Book of Common Prayer
מ mem
97 I love your Instruction!
I think about it constantly.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies
because it is always with me.
99 I have greater insight than all my teachers
because I contemplate your laws.
100 I have more understanding than the elders
because I guard your precepts.
101 I haven’t set my feet on any evil path
so I can make sure to keep your word.
102 I haven’t deviated from any of your rules
because you are the one who has taught me.
103 Your word is so pleasing to my taste buds—
it’s sweeter than honey in my mouth!
104 I’m studying your precepts—
that’s why I hate every false path.
נ nun
105 Your word is a lamp before my feet
and a light for my journey.
106 I have sworn, and I fully mean it:
I will keep your righteous rules.
107 I have been suffering so much—
Lord, make me live again according to your promise.
108 Please, Lord, accept my spontaneous gifts of praise.
Teach me your rules!
109 Though my life is constantly in danger,
I won’t forget your Instruction.
110 Though the wicked have set a trap for me,
I won’t stray from your precepts.
111 Your laws are my possession forever
because they are my heart’s joy.
112 I have decided to keep your statutes forever, every last one.
ס samek
113 I hate fickle people,
but I love your Instruction.
114 You are my shelter and my shield—
I wait for your promise.
115 Get away from me, you evildoers;
I want to guard my God’s commandments!
116 Sustain me according to your word so I can live!
Don’t let me be put to shame because of hope.
117 Support me so I can be saved
and so I can focus constantly on your statutes.
118 You discard everyone who strays from your statutes
because they are dishonest and false.
119 You dispose of all the wicked people on earth like waste—
that’s why I love your laws.
120 My body shudders because I fear you;
I’m in awe of your rules.
Psalm 81
For the music leader. According to the Gittith. Of Asaph.
81 Rejoice out loud to God, our strength!
Shout for joy to Jacob’s God!
2 Take up a song and strike the drum!
Sweet lyre along with harp!
3 Blow the horn on the new moon,
at the full moon, for our day of celebration!
4 Because this is the law for Israel;
this is a rule of Jacob’s God.
5 He made it a decree for Joseph
when he went out against the land of Egypt,
when I heard a language I did not yet know:
6 “I lifted the burden off your shoulders;
your hands are free of the brick basket!
7 In distress you cried out, so I rescued you.
I answered you in the secret of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Listen, my people, I’m warning you!
If only you would listen to me, Israel.
9 There must be no foreign god among you.
You must not bow down to any strange deity.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up!
11 But my people wouldn’t listen to my voice.
Israel simply wasn’t agreeable toward me.
12 So I sent them off to follow their willful hearts;
they followed their own advice.
13 How I wish my people would listen to me!
How I wish Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would subdue their enemies in a second;
I would turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would grovel before me,
and their doom would last forever!
16 But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”
Psalm 82
A psalm of Asaph.
82 God takes his stand in the divine council;
he gives judgment among the gods:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
by granting favor to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the lowly and the orphan;
maintain the right of the poor and the destitute!
4 Rescue the lowly and the needy.
Deliver them from the power of the wicked!
5 They don’t know; they don’t understand;
they wander around in the dark.
All the earth’s foundations shake.
6 I hereby declare, “You are gods,
children of the Most High—all of you!
7 But you will die like mortals;
you will fall down like any prince.”
8 Rise up, God! Judge the earth
because you hold all nations in your possession!
Corruption of Eli’s sons
12 Now Eli’s sons were despicable men who didn’t know the Lord. 13 This was how the priest was supposed to act with the people: Whenever anyone made a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s assistant would come with a three-pronged fork in hand. 14 He would thrust it into the cauldron or the pot.[a] Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is how it was done for all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
15 But with Eli’s sons,[b] even before the fat was burned, the priest’s assistant would come and say to the person offering the sacrifice, “Give the priest some meat to roast. He won’t accept boiled meat from you.”[c] 16 If anyone said, “Let the fat be burned off first, as usual, then take whatever you like for yourself,” the assistant would reply, “No, hand it over now. If not, I’ll take it by force.” 17 The sin of these priestly assistants was very serious in the Lord’s sight because they were disrespecting the Lord’s own offering.
18 Now Samuel was serving the Lord. He was a young boy, clothed in a linen priestly vest.[d] 19 His mother would make a small robe for him and take it to him every year when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife: “May the Lord replace[e] the child of this woman that you gave back to the Lord.” Then they would return home. 21 The Lord paid attention to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the Lord’s service.
22 Eli was very old, but he heard everything his sons were doing to the Israelites, and how they had sex with the women who served at the meeting tent’s entrance. 23 Eli said to his sons, “Why are you doing these terrible things that I’m hearing about from everybody? 24 No, my sons. Don’t do this.[f] The report I hear spreading among God’s people isn’t good. 25 If someone sins against someone else, God can intercede; but if someone sins against the Lord, who will intercede then?” But they wouldn’t obey their father because the Lord wanted to kill them. 26 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel kept growing up and was more and more liked by both the Lord and the people.
Pentecost
2 When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages. 7 They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? 8 How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!” 12 They were all surprised and bewildered. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?” 13 Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”
14 Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this! Listen carefully to my words! 15 These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning! 16 Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
18 Even upon my servants, men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will cause wonders to occur in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.
20 The sun will be changed into darkness,
and the moon will be changed into blood,
before the great and spectacular day of the Lord comes.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[a]
Question about the resurrection
27 Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.[a] 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”
34 Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. 36 They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. 37 Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.[b] 38 He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive.”
39 Some of the legal experts responded, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40 No one dared to ask him anything else.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible