Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78[a]
God’s Goodness in the Face of Ingratitude
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
[c]Give ear, my people, to my teaching;
pay attention to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in parables[d]
and expound the mysteries of the past.
3 [e]These things we have heard and know,
for our ancestors have related them to us.
4 We will not conceal them from our children;
we will relate them to the next generation,
the glorious and powerful deeds of the Lord
and the wonders he has performed.
5 He instituted a decree in Jacob
and established a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to make known to their descendants,
6 so that they would be known to future generations,
to children yet to be born.
In turn they were to tell their children,
7 so that they would place their trust in God,
and never forget his works
but keep his commandments.
8 Nor were they to imitate their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart[f] was not steadfast
and whose spirit was unfaithful to God.
9 [g]The Ephraimites, who were skilled archers,
fled in terror on the day of battle.[h]
10 They failed to keep God’s covenant
and refused to live in accord with his law.
11 They forgot the works he had done,
the wonders he had performed for them.
12 He worked marvels in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the Plain of Zoan.[i]
13 He divided the sea so that they could pass,
heaping up the waters as a mound.
14 He led them with a cloud by day,
and with the light of a fire by night.
15 He split open rocks in the wilderness
and gave them water to drink from limitless depths.
16 He brought forth streams from a rocky crag
and caused water to flow down in torrents.
17 [j]But they still sinned[k] against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They tested God’s patience
by demanding the food they craved.[l]
19 They railed against God, saying:
“Can God provide a banquet in the wilderness?
20 Certainly when he struck the rock,
water gushed forth and the streams overflowed.
But can he also give us bread
or provide meat for his people?”[m]
21 When the Lord heard this, he was filled with anger;
his fire blazed forth against Jacob,
and his wrath mounted against Israel,
22 because they had no faith in God
and put no trust in his saving might.
23 Yet he issued a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens.
24 He rained down manna for them to eat,
giving them the grain of heaven.
25 Mere mortals ate the bread of angels;[n]
he sent them an abundance of provisions.
26 He made the east wind blow in the heavens
and brought forth the south wind in force.
27 He rained down meat upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sands on the seashore.
28 He let them fall within the camp,
all around their tents.
29 They ate and were completely satisfied,
for he had given them what they desired.
30 But when they did not curb their cravings,
even while the food was in their mouths,
31 the anger of God blazed up against them;
he slew their strongest warriors
and laid low the chosen of Israel.
32 [o]Despite this, they continued to sin;
they put no faith in his wonders.
33 So he brought their days to an abrupt end
and cut off their years with sudden terror.[p]
34 When death afflicted them,
they sought him;
they searched eagerly for God.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,[q]
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 However, while they flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues,
37 their hearts[r] were not right with him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
38 Even so, he was compassionate toward them;
he forgave their guilt
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he held back his anger,
unwilling to stir up his rage.
39 For he remembered that they were flesh,
like a breath of wind that does not return.
40 [s]How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and pained him in the wasteland.
41 Again and again they tested God’s patience,
provoking the Holy One of Israel.[t]
42 They did not keep in mind his power
or the day when he delivered them from their oppressor,
43 when he manifested his wonders in Egypt
and his portents in the Plain of Zoan.
44 [u]He turned their rivers into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He assigned their harvest to the caterpillars
and their produce to the locusts.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He exposed their cattle to hailstones
and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
49 He sent upon them his blazing anger,
wrath, fury, and hostility,
a band of destroying angels.[v]
50 He gave his anger free rein;
he did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.[w]
52 Then he led forth his people like sheep
and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, and they were not afraid,
while the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 He brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain his right hand had purchased.
55 He drove out the nations before them,
apportioning a heritage for each of them
and settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.[x]
56 [y]Even so, they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High,
refusing to observe his decrees.
57 They turned away and were disloyal like their ancestors;
they were as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places[z]
and made him jealous with their idols.
59 When God saw this, he became enraged
and rejected Israel totally.[aa]
60 He forsook his dwelling in Shiloh,[ab]
the tent where he dwelt among mortals.
61 He surrendered his might into captivity
and his glory[ac] into the hands of the enemy.
62 He abandoned his people to the sword
and vented his wrath on his own heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
and their maidens had no wedding song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows sang no lamentation.
65 [ad]Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
like a warrior flushed from the effects of wine.
66 He struck his enemies and routed them,
inflicting perpetual shame on them.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Rather, he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion,[ae] which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
and like the earth[af] that he founded forever.
70 He chose David[ag] to be his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 From tending sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel, his heritage.
72 He shepherded them with an unblemished heart
and guided them with a knowing hand.[ah]
Chapter 11
The People of Israel Complain. 1 The people complained about their hardships and the Lord heard and his anger flared up. Then the fire of the Lord burned up the outskirts of the camp. 2 The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was quenched. 3 He named that place Taberah,[a] for the fire of the Lord had burned in their midst.
4 Now the rabble[b] among them fell victim to their desires again, and the people of Israel said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is fading away, all we ever see is this manna.” 7 Manna had the shape of coriander seed and it looked like resin. 8 The people would go around gathering it, and then they would grind it in a mill or beat it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. It tasted something like fresh olive oil. 9 The manna would come down when the dew settled upon the camp at night.
10 Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the entrance to their tent. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was greatly displeased. 11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you torturing your servant? Have I not found favor in your sight, that you would burden me with this whole people? 12 Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms like a nurse carries a small child to the land that I have promised to their ancestors?’ 13 Where can I get enough meat to give to all this people, for they cry to me saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry this entire people by myself; they are too burdensome for me. 15 If this is the way that you are going to treat me, and if I have found favor in your sight, then please put me to death right now so I do not have to keep looking upon my misery.”
16 But the Lord said to Moses, “Bring me seventy men from among the elders of Israel whom you know to be elders and leaders of the people. Bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with yourself. 17 I will come down and speak to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you and put it upon them. They will carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not have to carry it alone. 18 Say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow you will eat meat. You cried out in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? We were better off when we were in Egypt.” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, nor for two days, nor for five days, nor for ten days, nor for twenty days. 20 You will eat it for a whole month, until your faces overflow with it, and you become sick of it, for you have despised the Lord who is among you and whom you have confronted crying out, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ ”
21 But Moses said, “I am standing among six hundred thousand people on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat to eat for an entire month?’ 22 Shall the flocks and herds be slaughtered to satisfy their desires? Will all of the fish of the sea be gathered together to fill them?” 23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you will see whether my word will be fulfilled or not.”
The Gospel of God[a]
16 Power of Salvation for All Believers. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, since it is the power of God that offers salvation to everyone who has faith—to Jews first, and then to Gentiles as well. 17 In it the righteousness of God is revealed, beginning in faith and established in faith.[b] As it is written: “The one who is righteous will live through faith.”
Justification through Faith in Jesus[c]
The World in the Wrath of God[d]
18 Exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For that which can be known about God is clearly evident to them because God has revealed it plainly to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world the invisible attributes of God’s eternal power and divine nature have been clearly understood and perceived through the things he has made.
Therefore, the conduct of these people is inexcusable. 21 Despite knowing God, they refused to honor him as God or give thanks to him. As a result, their speculations became foolish and their uncomprehending hearts became darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, in reality they became fools, 23 exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images fashioned in the likeness of a mortal man or birds or fourfooted animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore, God abandoned them in the sinful lusts of their hearts to impurity and the mutual degradation of their bodies. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and offered worship and service to the creature rather than to the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
22 Jesus Predicts His Passion a Second Time.[a] When they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were overwhelmed with grief.
24 Jesus Pays the Temple Tax.[b] When they arrived at Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came up to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter went into the house, but before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do the kings of the earth exact tolls and taxes—from their own sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus replied, “Then their sons are exempt. 27 However, lest we give offense to them, go to the lake and cast a hook. Take the first fish that you catch and open its mouth. There you will find a silver coin. Take it and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
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