Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105
The Lord Remembers His Covenant
Opening Praise
1 Give thanks to the Lord.
Proclaim[a] his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, make music to him.
Meditate on all his wonders.
3 Take pride in his holy name.
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Search for the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders which he has done,
his signs, and the judgments from his mouth,
6 you descendants of Abraham his servant,
you sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His judgments are in all the earth.
The Promise of the Covenant
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant which he made with Abraham,
and his oath to Isaac.
10 Yes, he confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,
the territory you will possess.”
The Lord Is Faithful in Canaan:
His Protection of the Patriarchs
12 While they were few in number,
just a little group and aliens in the land,
13 they moved around from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people.
14 He did not allow anyone to oppress them,
and he rebuked kings because of them:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do not harm my prophets.”
The Lord Is Faithful in Egypt:
His Protection of Joseph
16 Then he summoned a famine on the land.
He destroyed their entire food supply.
17 He sent ahead of them a man sold as a slave, Joseph.
18 They hurt his feet with chains.
His throat was clamped in an iron collar,
19 until the time when his predictions came true.
The promise of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent for him and released him.
The ruler of peoples set him free.
21 He made him master of his house
and ruler over all his possessions,
22 to bind his officials by his will,
to teach his elders wisdom.
The Lord Is Faithful in Egypt:
His Protection of the People
23 Then Israel came to Egypt.
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.[b]
24 Then the Lord made his people very fruitful.
He made them too numerous for their foes.
25 He turned the Egyptians’ hearts so they hated his people.
They dealt deceitfully with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
his warning signs in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and it became extremely dark,
because Israel[c] did not rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
and he caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the rooms of their kings.
31 He spoke, and a swarm of flies came.
There were lice[d] throughout their borders.
32 He gave them hail instead of rain,
with blazing lightning throughout their land.
33 Then he struck down their vines and fig trees,
and he broke down the trees within their borders.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
and grasshoppers without number.
35 They ate every green plant in their land.
They ate the produce of their soil.
36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruit of all their virility.
37 Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold.
From among their tribes no one stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they went out,
because fear of Israel had fallen on them.
The Lord Is Faithful in the Wilderness
39 He spread out a cloud as a canopy
and fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought quail,
and he satisfied them with bread from heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out.
It flowed in the desert like a river.
The Lord Is Faithful in the Land
42 Because he remembered his holy word to Abraham, his servant,
43 he brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with a joyful shout.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the work of other peoples
45 so that they could keep his statutes and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord.[e]
A Warning to the Priests From the Lord
2 Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you do not listen, if you do not set your heart on giving glory to my name, says the Lord of Armies, then I will send the curse[a] against you. I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already cursed your offerings because you are not putting your heart into it. 3 Yes, I will rebuke your offspring.[b] I will smear animal bowels and their contents on your faces, the bowels produced by your festivals, and you will be hauled off with them.[c]
4 You will know that I sent you this commandment, so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of Armies. 5 My covenant with him was life and peace, which I gave to him. It was a covenant of reverence,[d] and he revered me. He respected my name. 6 The true law was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He turned many away from guilt. 7 The lips of a priest should be guardians of knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth because he is a messenger of the Lord of Armies.
8 But you priests have turned from the way. You have made many people stumble in regard to the law.[e] You have ruined the covenant with Levi, says the Lord of Armies. 9 So I have made you despised and humiliated in the view of all the people, because you are not keeping my ways but are showing favoritism in carrying out the law.
Instruction From the Prophet:
The Covenant Is Broken by Divorce
10 Don’t we all have one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why then do we violate our vows to each other, polluting the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has acted unfaithfully. A detestable thing was done in Israel and in Jerusalem when Judah polluted the holy place[f] of the Lord, which the Lord loves. Judah is married to the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any man who does this, both the one who is awake and the one who answers,[g] even if he brings an offering to the Lord of Armies!
13 This is the second thing you do: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and crying, because there is no longer any favorable response to your offering, and God is not pleased with anything from your hand. 14 So you ask, “Why is this happening?” This is why—because the Lord is a witness in the case between you and the wife you married when you were young, because you have betrayed her—though she was your partner, the wife with whom you made a covenant! 15 No one has done this who has a remnant of the Spirit.[h] And why one? He is seeking offspring from God.[i] So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act unfaithfully against the wife you married when you were young. 16 He hates divorce! That is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. He hates it when a person wears violence as a garment. That is what the Lord of Armies says. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.
God’s Will Be Done
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit.” 14 You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Indeed, it is[a] a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. 15 Instead, it is better for you to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live, and we will do this or that.” 16 But right now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So, for the one who knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it, this is a sin.
Woe to the Rich
5 Come now, you who are rich, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are going to come upon you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in these last days. 4 Listen, the wages that you failed to pay the workers who reaped your fields are crying out! And the cries of the harvesters have entered the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived for pleasure on the earth and led a life of luxury. You have fattened your hearts on the day of slaughter. 6 You condemned and murdered the Righteous One.[b] Does he not oppose you?[c]
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
20 The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, 21 nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within[a] you.”
Jesus Will Return
22 He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 They will tell you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them, 24 for the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other side. 25 But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, the person who is on the roof and has belongings in the house should not go down to get them. Likewise, the person in the field should not turn back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed. One will be taken, and the other will be left. 35 There will be two women grinding grain at the same place. One will be taken, and the other will be left.”[b]
37 “Where, Lord?” they asked him.
He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will be gathered.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.