DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Saturday, January 14

Today's readings include passages Psalms, Isaiah, Ephesians and Mark.

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 110

1 The Lord says to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand,     until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2 The Lord sends forth from Zion     your mighty scepter.     Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3 Your people will offer themselves freely     on the day of your power,     in holy garments;     from the womb of the morning,     the dew of your youth will be yours. 4 The Lord has sworn     and will not change his mind,     “You are a priest forever     after the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand;     he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will execute judgment among the nations,     filling them with corpses;     he will shatter chiefs     over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the brook by the way;     therefore he will lift up his head.

 

Psalm 116

1 I love the Lord, because he has heard     my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me,     therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me;     the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;     I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:     “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;     our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple;     when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;     for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death,     my eyes from tears,     my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord     in the land of the living. 10 I believed, even when I spoke:     “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my alarm,     “All mankind are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the Lord     for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation     and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord     in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord     is the death of his saints. 16 Lord, I am your servant;     I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.     You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving     and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord     in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,     in your midst, O Jerusalem.     Praise the Lord!

 

Psalm 117

1 Praise the Lord, all nations!     Extol him, all peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us,     and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.     Praise the Lord!

 

Isaiah 43:1-13

1 But now thus says the Lord,     he who created you, O Jacob,     he who formed you, O Israel:     “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;     I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;     and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;     when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,     and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God,     the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.     I give Egypt as your ransom,     Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes,     and honored, and I love you,     I give men in return for you,     peoples in exchange for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you;     I will bring your offspring from the east,     and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up,     and to the south, Do not withhold;     bring my sons from afar     and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name,     whom I created for my glory,     whom I formed and made.” 8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,     who are deaf, yet have ears! 9 All the nations gather together,     and the peoples assemble.     Who among them can declare this,     and show us the former things?     Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,     and let them hear and say, It is true. 10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,     “and my servant whom I have chosen,     that you may know and believe me     and understand that I am he.     Before me no god was formed,     nor shall there be any after me. 11 I, I am the Lord,     and besides me there is no savior. 12 I declared and saved and proclaimed,     when there was no strange god among you;     and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God. 13 Also henceforth I am he;     there is none who can deliver from my hand;     I work, and who can turn it back?”

 

Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

 

Mark 2:23-3:6

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 3:1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

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