Book of Common Prayer
(A special psalm by Asaph.)
What God Has Done for His People
1 My friends, I beg you
to listen as I teach.
2 (A) I will give instruction
and explain the mystery
of what happened long ago.
3 These are things we learned
from our ancestors,
4 and we will tell them
to the next generation.
We won't keep secret
the glorious deeds
and the mighty miracles
of the Lord.
5 God gave his Law
to Jacob's descendants,
the people of Israel.
And he told our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so that each new generation
would know his Law
and tell it to the next.
7 Then they would trust God
and obey his teachings,
without forgetting anything
God had done.
8 They would be different
from their ancestors,
who were stubborn, rebellious,
and unfaithful to God.
9 The warriors from Ephraim
were armed with arrows,
but they ran away
when the battle began.
10 They broke their agreement
with God,
and they turned their backs
on his teaching.
11 They forgot all he had done,
even the mighty miracles
12 (B)(C) he did for their ancestors
near Zoan[a] in Egypt.
13 (D) God made a path in the sea
and piled up the water
as he led them across.
14 (E) He guided them during the day
with a cloud,
and each night he led them
with a flaming fire.
15 (F) God made water flow
from rocks he split open
in the desert,
and his people drank freely,
as though from a lake.
16 He made streams gush out
like rivers from rocks.
17 But in the desert,
the people of God Most High
kept sinning and rebelling.
18 (G) They stubbornly tested God
and demanded from him
what they wanted to eat.
19 They challenged God by saying,
“Can God provide food
out here in the desert?
20 It's true God struck the rock
and water gushed out
like a river,
but can he give his people
bread and meat?”
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was angry and furious
with Jacob's descendants,
the people of Israel.
22 They had refused to trust him,
and they had doubted
his saving power.
23 But God gave a command
to the clouds,
and he opened the doors
in the skies.
24 (H) From heaven he sent grain
that they called manna.[b]
25 He gave them more than enough,
and each one of them ate
this special food.
26 God's mighty power
sent a strong wind
from the southeast,
27 and it brought birds
that covered the ground,
like sand on the beach.
28 Then God made the birds fall
in the camp of his people
near their tents.
29 God gave his people
all they wanted,
and each of them ate
until they were full.
30 But before they had swallowed
the last bite,
31 God became angry and killed
the strongest and best
from the families of Israel.
32 But the rest kept on sinning
and would not trust
God's miracles.
33 So he cut their lives short
and made them terrified.
34 After he killed some of them,
the others turned to him
with all their hearts.
35 They remembered God Most High,
the mighty rock[c]
that kept them safe.
36 But they tried to flatter God,
and they told him lies;
37 (I) they were unfaithful
and broke their promises.
38 Yet God was kind.
He kept forgiving their sins
and didn't destroy them.
He often became angry,
but never lost his temper.
39 God remembered that they
were made of flesh
and were like a wind
that blows once
and then dies down.
40 While they were in the desert,
they often rebelled
and made God sad.
41 They kept testing him
and caused terrible pain
for the Holy One of Israel.
42 They forgot about his power
and how he had rescued them
from their enemies.
43 God showed them all kinds
of wonderful miracles
near Zoan[d] in Egypt.
44 (J) He turned the rivers of Egypt
into blood,
and no one could drink
from the streams.
45 (K) He sent swarms of flies
to pester the Egyptians,
and he sent frogs
to cause them trouble.
46 (L) God let worms and grasshoppers
eat their crops.
47 (M) He destroyed their grapevines
and their fig trees
with hail and floods.[e]
48 Then he killed their cattle
with hail
and their other animals
with lightning.
49 God was so angry and furious
that he went into a rage
and caused them great trouble
by sending swarms
of destroying angels.
50 God released his anger
and slaughtered them
in a terrible way.
51 (N) He killed the first-born son
of each Egyptian family.
52 (O) Then God led his people
out of Egypt
and guided them in the desert
like a flock of sheep.
53 (P) He led them safely along,
and they were not afraid,
but their enemies drowned
in the sea.
54 (Q) God brought his people
to the sacred mountain
that he had taken
by his own power.
55 (R) He made nations run
from the tribes of Israel,
and he let the tribes
take over their land.
56 (S) But the people tested
God Most High,
and they refused
to obey his laws.
57 They were as unfaithful
as their ancestors,
and they were as crooked
as a twisted arrow.
58 God demanded all their love,
but they made him angry
by worshiping idols.
59 So God became furious
and completely rejected
the people of Israel.
60 (T) Then he deserted his home
at Shiloh, where he lived
here on earth.
61 (U) He let enemies capture
the sacred chest[f]
and let them dishonor him.
62 God took out his anger
on his chosen ones
and let them be killed
by enemy swords.
63 Fire destroyed the young men,
and the young women were left
with no one to marry.
64 Priests died violent deaths,
but their widows
were not allowed to mourn.
65 Finally the Lord woke up,
like a soldier
startled from a drunken sleep.
66 God scattered his enemies
and made them ashamed
forever.
67 Then the Lord decided
not to make his home
with Joseph's descendants
in Ephraim.[g]
68 Instead he chose the tribe
of Judah,
and he chose Mount Zion,
the place he loves.
69 There he built his temple
as lofty as the mountains
and as solid as the earth
he made to last forever.
70 (V) The Lord God chose David
to be his servant and took him
from tending sheep
71 and from caring for lambs.
Then God made him the leader
of Israel, his own nation.
72 David treated the people fairly
and guided them with wisdom.
The Israelites Complain
11 One day the Israelites started complaining about their troubles. The Lord heard them and became so angry that he destroyed the outer edges of their camp with fire.
2 When the people begged Moses to help, he prayed, and the fire went out. 3 They named the place “Burning,”[a] because in his anger the Lord had set their camp on fire.
The People Grumble about Being Hungry
4 One day some foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, “We don't have any meat! 5 In Egypt we could eat all the fish we wanted, and there were cucumbers, melons, all kinds of onions, and garlic. 6 But we're starving out here, and the only food we have is this manna.”
7 (A) The manna was like small whitish seeds 8-9 (B) and tasted like something baked with sweet olive oil. It appeared at night with the dew. In the morning the people would collect the manna, grind or crush it into flour, then boil it and make it into thin wafers.
10 The Israelites stood around their tents complaining. Moses heard them and was upset that they had made the Lord angry. 11 He prayed:
I am your servant, Lord, so why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this? You've made me responsible for all these people, 12 but they're not my children. You told me to nurse them along and to carry them to the land you promised their ancestors. 13 They keep whining for meat, but where can I get meat for them? 14 This job is too much for me. How can I take care of all these people by myself? 15 If this is the way you're going to treat me, just kill me now and end my miserable life!
Seventy Leaders Are Chosen To Help Moses
16 The Lord said to Moses:
Choose 70 of Israel's respected leaders and go with them to the sacred tent. 17 While I am talking with you there, I will give them some of your authority, so they can share responsibility for my people. You will no longer have to care for them by yourself.
18 As for the Israelites, I have heard them complaining about not having meat and about being better off in Egypt. So tell them to make themselves acceptable to me, because tomorrow they will have meat. 19-20 In fact, they will have meat day after day for a whole month—not just a few days, or even 10 or 20. They turned against me and wanted to go back to Egypt. Now they will eat meat until they get sick of it.
21 Moses replied, “At least 600,000 grown men are here with me. How can you say there will be enough meat to feed them and their families for a whole month? 22 Even if we butchered all our sheep and cattle, or caught every fish in the sea, we wouldn't have enough to feed them.”
23 The Lord answered, “I can do anything! Watch and you'll see my words come true.”
The Power of the Good News
16 (A) I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 17 (B) The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith.[a] It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live.”[b]
Everyone Is Guilty
18 From heaven God shows how angry he is with all the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth. 19 They know everything that can be known about God, because God has shown it all to them. 20 (C) God's eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That's why those people don't have any excuse. 21 (D) They know about God, but they don't honor him or even thank him. Their thoughts are useless, and their stupid minds are in the dark. 22 They claim to be wise, but they are fools. 23 (E) They don't worship the glorious and eternal God. Instead, they worship idols that are made to look like humans who cannot live forever, and like birds, animals, and reptiles.
24 So God let these people go their own way. They did what they wanted to do, and their filthy thoughts made them do shameful things with their bodies. 25 They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God, who will be praised forever. Amen.
Jesus Again Speaks about His Death
(Mark 9.30-32; Luke 9.43b-45)
22 While Jesus and his disciples were going from place to place in Galilee, he told them, “The Son of Man will be handed over to people 23 who will kill him. But three days later he will rise to life.” All of this made the disciples very sad.
Paying the Temple Tax
24 (A) When Jesus and the others arrived in Capernaum, the collectors for the temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” Peter answered.
After they had returned home, Jesus went up to Peter and asked him, “Simon, what do you think? Do the kings of this earth collect taxes and fees from their own people or from foreigners?”[a]
26 Peter answered, “From foreigners.”
Jesus replied, “Then their own people[b] don't have to pay. 27 But we don't want to cause trouble. So go cast a line into the lake and pull out the first fish you hook. Open its mouth, and you will find a coin. Use it to pay your taxes and mine.”
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