Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105(A)
1 Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing unto Him, sing praises unto Him;
proclaim all His wondrous works.
3 Glory in His holy name;
let the heart rejoice for those who seek the Lord.
4 Seek the Lord and His strength;
seek His presence continuously.
5 Remember His marvelous works that He has done;
His wonders and the judgments from His mouth,
6 O offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers His covenant forever,
the word that He commanded, to a thousand generations,
9 that covenant He made with Abraham,
and His oath to Isaac,
10 and confirmed to Jacob as a decree,
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your inheritance.”
12 When they were but a few people in number,
indeed, very few, and strangers in it,
13 when they went from one nation to another,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 He did not permit anyone to do them wrong;
indeed, He reproved kings on their behalf,
15 saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do no harm to my prophets.”
16 Moreover He called for a famine upon the land;
He broke the whole supply of bread.
17 He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with fetters;
his neck was put in an iron collar.
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
the word of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the people let him go free.
21 He made Joseph lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to imprison his princes at Joseph’s pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came into Egypt,
and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord increased His people greatly
and made them stronger than their enemies.
25 He turned their hearts to hate His people,
to deal cleverly with His servants.
26 He sent Moses, His servant,
and Aaron whom He had chosen.
27 They showed His signs among them
and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made the land dark,
and Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His word.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
and gnats in all their country.
32 He gave them hail for rain
and flaming lightning in their land.
33 He struck their vines and their fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
and caterpillars without number,
35 that devoured all the vegetation in their land,
and ate all the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruits of all their strength.
37 Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
and no one among their tribes faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
for the fear of Israel fell upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and He brought quail,
and satisfied them with abundant bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;
they ran in the desert like a river.
42 For he recalled His holy promise
to Abraham His servant.
43 He brought forth His people with joy,
and His chosen ones with gladness,
44 and gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the fruitful labor of the people,
45 that they might observe His statutes
and keep His laws.
Praise the Lord!
Divine Warnings to the Priests
2 And now, O priests, this commandment is for you. 2 If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart to give honor to My name, says the Lord of Hosts, I will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.
3 I rebuke your descendants, and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts, and you will be taken away with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent this command to you, that My covenant with Levi may remain, says the Lord of Hosts. 5 My covenant with him was for life and peace, and I gave them to him. With awe he feared Me, and he was reverent before My name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and with uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.
7 For a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. 8 But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have violated the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. 9 So I have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in the law.
The Covenant Profaned
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, teacher and student, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of Hosts.
13 This is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying out, because He no longer regards the offering, nor receives it with good will from your hand. 14 Yet you say, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
15 Did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.
16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that He hates divorce; for it covers one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of Hosts.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.
Warning Against Boasting
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit,” 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are rejoicing in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, it is sin.
Warning to the Rich
5 Come now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasures for the last days. 4 Indeed the wages that you kept back by fraud from the laborers who harvested your fields are crying, and the cries of those who harvested have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. 5 You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wayward. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and killed the righteous man who does not resist you.
The Coming of the Kingdom(A)
20 When He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation. 21 Nor will they say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For remember, the kingdom of God is within you.”
22 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 They will say to you, ‘Look here,’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not follow after them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the heavens from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. 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 be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating, drinking, marrying, and were given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “Likewise as it was in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. 29 But on the day that Lot departed from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day let him who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away. And likewise let him who is in the field not return to the things behind. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two men will be in one bed; the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; the one will be taken and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; the one will be taken and the other will be left.”
37 They asked, “Where, Lord?”
He replied, “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.