Friday, September 13 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 40

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
²He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
    and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
³He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
    Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the Lord.
⁴Blessed is the man who makes
    the Lord his trust,
    who does not turn to the proud,
    to those who go astray after a lie!
⁵You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you!
    I will proclaim and tell of them,
    yet they are more than can be told.
⁶In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
    but you have given me an open ear.
    Burnt offering and sin offering
    you have not required.
⁷Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
⁸I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.”
⁹I have told the glad news of deliverance
    in the great congregation;
    behold, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O Lord.
¹⁰I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
    I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.
¹¹As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
    your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
¹²For evils have encompassed me
    beyond number;
    my iniquities have overtaken me,
    and I cannot see;
    they are more than the hairs of my head;
    my heart fails me.
¹³Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!
¹⁴Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
    let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
¹⁵Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
¹⁶But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
    may those who love your salvation
    say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
¹⁷As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
    You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!

Psalm 51

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
    according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!
³For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Psalm 54

¹ O God, save me by your name,
    and vindicate me by your might.
²O God, hear my prayer;
    give ear to the words of my mouth.
³For strangers have risen against me;
    ruthless men seek my life;
    they do not set God before themselves.
⁴Behold, God is my helper;
    the Lord is the upholder of my life.
⁵He will return the evil to my enemies;
    in your faithfulness put an end to them.
⁶With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
    I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
⁷For he has delivered me from every trouble,
    and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

Job 29:1; 31:24-40

¹ And Job again took up his discourse, and said: …
^31:24“If I have made gold my trust
    or called fine gold my confidence,
²⁵if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant
    or because my hand had found much,
²⁶if I have looked at the sun when it shone,
    or the moon moving in splendor,
²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed,
    and my mouth has kissed my hand,
²⁸this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
    for I would have been false to God above.
²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,
    or exulted when evil overtook him
³⁰(I have not let my mouth sin
    by asking for his life with a curse),
³¹if the men of my tent have not said,
    ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?’
³²(the sojourner has not lodged in the street;
    I have opened my doors to the traveler),
³³if I have concealed my transgressions as others do
    by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
³⁴because I stood in great fear of the multitude,
    and the contempt of families terrified me,
    so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—
³⁵Oh, that I had one to hear me!
    (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
    Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
    I would bind it on me as a crown;
³⁷I would give him an account of all my steps;
    like a prince I would approach him.
³⁸“If my land has cried out against me
    and its furrows have wept together,
³⁹if I have eaten its yield without payment
    and made its owners breathe their last,
⁴⁰let thorns grow instead of wheat,
    and foul weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.

Acts 15:12-21

¹²And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. ¹³After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. ¹⁵And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
¹⁶“‘After this I will return,
     and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
     I will rebuild its ruins,
     and I will restore it,
¹⁷that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
    and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
     says the Lord, who makes these things ¹⁸known from of old.’
¹⁹Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. ²¹For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

John 11:30-44

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³²Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus wept. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” ⁴⁴The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”