Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 97[a]
97 The Lord reigns.
Let the earth be happy.
Let the many coastlands rejoice.
2 Dark clouds surround him;
equity and justice are the foundation of his throne.[b]
3 Fire goes before him;
on every side[c] it burns up his enemies.
4 His lightning bolts light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The sky declares his justice,
and all the nations see his splendor.
7 All who worship idols are ashamed,
those who boast about worthless idols.
All the gods bow down before him.[d]
8 Zion hears and rejoices,
the towns[e] of Judah are happy,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are the Most High[f] over the whole earth;
you are elevated high above all gods.
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects[g] the lives of his faithful followers;
he delivers them from the power[h] of the wicked.
11 The godly bask in the light;
the morally upright experience joy.[i]
12 You godly ones, rejoice in the Lord.
Give thanks to his holy name.[j]
Psalm 99[a]
99 The Lord reigns!
The nations tremble.[b]
He sits enthroned above the cherubim;[c]
the earth shakes.[d]
2 The Lord is elevated[e] in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name.
He[f] is holy!
4 The king is strong;
he loves justice.[g]
You ensure that legal decisions will be made fairly;[h]
you promote justice and equity in Jacob.
5 Praise[i] the Lord our God.
Worship[j] before his footstool.
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests;
Samuel was one of those who prayed to him.[k]
They[l] prayed to the Lord and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from a pillar of cloud;[m]
they obeyed his regulations and the ordinance he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them.
They found you to be a forgiving God,
but also one who punished their sinful deeds.[n]
9 Praise[o] the Lord our God!
Worship on his holy hill,
for the Lord our God is holy.
Psalm 100[p]
A thanksgiving psalm.
100 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Worship[q] the Lord with joy.
Enter his presence with joyful singing.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us and we belong to him,[r]
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give him thanks.
Praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good.
His loyal love endures,[s]
and he is faithful through all generations.[t]
Psalm 94[a]
94 O Lord, the God who avenges!
O God who avenges, reveal your splendor.[b]
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud.
3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked celebrate?[c]
4 They spew out threats[d] and speak defiantly;
all the evildoers boast.[e]
5 O Lord, they crush your people;
they oppress the nation that belongs to you.[f]
6 They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,
and they murder the fatherless.[g]
7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;
the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”[h]
8 Take notice of this,[i] you ignorant people.[j]
You fools, when will you ever understand?
9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?
Does the one who forms the human eye not see?[k]
10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?
He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!
11 The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts
are morally bankrupt.[l]
12 How blessed is the one[m] whom you instruct, O Lord,
the one whom you teach from your law,
13 in order to protect him from times of trouble,[n]
until the wicked are destroyed.[o]
14 Certainly[p] the Lord does not forsake his people;
he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.[q]
15 For justice will prevail,[r]
and all the morally upright[s] will be vindicated.[t]
16 Who will rise up to defend me[u] against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?[v]
17 If the Lord had not helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.[w]
18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.
19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me,[x]
your soothing touch makes me happy.[y]
20 Cruel rulers[z] are not your allies,
those who make oppressive laws.[aa]
21 They conspire against[ab] the blameless,[ac]
and condemn to death the innocent.[ad]
22 But the Lord will protect me,[ae]
and my God will shelter me.[af]
23 He will pay them back for their sin.[ag]
He will destroy them because of[ah] their evil;
the Lord our God will destroy them.
Psalm 95[ai]
95 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
Let us shout out praises to our Protector who delivers us.[aj]
2 Let us enter his presence[ak] with thanksgiving.
Let us shout out to him in celebration.[al]
3 For the Lord is a great God,
a great king who is superior to[am] all gods.
4 The depths of the earth are in his hand,[an]
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down and worship.[ao]
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Creator.
7 For he is our God;
we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep he owns.[ap]
Today, if only you would obey him.[aq]
8 He says,[ar] “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah,[as]
like they were that day at Massah[at] in the wilderness,[au]
9 where your ancestors challenged my authority,[av]
and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I was continually disgusted[aw] with that generation,
and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray;[ax]
they do not obey my commands.’[ay]
11 So I made a vow in my anger,
‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”[az]
The Philistines Return the Ark
6 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land[a] of the Philistines for seven months,[b] 2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”
3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of[c] the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand has not been removed from you.” 4 They inquired, “What is the guilt offering that we should send to him?”
They replied, “The Philistine leaders number five. So send five gold sores and five gold mice, for it is the same plague that has afflicted both you and your leaders. 5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice[d] that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land.[e] 6 Why harden your hearts like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did?[f] When God[g] treated them harshly, didn’t the Egyptians send the Israelites on their way?[h] 7 So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart, and take their calves from them back to their stalls. 8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a chest beside it the gold objects you are sending to him as a guilt offering. You should then send it on its way. 9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”
10 So the men did as instructed.[i] They took two cows that had calves and harnessed the cows to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls. 11 They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores. 12 Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along that route, bellowing[j] more and more;[k] they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.
13 Now the residents of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they were pleased at the sight. 14 The cart was coming to the field of Joshua, who was from Beth Shemesh. It paused there near a big stone. Then they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, which contained the gold objects. They placed them near the big stone. At that time the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 16 The five leaders of the Philistines watched what was happening and then returned to Ekron on the same day.
27 When they had brought them, they stood them before the council,[a] and the high priest questioned[b] them, 28 saying, “We gave[c] you strict orders[d] not to teach in this name.[e] Look,[f] you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood[g] on us!” 29 But Peter and the apostles replied,[h] “We must obey[i] God rather than people.[j] 30 The God of our forefathers[k] raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree.[l] 31 God exalted him[m] to his right hand as Leader[n] and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.[o] 32 And we are witnesses of these events,[p] and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey[q] him.”
33 Now when they heard this, they became furious[r] and wanted to execute them.[s] 34 But a Pharisee[t] whose name was Gamaliel,[u] a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up[v] in the council[w] and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. 35 Then he said to the council,[x] “Men of Israel,[y] pay close attention to[z] what you are about to do to these men. 36 For some time ago[aa] Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about 400 men joined him. He[ab] was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it.[ac] 37 After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census,[ad] and incited people to follow him in revolt.[ae] He too was killed, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people,[af] it will come to nothing,[ag] 39 but if[ah] it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found[ai] fighting against God.” He convinced them,[aj] 40 and they summoned the apostles and had them beaten.[ak] Then[al] they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. 41 So they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy[am] to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.[an] 42 And every day both in the temple courts[ao] and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news[ap] that Jesus was the Christ.[aq]
37 So[a] every day Jesus[b] was teaching in the temple courts,[c] but at night he went and stayed[d] on the Mount of Olives.[e] 38 And all the people[f] came to him early in the morning to listen to him in the temple courts.[g]
Judas’ Decision to Betray Jesus
22 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread,[h] which is called the Passover, was approaching. 2 The[i] chief priests and the experts in the law[j] were trying to find some way[k] to execute[l] Jesus,[m] for they were afraid of the people.[n]
3 Then[o] Satan[p] entered Judas, the one called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve.[q] 4 He went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers of the temple guard[r] how he might[s] betray Jesus,[t] handing him over to them.[u] 5 They[v] were delighted[w] and arranged to give him money.[x] 6 So[y] Judas[z] agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus[aa] when no crowd was present.[ab]
The Passover
7 Then the day for the feast[ac] of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.[ad] 8 Jesus[ae] sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover[af] for us to eat.”[ag] 9 They[ah] said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare[ai] it?” 10 He said to them, “Listen,[aj] when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water[ak] will meet you.[al] Follow him into the house that he enters, 11 and tell the owner of the house,[am] ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 12 Then he will show you a large furnished room upstairs. Make preparations there.” 13 So[an] they went and found things[ao] just as he had told them,[ap] and they prepared the Passover.
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