Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 89[a]
A well-written song[b] by Ethan the Ezrahite.
89 I will sing continually[c] about the Lord’s faithful deeds;
to future generations I will proclaim your faithfulness.[d]
2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established;[e]
in the skies you set up your faithfulness.”[f]
3 The Lord said,[g]
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant:
4 ‘I will give you an eternal dynasty[h]
and establish your throne throughout future generations.’”[i] (Selah)
5 O Lord, the heavens[j] praise your amazing deeds,
as well as your faithfulness in the angelic assembly.[k]
6 For who in the skies can compare to the Lord?
Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings,[l]
7 a God who is honored[m] in the great angelic assembly,[n]
and more awesome than[o] all who surround him?
8 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies![p]
Who is strong like you, O Lord?
Your faithfulness surrounds you.
9 You rule over the proud sea.[q]
When its waves surge,[r] you calm them.
10 You crushed the Proud One[s] and killed it;[t]
with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.
11 The heavens belong to you, as does the earth.
You made the world and all it contains.[u]
12 You created the north and the south.
Tabor and Hermon[v] rejoice in your name.
13 Your arm is powerful,
your hand strong,
your right hand[w] victorious.[x]
14 Equity and justice are the foundation of your throne.[y]
Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule.[z]
15 How blessed are the people who worship you![aa]
O Lord, they experience your favor.[ab]
16 They rejoice in your name all day long,
and are vindicated[ac] by your justice.
17 For you give them splendor and strength.[ad]
By your favor we are victorious.[ae]
18 For our shield[af] belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.[ag]
19 Then you[ah] spoke through a vision to your faithful followers[ai] and said:
“I have placed a young hero[aj] over a warrior;
I have raised up a young man[ak] from the people.
20 I have discovered David, my servant.
With my holy oil I have anointed him as king.[al]
21 My hand will support him,[am]
and my arm will strengthen him.
22 No enemy will be able to exact tribute[an] from him;[ao]
a violent oppressor will not be able to humiliate him.[ap]
23 I will crush his enemies before him;
I will strike down those who hate him.
24 He will experience my faithfulness and loyal love,[aq]
and by my name he will win victories.[ar]
25 I will place his hand over the sea,
his right hand over the rivers.[as]
26 He will call out to me,
‘You are my father,[at] my God, and the protector who delivers me.’[au]
27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son,[av]
the most exalted of the earth’s kings.
28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,
and my covenant with him is secure.[aw]
29 I will give him an eternal dynasty,[ax]
and make his throne as enduring as the skies above.[ay]
30 If his sons reject my law
and disobey my regulations,
31 if they break[az] my rules
and do not keep my commandments,
32 I will punish their rebellion by beating them with a club,[ba]
their sin by inflicting them with bruises.[bb]
33 But I will not remove[bc] my loyal love from him,
nor be unfaithful to my promise.[bd]
34 I will not break[be] my covenant
or go back on what I promised.[bf]
35 Once and for all I have vowed by my own holiness,
I will never deceive[bg] David.
36 His dynasty will last forever.[bh]
His throne will endure before me, like the sun;[bi]
37 it will remain stable, like the moon.[bj]
His throne will endure like the skies.”[bk] (Selah)
38 But you have spurned[bl] and rejected him;
you are angry with your chosen king.[bm]
39 You have repudiated[bn] your covenant with your servant;[bo]
you have thrown his crown to the ground.[bp]
40 You have broken down all his[bq] walls;
you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.
41 All who pass by[br] have robbed him;
he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.
42 You have allowed his adversaries to be victorious,[bs]
and all his enemies to rejoice.
43 You turn back[bt] his sword from the adversary,[bu]
and have not sustained him in battle.[bv]
44 You have brought to an end his splendor,[bw]
and have knocked[bx] his throne to the ground.
45 You have cut short his youth,[by]
and have covered him with shame. (Selah)
46 How long, O Lord, will this last?
Will you remain hidden forever?[bz]
Will your anger continue to burn like fire?
47 Take note of my brief lifespan.[ca]
Why do you make all people so mortal?[cb]
48 No man can live on without experiencing death,
or deliver his life from the power of Sheol.[cc] (Selah)
49 Where are your earlier faithful deeds,[cd] O Lord,[ce]
the ones performed in accordance with your reliable oath to David?[cf]
50 Take note, O Lord,[cg] of the way your servants are taunted,[ch]
and of how I must bear so many insults from people.[ci]
51 Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults;
they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps.[cj]
52 [ck] The Lord deserves praise[cl] forevermore!
We agree! We agree![cm]
The Lord Promises Exile But Also Restoration
10 “When you tell these people about all this,[a] they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’ 11 Then tell them that the Lord says,[b] ‘It is because your ancestors[c] rejected me and paid allegiance to[d] other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law.[e] 12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me.[f] 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”
14 Yet[g] I, the Lord, say:[h] “A new time will certainly come.[i] People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’ 15 But in that time they will affirm them with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.”[j]
16 But for now I, the Lord, say:[k] “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks.[l] 17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.[m] 18 Before I restore them[n] I will punish them in full[o] for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own[p] with their detestable idols.”[q]
19 Then I said,[r]
“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.
You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.[s]
Nations from all over the earth
will come to you and say,
‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods—
worthless idols that could not help them at all.’[t]
20 Can people make their own gods?
No, what they make are not gods at all.”[u]
21 The Lord said,[v]
“So I will now let this wicked people know—
I will let them know my mighty power in judgment.
Then they will know that my name is the Lord.[w]
The Believer’s Relationship to the Law
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters[a] (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person[b] as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her[c] husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.[d] 3 So then,[e] if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her[f] husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 So, my brothers and sisters,[g] you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.[h] 5 For when we were in the flesh,[i] the sinful desires,[j] aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body[k] to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died[l] to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[m]
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I[n] would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else[o] if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”[p] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires.[q] For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 10 and I died. So[r] I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death![s] 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[t] 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
The Feeding of the Five Thousand
6 After this[a] Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias).[b] 2 A large crowd was following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick. 3 So Jesus went on up the mountainside[c] and sat down there with his disciples. 4 (Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover[d] was near.)[e] 5 Then Jesus, when he looked up[f] and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” 6 (Now Jesus[g] said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.)[h] 7 Philip replied,[i] “200 silver coins worth[j] of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little.” 8 One of Jesus’ disciples,[k] Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good[l] are these for so many people?”
10 Jesus said, “Have[m] the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.)[n] So the men[o] sat down, about 5,000 in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed the bread to those who were seated. He then did the same with the fish,[p] as much as they wanted. 12 When they were all satisfied, Jesus[q] said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves[r] left over by the people who had eaten.
14 Now when the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus[s] performed, they began to say to one another, “This is certainly the Prophet[t] who is to come into the world.”[u] 15 Then Jesus, because he knew they were going to come and seize him by force to make him king, withdrew again up the mountainside alone.[v]
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