DAILY OFFICE

Daily scripture readings from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Tuesday, June 21

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

Psalm 94

1 Lord, God of vengeance,     O God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;     repay to the proud what they deserve! 3 Lord, how long shall the wicked,     how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words;     all the evildoers boast. 5 They crush your people, O Lord,     and afflict your heritage. 6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,     and murder the fatherless; 7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;     the God of Jacob does not perceive.” 8 Understand, O dullest of the people!     Fools, when will you be wise? 9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear?     He who formed the eye, does he not see? 10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?     He who teaches man knowledge— 11 the Lord—knows the thoughts of man,     that they are but a breath. 12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,     and whom you teach out of your law, 13 to give him rest from days of trouble,     until a pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For the Lord will not forsake his people;     he will not abandon his heritage; 15 for justice will return to the righteous,     and all the upright in heart will follow it. 16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?     Who stands up for me against evildoers? 17 If the Lord had not been my help,     my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”     your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. 19 When the cares of my heart are many,     your consolations cheer my soul. 20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,     those who frame injustice by statute? 21 They band together against the life of the righteous     and condemn the innocent to death. 22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,     and my God the rock of my refuge. 23 He will bring back on them their iniquity     and wipe them out for their wickedness;     the Lord our God will wipe them out.

 

Psalm 95

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;     let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;     let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God,     and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;     the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it,     and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;     let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God,     and we are the people of his pasture,     and the sheep of his hand.     Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,     as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test     and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation     and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,     and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,     “They shall not enter my rest.”

 

Psalm 97

1 The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;     let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;     righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him     and burns up his adversaries all around. 4 His lightnings light up the world;     the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,     before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,     and all the peoples see his glory. 7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,     who make their boast in worthless idols;     worship him, all you gods! 8 Zion hears and is glad,     and the daughters of Judah rejoice,     because of your judgments, O Lord. 9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;     you are exalted far above all gods. 10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!     He preserves the lives of his saints;     he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the righteous,     and joy for the upright in heart. 12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,     and give thanks to his holy name!

 

Psalm 99

1 The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!     He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! 2 The Lord is great in Zion;     he is exalted over all the peoples. 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!     Holy is he! 4 The King in his might loves justice.     You have established equity;     you have executed justice     and righteousness in Jacob. 5 Exalt the Lord our God;     worship at his footstool!     Holy is he! 6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,     Samuel also was among those who called upon his name.     They called to the Lord, and he answered them. 7 In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;     they kept his testimonies     and the statute that he gave them. 8 Lord our God, you answered them;     you were a forgiving God to them,     but an avenger of their wrongdoings. 9 Exalt the Lord our God,     and worship at his holy mountain;     for the Lord our God is holy!

 

Psalm 100

1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness!     Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God!     It is he who made us, and we are his;     we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,     and his courts with praise!     Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good;     his steadfast love endures forever,     and his faithfulness to all generations.

 

Numbers 16:20-35

20 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 21 “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” 22 And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” 23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” 25 Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.” 27 So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. 28 And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. 29 If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. 30 But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.” 31 And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. 32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 34 And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” 35 And fire came out from the Lordand consumed the 250 men offering the incense.

 

Romans 4:1-12

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,     and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” 9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

 

Matthew 19:23-30

23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

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