Book of Common Prayer
Mem
Loving God’s Word
97 How I love your instruction![a]
Every day it is my meditation.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my adversaries,
since they are always with me.
99 I am more insightful than my teachers,
because your decrees are my meditations.
100 I have more common sense than the elders,
for I observe your precepts.
101 I keep away from every evil choice[b]
so that I may keep your word.[c]
102 I do not avoid your judgments,
for you pointed them out to me.
103 How pleasing is what you have to say to me—
tasting better than honey.
104 I obtain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every false way.
Nun
God’s Word a Light
105 Your word is[d] a lamp for my feet,
a light for my pathway.
106 I have given my word and affirmed it,
to keep your righteous judgments.
107 I am severely afflicted.
Revive me, Lord, according to your word.
108 Lord, please accept my voluntary offerings of praise,[e]
and teach me your judgments.
109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
I do not forget your instruction.[f]
110 Though the wicked lay a trap for me,
I haven’t wandered away from your precepts.
111 I have inherited your decrees forever,
because they are the joy of my heart.
112 As a result, I am determined
to carry out your statutes forever.
Samek
Loving God’s Law
113 I despise the double-minded,
but I love your instruction.[g]
114 You are my fortress and shield;
I hope in your word.
115 Leave me, you who practice evil,
that I may observe the commands of my God.
116 Sustain me, God,[h] as you have promised,
and I will live.
Do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
117 Support me, that I may be saved,
and I will carry out your statutes consistently.
118 You reject all who wander from your statutes,
since their deceitfulness is vain.
119 You remove[i] all the wicked of the earth like[j] dross;
therefore I love your decrees.
120 My flesh trembles out of fear of you,
and I am in awe of[k] your judgments.
For the Director: On the Gittith. By Asaph.
Celebrating and Remembering God
81 Sing joyfully to God, our strength.
Raise a shout to the God of Jacob.
2 Sing a song and play the tambourine,
the pleasant-sounding lyre along with the harp.
3 Blow the ram’s horn when there is a New Moon,
when there is a full moon,
on our festival day,
4 because it is a statute in Israel,
an ordinance by the God of Jacob,
5 a decree that he prescribed for Joseph
when he went throughout the land of Egypt,
speaking a language I did not recognize.[a]
6 I removed the burden from your[b] shoulder;
your[c] hands were freed of the burdensome basket.[d]
7 In a time of need you called out and I delivered you;
I answered you from the dark thundercloud;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Listen, My people and I will warn you.
Israel, if only you would obey me!
9 You must neither have a foreign god over you
or worship a strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
open your mouth that I may fill it.
11 Yet my people didn’t obey my voice;
Israel didn’t submit to me.
12 So I allowed them[e] to continue in their stubbornness,
living by their own advice.
13 If only my people would obey me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies.
I would turn against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord will cringe before him;
their punishment will be permanent.
16 But I will feed Israel[f] with the finest wheat,
satisfying you with honey from the rock.
A Psalm of Asaph
Asking God for Justice
2 “How long will you judge partially
by showing favor on the wicked?[i]
3 “Defend the poor and the fatherless.
Vindicate the afflicted and the poor.
4 Rescue the poor and the needy,
delivering them from the power of the wicked.
5 They neither know nor understand;
they walk about in the dark
while all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 “Indeed I said, ‘You are gods,
and all of you are sons of the Most High.
7 However, as all human beings do, you will die,
and like other rulers, you will fall.’
8 Arise, God, to judge the earth,
for all nations belong to you.
15 Truth is missing,
and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey.”
God Brings His Own Salvation
“Then the Lord looked, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one,
and was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm[a] brought him victory,
and his righteous acts upheld him.
17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in fury like a cloak.
18 So he will repay according to their action:
Anger to his enemies, retribution to his foes;
to the coastlands he will render their due.
19 So people will fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glories[b] from the rising of the sun;
for he will come as a pent-up stream
that the breath of the Lord drives along.
20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” says the Lord.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,”[c] says the Lord. “And[d] my Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, won’t depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children,[e] from now on and forever.”
News about Paul’s Helpers
15 You know that everyone in Asia has abandoned me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, for he often took care of[a] me and was not ashamed that I was a prisoner. 17 Instead, when he arrived in Rome he searched diligently for me and found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he finds mercy on the day he comes again.[b] You know very well how much he assisted me in Ephesus.
Remain Committed to the Messiah Jesus
2 As for you, my child, be strong by the grace that is in the Messiah[c] Jesus. 2 What you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. 3 Join me in suffering like a good soldier of the Messiah[d] Jesus. 4 No one serving in the military gets mixed up in civilian matters, for his aim is to please his commanding officer. 5 Moreover, no one who is an athlete wins a prize unless he competes according to the rules. 6 Furthermore, it is the hard working farmer who should have the first share of the crops. 7 Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you to understand all these things.
8 Meditate on[e] Jesus, the Messiah,[f] who was raised from the dead and is a descendant of David. This is the gospel I tell others.[g] 9 Because of it I am experiencing trouble, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. However, God’s word is not chained. 10 For that reason, I endure everything for the sake of those who have been chosen so that they, too, may receive the salvation that is in the Messiah[h] Jesus, along with eternal glory. 11 This saying is trustworthy:[i]
Teaching about Divorce(A)
10 Then Jesus[a] left that place and went into the territory of Judea on the other side[b] of the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him as usual, and he began to teach them again as was his custom. 2 Some Pharisees came to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he responded.
4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce her.”[c]
5 But Jesus told them, “It was because of your hardness of heart that he wrote this command for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God[d] made them male and female.’[e] 7 That’s why ‘a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[f] So they’re no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.”
10 Back in the house, the disciples asked him about this again. 11 So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman[g] divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Blesses the Little Children(B)
13 Some people[h] were bringing little children to Jesus[i] to have him touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought[j] them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he became furious and told them, “Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of God belongs to people like these. 15 I tell all of you[k] with certainty, whoever doesn’t receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 Then after he had hugged the children,[l] he tenderly blessed them as he laid his hands on them.
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