Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
A Contemplative Maskil 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;
I will utter insightful sayings of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell the coming generation
the praises of the Lord,
and His strength, and the wonderful works that He has done.
5 For He established a rule in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
that they should make them known to their children,
6 that the generation to come might know them,
even the children who are not yet born,
who will arise and declare them to their children:
7 that they might set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep His commandments,
8 and they might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not set their heart steadfast,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The people of Ephraim, being armed with bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to walk in His law;
11 and they forgot His works
and the wonders that He had shown them.
12 In the sight of their ancestors He did marvelous wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them abundance to drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams out of the rock
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 They sinned yet more against Him
by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food that they craved.
19 They spoke against God by saying,
“Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out
and the streams overflowed.
Can He give bread
or provide meat for His people?”
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
nor trust in His deliverance.
23 Yet He had commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and He rained down manna upon them to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate the food of mighty angels;
He sent them bread in abundance.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by His power He brought out a south wind.
27 He rained meat on them as dust,
and winged birds as the sand of the sea;
28 and He let them fall in the midst of their camp
all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were satisfied,
for He gave them their own desire;
30 while they were not yet filled up,
and while the meat was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them,
and He killed the strongest of them
and struck down the young men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still,
and did not believe despite His wondrous works.
33 Therefore He made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in trouble.
34 When He killed them, then they sought Him;
they turned back and longed for God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
and the Most High God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,
and they lied to Him with their tongues;
37 for their heart was not devoted to Him,
neither were they committed to His covenant.
38 But He being full of compassion
forgave their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He constantly restrained His anger,
and did not stir up all His wrath;
39 for He remembered that they were but flesh,
like a wind that passes away and does not return.
40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, they tested God over and over,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power,
nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 how He had performed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the fields of Zoan:
44 and He turned their rivers into blood,
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger,
wrath, indignation, and trouble,
by sending angels bringing disaster.
50 He made a path for His anger;
He did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague,
51 And struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then He led out His own people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of His holy land,
to the mountain that His right hand had acquired.
55 He cast out the nations also before them,
and divided for them their tribal allotments,
and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God,
and did not keep His commands,
57 but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
they turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places
and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was full of wrath
and greatly rejected Israel
60 so that He left the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He lived among people,
61 and delivered His strength to captivity
and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave His people over also to the sword;
He was enraged with His inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men,
and their maidens were not given to marriage in song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.
66 He routed His enemies back,
and He made them a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loves.
69 He built His sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth that He has established perpetually.
70 He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes He brought him
to shepherd Jacob His people,
and Israel His inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart
and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Isaac and Abimelek(A)
26 There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was during the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land of which I will tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you; for I will give to you and all your descendants all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens and will give your descendants all these lands. By your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed,[a] 5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” 6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich and continued to prosper until he became very wealthy. 14 For he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great number of servants so that the Philistines envied him. 15 For the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father by filling them with dirt.
16 Abimelek said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much more powerful than we are.”
17 So Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names his father had called them.
19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of running water there, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar contended with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. 21 They dug another well and quarreled over that also. So he called the name of it Sitnah. 22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called the name of it Rehoboth, for he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23 He went up from there to Beersheba. 24 The Lord appeared to him that same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”
25 He built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelek went to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
28 And they said, “We saw plainly that the Lord was with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you, and have done you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
30 Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 They rose up early in the morning and swore an oath with one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 And he called it Shibah. Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do this with joy and not complaining, for that would not be profitable to you.
18 Pray for us. For we trust that we have a good conscience and in all things are willing to live honestly. 19 But I implore you to pray, that I may be restored to you very soon.
Benediction and Final Greetings
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
22 I implore you, brothers, to heed this word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.
23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.
24 Greet all those who rule over you and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
The Woman Caught in Adultery
53 Then everyone went to his own house.[a]
8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning He returned to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. When they had put her in the middle, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such, but what do You say?” 6 They said this, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.
But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear them. 7 So when they continued asking Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 Being convicted by their conscience, those who heard it went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even to the last. Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had stood up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.