DAILY OFFICE

1 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
    I address my verses to the king;
    my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
2 You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
    grace is poured upon your lips;
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
    in your splendor and majesty!
4 In your majesty ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king's enemies;
    the peoples fall under you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
    The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
    Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
    From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
    at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
    forget your people and your father's house,
11 and the king will desire your beauty.
    Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12 The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
    the richest of the people.
13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
    with her virgin companions following behind her.
15 With joy and gladness they are led along
    as they enter the palace of the king.
16 In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
    you will make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
    therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

1 Clap your hands, all peoples!
    Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
    a great king over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
    and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our heritage for us,
    the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah
5 God has gone up with a shout,
    the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
    Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
    sing praises with a psalm!
8 God reigns over the nations;
    God sits on his holy throne.
9 The princes of the peoples gather
    as the people of the God of Abraham.
    For the shields of the earth belong to God;
    he is highly exalted!

1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
    in the city of our God!
    His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation,
    is the joy of all the earth,
    Mount Zion, in the far north,
    the city of the great King.
3 Within her citadels God
    has made himself known as a fortress.
4 For behold, the kings assembled;
    they came on together.
5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
    they were in panic; they took to flight.
6 Trembling took hold of them there,
    anguish as of a woman in labor.
7 By the east wind you shattered
    the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of the Lord of hosts,
    in the city of our God,
    which God will establish forever. Selah
9 We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
    in the midst of your temple.
10 As your name, O God,
    so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
    Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad!
    Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
    because of your judgments!
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
    number her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
    go through her citadels,
    that you may tell the next generation
14 that this is God,
    our God forever and ever.
    He will guide us forever.

12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
    I am he; I am the first,
    and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
    when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?
    The Lord loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
    And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.
17 Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
    “I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19 your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
    their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”
20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
    send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me. 2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

1 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. 7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.