Book of Common Prayer
Praise to God for His Loyal Love
118 Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good,
for his loyal love is forever.
2 Let Israel say,
“His loyal love is forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
“His loyal love is forever.”
4 Let those who fear Yahweh say,
“His loyal love is forever.”
5 Out of my distress I called to Yah.[a]
Yah answered me, setting me in a broad place.
6 Yahweh is for me; I do not fear.
What can mere humans[b] do to me?
7 Yahweh is for me as my helper,
and so I will look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh
than to trust in humans.[c]
9 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh
than to trust princes.
10 All nations surrounded me.
In the name of Yahweh I opposed them indeed.
11 They surrounded me; yes, they surrounded me.
In the name of Yahweh I opposed them indeed.
12 They surrounded me like bees;
they were extinguished like a fire of thorns.
In the name of Yahweh I opposed them indeed.
13 You pushed me hard[d] to make me fall,
but Yahweh helped me.
14 Yah[e] is my strength and my song,[f]
and he has become my salvation.[g]
15 The sound of rejoicing and salvation[h]
is in the tents of the righteous;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
16 The right hand of Yahweh has exalted;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
17 I will not die but live,
and tell of the works of Yah.[i]
18 Yah has disciplined me severely,
but he did not consign[j] me to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to Yah.[k]
20 This is the gate of Yahweh,
through which the righteous will enter.
21 I will give thanks to you for you have answered me,
and you have become my salvation.[l]
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is from Yahweh;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
24 This is the day Yahweh has worked;[m]
let us rejoice and be glad in him.[n]
25 O Yahweh, please save;
O Yahweh, please grant success.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh.
We bless you[o] from the house[p] of Yahweh.
27 Yahweh is God, and he has given us light.[q]
Bind the festal sacrifice[r] with cords[s]
to the horns[t] of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you.
You are my God; I will exalt you.
29 Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good,
for his loyal love is forever.
A Song of God’s Majesty and Love
A praise of David.[a]
145 I will exalt you, my God, O king,
and I will bless[b] your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you
and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is Yahweh, and very worthy of praise,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation will laud your works to another,
and will declare your mighty deeds.
5 On the splendor of the glory of your majesty,
and on your wonderful deeds, I will meditate.
6 And they will speak of the power of your awesome deeds,[c]
and I will tell of your greatness.[d]
7 They will utter [e] the renown of your abundant goodness,
and they will proclaim with joy your righteousness.
8 Yahweh is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger[f] and great in loyal love.
9 Yahweh is good to all,
and his mercies are over all his works.
10 All your works will praise you, O Yahweh,
and your faithful ones will bless[g] you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and talk of your power,
12 to make known to the children of humankind his mighty deeds,
and the glory of the majesty of his kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.[h]
14 Yahweh upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due time,
16 opening your hand,
and satisfying the desire of every living creature.
17 Yahweh is righteous in all his ways,
and loyal in all his works.
18 Yahweh is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry for help, and saves them.
20 Yahweh protects all those who love him,
but all the wicked he will exterminate.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh,
and all flesh will bless his holy name
forever and ever.
4 They set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea[a] to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient[b] along the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us from Egypt to die in the desert? There is no food and no water, and our hearts detest this miserable food.”
The Bronze Serpent
6 And Yahweh sent among the people poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many people from Israel died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh and let him remove the snakes[c] from among us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Make for yourself a snake and place it on a pole. When[d] anyone is bitten and looks at it, that person will live.” 9 So Moses made a snake of bronze, and he placed it on the pole; whenever[e] a snake bit someone, and that person looked at the snake of bronze, he lived.
Sihon and Og Defeated
21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites,[a] saying, 22 “Let us go through your land; we will not turn aside into a field or vineyard; we will not drink well water along the way of the king until we have gone through your territory.” 23 But Sihon did not allow Israel to go through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people and went out to meet Israel; he came to the desert, to Jahaz, and he fought against Israel. 24 But Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and they took possession of his land from Arnon to Jabbok, until the Ammonites,[b] because the boundary of the Ammonites[c] was strong. 25 Israel took all these cities, and Israel inhabited all the cities of the Amorites,[d] in Heshbon, and in all its environs.[e] 26 Because Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites,[f] who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land from his hand until Arnon. 27 Thus the ones who quote proverbs say,
“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!
And let the city of Sihon be established.
28 Because fire went out from Heshbon,
a flame from the city of Sihon;
it consumed Ar of Moab,
the lords of the[g] high places of Arnon.
29 Woe to you, Moab!
You have perished, people of Chemosh.
He has given his sons as fugitives,
and his daughters into captivity,
to the king of the Amorites,[h] Sihon.
30 We destroyed them;
Heshbon has perished up to Dibon;
we laid waste up to Nophah,
which reaches[i] Medeba.”
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.[j] 32 Moses sent to explore Jaazer; they captured its environs[k] and dispossessed the Amorites[l] who were there.
33 Then they turned and went up by the way of the Bashan, and Og king of the Bashan and all his people went out to meet them for battle at Edrei. 34 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Do not fear him because I will give him and all his people and all his land into your hand. You will do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites,[m] who was living in Heshbon.” 35 And so they destroyed him and his sons, and all his people until they had not spared a survivor; and they took possession of his land.
12 Therefore many of them believed, and not a few of the prominent Greek women and men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the message of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there too, inciting and stirring up the crowds. 14 So then the brothers sent Paul away at once to go to the sea, and both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 And those who conducted Paul brought him[a] as far as Athens, and after[b] receiving an order for Silas and Timothy that they should come to him as soon as possible, they went away.
Paul in Athens
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he[c] observed the city was full of idols. 17 So he was discussing in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles,[d] and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 And even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were saying, “What does this babbler want to say?” But others said,[e] “He appears to be a proclaimer of foreign deities,” because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took hold of him and[f] brought him[g] to the Areopagus, saying, “May we learn what is this new teaching being proclaimed by you? 20 For you are bringing some astonishing things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”[h] 21 (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who stayed there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling something or listening to something new.)
Paul Speaks to the Areopagus
22 So Paul stood there in the middle of the Areopagus and[i] said, “Men of Athens, I see you are very religious in every respect.[j] 23 For as I[k] was passing through and observing carefully your objects of worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an unknown God.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it,[l] this I proclaim to you— 24 the God who made the world and all the things in it. This one, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands as if he[m] needed anything, because[n] he himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation, 27 to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him.[o] And indeed he is not far away from each one of us, 28 for in him we live and move and exist,[p] as even some of your own[q] poets have said: ‘For we also are his[r] offspring.’[s] 29 Therefore, because we[t] are offspring of God, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. 30 Therefore although[u] God has overlooked the times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man who he has appointed, having provided proof to everyone by[v] raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they[w] heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you about this again also.” 33 So Paul went out from the midst of them. 34 But some people[x] joined him and[y] believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named[z] Damaris and others with them.
A Woman with a Disabling Spirit Healed
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, a woman was there[a] who had a spirit that had disabled her[b] for eighteen years, and she was bent over and not able to straighten herself up completely.[c] 12 And when he[d] saw her, Jesus summoned her[e] and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability!” 13 And he placed his[f] hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered and[g] said to the crowd, “There are six days on which it is necessary to work. Therefore come and[h] be healed on them, and not on the day of the Sabbath!” 15 But the Lord answered and said to him, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you untie his ox or his[i] donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it[j] away to water it?[k] 16 And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound eighteen[l] long years—is it not necessary that she be released from this bond on the day of the Sabbath?” 17 And when[m] he said these things, all those who opposed him were humiliated, and the whole crowd was rejoicing at all the splendid things that were being done by him.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software