Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 106
Israel Forgets
Introduction
1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
2 Who can tell about the mighty deeds of the Lord?
Who can cause all his praise to be heard?
3 Blessed are those who defend justice,
who do what is right all the time.
4 Remember me, O Lord,
when you show favor to your people.
Visit me with your salvation,
5 so that I may experience the good that belongs to your chosen ones,
so that I may rejoice in the joy of your nation,
so that I may join in praise with the people that belongs to you.
Rebellion in Egypt
6 We have sinned along with our fathers.
We have become guilty. We have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not reflect on your wonders.
They did not remember your abundant mercies,
so they rebelled beside the sea, by the Red Sea.
God’s Grace
8 Nevertheless, he saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his might known.
9 Then he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up.
He caused them to go through the deep sea as if it were a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them.
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 Then the waters covered their foes.
Not one of them remained.
12 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.
Rebellions in the Wilderness
13 They quickly forgot his deeds.
They did not wait for his plan.
14 Because they were filled with craving in the wilderness,
they challenged God in the wasteland.
15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but he made them sick so they wasted away.
16 Then they grew jealous of Moses in the camp
and of Aaron, who was holy to the Lord.
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan,
and it closed over the followers of Abiram.
18 Then fire burned up their followers.
Flames consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf at Horeb,
and they bowed down to a thing cast from metal.
20 So they exchanged their Glory for a model of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them
by doing great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,
awesome deeds beside the Red Sea.
God’s Grace
23 So he said he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stood between God and the people
to turn aside his wrath, so it did not destroy them.
More Rebellions in the Wilderness
24 Then they refused the pleasant land.
They did not believe his word.
25 They grumbled in their tents.
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he lifted up his hand and swore to them
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 and make their descendants fall among the nations,
and he would scatter them throughout the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor,
and they ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
29 They provoked the Lord by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and interceded for them,
and the plague was restrained.
31 So this was credited to him as righteousness
for generation after generation, to eternity.
32 Again by the waters of Meribah they provoked the Lord,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 Because they rebelled against his Spirit,[b]
Moses spoke recklessly with his lips.
Rebellion Continues in the Land
34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mixed with the nations,
and they learned to do what the nations did.
36 They also served their idols,
and the idols became a snare for them.
37 They also sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was polluted by their children’s blood,
39 and they made themselves unclean by what they did.
They prostituted themselves by their actions.
The Judgment
40 Therefore the Lord burned with anger against his people,
and he loathed the people who belonged to him.
41 So he handed them over to the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Then their enemies oppressed them,
and they had to submit to their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
but they deliberately rebelled,
and they sank down in their guilt.
God’s Grace
44 But he looked on them in their distress when he heard their outcry.
45 So for their sake he remembered his covenant.
Because of his great mercy, he changed his course.
46 Then he caused all their captors to have pity on them.
Closing Prayer
47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations,
so that we may give thanks to your holy name and praise you confidently.
Closing Doxology
48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity,
and all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord.
17 Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. 18 He said to the people of Israel, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. 19 But today you have rejected your God, the one who saves you out of all your disasters and your distress, and you have said to him, ‘You must set a king over us.’ Now line up in the presence of the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”
20 So Samuel brought forward all the tribes of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.[a] 21 Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was chosen.[b] Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen, but when they looked for him, he could not be found. 22 Therefore they asked the Lord again, “Has the man arrived here yet?”
The Lord answered, “He has. Look, he is is hiding among the baggage.”
23 So they ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was a head taller than any of the people. 24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.”
All the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
25 Samuel told the people the regulations concerning the kingship, and he wrote them on a scroll, which was placed before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each man to his own house. 26 Saul went home to Gibeah, and the army went with him, those men whose hearts God had touched. 27 But certain worthless good-for-nothings said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and brought him no gift, but Saul said nothing.
Stephen Defends Himself
44 “Our fathers had the Tent of the Testimony in the wilderness. It was just like the model Moses had seen, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it. 45 After our fathers received it from him, they brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land from the nations God drove out before our fathers. It was here until the days of David. 46 He found favor in the presence of God and asked that he might obtain a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[a] 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, just as the prophet says:
49 Heaven is my throne,
and earth is my footstool.
What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord,
or what is my resting place?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?[b]
Stephen Condemns the Jewish Rulers
51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit! You are doing just what your fathers did. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who prophesied the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers— 53 you who received the law as transmitted by angels, but did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When they heard these things, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 He said, “Look, I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 But they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and rushed at him with one purpose in mind. 58 They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After he said this, he fell asleep.
8 Saul agreed with putting Stephen to death.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
52 Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as you would against a robber, with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour—when darkness rules.”
54 Then they seized him, led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house.
Peter Denies Jesus
Peter followed at a distance. 55 When they had lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 A servant girl saw him sitting near the light. She looked closely at him and said, “This man also was with him.”
57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.”
58 After a little while someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them!”
But Peter answered, “Man, I am not!”
59 After about one hour had passed, someone else was firmly insisting, “Truly this man was with him too, because he is a Galilean!”
60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” At that very moment, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the Lord’s word, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today you will deny me three times.” 62 He went outside and wept bitterly.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.