Book of Common Prayer
78 Hear my doctrine, O my people. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will declare high sentences of old
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the LORD, His power also, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 How He established a testimony in Jacob and ordained a Law in Israel. Which He commanded our fathers that they should teach their children,
6 so that the posterity might know it and the children which should be born should stand up and declare it to their children.
7 So that they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.
8 So that they not be as their fathers (a disobedient and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God).
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in His Law,
11 and forgot His acts and His wonderful works that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt (in the field of Zoan).
13 He divided the sea and led them through. He also made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 Also, in the daytime, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink, as with the great depths.
16 He also brought floods out of the stony rock, making the waters descend like the rivers.
17 But, they still sinned against Him and provoked the Highest in the wilderness
18 and tempted God in their hearts, requiring food for their lust.
19 They also spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread, or prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore, the LORD heard and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob; and wrath also came upon Israel
22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His help.
23 Still, He had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of Heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the wheat of Heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to pass in the sky; and through His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He also rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well-filled; for He gave them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lusts. The food was still in their mouths
31 when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest of them and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works.
33 Therefore, He ended their days in futility, and their years in dismay.
34 And when He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought God earnestly.
35 And they remembered that God was their strength, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not upright with Him; nor were they faithful in His Covenant.
38 Yet, He, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; but oftentimes called back His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert?
41 Indeed, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered neither His hand nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy
43 nor Him Who set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 Who turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent a swarm of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He also gave their fruits to the caterpillar, and their labor to the grasshopper.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48 He also gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, indignation and wrath, and troubled them by sending out evil angels.
50 He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life to the pestilence.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But, He made His people go out like sheep and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 Indeed, He carried them out safely, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the borders of His Sanctuary, to this Mountain which His right hand purchased.
55 He also cast out the heathen before them and caused them to fall to the lot of His inheritance; and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet, they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt falsely, like their fathers. They turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to wrath with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60 so that He abandoned the habitation of Shiloh, the Tabernacle where He dwelt among men,
61 and delivered His power into captivity, and His beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62 And He gave up His people to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not lament.
65 But the LORD awakened, as one out of sleep, as a strong man who cries out after wine,
66 and drove His enemies backwards and put them to a perpetual shame.
67 Yet, He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His Sanctuary as a high palace, like the Earth, which He established forever.
70 He also chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 Even from behind the ewes with young. He brought him to feed His people in Jacob, and His inheritance in Israel.
72 So, he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his hands. A Psalm committed to Asaph
11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God, not keeping His Commandments and His Laws and His Ordinances which I command you this day.
12 “Lest when you have eaten and filled yourself and have built beautiful houses and dwelt in them
13 “and your beasts and the sheep are increased and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is increased,
14 “then your heart is lifted up and you forget the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
15 “He was your guide in that great and terrible wilderness, in which were serpents and scorpions and drought. There was no water. He brought forth water for you out of the rock of flint.
16 “He fed you in the wilderness with manna (which your fathers did not know) to humble you and to test you, so that He might do you good in the end,
17 “lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my own hand has prepared me for this abundance.’
18 “But remember the LORD your God. For it is He Who gives you power to get substance to establish His Covenant, which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
19 “And if you forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify to you this day that you shall surely perish.
20 “As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the Voice of the LORD your God.”
16 Make no mistake, my dear brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change or turning shadow.
18 Of His own will He begat us with the Word of Truth, so that we would be as the firstfruits of His creatures.
19 Therefore my dear brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
20 For the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, put aside all filthiness and abundance of wickedness. In humility, receive the Word implanted in you which is able to save your souls.
22 And be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if any hear the Word, and does not do it, he is like a man who beholds his natural face in a mirror.
24 For after he has looked at himself, he goes his way and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein (not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work), he shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If anyone among you seems religious but does not refrain his tongue and deceives his own heart, their religion is vain.
27 Religion, pure and undefiled before God (even the Father) is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep oneself undefiled by the world.
11 And so it was that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.”
2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father, Who are in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come. Let Your will be done even on Earth, as in Heaven.
3 ‘Give us our daily bread each day.
4 ‘And forgive us our sins. As we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into trial. But deliver us from the evil one.’”
5 Moreover He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves.
6 ‘For a friend of mine has come out of the way to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
7 “And the one inside answers, and says, ‘Do not trouble me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give them to you!’
8 “I say to you that though he would not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet he would undoubtedly rise and give him as many as he needed because of his persistence.
9 “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
10 “For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it shall be opened.
11 “If a son shall ask for bread from any of you who is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead?
12 “Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
13 “If you, then, who are evil, can give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to those who desire Him?
© 2019, 2024 by Five Talents Audio. All rights reserved.