Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
A Maskil of Asaph.(A)
1 My people, hear my instruction;
listen to the words from my mouth.(B)
2 I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past(C)—
3 things we have heard and known
and that our ancestors have passed down to us.(D)
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell a future generation
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous works
he has performed.(E)
5 He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children(F)
6 so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children(G)
7 so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep his commands.(H)
8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.(I)
9 The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.(J)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.(K)
11 They forgot what he had done,
the wondrous works he had shown them.(L)
12 He worked wonders in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.(M)
13 He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.(N)
14 He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.(O)
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.(P)
16 He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.(Q)
17 But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.(R)
18 They deliberately[a] tested God,
demanding the food they craved.(S)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
20 Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.(T)
But can he also provide bread
or furnish meat for his people?” (U)
21 Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel(V)
22 because they did not believe God
or rely on his salvation.(W)
23 He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.(X)
24 He rained manna for them to eat;
he gave them grain from heaven.(Y)
25 People[b] ate the bread of angels.[c]
He sent them an abundant supply of food.(Z)
26 He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by his might.(AA)
27 He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28 He made them fall in the camp,
all around the tents.(AB)
29 The people ate and were completely satisfied,
for he gave them what they craved.(AC)
30 Before they had turned from what they craved,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger flared up against them,
and he killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s fit young men.(AD)
32 Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe his wondrous works.(AE)
33 He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.(AF)
34 When he killed some of them,
the rest began to seek him;
they repented and searched for God.(AG)
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.(AH)
36 But they deceived him with their mouths,
they lied to him with their tongues,(AI)
37 their hearts were insincere toward him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.(AJ)
38 Yet he was compassionate;
he atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He often turned his anger aside
and did not unleash[d] all his wrath.(AK)
39 He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.(AL)
40 How often they rebelled against him
in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert.
41 They constantly tested God(AM)
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.(AN)
42 They did not remember his power shown
on the day he redeemed them from the foe,(AO)
43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.(AP)
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.(AQ)
45 He sent among them swarms of flies,(AR)
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.(AS)
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.(AT)
47 He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48 He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.(AU)
49 He sent his burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity—
a band of deadly messengers.[e](AV)
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.(AW)
51 He struck all the firstborn(AX) in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.(AY)
52 He led his people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.(AZ)
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.(BA)
54 He brought them to his holy territory,
to the mountain his right hand acquired.(BB)
55 He drove out nations before them.(BC)
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.(BD)
56 But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep his decrees.(BE)
57 They treacherously turned away like their ancestors;
they became warped like a faulty bow.(BF)
58 They enraged him with their high places
and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.(BG)
59 God heard and became furious;
he completely rejected Israel.(BH)
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where he resided among mankind.(BI)
61 He gave up his strength to captivity
and his splendor to the hand of a foe.(BJ)
62 He surrendered his people to the sword
because he was enraged with his heritage.(BK)
63 Fire consumed his chosen young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.[f](BL)
64 His priests fell by the sword,
and the widows could not lament.(BM)
65 The Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.(BN)
66 He beat back his foes;
he gave them lasting disgrace.(BO)
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.(BP)
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.(BQ)
70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;(BR)
71 he brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over his people Jacob—
over Israel, his inheritance.(BS)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.(BT)
Covenant Blessings and Discipline
26 “Do not make worthless idols for yourselves,(A) set up a carved image or sacred pillar for yourselves, or place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary;(B) I am the Lord.
3 “If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands, 4 I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land.(C) 6 I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.(D) 7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.(E)
9 “I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you. 10 You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new. 11 I will place my residence[a] among you, and I will not reject you.(F) 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.(G) 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke(H) and enabled you to live in freedom.[b]
14 “But if you do not obey me and observe all these commands— 15 if you reject my statutes and despise my ordinances, and do not observe all my commands—and break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring terror(I) on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will turn[c] against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you.(J)
18 “But if after these things you will not obey me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins.(K) 19 I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, 20 and your strength will be used up for nothing.(L) Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.
Instructions on Prayer
2 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority,(A) so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness(B) and dignity.(C) 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior,(D) 4 who wants everyone(E) to be saved(F) and to come to the knowledge of the truth.(G)
5 For there is one God(H) and one mediator(I) between God and mankind, the man(J) Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all,(K) a testimony at the proper time.
The Parable of the Sower Explained
18 “So listen to the parable of the sower: (A) 19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path.(B) 20 And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.(C) 21 But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution(D) comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age(E) and the deceitfulness[a] of wealth(F) choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”
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