DAILY OFFICE

Psalm 118

¹ Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
² Let Israel say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”
³ Let the house of Aaron say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”
⁴ Let those who fear the Lord say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”
⁵ Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
    the Lord answered me and set me free.
⁶ The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
    What can man do to me?
⁷ The Lord is on my side as my helper;
    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
⁸ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
    than to trust in man.
⁹ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
    than to trust in princes.
¹⁰ All nations surrounded me;
    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹¹ They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹² They surrounded me like bees;
    they went out like a fire among thorns;
    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹³ I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
    but the Lord helped me.
¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.
¹⁵ Glad songs of salvation
    are in the tents of the righteous:
    “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
¹⁶ the right hand of the Lord exalts,
    the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live,
    and recount the deeds of the Lord.
¹⁸ The Lord has disciplined me severely,
    but he has not given me over to death.
¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the Lord.
²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
²¹ I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
²² The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.
²³ This is the Lord’s doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.
²⁵ Save us, we pray, O Lord!
    O Lord, we pray, give us success!
²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.
²⁷ The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light to shine upon us.
    Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
    up to the horns of the altar!
²⁸ You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
²⁹ Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 145

¹I will extol you, my God and King,
    and bless your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless you
    and praise your name forever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
    and his greatness is unsearchable.
⁴ One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.
⁵ On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
⁶ They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
    and I will declare your greatness.
⁷ They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
    and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ The Lord is good to all,
    and his mercy is over all that he has made.
¹⁰ All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your saints shall bless you!
¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
    and tell of your power,
¹² to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
    [The Lord is faithful in all his words
    and kind in all his works.]
¹⁴ The Lord upholds all who are falling
    and raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
¹⁶ You open your hand;
    you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and kind in all his works.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
    he also hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord preserves all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.
²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
    and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Numbers 21:4-9, 21-35

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. ²¹ Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, ²² “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.” ²³ But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.²⁴ And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong. ²⁵ And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. ²⁶ For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon. ²⁷ Therefore the ballad singers say,
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
    let the city of Sihon be established.
²⁸ For fire came out from Heshbon,
    flame from the city of Sihon.
It devoured Ar of Moab,
    and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.
²⁹ Woe to you, O Moab!
    You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
He has made his sons fugitives,
    and his daughters captives,
    to an Amorite king, Sihon.
³⁰ So we overthrew them;
    Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished;
    and we laid waste as far as Nophah;
    fire spread as far as Medeba.”
³¹ Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. ³² And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.³³ Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ³⁴ But the Lordsaid to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” ³⁵ So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.

Acts 17:12-34

¹² Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. ¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. ¹⁴ Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵ Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. ¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?²⁰ For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. ²² So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,²⁸ for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
²⁹ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” ³² Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ So Paul went out from their midst. ³⁴ But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” ¹³ And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. ¹⁴ But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” ¹⁵ Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? ¹⁶ And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

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