Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 106
1 Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!(A)
2 Who can put into words and tell the mighty deeds of the Lord? Or who can show forth all the praise [that is due Him]?
3 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who observe justice [treating others fairly] and who do right and are in right standing with God at all times.
4 [Earnestly] remember me, O Lord, when You favor Your people! O visit me also when You deliver them, and grant me Your salvation!—
5 That I may see and share the welfare of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your heritage.
6 We have sinned, as did also our fathers; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.(B)
7 Our fathers in Egypt understood not nor appreciated Your miracles; they did not [earnestly] remember the multitude of Your mercies nor imprint Your loving-kindness [on their hearts], but they were rebellious and provoked the Lord at the sea, even at the Red Sea.(C)
8 Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake [to prove the righteousness of the divine character], that He might make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths as through a pastureland.(D)
10 And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy.(E)
11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left.(F)
12 Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise.
13 But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them,
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert.(G)
15 And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.(H)
16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the Lord.(I)
17 Therefore the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and closed over the company of Abiram.(J)
18 And a fire broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.(K)
19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image.(L)
20 Thus they exchanged Him Who was their Glory for the image of an ox that eats grass [they traded their Honor for the image of a calf]!
21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done such great things in Egypt,
22 Wonders and miracles in the land of Ham, dreadful and awesome things at the Red Sea.
23 Therefore He said He would destroy them. [And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the breach before Him to turn away His threatening wrath.(M)
24 Then they spurned and despised the pleasant and desirable land [Canaan]; they believed not His word [neither trusting in, relying on, nor holding to it];
25 But they murmured in their tents and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore He lifted up His hand [as if taking an oath] against them, that He would cause them to fall in the wilderness,
27 Cast out their descendants among the nations, and scatter them in the lands [of the earth].
28 They joined themselves also to the [idol] Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices [offered] to the lifeless [gods].
29 Thus they provoked the Lord to anger with their practices, and a plague broke out among them.
30 Then stood up Phinehas [the priest] and executed judgment, and so the plague was stayed.(N)
31 And that was credited to him for righteousness (right doing and right standing with God) to all generations forever.
32 They angered the Lord also at the waters of Meribah, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes;(O)
33 For they provoked [Moses’] spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the [heathen] nations as the Lord commanded them,
35 But mingled themselves with the [idolatrous] nations and learned their ways and works
36 And served their idols, which were a snare to them.
37 Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons(P)
38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with their blood.
39 Thus were they defiled by their own works, and they played the harlot and practiced idolatry with their own deeds [of idolatrous rites].
40 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, insomuch that He abhorred and rejected His own heritage.(Q)
41 And He gave them into the hands of the [heathen] nations, and they that hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under the hand of their foes.
43 Many times did [God] deliver them, but they were rebellious in their counsel and sank low through their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless He regarded their distress when He heard their cry;
45 And He [earnestly] remembered for their sake His covenant and relented their sentence of evil [comforting and easing Himself] according to the abundance of His mercy and loving-kindness [when they cried out to Him].
46 He also caused [Israel] to find sympathy among those who had carried them away captive.
47 Deliver us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in praising You.
48 Blessed (affectionately and gratefully praised) be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, Amen! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)(R)
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began his fifty-five-year [wicked] reign in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He [Hezekiah’s son] did evil in the sight of the Lord, after the [idolatrous] practices of the [heathen] nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites.
3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the [starry] hosts of the heavens and served them!
4 And he built [heathen] altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put My [a]Name [and the pledge of My presence].
5 And he [good Hezekiah’s son] built altars for all the hosts of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord!
6 And he made his son pass through the fire and burned him as an offering [to Molech]; he practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and wizards! He did much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
7 He made a graven image of [the goddess] Asherah and set it in the house, of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put My Name [and the pledge of My presence] forever;
8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.
9 But they would not listen; and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations did whom the Lord destroyed before the Israelites!
10 And the Lord said through His servants the prophets:
11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols,
12 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle!
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14 And I will cast off the rest of My inheritance and deliver them into the hands of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies,
15 For they have done evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger since their fathers came out of Egypt to this day.
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, filling Jerusalem from one end to another—besides his sin in making Judah sin, by doing evil in the sight of the Lord!(A)
17 The rest of the acts of Manasseh, all that he did, and his sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
18 Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Amon his son reigned in his stead.
14 Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun (keep clear away from, avoid by flight if need be) any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God).
15 I am speaking as to intelligent (sensible) men. Think over and make up your minds [for yourselves] about what I say. [I appeal to your reason and your discernment in these matters.]
16 The cup of blessing [of wine at the Lord’s Supper] upon which we ask [God’s] blessing, does it not mean [that in drinking it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the blood of Christ (the Messiah)? The bread which we break, does it not mean [that in eating it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the body of Christ?
17 For we [no matter how] numerous we are, are one body, because we all partake of the one Bread [the One Whom the communion bread represents].
18 Consider those [physically] people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners of the altar [united in their worship of the same God]?(A)
19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is [intrinsically changed by the fact and amounts to] anything or that an idol itself is a [living] thing?
20 No, I am suggesting that what the pagans sacrifice they offer [in effect] to demons (to evil spiritual powers) and not to God [at all]. I do not want you to fellowship and be partners with diabolical spirits [by eating at their feasts].(B)
21 You cannot drink the Lord’s cup and the demons’ cup. You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the demons’ table.
22 Shall we thus provoke the Lord to jealousy and anger and indignation? Are we stronger than He [that we should defy Him]?(C)
23 All things are legitimate [permissible—and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life].
24 Let no one then seek his own good and advantage and profit, but [rather] each one of the other [let him seek the welfare of his neighbor].
25 [As to meat offered to idols] eat anything that is sold in the meat market without raising any question or investigating on the grounds of conscientious scruples,
26 For the [whole] earth is the Lord’s and everything that is in it.(D)
27 In case one of the unbelievers invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is served to you without examining into its source because of conscientious scruples.
28 But if someone tells you, This has been offered in sacrifice to an idol, do not eat it, out of consideration for the person who informed you, and for conscience’s sake—
29 I mean for the sake of his conscience, not yours, [do not eat it]. For why should another man’s scruples apply to me and my liberty of action be determined by his conscience?
30 If I partake [of my food] with thankfulness, why am I accused and spoken evil of because of that for which I give thanks?
31 So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do all for the honor and glory of God.
32 Do not let yourselves be [hindrances by giving] an offense to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God [[a]do not lead others into sin by your mode of life];
33 Just as I myself strive to please [to accommodate myself to the opinions, desires, and interests of others, adapting myself to] all men in everything I do, not aiming at or considering my own profit and advantage, but that of the many in order that they may be saved.
11 Pattern yourselves after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).
28 And when He arrived at the other side in the country of the Gadarenes, two men under the control of demons went to meet Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce and savage that no one was able to pass that way.
29 And behold, they shrieked and screamed, What have You to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come to torment us before the appointed time?(A)
30 Now at some distance from there a drove of many hogs was grazing.
31 And the demons begged Him, If You drive us out, send us into the drove of hogs.
32 And He said to them, Begone! So they came out and went into the hogs, and behold, the whole drove rushed down the steep bank into the sea and died in the water.
33 The herdsmen fled and went into the town and reported everything, including what had happened to the men under the power of demons.
34 And behold, the whole town went out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their locality.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation