Saturday, June 8 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 55

¹ Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
²Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
³because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
    For they drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
⁴My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.
⁶And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness;
⁸I would hurry to find a shelter
    from the raging wind and tempest.”
⁹Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
    for I see violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
    and iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹ ruin is in its midst;
    oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.
¹²For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
    it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
¹³But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God’s house we walked in the throng.
¹⁵Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
¹⁶But I call to God,
    and the Lord will save me.
¹⁷Evening and morning and at noon
    I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
¹⁸He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is enthroned from of old,
    because they do not change
    and do not fear God.
²⁰My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
²¹His speech was smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
    his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were drawn swords.
²²Cast your burden on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
    he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.
²³But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the pit of destruction;
    men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
    But I will trust in you.

Psalm 138

¹ I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
    before the gods I sing your praise;
²I bow down toward your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
    for you have exalted above all things
    your name and your word.
³On the day I called, you answered me;
    my strength of soul you increased.
⁴All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
    for they have heard the words of your mouth,
⁵and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
    for great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
    but the haughty he knows from afar.
⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
    you preserve my life;
    you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
    and your right hand delivers me.
⁸The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
    your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 139:1-23

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
²You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.
⁷Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
¹²even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.
¹³For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you,
    when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
    in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.
¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.
¹⁹Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
²⁰They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
²¹Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²²I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
²³Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!

Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

⁸If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. ⁹But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. ¹⁰He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. ¹¹When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? ¹²Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. ¹³There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, ¹⁴and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. ¹⁵As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. ¹⁶This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?¹⁷Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. ¹⁸Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.¹⁹Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. ²⁰For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

Galatians 3:23-4:11

²³Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. ²⁴So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slavenor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. ^4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, ²but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. ³In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. ⁸Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? ¹⁰You observe days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Matthew 15:1-20

¹ Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” ³He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ⁵But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. ⁷You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
⁸“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
⁹in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
¹⁰And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: ¹¹it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” ¹²Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” ¹³He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. ¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ¹⁵But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” ¹⁶And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? ¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”