Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105[a]
God’s Fidelity to the Promise
I
1 Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name;(A)
make known among the peoples his deeds!(B)
2 Sing praise to him, play music;
proclaim all his wondrous deeds!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek out the Lord and his might;
constantly seek his face.(C)
5 Recall the wondrous deeds he has done,
his wonders and words of judgment,
6 You descendants of Abraham his servant,
offspring of Jacob the chosen one!
II
7 He the Lord, is our God
whose judgments reach through all the earth.
8 He remembers forever his covenant,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 Which he made with Abraham,
and swore to Isaac,(D)
10 And ratified in a statute for Jacob,
an everlasting covenant for Israel:
11 “To you I give the land of Canaan,
your own allotted inheritance.”(E)
III
12 When they were few in number,(F)
a handful, and strangers there,
13 Wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 He let no one oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:[b]
15 [c]“Do not touch my anointed ones,
to my prophets do no harm.”
IV
16 Then he called down a famine on the land,
destroyed the grain that sustained them.[d](G)
17 He had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.(H)
18 They shackled his feet with chains;
collared his neck in iron,(I)
19 Till his prediction came to pass,
and the word of the Lord proved him true.(J)
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of peoples set him free.(K)
21 He made him lord over his household,
ruler over all his possessions,(L)
22 To instruct his princes as he desired,
to teach his elders wisdom.
V
23 Then Israel entered Egypt;(M)
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.[e]
24 God greatly increased his people,
made them more numerous than their foes.(N)
25 He turned their hearts to hate his people,
to treat his servants deceitfully.(O)
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron whom he had chosen.(P)
27 [f]They worked his signs in Egypt(Q)
and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and it grew dark,
but they rebelled against his word.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke and there came swarms of flies,
gnats through all their country.
32 For rain he gave them hail,
flashes of lightning throughout their land.
33 He struck down their vines and fig trees,
shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke and the locusts came,
grasshoppers without number.(R)
35 They devoured every plant in the land;
they devoured the crops of their fields.
36 He struck down every firstborn in the land,
the first fruits of all their vigor.
37 He brought his people out,
laden with silver and gold;(S)
no one among the tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt rejoiced when they left,
for fear had seized them.
VI
39 He spread a cloud out as a cover,
and made a fire to light up the night.(T)
40 They asked and he brought them quail;
with bread from heaven he filled them.(U)
41 He split the rock and water gushed forth;
it flowed through the desert like a river.(V)
42 For he remembered his sacred promise
to Abraham his servant.
43 He brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with shouts of triumph.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
they took possession of the wealth of the peoples,(W)
45 That they might keep his statutes
and observe his teachings.(X)
Hallelujah!
Chapter 24
Ratification of the Covenant. 1 Moses himself was told: Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You shall bow down at a distance. 2 Moses alone is to come close to the Lord; the others shall not come close, and the people shall not come up with them.
3 When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us.”(A) 4 Moses then wrote down all the words of the Lord and, rising early in the morning, he built at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve sacred stones[a] for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 (B)Then, having sent young men of the Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as communion offerings to the Lord, 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. 7 Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the Lord has said, we will hear and do.” 8 Then he took the blood and splashed it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
9 Moses then went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, 10 and they beheld the God of Israel. Under his feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself. 11 Yet he did not lay a hand on these chosen Israelites. They saw God,[b] and they ate and drank.
Moses on the Mountain. 12 The Lord said to Moses: Come up to me on the mountain and, while you are there, I will give you the stone tablets(C) on which I have written the commandments intended for their instruction. 13 So Moses set out with Joshua, his assistant, and went up to the mountain of God. 14 He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Anyone with a complaint should approach them.” 15 Moses went up the mountain. Then the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord settled upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.(D) 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord was seen as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.(E) 18 But Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain. He was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.(F)
8 See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world[a] and not according to Christ.(A)
Sovereign Role of Christ. 9 (B)For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity[b] bodily, 10 and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power. 11 (C)In him[c] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ. 12 You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.(D) 13 (E)And even when you were dead [in] transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions; 14 [d]obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;(F) 15 despoiling the principalities and the powers, he made a public spectacle of them,(G) leading them away in triumph by it.[e]
Practices Contrary to Faith. 16 (H)Let no one, then, pass judgment on you in matters of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or sabbath.[f] 17 These are shadows of things to come; the reality belongs to Christ.(I) 18 Let no one disqualify you, delighting in self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions,[g] inflated without reason by his fleshly mind,(J) 19 and not holding closely to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and bonds, achieves the growth that comes from God.(K)
20 If you died with Christ to the elemental powers of the world, why do you submit to regulations as if you were still living in the world? 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” 22 These are all things destined to perish with use; they accord with human precepts and teachings.(L) 23 While they have a semblance of wisdom in rigor of devotion and self-abasement [and] severity to the body, they are of no value against gratification of the flesh.
12 (A)When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,(B) 14 that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,(C)
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
16 the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.”(D)
17 [a]From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,(E) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Call of the First Disciples.[b]
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