those things.”
16 And he drove them from the judgment seat.
17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio cared nothing about those things.
18 And after Paul had remained there a good while longer (and shaved his head in Cenchrea - for he had made a vow) he left the brothers and sailed into Syria with Priscilla and Aquila.
19 Then he came to Ephesus and left them there. And he entered into the synagogue and disputed with the Jews,
20 who asked him to stay a longer time with them. But he would not consent,
21 and bid them farewell, saying, “I must keep this feast that comes, in Jerusalem. But I will return to you again, God willing.” So, he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he came down to Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem. And after he had greeted the church, he went down to Antioch.
23 And after he had remained there a while, he left, and went through the countries of Galatia and Phrygia successively, strengthening all the disciples.
24 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, came to Ephesus (an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures).
25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. And, being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord but knew only of the baptism of John.
26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him aside, and explained the way of God more perfectly to him.
27 And when he intended to go into Achaia, the brothers (exhorting him) wrote to the disciples to receive him. And after he had come there, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.
28 For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, with great vehemence, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
22 And He came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Him and asked Him to touch him.
23 Then he took the blind by the hand and led him out of the town; and spit in his eyes and put His hands upon him and asked him if he saw anything.
24 And he looked up, and said, “I see men, walking, like trees.”
25 After that, He put his hands upon his eyes again and made him look again. And his sight was restored. And he saw everyone clearly from far way.
26 And He sent him home to his house, saying, “Do not go into the town. And do not tell of this to anyone in the town.”
27 And Jesus went out with His disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And along the way He asked His disciples, saying to them, “Whom do men say that I am?”
28 And they answered, “Some say, John Baptist. And some, Elijah. And some, one of the Prophets.”
29 And He said to them, “But whom do you say that I am?” Then Peter answered, and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
30 And He sharply charged them that they should tell no one about Him.
31 Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and would be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes; and be killed; and within three days, rise again.
32 And He spoke that thing boldly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.
33 Then He turned back and looked at His disciples and rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not understand the things that are of God, but the things that are of man!”
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