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.
God Chooses Gideon’s 300 Soldiers
7 Then Jerubbaal, also known as Gideon, got up early along with all of his soldiers. They encamped near the Harod Spring. The Midian encampment lay in the valley to their north, near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord told Gideon, “You have too many soldiers with you for me to drop Midian into their hands, because Israel would become arrogant and say, ‘It was my own abilities that delivered me.’ 3 That’s why you’re to ask in full view of the soldiers, “Whoever is afraid or is trembling may go back from Mount Gilead and return home.”[a] So 22,000 soldiers left and 10,000 remained.
4 “There are still too many soldiers,” the Lord told Gideon. “Bring them down to the water and I’ll refine them for you there. Therefore when I say to you, ‘This one will be going with you,’ he’ll go with you, but no one may go about whom I tell you, ‘This one won’t be going with you.’”
5 So he brought his soldiers down to the water, and the Lord told Gideon, “You are to cull out everyone who laps up water with his tongue like a dog from everyone who kneels to drink.” 6 The contingent of soldiers who lapped water[b] with their hands to their mouths numbered 300 men, but everyone else kneeled to drink water.
7 Then the Lord told Gideon, “I’m going to deliver you with the 300 soldiers who lapped by giving the Midianites into your control. Send everyone else back to their own homes.”[c]
8 So the soldiers took provisions with them, along with their trumpets, and Gideon[d] sent all the rest of the soldiers of Israel back to their own tents, but he retained the 300 men. And the Midian encampment was below him in the valley.
Gideon Sneaks Down to the Midianite Encampment
9 Later that same night, the Lord directed Gideon,[e] “Get up and go down to the Midianite[f] encampment, because I’ve given it into your control. 10 But if you’re afraid to go down there, you may take your servant Purah with you to their encampment, 11 where you will hear what they’re talking about. That way, you’ll be encouraged to attack the encampment.” So he and his servant Purah went down to the perimeter outposts of the encamped army.
12 The Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups[g] from the east lay encamped in the valley, as thick as locusts. The number of their camels couldn’t be calculated—they seemed as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13 Gideon arrived just as a soldier was talking to a friend about a dream. “Look!” he was saying. “I had a dream that went like this: A loaf of barley bread rolled into the Midianite encampment, came to a tent, and collided with it. The loaf of bread fell down, turned upside down, and the tent collapsed!”
14 Then his friend replied, “Can this be anything else than the sword of Joash’s son Gideon, that man from Israel? God must have given Midian and the entire encampment into his control!”
15 When Gideon[h] heard the tale of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down in worship and then returned to the Israeli encampment.
Gideon’s 300 Attack
There he announced, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite army into your control!” 16 Then he separated the 300 men into three companies, gave them each trumpets to carry, along with jars into which he placed lit torches.
17 He instructed them, “Watch me, and do what I do. When we come to the outer perimeter of the encampment, do what I do. 18 When I sound my trumpet, accompanied by everyone who is with me, you must blow your trumpets all around the entire encampment. Then shout out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
A Crippled Man is Healed
3 One afternoon, Peter and John were on their way to the Temple for the three o’clock prayer time.[a] 2 Now a man who had been crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day people[b] would lay him at what was called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from those who were going into the Temple. 3 When he saw that Peter and John were about to go into the Temple, he asked them to give him something.
4 Peter, along with John, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man[c] watched them closely, expecting to get something from them. 6 However, Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold, but I’ll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus the Messiah[d] from Nazareth, walk!”[e] 7 Then Peter[f] took hold of his right hand and began to help him up. Immediately his feet and ankles became strong, 8 and he sprang to his feet, stood up, and began to walk. Then he went with them into the Temple, walking, jumping, and praising God.
9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they knew that he was the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter Speaks to the Onlookers
11 While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people came running to them in what was called “Solomon’s Colonnade”. They were dumbfounded.
The Testimony of John the Baptist(A)
19 This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[a] sent priests and descendants of Levi to him from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He spoke openly and, remaining true to himself,[b] admitted, “I am not the Messiah.”[c]
21 So they asked him, “Well then, are you Elijah?”
John[d] said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 “Who are you?” they asked him. “We must give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 He replied, “I am
as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Now those men[g] had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why, then, are you baptizing if you are not the Messiah,[h] or Elijah, or the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I am baptizing with[i] water, but among you stands a man whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.” 28 This happened in Bethany[j] on the other side[k] of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.