Book of Common Prayer
Mem
97 How I love your law!
The whole day it is my meditation.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
because they[a] are ever with me.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the elders,
for I keep your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
so that I may heed your word.
102 I have not turned aside from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
103 How smooth[b] are your words[c] to my palate,
more than honey in my mouth.
104 From your precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way.
Nun
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to heed your righteous ordinances.[d]
107 I am very much afflicted;
O Yahweh, revive me according to your word.
108 Please accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Yahweh,
and teach me your ordinances.
109 My life is in danger[e] continually,
yet I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
yet I do not wander from your precepts.
111 I have taken as my own your testimonies forever,
for they are the joy of my heart.
112 I have inclined my heart to do your statutes
forever, to the end.
Samek
113 I hate the double-minded,[f]
but I love your law.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word.
115 Turn aside from me, you evildoers,
for I will keep the commands of my God.
116 Sustain me according to your word,[g] that I may live,
and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
117 Uphold me, that I may be delivered,
and have regard for your statutes continually.
118 You reject all who stray from your statutes,
for their deceit is a breach of faith.
119 You remove all the wicked of the earth like dross,
therefore I love your testimonies.
120 My flesh trembles for fear of you,
and I am afraid of your judgments.
An Appeal from God to Israel
For the music director; on the Gittith. Of Asaph.[a]
81 Shout out to God our strength;
shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.
2 Lift up a song and strike[b] the tambourine,
the pleasant lyre, together with the harp.
3 Blow the horn at new moon,
at full moon, for our feast day,
4 because it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a statute[c] in Joseph
when he went out against the land of Egypt,
where I heard a language I did not know.[d]
6 “I removed his shoulder from a burden.
His hands were freed from the basket.
7 In this[e] trouble you called, and I rescued you.
Within the secret place of thunder I answered you;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, if you would but listen to me.
9 There shall be no strange god among you,
and you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am Yahweh your God,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
11 But my people did not listen to my voice,
and Israel did not yield to me.
12 So I let them[f] go in the stubbornness of their heart;
they walked in their counsels.
13 Oh that my people would listen to me;
that Israel would walk in my ways.
14 I would subdue their enemies quickly,
and turn my hand against their adversaries.
15 Those who hate Yahweh would cringe before him,
and their fate[g] would be forever.
16 But he would feed him[h] from the choicest wheat,[i]
and I would satisfy you with honey from a rock.”
God Commands Justice
A psalm of Asaph.[j]
82 God stands in the divine assembly;[k]
he administers judgment in the midst of the gods.[l]
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show favoritism to the wicked?[m] Selah
3 Judge on behalf of the helpless and the orphan;
provide justice to the afflicted and the poor.
4 Rescue the helpless and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They do not know or consider.[n]
They go about in the darkness,
so that all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I have said,[o] “You are gods,
and sons of the Most High, all of you.
7 However, you will die like men,[p]
and you will fall like one of the princes.”
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
because you shall inherit[q] all the nations.
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle night-watch, when they had just finished setting up the guards, and they blew on the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.[a] 20 When three companies[b] blew on the trumpets and broke the jars, they held in their left hand the torches and in their right hand the trumpets for blowing, and they cried, “A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!” 21 And each stood in his place[c] all around the camp, and all the camp ran, and they cried out as they fled. 22 When they blew the three hundred trumpets, Yahweh set the sword of each one against his neighbor throughout the whole camp, and the camp[d] fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, up to Abel Meholah, the border by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all of Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.
24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down to oppose[e] Midian, and capture from them the waters up to Beth Barah and the Jordan.” He called out all the men of Ephraim, and they captured the waters up to Beth Barah and the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two commanders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they chased Midian; and they brought the heads[f] of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from beyond the Jordan.
Gideon Pursues Zebah and Zalmunna
8 The men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this thing you have done to us, not calling us when you went to fight against the Midianites?”[g] And they quarreled with him severely. 2 And he said to them, “What I have done now in comparison with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hand the commanders of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” And their anger[h] against him subsided when he said that.[i]
4 Then Gideon came to the Jordan, crossing it with the three hundred men who were with him, weary and pursuing. 5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me,[j] for they are weary, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 The officials of Succoth said, “Is the hand[k] of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 Gideon said, “Well then, when Yahweh gives Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will trample your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness.” 8 He went from there to Penuel, and he spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered. 9 And he said also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I return safely,[l] I will tear down this tower.”
10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men remained from the entire army[m] of the people of the east; those that fell in battle were one hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen.[n] 11 And Gideon went up the route of those who dwell in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he attacked the army[o] when it was off its guard.[p] 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he routed[q] the entire army.[r]
12 And when he[a] saw it,[b] Peter replied to the people, “Men and Israelites, why are you astonished at this? Or why are you staring at us, as if by our own power or godliness we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac[c] and of Jacob,[d] the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, after[e] he had decided to release him.[f] 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and demanded that a man—a murderer—be granted to you. 15 And you killed the originator of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses! 16 And on the basis of faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. 17 And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. 18 But the things which God foretold through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ[g] would suffer, he has fulfilled in this way. 19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ[h] appointed for you—Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God[i] will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you.[j] 23 And it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.’[k] 24 And indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and all those who followed him[l] have spoken about and proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God ordained with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’[m] 26 God, after he[n] had raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you back from your wickedness!”
29 On the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This one is the one about whom I said, ‘After me is coming a man who is ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ 31 And I did not know him, but in order that he could be revealed to Israel, because of this I came baptizing with water.”
32 And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and remaining upon him. 33 And I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water, that one said to me, ‘The one upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him—this one is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testify that this one is the Chosen One[a] of God.
Two of John’s Disciples Follow Jesus
35 On the next day again John was standing there,[b] and two of his disciples, 36 and looking at Jesus as he[c] was walking by, he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” 37 And the two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus. 38 And Jesus, turning around and seeing them following him,[d] said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means when[e] translated “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see!” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day (it was about the tenth hour).
Andrew Declares Jesus to be the Messiah
40 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. 41 This one first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated “Christ”). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, “You are Simon the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is interpreted “Peter”).
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