Book of Common Prayer
An instruction[a] of Asaph
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
78 Listen, my people, to my instruction.
Hear[b] the words of my mouth.
2 I will tell[c] a parable,
speaking riddles from long ago—
3 things that we have heard and known
and that our ancestors related to us.
4 We will not withhold them from their descendants;
we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the Lord—
his might and awesome deeds that he has performed.
5 He established a decree in Jacob,
and established the Law in Israel,
that he commanded our ancestors
to reveal to their children
6 in order that the next generation—
children yet to be born—
will know them and
in turn teach them to their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God
and they will not forget his awesome deeds.
Instead, they will keep his commandments.
8 They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors,
a rebellious generation,
whose heart was not steadfast,
and whose spirits were unfaithful to God.
9 The descendants of Ephraim were sharp shooters with the bow,
but they retreated in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant,
and refused to live by his Law.
11 They have forgotten what he has done,
his awesome deeds that they witnessed.
12 He performed marvelous things
in the presence of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt—
in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea so that they were able to cross;
he caused the water to stand in a single location.
14 He led them with a cloud during the day,
and during the night with light from the fire.
15 He caused the rocks to split in the wilderness,
and gave them water[d] as from an abundant sea.
16 He brought streams from rock,
causing water to flow like a river.
17 But time and again, they sinned against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 To test God was in their minds,
when they demanded food to satisfy their cravings.[e]
19 They spoke against God by asking,
“Is God able to prepare a feast[f] in the desert?
20 It’s true that[g] Moses[h] struck the rock so that water flowed forth
and torrents of water gushed out,
but is he also able to give bread
or to supply meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard this, he was angry,
and fire broke out against Jacob.
Moreover, his anger flared against Israel,
22 because they didn’t believe in God
and didn’t trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and the doors of the heavens to open,
24 so that manna rained down on them for food
and he sent them the grain of heaven.
25 Mortal men[i] ate the food of angels;
he sent provision to them in abundance.
26 He stirred up the east wind in the heavens
and drove the south wind by his might.
27 He caused meat to rain on them like dust
and winged birds as the sand of the sea.
28 He caused these to fall in the middle of the camp
and all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very satisfied,
because he granted their desire.
30 However, before they had fulfilled their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God flared against them,
and he killed the strongest men
and humbled Israel’s young men.
32 In spite of all of this, they kept on sinning
and didn’t believe in his marvelous deeds.
33 So he made their days end in futility,
and their years with sudden terror.
34 When he struck them, they sought him;
they repented, and eagerly sought God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock,
and the Most High God was their deliverer.
36 But they deceived him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
37 For their hearts weren’t committed to him,
and they weren’t faithful to his covenant.
38 But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity
and didn’t destroy them;
He restrained his anger
and didn’t vent all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were only flesh,
a passing wind that doesn’t return.
40 How they rebelled against him in the desert,
grieving him in the wilderness!
41 They tested God again and again,
provoking the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he delivered them from their adversary,
43 when he set his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the plain of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood
and made their streams undrinkable.
45 He sent swarms of insects to bite them
and frogs to destroy them.
46 He gave their crops to caterpillars
and what they worked for to locusts.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore[j] trees with frost.
48 He delivered their beasts to hail
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
49 He inflicted his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
sending destroying angels among them.
50 He blazed a path for his anger;
he did not stop short from killing them,
but handed them over to pestilence.
51 He struck every firstborn in Egypt,
the first fruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 Yet he led out his people like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them to safety so they would not fear.
As for their enemies, the sea covered them.
54 He brought the people[k] to the border of his holy mountain,
which he acquired by his might.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their tribal inheritance,
settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him,
and they did not obey his statutes.
57 They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors.
They became unreliable, like a defective bow;
58 they angered him with their high places
and with their carved images they made him jealous.
59 God heard and became furious,
and he completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the tent at Shiloh,
the tent that he established among mankind.
61 Then he sent his might[l] into captivity
and his glory into the control of the adversary.
62 He delivered his people over to the sword
and was angry with his possession.
63 The young men were consumed by fire,
and the virgins had no marriage celebrations.[m]
64 The priests fell by the sword,
yet their widows couldn’t weep.
65 The Lord awoke as though from sleep,
like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine.
66 He beat back his adversaries,
permanently disgracing them.
67 He rejected the clan[n] of Joseph;
and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose.
68 But he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary, high as the heavens,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 Then he chose his servant David,
whom he took from the sheepfold.
71 He brought him from birthing sheep
to care for Jacob, his people,
Israel, his possession.
72 David[o] shepherded them with a devoted heart,
and led them with skillful hands.
Rewards for Obedience
26 “You are not to make worthless idols, images, or pillars for yourselves, nor set up for yourselves carved images to bow down to them in the land, because I am the Lord your God.
2 “You are to keep my Sabbath and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3 “If you live[a] by my statutes, obey my commands, and observe them, 4 then I’ll send[b] your rain in its season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. 5 Threshing will extend to the time of vintage and the vintage will extend to the time of sowing, so that you’ll eat your bread to your satisfaction and live securely in your land. 6 I’ll give peace in the land so that you’ll lie down without fear. I’ll remove wild[c] beasts from the land, and not even war will come to[d] your land. 7 Instead, you’ll pursue your enemies and they’ll die[e] by the sword before you. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
9 “I’ll look after you, ensuring that you’ll be fruitful. I’ll increase your number[f] and keep[g] my covenant with you. 10 When you have consumed what was stored of the old, then you’ll take out the old and replace it with what’s new. 11 I’ll set up my tent in your midst and I[h] won’t loathe you. 12 I’ll walk among you. I will be your God, and you’ll be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you will no longer be their slaves, since I’ve broken their oppressive yoke upon you to make you walk upright.”
Cascading Consequences
14 “But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, 15 and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, 16 then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. 17 I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.
18 “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. 19 I’ll break your mighty pride.[i] I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.
Prayer and Submission to Authority
2 First of all, then, I urge you to offer to God[a] petitions, prayers, intercessions, and expressions of thanks for all people, 2 for kings, and for everyone who has authority, so that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life with all godliness and dignity.[b] 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to know the truth fully. 5 There is one God. There is also one mediator between God and human beings—a human, the Messiah[c] Jesus. 6 He gave himself as a ransom for everyone, the testimony at the proper time.
Jesus Explains the Parable about the Farmer(A)
18 “Listen, then, to the parable about the farmer. 19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom yet doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on the stony ground, this is the person who hears the word and accepts it joyfully at once, 21 but since he doesn’t have any root in himself, he lasts for only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes along because of the word, he immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among the thorn bushes, this is the person who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitful pleasures of wealth choke the word so that it can’t produce a crop. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word, understands it, and produces a crop that yields 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown.”[a]
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