DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Friday, March 8

Today's readings include passages from Psalms, Genesis, 1 Corinthians and Mark.

Psalm 88

1 Lord, God of my salvation;     I cry out day and night before you. 2 Let my prayer come before you;     incline your ear to my cry! 3 For my soul is full of troubles,     and my life draws near to Sheol. 4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;     I am a man who has no strength, 5 like one set loose among the dead,     like the slain that lie in the grave,     like those whom you remember no more,     for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit,     in the regions dark and deep. 7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,     and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8 You have caused my companions to shun me;     you have made me a horror to them.     I am shut in so that I cannot escape; 9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.     Every day I call upon you, O Lord;     I spread out my hands to you. 10 Do you work wonders for the dead?     Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah 11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,     or your faithfulness in Abaddon? 12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,     or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;     in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14 Lord, why do you cast my soul away?     Why do you hide your face from me? 15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,     I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. 16 Your wrath has swept over me;     your dreadful assaults destroy me. 17 They surround me like a flood all day long;     they close in on me together. 18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;     my companions have become darkness.

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High     will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,     my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler     and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions,     and under his wings you will find refuge;     his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night,     nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,     nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side,     ten thousand at your right hand,     but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes     and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—     the Most High, who is my refuge— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,     no plague come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you     to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up,     lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;     the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;     I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;     I will be with him in trouble;     I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him     and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 92

1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,     to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,     and your faithfulness by night, 3 to the music of the lute and the harp,     to the melody of the lyre. 4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;     at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 5 How great are your works, O Lord!     Your thoughts are very deep! 6 The stupid man cannot know;     the fool cannot understand this: 7 that though the wicked sprout like grass     and all evildoers flourish,     they are doomed to destruction forever; 8 but you, O Lord, are on high forever. 9 For behold, your enemies, O Lord,     for behold, your enemies shall perish;     all evildoers shall be scattered. 10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;     you have poured over me fresh oil. 11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;     my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. 12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree     and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;     they flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They still bear fruit in old age;     they are ever full of sap and green, 15 to declare that the Lord is upright;     he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Psalm 95

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;     let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;     let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God,     and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;     the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it,     and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;     let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God,     and we are the people of his pasture,     and the sheep of his hand.     Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,     as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test     and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation     and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,     and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,     “They shall not enter my rest.”

Genesis 47:1-26

So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.” 2 And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. 3 Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” 4 They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” 5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.” 7 Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. 11 Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. 13 Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. 14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. 15 And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.” 16 And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. 18 And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.” 20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. 21 As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land. 23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. 24 And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” 25 And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.” 26 So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's.

1 Corinthians 9:16-27

16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. 19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Mark 6:47-56

47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

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