Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105
1 Give thanks to Yahweh.
Call on him.
Make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him.
Make music to praise him.
Meditate on all the miracles he has performed.
3 Brag about his holy name.
Let the hearts of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
4 Search for Yahweh and his strength.
Always seek his presence.
5 Remember the miracles he performed,
the amazing things he did, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 you descendants of his servant Abraham,
you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is Yahweh our Elohim.
His judgments are pronounced throughout the earth.
8 He always remembers his promise,[a]
the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the promise that he made to Abraham,
and his sworn oath to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it as a law for Jacob,
as an everlasting promise to Israel,
11 by saying, “I will give you the land of Canaan.
It is your share of the inheritance.”
12 While the people of Israel were few in number,
a small group of foreigners living in that land,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He didn’t permit anyone to oppress them.
He warned kings about them:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones
or harm my prophets.”
16 He brought famine to the land.
He took away their food supply.
17 He sent a man ahead of them.
He sent Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with shackles,
and cut into his neck with an iron collar.
19 Yahweh’s promise tested him through fiery trials
until his prediction came true.
20 The king sent someone to release him.
The ruler of nations set him free.
21 He made Joseph the master of his palace
and the ruler of all his possessions.
22 Joseph trained the king’s officers the way he wanted
and taught his respected leaders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came to Egypt.
Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
24 Yahweh made his people grow rapidly in number
and stronger than their enemies.
25 He changed their minds so that they hated his people,
and they dealt treacherously with his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses, and he sent Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They displayed his miraculous signs among them
and did amazing things in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made their land dark.
They did not rebel against his orders.
29 He turned their water into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 He made their land swarm with frogs,
even in the kings’ bedrooms.
31 He spoke, and swarms of flies and gnats
infested their whole territory.
32 He gave them hail and lightning
instead of rain throughout their land.
33 He struck their grapevines and fig trees
and smashed the trees in their territory.
34 He spoke, and countless locusts and grasshoppers came.
35 They devoured all the plants in the land.
They devoured the crops in the fields.
36 He killed all the firstborn sons,
the first ones born in the land when their fathers were young.
37 He brought Israel out with silver and gold,
and no one among his tribes stumbled.
38 The Egyptians were terrified of Israel,
so they were glad when Israel left.
39 He spread out a cloud as a protective covering
and a fire to light up the night.
40 The Israelites asked, and he brought them quail
and filled them with bread from heaven.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed
and flowed like a river through the dry places.
42 He remembered his holy promise to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with a song of joy.
44 He gave them the lands of other nations,
and they inherited what others had worked for
45 so that they would obey his laws
and follow his teachings.
Hallelujah!
The Promise Sealed with Blood
24 Yahweh said to Moses, “You and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s leaders come up the mountain to me and worship at a distance. 2 Moses may come near Yahweh, but the others may not. The people must not come along with Moses.”
3 Moses went and told the people all Yahweh’s words and legal decisions. Then all the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything Yahweh has told us to do.” 4 So Moses wrote down all Yahweh’s words.
Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up 12 sacred stones for the 12 tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they sacrificed bulls as burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to Yahweh. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it into bowls, and he threw the other half against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Lord’s Promise[a] and read it while the people listened. They said, “We will obey and do everything Yahweh has said.”
8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “Here is the blood which seals the promise that Yahweh has made to you based on everything you have just heard.”
9 Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s leaders. 10 They saw the Elohim of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made out of sapphire as clear and blue as the sky itself. 11 Elohim didn’t harm these leaders of the Israelites. So they saw Elohim, and then they ate and drank.
Moses Goes up the Mountain to Receive God’s Words Written on Stone
12 Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings and the commandments I have written for the people’s instruction.”
13 Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up on the mountain of Elohim. 14 He said to the leaders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Take all your disagreements to them.”
15 So Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered it. 16 The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day Yahweh called to Moses from inside the cloud. 17 To the Israelites, the glory of Yahweh looked like a raging fire on top of the mountain. 18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.
Beware of Requirements Invented by Humans
8 Be careful not to let anyone rob you of this faith through a shallow and misleading philosophy. Such a person follows human traditions and the world’s way of doing things rather than following Christ.
9 All of God lives in Christ’s body, 10 and God has made you complete in Christ. Christ is in charge of every ruler and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised. It was not a circumcision performed by human hands. But it was a removal of the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ. 12 This happened when you were placed in the tomb with Christ through baptism. In baptism you were also brought back to life with Christ through faith in the power of God,[a] who brought him back to life.
13 You were once dead because of your failures and your uncircumcised corrupt nature. But God made you alive with Christ when he forgave all our failures. 14 He did this by erasing the charges that were brought against us by the written laws God had established. He took the charges away by nailing them to the cross. 15 He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ.
16 Therefore, let no one judge you because of what you eat or drink or about the observance of annual holy days, New Moon Festivals, or weekly worship days. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels tell you that you don’t deserve a prize. Such a person, whose sinful mind fills him with arrogance, gives endless details of the visions he has seen. 19 He doesn’t hold on to Christ, the head. Christ makes the whole body grow as God wants it to, through support and unity given by the joints and ligaments.
20 If you have died with Christ to the world’s way of doing things, why do you let others tell you how to live? It’s as though you were still under the world’s influence. 21 People will tell you, “Don’t handle this! Don’t taste or touch that!” 22 All of these things deal with objects that are only used up anyway. 23 These things look like wisdom with their self-imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they have no value for holding back the constant desires of your corrupt nature.
A Light Has Risen
12 When Yeshua heard that John had been put in prison, he went back to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. This was in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 So what the prophet Isaiah had said came true:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
on the way to the sea,
across the Jordan River,
Galilee, where foreigners live!
16 The people who lived in darkness
have seen a bright light.
A light has risen
for those who live in a land overshadowed by death.”
17 From then on, Yeshua began to tell people, “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near!”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.