Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78[a]
God’s Goodness in the Face of Ingratitude
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
[c]Give ear, my people, to my teaching;
pay attention to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in parables[d]
and expound the mysteries of the past.
3 [e]These things we have heard and know,
for our ancestors have related them to us.
4 We will not conceal them from our children;
we will relate them to the next generation,
the glorious and powerful deeds of the Lord
and the wonders he has performed.
5 He instituted a decree in Jacob
and established a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to make known to their descendants,
6 so that they would be known to future generations,
to children yet to be born.
In turn they were to tell their children,
7 so that they would place their trust in God,
and never forget his works
but keep his commandments.
8 Nor were they to imitate their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart[f] was not steadfast
and whose spirit was unfaithful to God.
9 [g]The Ephraimites, who were skilled archers,
fled in terror on the day of battle.[h]
10 They failed to keep God’s covenant
and refused to live in accord with his law.
11 They forgot the works he had done,
the wonders he had performed for them.
12 He worked marvels in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the Plain of Zoan.[i]
13 He divided the sea so that they could pass,
heaping up the waters as a mound.
14 He led them with a cloud by day,
and with the light of a fire by night.
15 He split open rocks in the wilderness
and gave them water to drink from limitless depths.
16 He brought forth streams from a rocky crag
and caused water to flow down in torrents.
17 [j]But they still sinned[k] against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They tested God’s patience
by demanding the food they craved.[l]
19 They railed against God, saying:
“Can God provide a banquet in the wilderness?
20 Certainly when he struck the rock,
water gushed forth and the streams overflowed.
But can he also give us bread
or provide meat for his people?”[m]
21 When the Lord heard this, he was filled with anger;
his fire blazed forth against Jacob,
and his wrath mounted against Israel,
22 because they had no faith in God
and put no trust in his saving might.
23 Yet he issued a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens.
24 He rained down manna for them to eat,
giving them the grain of heaven.
25 Mere mortals ate the bread of angels;[n]
he sent them an abundance of provisions.
26 He made the east wind blow in the heavens
and brought forth the south wind in force.
27 He rained down meat upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sands on the seashore.
28 He let them fall within the camp,
all around their tents.
29 They ate and were completely satisfied,
for he had given them what they desired.
30 But when they did not curb their cravings,
even while the food was in their mouths,
31 the anger of God blazed up against them;
he slew their strongest warriors
and laid low the chosen of Israel.
32 [o]Despite this, they continued to sin;
they put no faith in his wonders.
33 So he brought their days to an abrupt end
and cut off their years with sudden terror.[p]
34 When death afflicted them,
they sought him;
they searched eagerly for God.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,[q]
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 However, while they flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues,
37 their hearts[r] were not right with him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
38 Even so, he was compassionate toward them;
he forgave their guilt
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he held back his anger,
unwilling to stir up his rage.
39 For he remembered that they were flesh,
like a breath of wind that does not return.
40 [s]How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and pained him in the wasteland.
41 Again and again they tested God’s patience,
provoking the Holy One of Israel.[t]
42 They did not keep in mind his power
or the day when he delivered them from their oppressor,
43 when he manifested his wonders in Egypt
and his portents in the Plain of Zoan.
44 [u]He turned their rivers into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He assigned their harvest to the caterpillars
and their produce to the locusts.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He exposed their cattle to hailstones
and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
49 He sent upon them his blazing anger,
wrath, fury, and hostility,
a band of destroying angels.[v]
50 He gave his anger free rein;
he did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.[w]
52 Then he led forth his people like sheep
and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, and they were not afraid,
while the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 He brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain his right hand had purchased.
55 He drove out the nations before them,
apportioning a heritage for each of them
and settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.[x]
56 [y]Even so, they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High,
refusing to observe his decrees.
57 They turned away and were disloyal like their ancestors;
they were as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places[z]
and made him jealous with their idols.
59 When God saw this, he became enraged
and rejected Israel totally.[aa]
60 He forsook his dwelling in Shiloh,[ab]
the tent where he dwelt among mortals.
61 He surrendered his might into captivity
and his glory[ac] into the hands of the enemy.
62 He abandoned his people to the sword
and vented his wrath on his own heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
and their maidens had no wedding song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows sang no lamentation.
65 [ad]Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
like a warrior flushed from the effects of wine.
66 He struck his enemies and routed them,
inflicting perpetual shame on them.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Rather, he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion,[ae] which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
and like the earth[af] that he founded forever.
70 He chose David[ag] to be his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 From tending sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel, his heritage.
72 He shepherded them with an unblemished heart
and guided them with a knowing hand.[ah]
Chapter 59
Sin and Repentance
1 Truly the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor is his ear too dull to hear.
2 Rather, it is your iniquities that have been barriers
between you and your God.
Your sins have caused him to hide his face
so that he does not hear you.
3 For your hands are stained with blood
and your fingers with guilt.
Your lips utter lies
and your tongue mutters wicked things.
4 No one brings a suit justly
or pleads honestly in court.
They all rely on empty words and utter lies;
they conceive mischief and bring forth evil.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs
and weave the spider’s web;
whoever eats their eggs will die;
crush one and a viper emerges.
6 Their webs are useless for clothing;
what they make cannot serve to cover them.
Their works are deeds of evil,
and acts of violence flow from their hands.
7 Their feet rush headlong to do evil,
and they do not hesitate to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are those of iniquity;
their paths are marked by havoc and ruin.
8 They do not know the way of peace,
and justice is not seen along their paths.
The roads they follow are crooked,
and no one who travels on them knows any peace.
9 Therefore, justice is far removed from us,
and righteousness is far beyond our reach.
We look for light but behold only darkness,
for brightness but we walk in gloom.
10 Like blind men we grope along a wall,
feeling our way like those bereft of eyes.
We stumble at noon as if it were twilight;
in the midst of the strong we are like the dead.
11 All of us growl like bears;
like doves we continue to moan mournfully.
We wait for justice but receive none,
for deliverance but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions against you are numerous,
and our sins bear witness against us.
We are unable to forget our offenses,
and we are well aware of our iniquities:
13 our rebellion and our denial of the Lord
and our turning away from following him,
threatening acts of oppression and revolt,
and uttering lies conceived in our hearts.
14 Justice has been rebuffed
and righteousness stands at a distance.
For truth stumbles in the public square
and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth has disappeared,
and those who turn from evil are terrorized.
Zion’s Redeemer Comes
When the Lord witnessed this, he was displeased
that justice had ceased to exist.
Chapter 1
Salutation[a]
Address. 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, whose promise of life is fulfilled in Christ Jesus, 2 to Timothy, my beloved child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanksgiving and Prayer. 3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clean conscience as did my ancestors—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I recall your tears,[b] I long to see you again so that my joy may be complete. 5 I also remember your sincere faith, a faith that first came to life in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced also dwells in you.[c]
The Endurance of a Man of God[d]
Revive the Gift of God. For this reason, I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.[e] 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but rather a spirit of power and of love and of wisdom. 8 Therefore, you should never be ashamed of bearing witness to our Lord, nor of me because I am imprisoned for his sake. Rather, you should utilize the strength that comes from God to share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel.9 God saved us and called us to a life of holiness, not because of our works but according to his own purpose and the grace that has been bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.[f] 10 That grace has now been revealed by the appearance[g] of our Savior Jesus Christ. He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I have been appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.[h]
12 Guard the Treasure Entrusted to Us. That is the reason why I am undergoing my present sufferings. However, I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have placed my trust, and I am confident that he is able to guard until that Day[i] what he has entrusted to me. 13 Follow the pattern of sound teaching that you heard from me, with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, guard the treasure that has been entrusted to us.
42 Woe to the World because of Scandals.[a]“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
43 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.[b] It is preferable for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna [ 44 where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is never quenched][c] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into Gehenna [ 46 where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is never quenched]. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is preferable for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into Gehenna, 48 where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.
49 The Simile of Salt.“For everyone will be salted with fire.[d] 50 Salt is good, but if salt loses its saltiness, how can you revive its flavor? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.