Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 105

¹ O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples!

² Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His marvelous deeds and devoutly praise them.

³ Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek and require the Lord [as their indispensable necessity].

⁴ Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.

⁵ [Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds that He has done, His miracles and wonders, the judgments and sentences which He pronounced [upon His enemies, as in Egypt].^(A)

⁶ O you offspring of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones,

⁷ He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸ He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations,

⁹ The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His sworn promise to Isaac,^(B)

¹⁰ Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

¹¹ Saying, Unto you will I give the land of Canaan as your measured portion, possession, and inheritance.

¹² When they were but a few men in number, in fact, very few, and were temporary residents and strangers in it,

¹³ When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people,

¹⁴ He allowed no man to do them wrong; in fact, He reproved kings for their sakes,^(C)

¹⁵ Saying, Touch not My anointed, and do My prophets no harm.^(D)

¹⁶ Moreover, He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt]; He cut off every source of bread.^(E)

¹⁷ He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant.^(F)

¹⁸ His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron,

¹⁹ Until his word [to his cruel brothers] came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him.

²⁰ The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go free.

²¹ He made Joseph lord of his house and ruler of all his substance,^(G)

²² To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.^(H)

²⁴ There [the Lord] greatly increased His people and made them stronger than their oppressors.

²⁵ He turned the hearts [of the Egyptians] to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

²⁷ They showed His signs among them, wonders and miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).

²⁸ He sent [thick] darkness and made the land dark, and they [God’s two servants] rebelled not against His word.^(I)

²⁹ He turned [Egypt’s] waters into blood and caused their fish to die.^(J)

³⁰ Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, even in the chambers of their kings.^(K)

³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of beetles and flies and mosquitoes and lice in all their borders.^(L)

³² He gave them hail for rain, with lightning like flaming fire in their land.^(M)

³³ He smote their vines also and their fig trees and broke the [ice-laden] trees of their borders.^(N)

³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, and that without number,^(O)

³⁵ And ate up all the vegetation in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.

³⁶ He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the beginning and chief substance of all their strength.^(P)

³⁷ He brought [Israel] forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.^(Q)

³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon the people.^(R)

³⁹ The Lord spread a cloud for a covering [by day], and a fire to give light in the night.^(S)

⁴⁰ [The Israelites] asked, and He brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.^(T)

⁴¹ He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it ran in the dry places like a river.^(U)

⁴² For He [earnestly] remembered His holy word and promise to Abraham His servant.^(V)

⁴³ And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen ones with gladness and singing,

⁴⁴ And gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan], and they reaped the fruits of those peoples’ labor,^(W)

⁴⁵ That they might observe His statutes and keep His laws [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

²⁸ Then the Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, Hear the word of the great king of Assyria!

²⁹ Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you. For he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.

³⁰ Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in and rely on the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of Assyria’s king.

³¹ Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat every man from his own vine and fig tree and drink every man the waters of his own cistern,

³² Until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and vintage fruit, of bread and vineyards, of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he urges you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.

³³ Has any one of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad [in Syria]? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah [in the Euphrates Valley]? Have they delivered Samaria [Israel’s capital] out of my hand?

³⁵ Who of all the gods of the countries has delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, Do not answer him.

³⁷ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the royal household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him what the Rabshakeh had said.

9 Am I not an apostle (a special messenger)? Am I not free (unrestrained and exempt from any obligation)? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you [yourselves] not [the product and proof of] my workmanship in the Lord?

² Even if I am not considered an apostle (a special messenger) by others, at least I am one to you; for you are the seal (the certificate, the living evidence) of my apostleship in the Lord [confirming and authenticating it].

³ This is my [real ground of] defense (my vindication of myself) to those who would put me on trial and cross-examine me.

⁴ Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]?

⁵ Have we not the right also to take along with us a Christian sister as wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas (Peter)?

⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from doing manual labor for a livelihood [in order to go about the work of the ministry]?

⁷ [Consider this:] What soldier at any time serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the fruit of it? Who tends a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?

⁸ Do I say this only on human authority and as a man reasons? Does not the Law endorse the same principle?

⁹ For in the Law of Moses it is written, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn. Is it [only] for oxen that God cares?^(A)

¹⁰ Or does He speak certainly and entirely for our sakes? [Assuredly] it is written for our sakes, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher ought to thresh in expectation of partaking of the harvest.

¹¹ If we have sown [the seed of] spiritual good among you, [is it too] much if we reap from your material benefits?

¹² If others share in this rightful claim upon you, do not we [have a still better and greater claim]? However, we have never exercised this right, but we endure everything rather than put a hindrance in the way [of the spread] of the good news (the Gospel) of Christ.

¹³ Do you not know that those men who are employed in the services of the temple get their food from the temple? And that those who tend the altar share with the altar [in the offerings brought]?^(B)

¹⁴ [On the same principle] the Lord directed that those who publish the good news (the Gospel) should live (get their maintenance) by the Gospel.

¹⁵ But I have not made use of any of these privileges, nor am I writing this [to suggest] that any such provision be made for me [now]. For it would be better for me to die than to have anyone make void and deprive me of my [ground for] glorifying [in this matter].

²² Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

²³ And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].^(A)

²⁴ So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a ^[a]sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.

²⁵ And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand.

²⁷ And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great and complete was the fall of it.

²⁸ When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching,

²⁹ For He was teaching as One Who had [and was] authority, and not as [did] the scribes.