Book of Common Prayer
Mem
Loving God’s Word
97 How I love your instruction![a]
Every day it is my meditation.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my adversaries,
since they are always with me.
99 I am more insightful than my teachers,
because your decrees are my meditations.
100 I have more common sense than the elders,
for I observe your precepts.
101 I keep away from every evil choice[b]
so that I may keep your word.[c]
102 I do not avoid your judgments,
for you pointed them out to me.
103 How pleasing is what you have to say to me—
tasting better than honey.
104 I obtain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every false way.
Nun
God’s Word a Light
105 Your word is[d] a lamp for my feet,
a light for my pathway.
106 I have given my word and affirmed it,
to keep your righteous judgments.
107 I am severely afflicted.
Revive me, Lord, according to your word.
108 Lord, please accept my voluntary offerings of praise,[e]
and teach me your judgments.
109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
I do not forget your instruction.[f]
110 Though the wicked lay a trap for me,
I haven’t wandered away from your precepts.
111 I have inherited your decrees forever,
because they are the joy of my heart.
112 As a result, I am determined
to carry out your statutes forever.
Samek
Loving God’s Law
113 I despise the double-minded,
but I love your instruction.[g]
114 You are my fortress and shield;
I hope in your word.
115 Leave me, you who practice evil,
that I may observe the commands of my God.
116 Sustain me, God,[h] as you have promised,
and I will live.
Do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
117 Support me, that I may be saved,
and I will carry out your statutes consistently.
118 You reject all who wander from your statutes,
since their deceitfulness is vain.
119 You remove[i] all the wicked of the earth like[j] dross;
therefore I love your decrees.
120 My flesh trembles out of fear of you,
and I am in awe of[k] your judgments.
For the Director: On the Gittith. By Asaph.
Celebrating and Remembering God
81 Sing joyfully to God, our strength.
Raise a shout to the God of Jacob.
2 Sing a song and play the tambourine,
the pleasant-sounding lyre along with the harp.
3 Blow the ram’s horn when there is a New Moon,
when there is a full moon,
on our festival day,
4 because it is a statute in Israel,
an ordinance by the God of Jacob,
5 a decree that he prescribed for Joseph
when he went throughout the land of Egypt,
speaking a language I did not recognize.[a]
6 I removed the burden from your[b] shoulder;
your[c] hands were freed of the burdensome basket.[d]
7 In a time of need you called out and I delivered you;
I answered you from the dark thundercloud;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Listen, My people and I will warn you.
Israel, if only you would obey me!
9 You must neither have a foreign god over you
or worship a strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
open your mouth that I may fill it.
11 Yet my people didn’t obey my voice;
Israel didn’t submit to me.
12 So I allowed them[e] to continue in their stubbornness,
living by their own advice.
13 If only my people would obey me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies.
I would turn against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord will cringe before him;
their punishment will be permanent.
16 But I will feed Israel[f] with the finest wheat,
satisfying you with honey from the rock.
A Psalm of Asaph
Asking God for Justice
2 “How long will you judge partially
by showing favor on the wicked?[i]
3 “Defend the poor and the fatherless.
Vindicate the afflicted and the poor.
4 Rescue the poor and the needy,
delivering them from the power of the wicked.
5 They neither know nor understand;
they walk about in the dark
while all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 “Indeed I said, ‘You are gods,
and all of you are sons of the Most High.
7 However, as all human beings do, you will die,
and like other rulers, you will fall.’
8 Arise, God, to judge the earth,
for all nations belong to you.
19 So Gideon and the 100 men with him arrived at the outer perimeter of the encampment at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had posted sentries. They blew their trumpets and smashed the jars that they were carrying in their hands. 20 When the three companies sounded their trumpets and broke the jars, they held the torches in their left hands and sounded their trumpets with their right hands. Then they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 They stood up, each soldier in his assigned[a] place surrounding the encampment, and the entire army ran away, sounding the alarm to retreat.
22 As the 300 trumpets were being sounded, the Lord turned the swords of the Midianite[b] soldiers against one another throughout the entire army, and the army ran away as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zererah. They got as far as the outskirts of Abel-meholah, near Tabbath. 23 Israeli soldiers were called out from the territories of[c] Naphtali, Asher, and throughout Manasseh, and they chased after the Midianites.
24 Gideon dispatched messengers throughout the mountainous region[d] of Ephraim, notifying them, “Come down to fight Midian. Capture the water crossings[e] as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan River before they can get to them.” 25 They captured two Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. While they were pursuing the Midianites, they executed Oreb at Oreb’s Rock and Zeeb at Zeeb’s Winepress, and then they carried the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from the east bank[f] of the Jordan River.
Gideon Assuages the Anger of Ephraim
8 Later on, the descendants of Ephraim spoke to Gideon.[g] They argued vehemently, “What are you doing to us? You never called us! But you went out to fight Midian!”
2 “What have I accomplished compared to you?” he responded. “Isn’t what’s left from Ephraim’s harvest better than the best vintage of Abiezer? 3 God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the leaders of Midian, into your control. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he said this, their anger calmed down.
4 Meanwhile, Gideon and the 300 soldiers with him came to the Jordan, exhausted but continuing their pursuit. 5 He told the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the soldiers who are following behind me. They’re tired, and I’m pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
6 But the officials of Succoth replied, “Do you have Zebah and Zalmunna in custody[h] already, so that we should give food to your army?”
7 So Gideon responded, “Very well then, but when the Lord has turned over Zebah and Zalmunna into my control, I’m going to whip you with thorns and briers from the desert!”
8 Then he left there to go to Penuel and asked the same thing from them, but the men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth did. 9 So he responded the same way to the men of Penuel, “When I come back safely,[i] I’m going to tear down this tower.”
10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, along with their armies, about 15,000 men who survived from the entire army of the group from[j] the east, since 120,000 swordsmen had already fallen. 11 Gideon went up by a caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked their encampment when they were off guard. 12 When Zebah and Zalmunna escaped, he pursued them, captured those two kings of Midian,[k] and threw the entire army into a panic.
12 When Peter saw this, he told the people: “Fellow Israelis, why are you wondering about this, and why are you staring at us as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of our ancestors—has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go. 14 You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you, 15 and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that. 16 It is his name—that is, by faith in his name—that has healed this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith that comes through Jesus[a] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance like your leaders. 18 This is how God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets—that his Messiah[b] would suffer. 19 Therefore, repent and turn to him to have your sins blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and so that he may send you Jesus, whom he appointed long ago to be the Messiah.[c] 21 He must remain in heaven until the time of universal restitution, which God announced long ago through the voice of his holy prophets. 22 In fact, Moses said,
‘The Lord[d] your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you.[e] 23 Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’[f]
24 “Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who followed him, also announced these days. 25 You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs[g] of the covenant that God made with your[h] ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘Through your descendant[i] all the families of the earth will be blessed.’[j] 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways.”
29 The next day, John[a] 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 about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks above me, because he existed before me.’ 31 I didn’t recognize him, but I came baptizing with[b] water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 John also testified, “I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I didn’t recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with[c] water told me, ‘The person on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining is the one who baptizes with[d] the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen this and have testified that this is the Son[e] of God.”
The First Disciples
35 The next day, John was standing there again with two of his disciples. 36 As he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
38 But when Jesus turned around and saw them following, he asked them, “What are you looking for?”
They asked him, “Rabbi,” (which is translated “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 He told them, “Come and see!” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.[f]
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.[g] 41 The first thing Andrew[h] did was to find his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Anointed One!”[i] (which is translated “Messiah”).[j]
42 He led Simon[k] to Jesus. Jesus looked at him intently and said, “You are Simon, John’s son.[l] You will be called Cephas!”[m] (which is translated “Peter”).[n]
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