DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Monday, May 22

Today's readings include passages from Psalms, Ezekiel, Hebrews and Luke.

Psalm 89

1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;     with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. 2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;     in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” 3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;     I have sworn to David my servant: 4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,     and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah 5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,     your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?     Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,     and awesome above all who are around him? 8 Lord God of hosts,     who is mighty as you are, O Lord,     with your faithfulness all around you? 9 You rule the raging of the sea;     when its waves rise, you still them. 10 You crushed Rahab like a carcass;     you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. 11 The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;     the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. 12 The north and the south, you have created them;     Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. 13 You have a mighty arm;     strong is your hand, high your right hand. 14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;     steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. 15 Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,     who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, 16 who exult in your name all the day     and in your righteousness are exalted. 17 For you are the glory of their strength;     by your favor our horn is exalted. 18 For our shield belongs to the Lord,     our king to the Holy One of Israel. 19 Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:     “I have granted help to one who is mighty;     I have exalted one chosen from the people. 20 I have found David, my servant;     with my holy oil I have anointed him, 21 so that my hand shall be established with him;     my arm also shall strengthen him. 22 The enemy shall not outwit him;     the wicked shall not humble him. 23 I will crush his foes before him     and strike down those who hate him. 24 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,     and in my name shall his horn be exalted. 25 I will set his hand on the sea     and his right hand on the rivers. 26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,     my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ 27 And I will make him the firstborn,     the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,     and my covenant will stand firm for him. 29 I will establish his offspring forever     and his throne as the days of the heavens. 30 If his children forsake my law     and do not walk according to my rules, 31 if they violate my statutes     and do not keep my commandments, 32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod     and their iniquity with stripes, 33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love     or be false to my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant     or alter the word that went forth from my lips. 35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;     I will not lie to David. 36 His offspring shall endure forever,     his throne as long as the sun before me. 37 Like the moon it shall be established forever,     a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah 38 But now you have cast off and rejected;     you are full of wrath against your anointed. 39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant;     you have defiled his crown in the dust. 40 You have breached all his walls;     you have laid his strongholds in ruins. 41 All who pass by plunder him;     he has become the scorn of his neighbors. 42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes;     you have made all his enemies rejoice. 43 You have also turned back the edge of his sword,     and you have not made him stand in battle. 44 You have made his splendor to cease     and cast his throne to the ground. 45 You have cut short the days of his youth;     you have covered him with shame. Selah 46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?     How long will your wrath burn like fire? 47 Remember how short my time is!     For what vanity you have created all the children of man! 48 What man can live and never see death?     Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah 49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,     which by your faithfulness you swore to David? 50 Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,     and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, 51 with which your enemies mock, O Lord,     with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. 52 Blessed be the Lord forever!     Amen and Amen.

 

Ezekiel 4

1 “And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. 2 And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3 And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. 4 “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. 7 And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. 8 And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege. 9 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

 

Hebrews 6:1-12

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

 

Luke 9:51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village. 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

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