DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Tuesday, April 9

Today's readings including passages from Psalms, Exodus, 1 Peter and John.

Psalm 5

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;     consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,     my King and my God,     for to you do I pray. 3 Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;     in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;     evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;     you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies;     the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,     will enter your house.     I will bow down toward your holy temple     in the fear of you. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness     because of my enemies;     make your way straight before me. 9 For there is no truth in their mouth;     their inmost self is destruction;     their throat is an open grave;     they flatter with their tongue. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;     let them fall by their own counsels;     because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,     for they have rebelled against you. 11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;     let them ever sing for joy,     and spread your protection over them,     that those who love your name may exult in you. 12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;     you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Psalm 6

1 Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,     nor discipline me in your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;     heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled.     But you, O Lord—how long? 4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;     save me for the sake of your steadfast love. 5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;     in Sheol who will give you praise? 6 I am weary with my moaning;     every night I flood my bed with tears;     I drench my couch with my weeping. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief;     it grows weak because of all my foes. 8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,     for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. 9 The Lord has heard my plea;     the Lord accepts my prayer. 10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;     they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Psalm 10

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;     let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,     and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;     all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times;     your judgments are on high, out of his sight;     as for all his foes, he puffs at them. 6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;     throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” 7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;     under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. 8 He sits in ambush in the villages;     in hiding places he murders the innocent.     His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; 9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;     he lurks that he may seize the poor;     he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,     and fall by his might. 11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,     he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” 12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;     forget not the afflicted. 13 Why does the wicked renounce God     and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”? 14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,     that you may take it into your hands;     to you the helpless commits himself;     you have been the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;     call his wickedness to account till you find none. 16 The Lord is king forever and ever;     the nations perish from his land. 17 Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;     you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,     so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 11

1 In the Lord I take refuge;     how can you say to my soul,     “Flee like a bird to your mountain, 2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow;     they have fitted their arrow to the string     to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; 3 if the foundations are destroyed,     what can the righteous do?” 4 The Lord is in his holy temple;     the Lord's throne is in heaven;     his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. 5 The Lord tests the righteous,     but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. 6 Let him rain coals on the wicked;     fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the Lord is righteous;     he loves righteous deeds;     the upright shall behold his face.

Exodus 15:1-21

1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,     “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;     the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song,     and he has become my salvation;     this is my God, and I will praise him,     my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a man of war;     the Lord is his name. 4 “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea,     and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The floods covered them;     they went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,     your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;     you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. 8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;     the floods stood up in a heap;     the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,     I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.     I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ 10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;     they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?     Who is like you, majestic in holiness,     awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand;     the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;     you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. 14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;     pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;     trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;     all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them;     because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,     till your people, O Lord, pass by,     till the people pass by whom you have purchased. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,     the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,     the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.” 19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:     “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;     the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

1 Peter 1:13-25

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for     “All flesh is like grass     and all its glory like the flower of grass.     The grass withers,     and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”     And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

John 14:18-31

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

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