DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Monday, April 1

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

Psalm 66

1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth; 2 sing the glory of his name;     give to him glorious praise! 3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!     So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. 4 All the earth worships you     and sings praises to you;     they sing praises to your name.” Selah 5 Come and see what God has done:     he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. 6 He turned the sea into dry land;     they passed through the river on foot.     There did we rejoice in him, 7 who rules by his might forever,     whose eyes keep watch on the nations—     let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah 8 Bless our God, O peoples;     let the sound of his praise be heard, 9 who has kept our soul among the living     and has not let our feet slip. 10 For you, O God, have tested us;     you have tried us as silver is tried. 11 You brought us into the net;     you laid a crushing burden on our backs; 12 you let men ride over our heads;     we went through fire and through water;     yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. 13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;     I will perform my vows to you, 14 that which my lips uttered     and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. 15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,     with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;     I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah 16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,     and I will tell what he has done for my soul. 17 I cried to him with my mouth,     and high praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,     the Lord would not have listened. 19 But truly God has listened;     he has attended to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God,     because he has not rejected my prayer     or removed his steadfast love from me!

Psalm 93

1 The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;     the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.     Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old;     you are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord,     the floods have lifted up their voice;     the floods lift up their roaring. 4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters,     mightier than the waves of the sea,     the Lord on high is mighty! 5 Your decrees are very trustworthy;     holiness befits your house,     Lord, forevermore.

Psalm 98

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song,     for he has done marvelous things!     His right hand and his holy arm     have worked salvation for him. 2 The Lord has made known his salvation;     he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness     to the house of Israel.     All the ends of the earth have seen     the salvation of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;     break forth into joyous song and sing praises! 5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,     with the lyre and the sound of melody! 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn     make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;     the world and those who dwell in it! 8 Let the rivers clap their hands;     let the hills sing for joy together 9 before the Lord, for he comes     to judge the earth.     He will judge the world with righteousness,     and the peoples with equity.

Exodus 12:14-27

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.” 21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Mark 16:1-8

1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

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