Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable (in instruction by numerous examples); I will utter dark sayings of old [that hide important truth]—(A)
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, but we will tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonderful works that He has performed.
5 For He established a testimony (an express precept) in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, commanding our fathers that they should make [the great facts of God’s dealings with Israel] known to their children,
6 That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born might arise and recount them to their children,
7 That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but might keep His commandments
8 And might not be as their fathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their hearts aright nor prepared their hearts to know God, and whose spirits were not steadfast and faithful to God.
9 The children of Ephraim were armed and carrying bows, yet they turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk according to His law
11 And forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].
13 He divided the [Red] Sea and caused them to pass through it, and He made the waters stand like a heap.(B)
14 In the daytime also He led them with a [pillar of] cloud and all the night with a light of fire.(C)
15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as out of the deep.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh] and caused waters to run down like rivers.(D)
17 Yet they still went on to sin against Him by provoking and rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness (in the land of drought).
18 And they tempted God in their hearts by asking for food according to their [selfish] desire and appetite.
19 Yes, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish [the food for] a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He did smite the rock so that waters gushed out and the streams overflowed; but can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was [full of] wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, His anger mounted up against Israel,
22 Because in God they believed not [they relied not on Him, they adhered not to Him], and they trusted not in His salvation (His power to save).
23 Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven;
24 And He rained down upon them manna to eat and gave them heaven’s grain.(E)
25 Everyone ate the bread of the mighty [man ate angels’ food]; God sent them meat in abundance.
26 He let forth the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by His power He guided the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them like the dust, and winged birds [quails] like the sand of the seas.(F)
28 And He let [the birds] fall in the midst of their camp, round about their tents.
29 So they ate and were well filled; He gave them what they craved and lusted after.
30 But scarce had they stilled their craving, and while their meat was yet in their mouths,(G)
31 The wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest and sturdiest of them and smote down Israel’s chosen youth.
32 In spite of all this, they sinned still more, for they believed not in (relied not on and adhered not to Him for) His wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days He consumed like a breath [in emptiness, falsity, and futility] and their years in terror and sudden haste.
34 When He slew [some of] them, [the remainder] inquired after Him diligently, and they repented and sincerely sought God [for a time].
35 And they [earnestly] remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths and lied to Him with their tongues.
37 For their hearts were not right or sincere with Him, neither were they faithful and steadfast to His covenant.(H)
38 But He, full of [merciful] compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not; yes, many a time He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath and indignation.
39 For He [earnestly] remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that goes and does not return.
40 How often they defied and rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
41 And time and again they turned back and tempted God, provoking and incensing the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not [seriously the miracles of the working of] His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 How He wrought His miracles in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided]
44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink from them.
45 He sent swarms of [venomous] flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crops to the caterpillar and [the fruit of] their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost and [great chunks of] ice.
48 He [caused them to shut up their cattle or] gave them up also to the hail and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.(I)
49 He let loose upon them the fierceness of His anger, His wrath and indignation and distress, by sending [a mission of] angels of calamity and woe among them.
50 He leveled and made a straight path for His anger [to give it free course]; He did not spare [the Egyptian families] from death but gave their beasts over to the pestilence and the life [of their eldest] over to the plague.
51 He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.
52 But [God] led His own people forth like sheep and guided them [with a shepherd’s care] like a flock in the wilderness.
53 And He led them on safely and in confident trust, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.(J)
54 And He brought them to His holy border, the border of [Canaan] His sanctuary, even to this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.
55 He drove out the nations also before [Israel] and allotted their land as a heritage, measured out and partitioned; and He made the tribes of Israel to dwell in the tents of those dispossessed.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked and rebelled against the Most High God and kept not His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt unfaithfully and treacherously like their fathers; they were twisted like a warped and deceitful bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].
58 For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [for idol worship] and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was full of [holy] wrath; and He utterly rejected Israel, greatly abhorring and loathing [her ways],
60 So that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent in which He had dwelt among men [and never returned to it again],
61 And delivered His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity, and His glory into the hands of the foe (the Philistines).(K)
62 He gave His people over also to the sword and was wroth with His heritage [Israel].(L)
63 The fire [of war] devoured their young men, and their bereaved virgins were not praised in a wedding song.
64 Their priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation [for the bodies came not back from the scene of battle, and the widow of Phinehas also died that day].(M)
65 Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, as a strong man whose consciousness of power is heightened by wine.
66 And He smote His adversaries in the back [as they fled]; He put them to lasting shame and reproach.
67 Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle had been accustomed to stand].
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].
69 And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens] and like the earth which He established forever.
70 He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;(N)
71 From tending the ewes that had their young He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob His people, of Israel His inheritance.(O)
72 So [David] was their shepherd with an upright heart; he guided them by the discernment and skillfulness [which controlled] his hands.
21 And Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow.
22 But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I will not go until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there as long as he lives.
23 Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word. So Hannah remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.
24 When she had [a]weaned him, she took him with her, with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin bottle of wine [to pour over the burnt offering for a sweet odor], and brought Samuel to the Lord’s house in Shiloh. The child was growing.
25 Then they slew the bull, and brought the child to Eli.
26 Hannah said, Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord.
27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted my petition made to Him.
28 Therefore I have given him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is given to the Lord. And they worshiped the Lord there.
2 Hannah prayed, and said, My heart exults and triumphs in the Lord; my horn (my strength) is lifted up in the Lord. My mouth is no longer silent, for it is opened wide over my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.
2 There is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides You; there is no Rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance go forth from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children languishes and is forlorn.
6 The Lord slays and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and He lifts up.
8 He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts up the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with nobles and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.
9 He will guard the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked shall be silenced and perish in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them will He thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge [all peoples] to the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to [b]His king (King) and exalt the power of His anointed (Anointed [c]His Christ).(A)
11 Elkanah and his wife Hannah returned to Ramah to his house. But the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.
15 Now on one of those days Peter arose among the brethren, the whole number of whom gathered together was about a hundred and twenty.
16 Brethren, he said, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the lips of David, about Judas who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus.
17 For he was counted among us and received [by divine allotment] his portion in this ministry.
18 Now this man obtained a piece of land with the [money paid him as a] reward for his treachery and wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle [of his body] and all his intestines poured forth.
19 And all the residents of Jerusalem became acquainted with the facts, so that they called the piece of land in their own dialect—Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
20 For in the book of Psalms it is written, Let his place of residence become deserted and gloomy, and let there be no one to live in it; and [again], Let another take his position or overseership.(A)
21 So one of the [other] men who have accompanied us [apostles] during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 From the baptism of John at the outset until the day when He was taken up from among us—one of these men must join with us and become a witness to testify to His resurrection.
23 And they accordingly proposed (nominated) two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed and said, You, Lord, Who know all hearts ([a]their thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, purposes, and endeavors), indicate to us which one of these two You have chosen
25 To take the place in this ministry and receive the position of an apostle, from which Judas fell away and went astray to go [where he belonged] to his own [proper] place.
26 And they drew lots [between the two], and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to and counted with the eleven apostles (special messengers).
19 The scribes and the chief priests desired and tried to find a way to arrest Him at that very hour, but they were afraid of the people; for they discerned that He had related this parable against them.
20 So they watched [for an opportunity to ensnare] Him, and sent spies who pretended to be upright (honest and sincere), that they might lay hold of something He might say, so as to turn Him over to the control and authority of the governor.
21 They asked Him, Teacher, we know that You speak and teach what is right, and that You show no partiality to anyone but teach the way of God honestly and in truth.
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?
23 But He recognized and understood their cunning and [a]unscrupulousness and said to them,
24 Show Me a denarius (a coin)! Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered, Caesar’s.
25 He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, [b]and to God the things that are God’s.
26 So they could not in the presence of the people take hold of anything He said to turn it against Him; but marveling at His reply, they were silent.
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