Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105[a]
God’s Faithfulness to the Covenant
1 [b]Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name;[c]
proclaim his deeds among the peoples.
2 Offer him honor with songs of praise;
recount all his marvelous deeds.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts[d] of those who seek the Lord exult.
4 Reflect on the Lord and his strength;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember the marvels he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments[e] he has set forth.
6 You are the offspring of his servant Abraham,
the children of Jacob, his chosen ones.[f]
7 He is the Lord, our God;
his judgments prevail all over the earth.
8 He is mindful of his covenant[g] forever,
the promise he laid down for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham
and the oath he swore to Isaac.[h]
10 [i]He established it as a decree for Jacob,
and as an everlasting covenant for Israel,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your heritage.”
12 [j]When they were few in number,
an insignificant group of strangers in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He permitted no one to oppress them,
and in their regard he warned kings:[k]
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
do no harm to my prophets.”[l]
16 Then he invoked a famine on the land
and destroyed their supply of bread.
17 But he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
18 They shackled his feet with fetters
and clamped an iron collar around his neck,
19 until what he had prophesied was fulfilled
and the word of the Lord proved him true.
20 The king ordered that he be released;
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
21 He appointed him as master of his household
and as ruler of all his possessions.
22 He was to instruct[m] his princes as he deemed fit
and to impart wisdom to his elders.
23 Then Israel went down into Egypt;
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.[n]
24 God greatly increased the number of his people
and made them too strong for their foes,
25 whose hearts he then turned[o] to hate his people
and to conspire against his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them
and worked wonders in the land of Ham.
28 [p]He sent darkness that enveloped the land,
but they rebelled against his warnings.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
and all their fish were destroyed.
30 Their land was saturated with frogs,
even in the royal chambers.
31 At his command there came hordes of flies
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He sent them hail instead of rain,
and flashes of lightning in all their land.
33 He struck down their vines and their fig trees
and demolished the trees of their country.
34 At his word the locusts came,
as well as grasshoppers beyond all count.
35 They gobbled up every green plant in the land
and devoured the produce of the soil.
36 He struck down all the firstborn of the land,
the firstfruits of their manhood.
37 Then he led out his people with silver and gold,
and there was not one among their tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
for dread of Israel had overwhelmed them.
39 He spread a cloud over his people as a cover[q]
and a fire to give light by night.
40 At their request he supplied them with quail,
and he filled them with bread from heaven.[r]
41 He split open a rock and water gushed forth,
flowing through the wilderness like a river.[s]
42 For he remembered the sacred promise
that he had made to Abraham, his servant.
43 He led forth his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with exultation.[t]
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they inherited the fruit of other people’s toil,
45 so that they might keep his decrees
and observe his laws.
Alleluia.
28 The commander then stood and cried out in a loud voice in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you out of my hands. 30 Do not let Hezekiah convince you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be delivered over into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make peace with me by paying tribute. Then, come out and eat from your own vines and from your own fig trees and drink water from your own cistern 32 until I take you away to a land which is like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Live, do not die.
“Do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to convince you saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Have the gods of any of the nations delivered their land out of the hands of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Shepharvaim, Henah, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from out of my hands?
35 “Which of the gods from any of the nations has delivered their land from out of my hands? How could the Lord deliver Jerusalem out of my hands?”
36 But the people remained silent and they did not say a word to him, for the king had commanded them, “You are not to answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim, the major-domo, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, who kept the archives, went to Hezekiah with their torn clothes, and they told him what the commander had said.
Chapter 9
The Example of Paul’s Apostolate
A Missionary’s Rights. 1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 Although others may not regard me as an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 To those who seek to pass judgment on me, my defense is this. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife like the other apostles, the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?[a] 6 Are Barnabas[b] and I the only ones who do not have the right to refrain from working? 7 What soldier would ever serve in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating its fruit? Or who tends a flock without consuming some of its milk?
8 I am not saying this based simply on human authority, for the Law says the very same thing. 9 In the Law of Moses it is written, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned, 10 or does he not rather say this for our sake? Without question it was written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope, both in expectation of a share in the crop. 11 If we have sown a spiritual crop for you, is it unreasonable for us to expect from you a material harvest? 12 If others have this claim on you, do not we?
Despite this, we have never availed ourselves of any such right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who perform the temple service receive their food from the temple, and that those who officiate at the altar share in the offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel.[c]
15 I Have Become All Things to All. However, I have never availed myself of any of these rights, and I have not written this to influence you to grant me such treatment; I would rather die first. No one shall deprive me of this boast!
22 Many will say to me on that day,[a] ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not perform many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers!’
24 The Wise and Foolish Builders.[b]“Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts in accordance with them will be like a wise man who constructed his house on a rock foundation. 25 The rain came down, the flood waters rose, and fierce winds battered that house. However, it did not collapse, because it had its foundations on rock.
26 “In contrast, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act in accordance with them will be like a fool who constructed his house on a foundation of sand. 27 The rain came down, the flood waters rose, and the winds blew and buffeted that house. And it collapsed with a great crash.”
28 The Authority of Jesus.[c] When Jesus had finished this discourse, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 because he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
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