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]
Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance
14 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for your sin has been your downfall![a]
2 Return to the Lord and repent![b]
Say to him: “Completely[c] forgive our iniquity;
accept[d] our penitential prayer,[e]
that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.[f]
3 Assyria cannot save us;
we will not ride warhorses.
We will never again say, ‘Our gods,’
to what our own hands have made.
For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!”[g]
Divine Promise to Relent from Judgment and to Restore Blessings
4 “I will heal their waywardness[h]
and love them freely,[i]
for my anger will turn away[j] from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily,
he will send down his roots like a cedar of[k] Lebanon.
6 His young shoots will grow;
his splendor will be like an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 People will reside again[l] in his shade;
they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.[m]
They will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do[n] with idols anymore!
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like[o] a luxuriant cypress tree;[p]
your fruitfulness comes from me!”[q]
Concluding Exhortation
9 Who is wise?
Let him discern[r] these things!
Who is discerning?
Let him understand them!
For the ways of the Lord are right;
the godly walk in them,
but in them the rebellious stumble.
Paul Before the Sanhedrin
30 The next day, because the commanding officer[a] wanted to know the true reason[b] Paul[c] was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole council[d] to assemble. He then brought[e] Paul down and had him stand before them.
23 Paul looked directly[f] at the council[g] and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience[h] before God to this day.” 2 At that[i] the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near[j] Paul[k] to strike[l] him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall![m] Do[n] you sit there judging me according to the law,[o] and in violation of the law[p] you order me to be struck?” 4 Those standing near him[q] said, “Do you dare insult[r] God’s high priest?” 5 Paul replied,[s] “I did not realize,[t] brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”[u]
6 Then when Paul noticed[v] that part of them were Sadducees[w] and the others Pharisees,[x] he shouted out in the council,[y] “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection[z] of the dead!” 7 When he said this,[aa] an argument[ab] began[ac] between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 (For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.)[ad] 9 There was a great commotion,[ae] and some experts in the law[af] from the party of the Pharisees stood up[ag] and protested strongly,[ah] “We find nothing wrong[ai] with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10 When the argument became[aj] so great the commanding officer[ak] feared that they would tear Paul to pieces,[al] he ordered the detachment[am] to go down, take him away from them by force,[an] and bring him into the barracks.[ao]
11 The following night the Lord[ap] stood near[aq] Paul[ar] and said, “Have courage,[as] for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”[at]
39 He also told them a parable: “Someone who is blind cannot lead another who is blind, can he?[a] Won’t they both fall[b] into a pit? 40 A disciple[c] is not greater than[d] his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why[e] do you see the speck[f] in your brother’s eye, but fail to see[g] the beam of wood[h] in your own? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
43 “For[i] no good tree bears bad[j] fruit, nor again[k] does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known[l] by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered[m] from thorns, nor are grapes picked[n] from brambles.[o] 45 The good person out of the good treasury of his[p] heart[q] produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury[r] produces evil, for his mouth speaks[s] from what fills[t] his heart.
46 “Why[u] do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’[v] and don’t do what I tell you?[w]
47 “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice[x]—I will show you what he is like: 48 He is like a man[y] building a house, who dug down deep,[z] and laid the foundation on bedrock. When[aa] a flood came, the river[ab] burst against that house but[ac] could not shake it, because it had been well built.[ad] 49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice[ae] is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When[af] the river burst against that house,[ag] it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!”[ah]
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