Book of Common Prayer
Mem: Sweeter Than Honey
97 How I love your laws!
I meditate on them all day long.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
because it is always with me.
99 I have more wisdom than all my teachers,
because your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
because I guard your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet off every evil path
in order to keep your words.
102 I have not turned from your judgments,
because you yourself have instructed me.
103 How sweet are your sayings to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From your precepts I gain understanding.
Therefore, I hate every false road.
Nun: A Lamp for My Feet
105 Your words are a lamp for my feet
and a light for my path.
106 I have sworn and affirmed
that I will keep your righteous judgments.
107 I have suffered much.
Lord, give me life according to your words.
108 Lord, please accept the willing praise from my mouth,
and teach me your judgments.
109 I take my life in my hands constantly,
but I will not forget your law.
110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
but I have not wandered from your precepts.
111 I have inherited your testimonies forever.
Yes, they are the joy of my heart.
112 I turn my heart to do your statutes,
forever, right to the end.
Samekh: Get Away From Me, You Evildoers
113 I hate the doubleminded, but I love your law.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield.
I wait confidently for your word.
115 Get away from me, you evildoers,
so that I may guard the commandments of my God!
116 Sustain me according to your sayings, and I will live.
Do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
117 Hold me up, and I will be saved.
Then I will always have regard for your statutes.
118 You reject all who stray from your statutes,
because their deceitfulness is built on a lie.[a]
119 You discard all the wicked of the earth like slag.
Therefore, I love your testimonies.
120 My flesh trembles because I am afraid of you,
because I fear your judgments.
Psalm 81
If Only
Heading
For the choir director. According to gittith.[a] By Asaph.
Invitation to Worship
1 Sing a loud song to God, our strength.
Shout to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, and play the hand drum.
Play the sweet-sounding lyre along with the harp.
3 Sound the ram’s horn at the new moon
and at the full moon for our festival day.
4 Yes, this is an order for Israel,
a regulation from the God of Jacob.
5 God established it as a testimony for Joseph
when he went out against the land of Egypt.
There I heard a language I did not know.[b]
A Warning From the Lord
6 The Lord says:
I relieved Israel’s shoulders from the burden.
His hands were set free from carrying buckets.
7 In distress you called and I rescued you.
I answered you from the hiding place of thunder. Interlude
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Listen, my people, and I will warn you.
If only you would listen to me, Israel!
9 There shall be no foreign god among you!
You shall not bow down to a strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not listen to my voice,
and Israel was not willing to obey me.
12 So I sent them off in the stubbornness of their hearts.
They walked according to their own plans.
13 If only my people would listen to me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways,
14 I would subdue their enemies quickly.
I would turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cower before him,
and their time of punishment would last forever.
16 But he would feed Israel with the best wheat.
With honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
Psalm 82
Woe to Corrupt Rulers
Heading
A psalm by Asaph.
Judgment on Corrupt Rulers
1 God is standing in the assembly of God.
In the midst of the gods[c] he renders judgment.
God’s Verdict
2 How long will you judge unjustly Interlude
and show favoritism to the wicked?
3 Judge in favor of the weak and the fatherless.
Acquit the oppressed and the poor.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy.
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
5 They do not know. They do not understand.
They walk around in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I myself said, “You are ‘gods,’
and you are all ‘sons of the Most High.’
7 But you will die like men.
You will fall like any other ruler.”
Prayer
8 Rise up, O God. Judge the earth,
for you will take possession of all the nations.
6 That night the king could not sleep, so he ordered that the chronicles,[a] the record of the memorable events of his reign, be brought to him. These accounts were read to the king.
2 They found the account about the incident when Mordecai had reported Bigthan[b] and Teresh, the king’s two eunuchs who had controlled access to the entrance to the palace, who had tried to assassinate King Xerxes.
3 The king said, “What honor and recognition has been given to Mordecai for this?”
Then the servants of the king who were attending him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
4 The king said, “Who is in the court?” Just then Haman had come to the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 The king’s servants said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” The king said, “Have him come in.”
6 When Haman came in, the king said to him, “What should be done to honor the man with whom the king is pleased?”
Haman said in his heart, “Who could there be that the king would be more pleased to honor than me?”
7 Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king is pleased to honor 8 should be clothed with garments that the king has worn. He should be given a horse on which the king has ridden, and crowned with a crown that has been on the king’s head. 9 These clothes and this horse should be delivered by one of the highest ranking noblemen of the king. They should dress up the man whom the king is pleased to honor and let him ride on the horse in the public square of the city. Walking in front of him, they will proclaim, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor.”
10 The king said to Haman, “Hurry! Take the clothing and the horse just as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits in the gatehouse of the king. Do not leave out a thing from whatever you have said.”
11 Haman took the clothing and the horse, clothed Mordecai, had him ride through the public square of the city, and proclaimed before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor.”
12 Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his home, mourning, with his head covered. 13 Haman reported all this to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends.
His advisors and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent,[c] you will not overcome him. Instead, you will surely fall before him.”
14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
Paul Goes to Ephesus
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior districts and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”
“No,” they answered, “we have not even heard that the Holy Spirit was given.”
3 Paul asked, “What were you baptized into then?”
They replied, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.[a] 5 When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.”[b]
6 When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in other languages and to prophesy. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, leading discussions and trying to persuade them about[c] the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became hardened and refused to believe, even slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he left them. He took the disciples with him and led discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, with the result that all who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
The Devil Tempts Jesus
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during those days. When they came to an end, he was hungry. 3 The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”[a]
5 The Devil led him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 The Devil told him, “I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been entrusted to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. 7 So, if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”[b]
9 The Devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here, 10 because it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you.
11 And,
they will lift you up with their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”[c]
12 Jesus answered him, “It says: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”[d]
13 When the Devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.