DAILY OFFICE

Psalm 41

¹Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
    In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
² the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
    he is called blessed in the land;
    you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
³ The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
    in his illness you restore him to full health.
⁴ As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
    heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
⁵ My enemies say of me in malice,
    “When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
    while his heart gathers iniquity;
    when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
⁷ All who hate me whisper together about me;
    they imagine the worst for me.
⁸ They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him;
    he will not rise again from where he lies.”
⁹ Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
    who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
¹⁰ But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
    and raise me up, that I may repay them!
¹¹ By this I know that you delight in me:
    my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
¹² But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
    and set me in your presence forever.
¹³ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting!
    Amen and Amen.

Psalm 44

¹O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
    what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:
² you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
    you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;
³ for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
    but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.
⁴ You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!
⁵ Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our foes
    and have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
⁹ But you have rejected us and disgraced us
    and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰ You have made us turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
¹¹ You have made us like sheep for slaughter
    and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations,
    a laughingstock among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
¹⁷ All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Psalm 52

¹Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
² Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
³ You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
⁴ You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.
⁵ But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
⁶ The righteous shall see and fear,
    and shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷ “See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
    but trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
⁸ But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
    I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
⁹ I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
    I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly.

Revelations 11:1-14

¹Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, ² but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. ³ And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” ⁴ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵ And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ⁶ They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. ⁷ And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, ⁸ and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, ¹⁰ and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. ¹¹ But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. ¹² Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. ¹³ And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. ¹⁴ The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

Luke 11:14-26

¹⁴ Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. ¹⁵ But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” ¹⁶ while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷ But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. ¹⁸ And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹ When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; ²² but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. ²³ Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. ²⁴ “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.