Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105[a]
God’s Faithfulness to the Covenant
1 [b]Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name;[c]
proclaim his deeds among the peoples.
2 Offer him honor with songs of praise;
recount all his marvelous deeds.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts[d] of those who seek the Lord exult.
4 Reflect on the Lord and his strength;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember the marvels he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments[e] he has set forth.
6 You are the offspring of his servant Abraham,
the children of Jacob, his chosen ones.[f]
7 He is the Lord, our God;
his judgments prevail all over the earth.
8 He is mindful of his covenant[g] forever,
the promise he laid down for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham
and the oath he swore to Isaac.[h]
10 [i]He established it as a decree for Jacob,
and as an everlasting covenant for Israel,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your heritage.”
12 [j]When they were few in number,
an insignificant group of strangers in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He permitted no one to oppress them,
and in their regard he warned kings:[k]
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
do no harm to my prophets.”[l]
16 Then he invoked a famine on the land
and destroyed their supply of bread.
17 But he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
18 They shackled his feet with fetters
and clamped an iron collar around his neck,
19 until what he had prophesied was fulfilled
and the word of the Lord proved him true.
20 The king ordered that he be released;
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
21 He appointed him as master of his household
and as ruler of all his possessions.
22 He was to instruct[m] his princes as he deemed fit
and to impart wisdom to his elders.
23 Then Israel went down into Egypt;
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.[n]
24 God greatly increased the number of his people
and made them too strong for their foes,
25 whose hearts he then turned[o] to hate his people
and to conspire against his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them
and worked wonders in the land of Ham.
28 [p]He sent darkness that enveloped the land,
but they rebelled against his warnings.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
and all their fish were destroyed.
30 Their land was saturated with frogs,
even in the royal chambers.
31 At his command there came hordes of flies
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He sent them hail instead of rain,
and flashes of lightning in all their land.
33 He struck down their vines and their fig trees
and demolished the trees of their country.
34 At his word the locusts came,
as well as grasshoppers beyond all count.
35 They gobbled up every green plant in the land
and devoured the produce of the soil.
36 He struck down all the firstborn of the land,
the firstfruits of their manhood.
37 Then he led out his people with silver and gold,
and there was not one among their tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
for dread of Israel had overwhelmed them.
39 He spread a cloud over his people as a cover[q]
and a fire to give light by night.
40 At their request he supplied them with quail,
and he filled them with bread from heaven.[r]
41 He split open a rock and water gushed forth,
flowing through the wilderness like a river.[s]
42 For he remembered the sacred promise
that he had made to Abraham, his servant.
43 He led forth his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with exultation.[t]
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they inherited the fruit of other people’s toil,
45 so that they might keep his decrees
and observe his laws.
Alleluia.
The Inauguration of the Monarchy[a]
Chapter 8
The People Request a King. 1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. 2 The name of the older was Joel, and the name of the younger was Abijah, and they were judges at Beer-sheba. 3 The sons did not walk in his ways. They sought dishonest gains, took bribes, and perverted justice.
4 All of the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are now old, and your sons are not following in your path. Appoint a king over us, just like all the other nations have.”
6 It displeased Samuel when they said to him, “Appoint a king over us,” so Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 The Lord said to him, “Listen to everything that the people have requested of you. It is not you whom the people have rejected, they have rejected me as their king. 8 They have done this from the day that I brought them up out of Egypt to this very day. They have rejected me and served other gods, just as they have rejected you. 9 So grant their request, but warn them solemnly and inform them what the king who reigns over them will do.”
10 The Rule of a King. Samuel told the people who were asking for a king everything that the Lord had said. 11 He said, “This is what the king who reigns over you will do. He will take away your sons to serve him on his chariots and his horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.[b] 12 He will appoint some as commanders of groups of thousands, and others as commanders of groups of fifty. He will set some to plowing his fields and reaping his harvests. Others will make weapons and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves and he will give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain harvest and the harvest of your vineyards and give it to his officials and his attendants. 16 He will take your menservants and your maidservants, the best of your cattle and donkeys, and use them for his own work. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you, yourselves, will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for help because of the king that you have chosen, but on that day the Lord will not listen to you.”[c]
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. They said, “No! We want a king over us! 20 Then we will be like every other nation, with a king to lead us and to go out before us to fight in our battles.”
21 When Samuel heard everything that the people had said, he repeated it to the Lord. 22 So the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to them and appoint a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Let each man go back to his own town.”
15 All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared like the face of an angel.
Chapter 7
Stephen’s Discourse. 1 Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things true?” 2 He replied, “Brethren and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’
4 “Therefore, he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And after his father died, God led him to the land where you now dwell. 5 He did not give him any of this land as a heritage, not even as little as a foot, but he promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.
6 “This is what God said: ‘His descendants will reside in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 7 But I will bring judgment on the nation that enslaved them,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so, when he became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did for Jacob, and Jacob did for the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and they sold him into Egypt, but God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions. He gave Joseph wisdom and the favor of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who appointed him governor of Egypt and his entire household.
11 “Then a severe famine struck all of Egypt and Canaan, causing severe affliction, and our ancestors could find no food. 12 However, when Jacob learned that there was grain available in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit. 13 During their second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his ancestry became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his entire family, seventy-five people in all.
15 “Jacob migrated to Egypt, and after he and our ancestors had died there, 16 they were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a sum of money.
24 The Disciples Are To Serve on Earth.[a] Then a dispute also broke out among them as to which one of them should be considered the greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them are given the title of ‘Benefactor.’[b]
26 “But it must not be so with you. Rather, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the leader must be like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater—the one seated at table or the one who serves? Surely, the one who sits at table. And yet I am in your midst as one who serves.
28 Judges of the Twelve Tribes.[c]“You are the ones who have stood by my side in my trials, 29 and now I confer on you a kingdom just as my Father has conferred one on me. 30 In my kingdom, you will eat and drink at my table, and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.[d]
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