DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Saturday, June 25

Today's readings include passages from Psalms, Numbers, Romans and Matthew.

Psalm 33

1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!     Praise befits the upright. 2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;     make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3 Sing to him a new song;     play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4 For the word of the Lord is upright,     and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice;     the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,     and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;     he puts the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;     let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be;     he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;     he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,     the plans of his heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,     the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 13 The Lord looks down from heaven;     he sees all the children of man; 14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out     on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 he who fashions the hearts of them all     and observes all their deeds. 16 The king is not saved by his great army;     a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,     on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death     and keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the Lord;     he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart is glad in him,     because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,     even as we hope in you.

 

Psalm 107:33-108:13

33 He turns rivers into a desert,     springs of water into thirsty ground, 34 a fruitful land into a salty waste,     because of the evil of its inhabitants. 35 He turns a desert into pools of water,     a parched land into springs of water. 36 And there he lets the hungry dwell,     and they establish a city to live in; 37 they sow fields and plant vineyards     and get a fruitful yield. 38 By his blessing they multiply greatly,     and he does not let their livestock diminish. 39 When they are diminished and brought low     through oppression, evil, and sorrow, 40 he pours contempt on princes     and makes them wander in trackless wastes; 41 but he raises up the needy out of affliction     and makes their families like flocks. 42 The upright see it and are glad,     and all wickedness shuts its mouth. 43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;     let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. 108:1 My heart is steadfast, O God!     I will sing and make melody with all my being! 2 Awake, O harp and lyre!     I will awake the dawn! 3 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;     I will sing praises to you among the nations. 4 For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;     your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!     Let your glory be over all the earth! 6 That your beloved ones may be delivered,     give salvation by your right hand and answer me! 7 God has promised in his holiness:     “With exultation I will divide up Shechem     and portion out the Valley of Succoth. 8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;     Ephraim is my helmet,     Judah my scepter. 9 Moab is my washbasin;     upon Edom I cast my shoe;     over Philistia I shout in triumph.” 10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?     Who will lead me to Edom? 11 Have you not rejected us, O God?     You do not go out, O God, with our armies. 12 Oh grant us help against the foe,     for vain is the salvation of man! 13 With God we shall do valiantly;     it is he who will tread down our foes.

 

Numbers 20:14-29

14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: 15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. 16 And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King's Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” 18 But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” 19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” 20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him. 22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as the Lord commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

 

Romans 6:1-11

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Matthew 21:1-11

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,     ‘Behold, your king is coming to you,     humble, and mounted on a donkey,     on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

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