Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
A Maskil of Asaph.(A)
1 My people, hear my instruction;
listen to the words from my mouth.(B)
2 I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past(C)—
3 things we have heard and known
and that our ancestors have passed down to us.(D)
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell a future generation
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous works
he has performed.(E)
5 He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children(F)
6 so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children(G)
7 so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep his commands.(H)
8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.(I)
9 The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.(J)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.(K)
11 They forgot what he had done,
the wondrous works he had shown them.(L)
12 He worked wonders in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.(M)
13 He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.(N)
14 He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.(O)
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.(P)
16 He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.(Q)
17 But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.(R)
18 They deliberately[a] tested God,
demanding the food they craved.(S)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
20 Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.(T)
But can he also provide bread
or furnish meat for his people?” (U)
21 Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel(V)
22 because they did not believe God
or rely on his salvation.(W)
23 He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.(X)
24 He rained manna for them to eat;
he gave them grain from heaven.(Y)
25 People[b] ate the bread of angels.[c]
He sent them an abundant supply of food.(Z)
26 He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by his might.(AA)
27 He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28 He made them fall in the camp,
all around the tents.(AB)
29 The people ate and were completely satisfied,
for he gave them what they craved.(AC)
30 Before they had turned from what they craved,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger flared up against them,
and he killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s fit young men.(AD)
32 Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe his wondrous works.(AE)
33 He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.(AF)
34 When he killed some of them,
the rest began to seek him;
they repented and searched for God.(AG)
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.(AH)
36 But they deceived him with their mouths,
they lied to him with their tongues,(AI)
37 their hearts were insincere toward him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.(AJ)
38 Yet he was compassionate;
he atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He often turned his anger aside
and did not unleash[d] all his wrath.(AK)
39 He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.(AL)
40 How often they rebelled against him
in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert.
41 They constantly tested God(AM)
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.(AN)
42 They did not remember his power shown
on the day he redeemed them from the foe,(AO)
43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.(AP)
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.(AQ)
45 He sent among them swarms of flies,(AR)
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.(AS)
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.(AT)
47 He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48 He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.(AU)
49 He sent his burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity—
a band of deadly messengers.[e](AV)
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.(AW)
51 He struck all the firstborn(AX) in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.(AY)
52 He led his people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.(AZ)
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.(BA)
54 He brought them to his holy territory,
to the mountain his right hand acquired.(BB)
55 He drove out nations before them.(BC)
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.(BD)
56 But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep his decrees.(BE)
57 They treacherously turned away like their ancestors;
they became warped like a faulty bow.(BF)
58 They enraged him with their high places
and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.(BG)
59 God heard and became furious;
he completely rejected Israel.(BH)
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where he resided among mankind.(BI)
61 He gave up his strength to captivity
and his splendor to the hand of a foe.(BJ)
62 He surrendered his people to the sword
because he was enraged with his heritage.(BK)
63 Fire consumed his chosen young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.[f](BL)
64 His priests fell by the sword,
and the widows could not lament.(BM)
65 The Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.(BN)
66 He beat back his foes;
he gave them lasting disgrace.(BO)
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.(BP)
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.(BQ)
70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;(BR)
71 he brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over his people Jacob—
over Israel, his inheritance.(BS)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.(BT)
Complaints about Hardship
11 Now the people began complaining openly before[a] the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, his anger burned,(A) and fire(B) from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So that place was named Taberah,[b](C) because the Lord’s fire had blazed among them.
Complaints about Food
4 The riffraff[c] among them(D) had a strong craving(E) for other food. The Israelites wept again and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5 We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt,(F) along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 But now our appetite is gone;[d] there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”
7 The manna(G) resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.[e] 8 The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. 9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.(H)
10 Moses heard the people, family after family, weeping at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry;(I) Moses was also provoked.[f] 11 So Moses asked the Lord, “Why have you brought such trouble on your servant? Why are you angry with me,[g] and why do you burden me with all these people?(J) 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so you should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing mother carries a baby,’(K) to the land that you swore to give their ancestors?(L) 13 Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are weeping to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. 15 If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now(M) if I have found favor with you, and(N) don’t let me see my misery[h] anymore.”
Seventy Elders Anointed
16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them.(O) They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.(P)
18 “Tell the people: Consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you wept in the Lord’s hearing, ‘Who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and wept before him, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” (Q)
21 But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers,(R) yet you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ 22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” (S)
23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm weak?[i](T) Now you will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”
The Righteous Will Live by Faith
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,[a](A) because it is the power of God for salvation(B) to everyone who believes, first to the Jew,(C) and also to the Greek.(D) 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,[b](E) just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.[c][d](F)
The Guilt of the Gentile World
18 For God’s wrath(G) is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,(H) 19 since what can be known[e] about God is evident among them,(I) because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world,(J) being understood through what he has made.(K) As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.(L) 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools(M) 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.(N)
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts(O) to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,(P) and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.(Q) Amen.
The Second Prediction of His Death
22 As(A) they were gathering together[a] in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised up.” And they were deeply distressed.
Paying the Temple Tax
24 When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” (B)
25 “Yes,” he said.
When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first,[b] “What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes? From their sons or from strangers?”[c](C)
26 “From strangers,” he said.[d]
“Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him. 27 “But, so we won’t offend them, go to the sea, cast in a fishhook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth you’ll find a coin.[e] Take it and give it to them for me and you.”(D)
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