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.
19 Gideon and the one hundred men with him went to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the Midianites had posted the guards. Gideon and his men blew their ram’s horns and shattered the jars that were in their hands. 20 All three groups blew their ram’s horns and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hands, and in their right hands they held the ram’s horns that they were to blow. They shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Each man stood at his station around the camp. The whole Midianite camp started running, raised the alarm, and fled.[a]
22 When the Israelites blew the three hundred ram’s horns,[b] the Lord turned the sword of each Midianite against the person next to him throughout the whole camp.
The Midianite army fled up to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, up to the border of Abel Meholah, as far as Tabbath.
23 Then all the men of Israel were summoned, from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the entire hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Go down to confront Midian. Seize the waters[c] before them, all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan.” So all the Ephraimites who were called out seized the waters as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. 25 They also captured Oreb and Ze’eb,[d] the two generals of Midian. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb and Ze’eb at the Winepress of Ze’eb. Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Ze’eb to Gideon by the crossing of the Jordan.
8 The men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “What kind of thing was that which you did to us by not inviting us when you went to fight against Midian?” They contended with him vigorously.
2 Gideon said to them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the whole grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 It was into your hands that God delivered Oreb and Ze’eb, the leaders of Midian. So what have I been able to accomplish compared to you?” Their anger against him died down when he said this.
4 Gideon then went to the Jordan and crossed over with the three hundred men who were with him. They were exhausted but kept pursuing the enemy.
5 Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the troops who are following right behind me, because they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.”
6 But the leaders of Succoth said, “Are the cut-off hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands? Why then would we give bread to your army?”
7 Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord gives Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with thorns from the wilderness and with briars.”
8 Then Gideon went up from there to Penuel[e] and made the same request, and the men of Penuel gave him the same answer that the men of Succoth had. 9 So Gideon said to the men of Penuel, “When I return in peace, I will tear down this tower.”
10 In the meantime Zebah and Zalmunna had arrived in Karkor. Their armies were with them, but only about fifteen thousand men were left from all the forces of the peoples from the East. One hundred twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.
11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads who live in tents east of Nobah and Jogbehah. He struck the camp when it was not on alert. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled, but Gideon pursued them and captured Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian. This made the entire army tremble.
12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us, as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,[a] the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. 15 You killed the Author[b] of Life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus that has strengthened this man, whom you see and know. This faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 “Now brothers,[c] I know that you acted in ignorance, just like your leaders. 18 But in this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. 19 Therefore repent and return to have your sins wiped out, 20 so that refreshing times may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you. 21 He must receive heaven[d] until the times when everything will be restored, as God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
22 “Moses said to the fathers:[e]
The Lord your[f] God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brothers who is like me. Listen to everything he tells you. 23 And this is what will happen: Every person who does not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people.[g]
24 “Also, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have talked about these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with our[h] fathers when he said to Abraham:
In your seed[i] all the families of the earth will be blessed.[j]
26 “God raised up his Servant and sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you away from your wicked ways.”
The Lamb of God
29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘The one coming after me outranks me because he existed before me.’ 31 I myself did not know who he was, but I came baptizing with water so that he would be revealed to Israel.”
32 John also testified, “I saw the Spirit descend like a dove from heaven and remain on him. 33 I myself did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I saw this myself and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
The First Disciples
35 The next day, John was standing there again with two of his disciples. 36 When John saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
38 When Jesus turned around and saw them following him, he asked, “What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 He told them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying. They stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.[a]
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his own brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated “the Christ”).[b] 42 He brought him to Jesus.
Looking at him, Jesus said, “You are Simon, son of Jonah.[c] You will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).[d]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.