Tuesday, July 23 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 45

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

Psalm 47

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

Psalm 48

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

Joshua 8:1-22

¹And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. ²And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.” ³So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. ⁴And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. ⁵And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. ⁶And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. ⁷Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. ⁸And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” ⁹So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people. ¹⁰Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ¹¹And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. ¹²He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. ¹⁴And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. ¹⁶So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. ¹⁸Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. ²⁰So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. ²¹And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²²And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped.

Romans 14:1-12

¹As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ²One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. ⁵One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. ¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
¹²So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Matthew 26:47-56

⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸ Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” ⁴⁹ And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. ⁵¹ And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. ⁵² Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” ⁵⁵ At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. ⁵⁶ But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.