Book of Common Prayer
The Unfaithfulness of God’s People
106 Hallelujah!
Give thanks to the Lord,
since he is good,
for his gracious love exists forever.
2 Who can fully describe the mighty acts of the Lord
or proclaim all his praises?
3 How happy are those who enforce justice,
who live righteously all the time.
4 Remember me, Lord,
when you show favor to your people.
Visit us with your deliverance,
5 to witness the prosperity of your chosen ones,
to rejoice in your nation’s joy,
to glory in your inheritance.
6 We have sinned, along with our ancestors;
we have committed iniquity and wickedness.
7 In Egypt, our ancestors neither comprehended your awesome deeds
nor remembered your abundant gracious love.
Instead, they rebelled beside the sea, the Reed[a] Sea.
8 He delivered for the sake of his name,[b]
to make his power known.
9 He shouted at the Reed[c] Sea and it dried up;
and led them through the sea as though through a desert.
10 He delivered them from the power of their foe;
redeeming them from the power of their enemy.
11 The water overwhelmed their enemies,
so that not one of them survived.[d]
12 Then they believed his word
and sung his praise.
13 But they quickly forgot his deeds
and did not wait for his counsel.
14 They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness,
so God tested them in the wasteland.
15 God granted them their request,
but sent leanness into their lives.
16 They were envious of Moses in the camp,
and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,
closing over Abiram’s clan.
18 Then a fire burned among their company,
a flame that set the wicked ablaze.
19 They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped a carved image.
20 They exchanged their glory[e]
with the image of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who performed great things in Egypt—
22 awesome deeds in the land of Ham,[f]
astonishing deeds at the Reed[g] Sea.
23 He would have destroyed them
but for Moses, his chosen one,
who stood in the breach before him
to avert[h] his destructive wrath.
24 They rejected the desirable land,
and they didn’t trust his promise.
25 They murmured in their tents,
and didn’t listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he swore an oath concerning them—
that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,
27 to cause their children to perish among the nations
and be scattered among many[i] lands.
28 For they adopted the worship[j] of Baal Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29 They had provoked anger by their deeds,
so that a plague broke out against them.
30 But Phinehas intervened and prayed
so that the plague was restrained.
31 And it was credited to him as a righteous act,
from generation to generation—to eternity.
32 They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[k] on account of them.
33 For they rebelled against him,[l]
so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.
34 They never destroyed the people,
as the Lord had commanded them.
35 Instead, they mingled among the nations
and learned their ways.[m]
36 They worshipped[n] their idols,
and this became a trap for them.
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters—
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
thereby polluting the land with blood.
39 Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did;
they have acted like whores by their evil deeds.
40 The Lord’s anger burned against his people,
so that he despised his own inheritance.
41 He turned them over to domination by nations
where those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so that they were humiliated by their power.
43 He delivered them many times,
but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans;
therefore they sunk deep in their sins.
44 Yet when he saw their distress
and heard their cries for help,[o]
45 he remembered his covenant with them,
and so relented
according to the greatness of his gracious love.
46 He caused all their captors to show compassion toward them.
47 Deliver us, Lord our God,
gather us from among the nations
so we may praise your holy name
and rejoice in praising you.
48 Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel,
from eternity to eternity;
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Hallelujah!
Saul is Proclaimed King
17 Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah. 18 He told the Israelis, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the power[a] of Egypt and from the power[b] of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God who delivers you from all your troubles and difficulties. You have said, ‘No![c] Instead, appoint a king over us.’ Now present yourselves in the Lord’s presence by your tribes and families.”
20 Samuel brought forward all the tribes of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. 21 Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin according to its families, and the family of Matri was chosen. Finally, Kish’s son Saul was chosen, but when they looked for him, they couldn’t find him. 22 So they inquired further of the Lord, “Has the man come here yet?”
The Lord said, “He is here, hiding among the baggage.”
23 They ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the others by a head.[d] 24 Then Samuel told all the people, “Do you see the man whom the Lord has chosen? For there is no one like him among all the people.”
Then all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
25 Samuel explained to the people the regulations[e] concerning kingship. He wrote them in a scroll and placed it in the Lord’s presence. Then Samuel sent all the people to their own houses. 26 Saul also went to his house in Gibeah, and the soldiers[f] whose hearts God had touched went with him. 27 But some troublemakers[g] said, “How can this man deliver us?” They despised him and did not bring him a gift. But Saul[h] remained silent.
44 “Our ancestors had the Tent of Testimony[a] in the wilderness constructed,[b] just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors brought it here with Joshua when they replaced the nations that God drove out in front of our ancestors, and it was here until the time of David. 46 He found favor with God and asked to design a dwelling for the house[c] of Jacob, 47 but it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 However, the Most High does not live in buildings made by human[d] hands. As the prophet says,
49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house can you build for me,’ declares the Lord,[e]
“or what place is there in which I can rest?
50 It was my hand that made all these things, wasn’t it?’”[f]
51 “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53 You received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet you haven’t obeyed it!”
Stephen is Stoned to Death
54 While they were listening to these things, they became more and more furious and began to grind their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen,[g] filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 But they shouted out loud, stopped listening, and together they all rushed at him, 58 ran him outside of the city, and began to stone him to death. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they continued to stone Stephen, he kept praying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” After he had said this, he died.[h]
The Church is Scattered
8 Now Saul heartily approved of putting Stephen[i] to death. That day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except for the apostles was scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
52 Then Jesus told the high priests, the Temple police, and the elders, who had come for him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit?[a] 53 While I was with you day after day in the Temple, you didn’t lay a hand on me. But this is your hour, when darkness reigns!”[b]
Peter Denies Jesus(A)
54 Then they arrested him, led him away, and brought him to the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. 55 When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had taken their seats, Peter, too, sat down among them. 56 A servant girl saw him sitting by the fire, stared at him, and said, “This man was with him, too.”
57 But he denied it, “I don’t know him, woman!” he responded.
58 A little later, a man looked at him and said, “You are one of them, too.”
But Peter said, “Mister,[c] I am not!”
59 About an hour later, another man emphatically asserted, “This man was certainly with him, because he is a Galilean!”
60 But Peter said, “Mister,[d] I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just then, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.
61 Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word from the Lord, and how he had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 So he went outside and cried bitterly.
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