Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 106[a]
106 Praise the Lord.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures.[b]
2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts,
or relate all his praiseworthy deeds?[c]
3 How blessed are those who promote justice,
and do what is right all the time.
4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.
Pay attention to me, when you deliver,
5 so I may see the prosperity[d] of your chosen ones,
rejoice along with your nation,[e]
and boast along with the people who belong to you.[f]
6 We have sinned like[g] our ancestors;[h]
we have done wrong, we have done evil.
7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds.
They failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,
and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea.[i]
8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation,[j]
that he might reveal his power.
9 He shouted at[k] the Red Sea and it dried up;
he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.
10 He delivered them from the power[l] of the one who hated them,
and rescued[m] them from the power[n] of the enemy.
11 The water covered their enemies;
not even one of them survived.[o]
12 They believed his promises;[p]
they sang praises to him.
13 They quickly forgot what he had done;[q]
they did not wait for his instructions.[r]
14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving[s] for meat;[t]
they challenged God[u] in the wastelands.
15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease.[v]
16 In the camp they resented[w] Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.[x]
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed[y] the group led by Abiram.[z]
18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked.[aa]
19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
20 They traded their majestic God[ab]
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They rejected[ac] the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty acts[ad] by the Red Sea.
23 He threatened[ae] to destroy them,
but[af] Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him[ag]
and turned back his destructive anger.[ah]
24 They rejected the fruitful land;[ai]
they did not believe his promise.[aj]
25 They grumbled in their tents;[ak]
they did not obey[al] the Lord.
26 So he made a solemn vow[am]
that he would make them die[an] in the wilderness,
27 make their descendants[ao] die[ap] among the nations,
and scatter them among foreign lands.[aq]
28 They worshiped[ar] Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.[as]
29 They made the Lord angry[at] by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened,[au]
and the plague subsided.
31 This was credited to Phinehas as a righteous act
for all generations to come.[av]
32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[aw] because of them,
33 for they aroused[ax] his temper,[ay]
and he spoke rashly.[az]
34 They did not destroy the nations,[ba]
as the Lord had commanded them to do.
35 They mixed in with the nations
and learned their ways.[bb]
36 They worshiped[bc] their idols,
which became a snare to them.[bd]
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.[be]
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
The land was polluted by bloodshed.[bf]
39 They were defiled by their deeds,
and unfaithful in their actions.[bg]
40 So the Lord was angry with his people[bh]
and despised the people who belonged to him.[bi]
41 He handed them over to[bj] the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them;
they were subject to their authority.[bk]
43 Many times he delivered[bl] them,
but they had a rebellious attitude,[bm]
and degraded themselves[bn] by their sin.
44 Yet he took notice of their distress,
when he heard their cry for help.
45 He remembered his covenant with them,
and relented[bo] because of his great loyal love.
46 He caused all their conquerors[bp]
to have pity on them.
47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God.
Gather us from among the nations.
Then we will give thanks[bq] to your holy name,
and boast about your praiseworthy deeds.[br]
48 The Lord God of Israel deserves praise,[bs]
in the future and forevermore.[bt]
Let all the people say, “We agree![bu] Praise the Lord!”[bv]
Micah Makes His Own Religion
17 There was a man named Micah from the Ephraimite hill country. 2 He said to his mother, “You know[a] the 1,100 pieces of silver which were stolen[b] from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole[c] it, but now I am giving it back to you.”[d] His mother said, “May the Lord reward[e] you, my son!” 3 When he gave back to his mother the 1,100 pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate[f] this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.”[g] 4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she[h] took 200 pieces of silver[i] to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house.[j] 5 Now this man Micah owned a shrine.[k] He made an ephod[l] and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest.[m] 6 In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.[n]
Micah Hires a Professional
7 There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah. He was a Levite who had been temporarily residing among the tribe of Judah.[o] 8 This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live. He came to the Ephraimite hill country and made his way to Micah’s house.[p] 9 Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.”[q] 10 Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser[r] and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.”[s] 11 So the Levite agreed to stay with the man; the young man was like a son to Micah.[t] 12 Micah paid[u] the Levite; the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house. 13 Micah said, “Now I know the Lord will make me rich,[v] because I have this Levite as my priest.”
44 Our ancestors[a] had the tabernacle[b] of testimony in the wilderness,[c] just as God[d] who spoke to Moses ordered him[e] to make it according to the design he had seen. 45 Our[f] ancestors[g] received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors,[h] until the time[i] of David. 46 He[j] found favor[k] with[l] God and asked that he could[m] find a dwelling place[n] for the house[o] of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built a house[p] for him. 48 Yet the Most High[q] does not live in houses made by human hands,[r] as the prophet says,
49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and earth is the footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is my resting place?[s]
50 Did my hand[t] not make all these things?’[u]
51 “You stubborn[v] people, with uncircumcised[w] hearts and ears![x] You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors[y] did! 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors[z] not persecute?[aa] They[ab] killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One,[ac] whose betrayers and murderers you have now become![ad] 53 You[ae] received the law by decrees given by angels,[af] but you did not obey[ag] it.”
Stephen is Killed
54 When they heard these things, they became furious[ah] and ground their teeth[ai] at him. 55 But Stephen,[aj] full[ak] of the Holy Spirit, looked intently[al] toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing[am] at the right hand of God. 56 “Look!” he said.[an] “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears,[ao] shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent. 58 When[ap] they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him,[aq] and the witnesses laid their cloaks[ar] at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They[as] continued to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he fell[at] to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”[au] When[av] he had said this, he died.[aw] 8 1 And Saul agreed completely with killing[ax] him.
Saul Begins to Persecute the Church
Now on that day a great[ay] persecution began[az] against the church in Jerusalem, and all[ba] except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions[bb] of Judea and Samaria.
19 So Jesus answered them,[a] “I tell you the solemn truth,[b] the Son can do nothing on his own initiative,[c] but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[d] does, the Son does likewise.[e] 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,[f] so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.[g] 22 Furthermore, the Father does not judge[h] anyone, but has assigned[i] all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people[j] will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
24 “I tell you the solemn truth,[k] the one who hears[l] my message[m] and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned,[n] but has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the solemn truth,[o] a time[p] is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 27 and he has granted the Son[q] authority to execute judgment,[r] because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time[s] is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out—the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.[t]
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.