Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 118

Psalm 145

A Psalm of Praise. Of David.

10 Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head. And he kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you over His inheritance as ruler? ² When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys, and worries for you, saying, “What will I do for my son?” ’

³ “Then you will go forward from there, and you will come to the plain of Tabor. And there you will meet three men going up to God to Bethel: one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine. ⁴ And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will receive from their hands.

⁵ “After that you will come to the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is. And when you come there to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a harp, a tambourine, a flute, and a lyre before them. And they will prophesy. ⁶ And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them. And you will be turned into another man. ⁷ And it will be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires; for God is with you.

⁸ “Then you will go down before me to Gilgal. And listen, I will be coming down to you, in order to offer burnt offerings, and to offer sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you will wait, until I come to you. Then I will make known to you what you will do.”

⁹ And it happened, that when he turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart. And all those signs came to pass that day. ¹⁰ When they came to the hill, a group of prophets met him. And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. ¹¹ So when all who previously knew him saw that he prophesied among the prophets, the people said one to another, “What is this that has come upon the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹² And a man from there answered and said, “But who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹³ When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

¹⁴ And Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?”

And he said, “To seek the donkeys. And when we saw that they were nowhere around, we went to Samuel.”

¹⁵ Saul’s uncle said, “Please tell me what Samuel said to you.”

¹⁶ Saul said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys were found.” But the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not mention.

The Promise Received Through Faith

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his descendants received the promise that he would be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if those who are of the law become heirs, faith would be made void and the promise nullified, ¹⁵ because the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, there is no sin.

¹⁶ Therefore the promise comes through faith, so that it might be by grace, that the promise would be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”^[a]) before God whom he believed, and who raises the dead, and calls those things that do not exist as though they did.

¹⁸ Against all hope, he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”^{[b] 19} And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body to be dead (when he was about a hundred years old), nor yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹ and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform. ²² Therefore “it was credited to him as righteousness.”^{[c] 23} Now the words, “it was credited to him,” were not written for his sake only, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom it shall be credited if we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ who was delivered for our transgressions, and was raised for our justification.

The Question of Jesus’ Authority^(A)

²³ When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

²⁴ Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question. If you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ Where did the baptism of John come from? From heaven or from men?”

They reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the people, for all hold John as a prophet.”

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

Then He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “What do you think? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’

²⁹ “He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he repented and went.

³⁰ “Then he came to the second, and said likewise. He answered, ‘I will go, sir,’ but did not go.

³¹ “Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.