Book of Common Prayer
78 Hear my doctrine, O my people. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will declare high sentences of old
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the LORD, His power also, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 How He established a testimony in Jacob and ordained a Law in Israel. Which He commanded our fathers that they should teach their children,
6 so that the posterity might know it and the children which should be born should stand up and declare it to their children.
7 So that they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.
8 So that they not be as their fathers (a disobedient and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God).
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in His Law,
11 and forgot His acts and His wonderful works that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt (in the field of Zoan).
13 He divided the sea and led them through. He also made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 Also, in the daytime, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink, as with the great depths.
16 He also brought floods out of the stony rock, making the waters descend like the rivers.
17 But, they still sinned against Him and provoked the Highest in the wilderness
18 and tempted God in their hearts, requiring food for their lust.
19 They also spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread, or prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore, the LORD heard and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob; and wrath also came upon Israel
22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His help.
23 Still, He had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of Heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the wheat of Heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to pass in the sky; and through His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He also rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well-filled; for He gave them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lusts. The food was still in their mouths
31 when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest of them and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works.
33 Therefore, He ended their days in futility, and their years in dismay.
34 And when He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought God earnestly.
35 And they remembered that God was their strength, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not upright with Him; nor were they faithful in His Covenant.
38 Yet, He, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; but oftentimes called back His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert?
41 Indeed, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered neither His hand nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy
43 nor Him Who set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 Who turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent a swarm of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He also gave their fruits to the caterpillar, and their labor to the grasshopper.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48 He also gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, indignation and wrath, and troubled them by sending out evil angels.
50 He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life to the pestilence.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But, He made His people go out like sheep and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 Indeed, He carried them out safely, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the borders of His Sanctuary, to this Mountain which His right hand purchased.
55 He also cast out the heathen before them and caused them to fall to the lot of His inheritance; and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet, they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt falsely, like their fathers. They turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to wrath with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60 so that He abandoned the habitation of Shiloh, the Tabernacle where He dwelt among men,
61 and delivered His power into captivity, and His beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62 And He gave up His people to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not lament.
65 But the LORD awakened, as one out of sleep, as a strong man who cries out after wine,
66 and drove His enemies backwards and put them to a perpetual shame.
67 Yet, He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His Sanctuary as a high palace, like the Earth, which He established forever.
70 He also chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 Even from behind the ewes with young. He brought him to feed His people in Jacob, and His inheritance in Israel.
72 So, he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his hands. A Psalm committed to Asaph
15 “Alas!” For the day, for the day of the LORD is at hand! And it comes as a destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes — joy and gladness from the House of our God?
17 The seed is rotten under their clods. The storehouses are destroyed. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
18 How the beasts mourn! The herds of cattle pine away, because they have no pasture. And the flocks of sheep are destroyed.
19 O LORD! To You will I cry! For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. And the flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field also cry to You; for the river of waters have dried up. And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
2 “Blow the trumpet in Zion! And shout on My Holy Mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the Day of the LORD has come. For it is at hand,
2 “a day of darkness, and of blackness, a day of clouds and obscurity. As the morning spread upon the mountains, so is there a great people, and mighty. There was none like it from the beginning, nor shall there be any after it, until the years of many generations.”
3 A fire devours before them. And behind them a flame burns up. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them. And behind them there is a desolate wilderness, so that nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses. And like the horsemen, so shall they run.
5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a mighty people prepared to the battle.
6 Before His Face shall the people tremble. All faces shall gather heat.
7 They shall run like strong men and go up to the wall like men of war. And every man shall go forward in his ways. And they shall not stay in their paths.
8 Nor shall one crowd another. Everyone shall walk in his path. And when they fall, they shall not be wounded.
9 They shall run to and fro in the city. They shall run upon the wall. They shall climb up upon the houses and enter in at the windows like the thief.
10 The Earth shall tremble before them. The heavens shall shake. The Sun and the Moon shall be dark. And the stars shall withdraw their shining.
11 And the LORD shall utter His voice before His host. For His host is very great. For he is strong who does His Word. For the Day of the LORD is great and very terrible. And who can abide it?
19 And after these things, I heard a great voice of a great multitude in Heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power be to the Lord our God!
2 “For true and righteous are His judgments! For He has condemned the great whore who corrupted the Earth with her fornication; and has avenged the blood of His servants, shed by her hand!”
3 And again they said, “Hallelujah! And her smoke rises up for evermore!”
4 And the 24 elders, and the four beasts, fell down and worshipped God Who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
5 Then a voice came out of the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all his servants; and you who fear Him, both small and great!”
6 And I heard a voice like that of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of strong thunderings, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty has reigned!
7 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to Him! For the marriage of the Lamb has come! And his wife has made herself ready!
8 “And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed with pure fine linen and shining!” For fine linen is the righteousness of saints!”
9 Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the Lamb’s supper.’” And he said to me, “These words of God are true.”
10 And I fell before his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do it. I am your fellow servant, and one of your brothers, who has the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.”
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters - yes, and even his own life - he cannot be My disciple.
27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
28 “For who of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down beforehand and count the cost (whether he has the means to complete it),
29 “lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to complete it, all who behold it begin to mock him,
30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 “Or what king (going to make war against another king) does not first sit down and take counsel on whether he is able, with ten thousand, to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 “Otherwise, while he is still a great way off, he sends ambassadors to ask for peace.
33 “So likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good. But if salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted?
35 “It is fit neither for the land nor for manure. But it is cast out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
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