Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105
The Lord Remembers His Covenant
Opening Praise
1 Give thanks to the Lord.
Proclaim[a] his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, make music to him.
Meditate on all his wonders.
3 Take pride in his holy name.
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Search for the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders which he has done,
his signs, and the judgments from his mouth,
6 you descendants of Abraham his servant,
you sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His judgments are in all the earth.
The Promise of the Covenant
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant which he made with Abraham,
and his oath to Isaac.
10 Yes, he confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,
the territory you will possess.”
The Lord Is Faithful in Canaan:
His Protection of the Patriarchs
12 While they were few in number,
just a little group and aliens in the land,
13 they moved around from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people.
14 He did not allow anyone to oppress them,
and he rebuked kings because of them:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do not harm my prophets.”
The Lord Is Faithful in Egypt:
His Protection of Joseph
16 Then he summoned a famine on the land.
He destroyed their entire food supply.
17 He sent ahead of them a man sold as a slave, Joseph.
18 They hurt his feet with chains.
His throat was clamped in an iron collar,
19 until the time when his predictions came true.
The promise of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent for him and released him.
The ruler of peoples set him free.
21 He made him master of his house
and ruler over all his possessions,
22 to bind his officials by his will,
to teach his elders wisdom.
The Lord Is Faithful in Egypt:
His Protection of the People
23 Then Israel came to Egypt.
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.[b]
24 Then the Lord made his people very fruitful.
He made them too numerous for their foes.
25 He turned the Egyptians’ hearts so they hated his people.
They dealt deceitfully with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
his warning signs in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and it became extremely dark,
because Israel[c] did not rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
and he caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the rooms of their kings.
31 He spoke, and a swarm of flies came.
There were lice[d] throughout their borders.
32 He gave them hail instead of rain,
with blazing lightning throughout their land.
33 Then he struck down their vines and fig trees,
and he broke down the trees within their borders.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
and grasshoppers without number.
35 They ate every green plant in their land.
They ate the produce of their soil.
36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruit of all their virility.
37 Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold.
From among their tribes no one stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they went out,
because fear of Israel had fallen on them.
The Lord Is Faithful in the Wilderness
39 He spread out a cloud as a canopy
and fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought quail,
and he satisfied them with bread from heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out.
It flowed in the desert like a river.
The Lord Is Faithful in the Land
42 Because he remembered his holy word to Abraham, his servant,
43 he brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with a joyful shout.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the work of other peoples
45 so that they could keep his statutes and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord.[e]
Absalom’s Rebellion
15 After this, Absalom acquired for himself a chariot, horses, and fifty men to run in front of him. 2 Absalom would get up early and stand beside the road by the gatehouse. Absalom would call out to every man who had a legal issue to bring before the king for judgment, and he would say, “What city are you from?” The person would say, “Your servant is from such-and-such of the tribes of Israel.” 3 Absalom would say to him, “Your claims are good and valid, but there is no one from the king to listen to you.” 4 Then Absalom would say, “I wish someone would make me a judge in the land. Then everyone who has a legal issue or needs a judgment could come to me, and I would give him justice.”
5 Whenever someone approached to bow down to him, he would reach out, take hold of him, and kiss him. 6 Absalom acted this way to everyone of Israel who came to the king for judgment. In this way Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7 After four[a] years Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron and fulfill my vow, which I have made to the Lord, 8 because when I was at Geshur in Aram, your servant vowed, ‘If the Lord will really return me to Jerusalem, I will serve the Lord.’”
9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he set out and went to Hebron.
10 But Absalom sent agents throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “When you hear the sound of the ram’s horn, you are to say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’” 11 Two hundred men from Jerusalem who had been invited went along with Absalom. They went innocently, since they did not know what was going on.
12 While he was offering sacrifices, Absalom summoned David’s advisor, Ahithophel of Giloh, to come from Giloh, his hometown. The conspiracy gained strength as more and more people were going over to Absalom.
13 A messenger came to David and said, “The hearts of the men of Israel are following Absalom.”
14 So David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Get ready. We must flee, or we will not escape from Absalom. Hurry up and go, so that he does not come quickly, overtake us, bring down disaster on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
15 The officials of the king said to him, “Here we are. We, your servants, will do everything our lord the king decides.” 16 So the king set out with his entire household, but he left ten concubines[b] to watch over the house. 17 The king and all his people set out. They stopped at a house some distance away.
David’s Flight
18 All his troops were passing by in front of David. All the Kerethites, Pelethites, and Gittites—six hundred men from Gath who had come under his command—were passing by in front of the king.
Paul Is Arrested
27 When the seven days were almost over, Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law, and against this place. And now he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
30 The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together as a mob. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were looking for a way to kill him, a report went up to the commander of the cohort[a] that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 Then the commander approached Paul, arrested him, and gave an order that he should be bound with two chains. He asked who Paul was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. Since the commander could not find out the truth because of the uproar, he ordered his men to take Paul away to the barracks. 35 When he came to the steps, Paul had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. 36 The large number of people that was following kept shouting, “Away with him!”
Again Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection
32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them. The disciples were amazed, and the others who followed were afraid. He took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. 33 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. 34 They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day[a] he will rise again.”
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask.”
36 He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”
38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they replied.
Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with. 40 But to sit at my right or at my left is not for me to give; rather, these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard this, they were angry with James and John.
42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.