Book of Common Prayer
Praise to God for His Everlasting Mercy
2 (C)Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
5 (D)I called on the Lord in distress;
The Lord answered me and (E)set me in a broad place.
6 (F)The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
7 (G)The Lord is for me among those who help me;
Therefore (H)I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
8 (I)It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
9 (J)It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.
10 All nations surrounded me,
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
11 They (K)surrounded me,
Yes, they surrounded me;
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
12 They surrounded me (L)like bees;
They were quenched (M)like a fire of thorns;
For in the name of the Lord I will [a]destroy them.
13 You pushed me violently, that I might fall,
But the Lord helped me.
14 (N)The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
16 (O)The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
17 (P)I shall not die, but live,
And (Q)declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord has (R)chastened[b] me severely,
But He has not given me over to death.
19 (S)Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.
20 (T)This is the gate of the Lord,
(U)Through which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise You,
For You have (V)answered me,
And have become my salvation.
22 (W)The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
23 [c]This was the Lord’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I pray, O Lord;
O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.
26 (X)Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
27 God is the Lord,
And He has given us (Y)light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise You;
(Z)You are my God, I will exalt You.
29 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
A Song of God’s Majesty and Love
(A)A Praise of David.
145 I will [a]extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 (B)Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And (C)His greatness is [b]unsearchable.
4 (D)One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 [c]I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And [d]on Your wondrous works.
6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
7 They shall [e]utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
8 (E)The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
9 (F)The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
10 (G)All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
And Your saints shall bless You.
11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
13 (H)Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all [f]generations.
14 The Lord upholds all who fall,
And (I)raises up all who are bowed down.
15 (J)The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And (K)You give them their food in due season.
16 You open Your hand
(L)And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
18 (M)The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him (N)in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
20 (O)The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.
The Bronze Serpent
4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to (A)go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very [a]discouraged on the way. 5 And the people (B)spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul [b]loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So (C)the Lord sent (D)fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7 (E)Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have (F)sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; (G)pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, (H)“Make a (I)fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So (J)Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
King Sihon Defeated(A)
21 Then (B)Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22 (C)“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.” 23 (D)But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and [a]went out against Israel in the wilderness, (E)and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. 24 Then (F)Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the people of Ammon; for the border of the people of Ammon was fortified. 25 So Israel took all these cities, and Israel (G)dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. 26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. 27 Therefore those who speak in [b]proverbs say:
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
Let the city of Sihon be repaired.
28 “For (H)fire went out from Heshbon,
A flame from the city of Sihon;
It consumed (I)Ar of Moab,
The lords of the (J)heights of the Arnon.
29 Woe to you, (K)Moab!
You have perished, O people of (L)Chemosh!
He has given his (M)sons as fugitives,
And his (N)daughters into captivity,
To Sihon king of the Amorites.
30 “But we have shot at them;
Heshbon has perished (O)as far as Dibon.
Then we laid waste as far as Nophah,
Which reaches to (P)Medeba.”
31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 32 Then Moses sent to [c]spy out (Q)Jazer; and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.
King Og Defeated(R)
33 (S)And they turned and went up by the way to (T)Bashan. So Og king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle (U)at Edrei. 34 Then the Lord said to Moses, (V)“Do not fear him, for I have [d]delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and (W)you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.” 35 (X)So they defeated him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left him; and they took possession of his land.
12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. 14 (A)Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and (B)receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.
The Philosophers at Athens
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, (C)his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was [a]given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 [b]Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this [c]babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them (D)Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the [d]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Addressing the Areopagus
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the [e]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 (E)God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is (F)Lord of heaven and earth, (G)does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He (H)gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one [f]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and (I)the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 (J)so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, (K)though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for (L)in Him we live and move and have our being, (M)as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, (N)we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, (O)these times of ignorance God overlooked, but (P)now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which (Q)He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by (R)raising Him from the dead.”
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
A Spirit of Infirmity
10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way [a]raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your (A)infirmity.” 13 (B)And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had (C)healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, (D)“There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and (E)not on the Sabbath day.”
15 The Lord then answered him and said, [b]“Hypocrite! (F)Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, (G)being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were (H)done by Him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.