Saturday, October 5 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 33

¹ Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
    Praise befits the upright.
²Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
³Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
⁴For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
    and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
⁷He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
    he puts the deeps in storehouses.
⁸Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
⁹For he spoke, and it came to be;
    he commanded, and it stood firm.
¹⁰The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
    the plans of his heart to all generations.
¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
¹³The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees all the children of man;
¹⁴from where he sits enthroned he looks out
    on all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵he who fashions the hearts of them all
    and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶The king is not saved by his great army;
    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
    and by its great might it cannot rescue.
¹⁸Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹that he may deliver their soul from death
    and keep them alive in famine.
²⁰Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
²¹For our heart is glad in him,
    because we trust in his holy name.
²²Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you.

Psalm 107:33-43

³³He turns rivers into a desert,
    springs of water into thirsty ground,
³⁴a fruitful land into a salty waste,
    because of the evil of its inhabitants.
³⁵He turns a desert into pools of water,
    a parched land into springs of water.
³⁶And there he lets the hungry dwell,
    and they establish a city to live in;
³⁷they sow fields and plant vineyards
    and get a fruitful yield.
³⁸By his blessing they multiply greatly,
    and he does not let their livestock diminish.
³⁹When they are diminished and brought low
    through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
⁴⁰he pours contempt on princes
    and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
⁴¹but he raises up the needy out of affliction
    and makes their families like flocks.
⁴²The upright see it and are glad,
    and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
⁴³Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
    let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Psalm 108:1-13

¹My heart is steadfast, O God!
    I will sing and make melody with all my being!
²Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
³I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
⁴For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
⁶That your beloved ones may be delivered,
    give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
⁷God has promised in his holiness:
    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
⁸Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah my scepter.
⁹Moab is my washbasin;
    upon Edom I cast my shoe;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
¹⁰Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹Have you not rejected us, O God?
    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
¹²Oh grant us help against the foe,
    for vain is the salvation of man!
¹³With God we shall do valiantly;
    it is he who will tread down our foes.

Hosea 11:1-9

¹When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
²The more they were called,
    the more they went away;
    they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and burning offerings to idols.
³Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up by their arms,
    but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴I led them with cords of kindness,
    with the bands of love,
    and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
    and I bent down to them and fed them.
⁵They shall not return to the land of Egypt,
    but Assyria shall be their king,
    because they have refused to return to me.
⁶The sword shall rage against their cities,
    consume the bars of their gates,
    and devour them because of their own counsels.
⁷My people are bent on turning away from me,
    and though they call out to the Most High,
    he shall not raise them up at all.
⁸How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, O Israel?
    How can I make you like Admah?
    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
    My heart recoils within me;
    my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹I will not execute my burning anger;
    I will not again destroy Ephraim;
    for I am God and not a man,
    the Holy One in your midst,
    and I will not come in wrath.

Acts 22:17-29

¹⁷“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ ¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. ²⁰And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ ²¹And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” ²²Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” ²³And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, ²⁴the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. ²⁵But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” ²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” ²⁷So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” ²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Luke 6:27-38

²⁷“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. ³⁰Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. ³¹And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. ³²“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. ³⁵But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. ³⁶Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. ³⁷“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”