Monday, July 18 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 41

¹ Blessed 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

¹ O 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

¹ Why 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.

Joshua 7:1-13

¹ But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. ² Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. ³ And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” ⁴ So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai, ⁵ and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water. ⁶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. ⁷ And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! ⁸ O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! ⁹ For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?” ¹⁰ The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? ¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. ¹² Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ¹³ Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

Romans 13:8-14

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ¹¹ Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 26:36-46

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watchwith me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”