Book of Common Prayer
97 [a]I truly love your law.
It is my meditation throughout the day.
98 [b]Your precept has given me greater wisdom than my enemies,
for it is mine forever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers
because I meditate on your commands.
100 I have greater insight than the elders,[c]
because I keep your commandments.
101 I point my feet away from evil paths
so that I might observe your word.
102 I refuse to ignore your judgments,
for it is you yourself who have taught me.
103 Your words are sweet to my palate,
even sweeter to my tongue than honey.[d]
104 Through your commandments I achieve wisdom;
therefore, I hate every way that is false.
Nun
105 [e]Your word is a lamp for my feet[f]
and a light to my path.
106 With a solemn vow I have sworn[g]
to obey the judgments of your righteousness.
107 I have been afflicted beyond measure;
O Lord, let me live in accord with your word.
108 Receive, O Lord, the homage my lips offer you,
and instruct me about your judgments.
109 Even though I continually take my life in my hands,[h]
I do not neglect your law.
110 The wicked seek to entrap me,
but I have not strayed from your commands.
111 [i]Your statutes are my everlasting heritage;
they are the very joy of my heart.
112 I have set my heart on keeping your decrees,
even to the end.
Samekh
113 [j]I detest those who are hypocritical,[k]
but I love your law.
114 You are my refuge and my shield;
I put my hope in your word.
115 Depart from my presence, you evildoers,
so that I may observe the precepts of my God.
116 Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live;
do not delude me in my hope.
117 Uphold me, and I will be saved
and will remain completely focused on your decrees.
118 You cast away all those who swerve from your decrees;
their cunning is futile.
119 You discard all the wicked of the earth like dross;[l]
therefore, I love your teachings.
120 My flesh trembles[m] before you in terror;
your judgments fill me with awe.
Ayin
Psalm 81[a]
Exhortation To Worship Worthily
1 For the director.[b] “Upon the gittith.” Of Asaph.
2 Sing out your joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob.[c]
3 Raise the chant and sound the tambourine;
play the pleasant harp and the lyre.
4 Sound the trumpet at the new moon,
and also at the full moon on the day of our Feast.[d]
5 For this is a law in Israel,
a decree of the God of Jacob.
6 He imposed this testimony on Joseph[e]
when he departed from the land of Egypt.
I now hear an unfamiliar voice:
7 “I lifted the burden from their shoulders;
their hands put aside the laborer’s basket.[f]
8 When you cried out to me in distress, I rescued you;[g]
from the thunderclouds I answered you;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah: Selah
9 “ ‘Listen to me, O my people, while I warn you.
O Israel, if only you would listen to me!
10 You must not accept a foreign god in your presence;
you must not bow down to an alien deity.
11 I am the Lord, your God,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt;
open your mouth[h] wide so that I may fill it.’
12 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel refused to obey me.[i]
13 So I abandoned them to their stubborn hearts[j]
and let them follow their own devices.
14 [k]“If only my people would listen to me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways,[l]
15 I would quickly subdue their enemies
and raise my hand[m] against their foes.
16 “Then those who hate the Lord[n] would tremble before him,
for their doom would last forever.
17 But Israel he would feed with the finest of wheat[o]
and fill them with honey from the rock.”
Psalm 82[p]
Judgment on Abuse of Authority
1 A psalm of Asaph.[q]
God takes his place in the divine council;[r]
in the midst of the gods he pronounces judgment:
2 “How long will you issue unfair judgments
and rule in favor of those who are wicked?[s] Selah
3 [t]“Grant justice to the weak and the orphan;
defend the rights of the lowly and the poor.
4 Rescue the wretched and the needy;
free them from the hand of the wicked.
5 “They neither know nor understand;
they wander around in darkness
while all the foundations of the earth[u] are crumbling.
6 [v]I declare, ‘Although you are gods,
all of you sons of the Most High,
7 you will die as all men do;
like any ruler you will fall.’ ”[w]
8 Rise up, O God, and judge the earth,
for all the nations belong to you.[x]
12 The Sons of Eli.[a][b]Now Eli’s sons were sons of Belial, they had no regard for the Lord. 13 This is how the priests would deal with the people when anyone came to offer a sacrifice: the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 He would stick it in the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot. Everything that he would bring up with the fork was for the priest. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came up to Shiloh. 15 Even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come up to a man and say, “Give the priest some meat to roast. He will not take any boiled meat from you, only raw meat.” 16 If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, then you can take what you want,” he would answer him, “No! Give it to me now, or I will take it by force.” 17 The young men’s sin was very serious before the Lord, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.
18 Hannah’s Family Grows. Samuel was ministering to the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod.[c] 19 His mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him each year when she came up with her husband to offer their yearly sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, “May the Lord grant you children from this woman in place of the one you have dedicated to the Lord.” They then went home. 21 The Lord was gracious to Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Young Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
22 Eli’s Warning Ignored. Now Eli was very old, and he heard about all the things that his sons were doing to the whole of Israel, how they lay with the woman who gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 He said to them, “Why do you do these things? I have been hearing about your evil deeds from everyone. 24 No, my sons! It is an evil report that I hear among the Lord’s people. 25 If one man sins against another, then a judge will judge him. If a man sins against God, who will intercede for him?” But they would not listen to their father’s rebuke, for the Lord wanted to put them to death.[d]
26 Meanwhile young Samuel grew in stature and favor with the Lord and with men.
Pentecost[a]
Chapter 2
Descent of the Spirit and Birth of the Church.[b] 1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all assembled together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there came from heaven a sound similar to that of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages,[c] as the Spirit enabled them to do so.
5 Now staying in Jerusalem there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 At this sound, a large crowd of them gathered, and they were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7 They were astounded and asked in amazement, “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it then that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,[d] 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages about the mighty deeds of God.”
12 They were all astounded and perplexed, and they said to one another, “What does all this mean?” 13 However, others said mockingly, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 Peter Preaches in the Name of the Twelve.[e] Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and proclaimed to them in a loud voice, “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen carefully to my words. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only nine o’clock in the morning.[f] 16 Rather, this is what was revealed through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘It will come to pass in the last days, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy;
your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Indeed, even upon my servants and my handmaids
I shall pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they shall prophesy.
19 I will show portents in the sky above
and signs on the earth below:
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned into darkness
and the moon to blood
before the day of the Lord comes,
that great and glorious day.
21 Then it will come to pass
that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
27 Marriage and the Resurrection.[a] Then some Sadducees, who assert that there is no resurrection, approached him and posed this question: 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote down for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must marry his brother’s wife and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman but died childless. 30 Then the second 31 and the third married the widow, and it was the same with all seven: they all died leaving no children. 32 Last of all, the woman also died. 33 Now at the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be, inasmuch as all seven had her?”
34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are judged worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection of the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. 36 They are no longer subject to death, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are children of the resurrection.
37 “That the dead are raised Moses himself showed in the account about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for in his sight all are alive.”
39 Some of the scribes then said, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40 And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
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