Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 75[a]
God the Judge of the World
1 For the leader. Do not destroy! A psalm of Asaph; a song.
I
2 We thank you, God, we give thanks;
we call upon your name,
we declare your wonderful deeds.
[You said:][b]
3 “I will choose the time;
I will judge fairly.
4 Though the earth and all its inhabitants quake,
I make steady its pillars.”(A)
Selah
II
5 So I say to the boastful: “Do not boast!”(B)
to the wicked: “Do not raise your horns![c]
6 Do not raise your horns against heaven!
Do not speak with a stiff neck!”(C)
7 For judgment comes not from east or from west,
not from the wilderness or the mountains,(D)
8 But from God who decides,
who brings some low and raises others high.(E)
9 Yes, a cup[d] is in the Lord’s hand,
foaming wine, fully spiced.
When God pours it out,
they will drain it even to the dregs;
all the wicked of the earth will drink.(F)
10 But I will rejoice forever;
I will sing praise to the God of Jacob,
11 (G)[Who has said:]
“I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”
Psalm 76[e]
God Defends Zion
1 For the leader; a psalm with stringed instruments. A song of Asaph.
I
2 Renowned in Judah is God,(H)
whose name is great in Israel.
3 On Salem[f] is God’s tent, his shelter on Zion.
4 There the flashing arrows were shattered,
shield, sword, and weapons of war.(I)
Selah
II
5 Terrible and awesome are you,
stronger than the ancient mountains.[g]
6 Despoiled are the stouthearted;
they sank into sleep;
the hands of all the men of valor have failed.(J)
7 At your roar, O God of Jacob,
chariot and steed lay still.
8 You, terrible are you;
who can stand before you and your great anger?(K)
9 From the heavens you pronounced sentence;
the earth was terrified and reduced to silence,
10 When you arose, O God, for judgment
to save the afflicted of the land.
Selah
11 Surely the wrath of man will give you thanks;
the remnant of your furor will keep your feast.
III
12 Make and keep vows to the Lord your God.(L)
May all around him bring gifts to the one to be feared,
13 Who checks the spirit of princes,
who is fearful to the kings of earth.
Psalm 23[a]
The Lord, Shepherd and Host
1 A psalm of David.
I
The Lord is my shepherd;[b]
there is nothing I lack.(A)
2 In green pastures he makes me lie down;
to still waters he leads me;
3 (B)he restores my soul.
He guides me along right paths[c]
for the sake of his name.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,(C)
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff comfort me.
II
Psalm 27[a]
Trust in God
1 (A)Of David.
A
I
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The Lord is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
2 When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,[b](B)
These my enemies and foes
themselves stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart does not fear;
Though war be waged against me,
even then do I trust.
II
4 One thing I ask of the Lord;
this I seek:
To dwell in the Lord’s house
all the days of my life,
To gaze on the Lord’s beauty,
to visit his temple.(C)
5 For God will hide me in his shelter
in time of trouble,(D)
He will conceal me in the cover of his tent;
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Even now my head is held high
above my enemies on every side!
I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and chant praise to the Lord.
B
I
7 Hear my voice, Lord, when I call;
have mercy on me and answer me.
8 “Come,” says my heart, “seek his face”;[c]
your face, Lord, do I seek!(E)
9 Do not hide your face from me;
do not repel your servant in anger.
You are my salvation; do not cast me off;
do not forsake me, God my savior!
10 Even if my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me in.(F)
II
11 Lord, show me your way;
lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.(G)
12 Do not abandon me to the desire of my foes;
malicious and lying witnesses have risen against me.
13 I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.[d](H)
14 Wait for the Lord, take courage;
be stouthearted, wait for the Lord!
22 Once again the Philistines came up and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim, 23 and again David inquired of the Lord, who replied: Do not attack the front—circle behind them and come against them near the balsam trees. 24 When you hear the sound of marching[a] in the tops of the balsam trees, act decisively, for then the Lord has already gone before you to strike the army of the Philistines. 25 David did as the Lord commanded him, and routed the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer.
Chapter 6
The Ark Brought to Jerusalem. 1 (A)David again assembled all the picked men of Israel, thirty thousand in number. 2 Then David and all the people who were with him set out for Baala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which bears the name “the Lord of hosts enthroned above the cherubim.”(B) 3 They transported the ark of God on a new cart and took it away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the cart,(C) 4 with Ahio walking before it, 5 while David and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord with all their might, with singing, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.(D) 6 As they reached the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah stretched out his hand to the ark of God and steadied it, for the oxen were tipping it. 7 Then the Lord became angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there in God’s presence. 8 David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah. Therefore that place has been called Perez-uzzah[b] even to this day. 9 David became frightened of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David was unwilling to take the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David. David deposited it instead at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.(E)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. 17 So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. 18 Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers[a] engaged him in discussion. Some asked, “What is this scavenger trying to say?” Others said, “He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities,” because he was preaching about ‘Jesus’ and ‘Resurrection.’ 19 They took him and led him to the Areopagus[b] and said, “May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of?(A) 20 For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus. 22 Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:[c]
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’[d] What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,(B) 25 nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 He made from one[e] the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, 27 so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.(C) 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’[f] as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.(D) 30 God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31 because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”(E)
32 When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” 33 And so Paul left them. 34 But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Chapter 8
The Feeding of the Four Thousand.[a] 1 In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,(A) he summoned the disciples and said, 2 “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” 4 His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” 5 Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied. 6 [b]He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. 7 They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. 8 They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets. 9 There were about four thousand people.
He dismissed them 10 and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
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