DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Saturday, December 30

Today's readings include passages from Psalms, 1 Kings, 3 John and John.

Psalm 20

1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!     May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! 2 May he send you help from the sanctuary     and give you support from Zion! 3 May he remember all your offerings     and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah 4 May he grant you your heart's desire     and fulfill all your plans! 5 May we shout for joy over your salvation,     and in the name of our God set up our banners!     May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! 6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;     he will answer him from his holy heaven     with the saving might of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,     but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They collapse and fall,     but we rise and stand upright. 9 Lord, save the king!     May he answer us when we call.

Psalm 21

1 Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,     and in your salvation how greatly he exults! 2 You have given him his heart's desire     and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah 3 For you meet him with rich blessings;     you set a crown of fine gold upon his head. 4 He asked life of you; you gave it to him,     length of days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great through your salvation;     splendor and majesty you bestow on him. 6 For you make him most blessed forever;     you make him glad with the joy of your presence. 7 For the king trusts in the Lord,     and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. 8 Your hand will find out all your enemies;     your right hand will find out those who hate you. 9 You will make them as a blazing oven     when you appear.     The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,     and fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,     and their offspring from among the children of man. 11 Though they plan evil against you,     though they devise mischief, they will not succeed. 12 For you will put them to flight;     you will aim at their faces with your bows. 13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!     We will sing and praise your power.

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.     He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul.     He leads me in paths of righteousness     for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,     I will fear no evil,     for you are with me;     your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me     in the presence of my enemies;     you anoint my head with oil;     my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me     all the days of my life,     and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord     forever.

Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;     whom shall I fear?     The Lord is the stronghold of my life;     of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me     to eat up my flesh,     my adversaries and foes,     it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me,     my heart shall not fear;     though war arise against me,     yet I will be confident. 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,     that will I seek after:     that I may dwell in the house of the Lord     all the days of my life,     to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord     and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter     in the day of trouble;     he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;     he will lift me high upon a rock. 6 And now my head shall be lifted up     above my enemies all around me,     and I will offer in his tent     sacrifices with shouts of joy;     I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;     be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, “Seek my face.”     My heart says to you,     “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” 9 Hide not your face from me.     Turn not your servant away in anger,     O you who have been my help.     Cast me not off; forsake me not,     O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,     but the Lord will take me in. 11 Teach me your way, O Lord,     and lead me on a level path     because of my enemies. 12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;     for false witnesses have risen against me,     and they breathe out violence. 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord     in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord;     be strong, and let your heart take courage;     wait for the Lord!

1 Kings 17:17-24

17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

3 John

1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. 9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. 11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

John 4:46-54

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

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