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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
American Standard Version (ASV)
Version
Psalm 80

God implored to rescue his people from their calamities.

For the Chief Musician; set to [a]Shoshannim Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph.

80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock;
Thou that [b]sittest above the cherubim, shine forth.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy might,
And come to save us.
[c]Turn us again, O God;
And cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

O Jehovah God of hosts,
How long [d]wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in large measure.
Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors;
And our enemies laugh among themselves.
[e]Turn us again, O God of hosts;
And cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt:
Thou didst drive out the nations, and plantedst it.
Thou preparedst room before it,
And it took deep root, and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it,
And [f]the boughs thereof were like [g]cedars of God.
11 It sent out its branches unto the sea,
And its shoots unto the River.
12 Why hast thou broken down its walls,
So that all they that pass by the way do pluck it?
13 The boar out of the wood doth ravage it,
And the wild beasts of the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, we beseech thee, O God of hosts:
Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine,
15 And [h]the stock which thy right hand planted,
And the [i]branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down:
They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So shall we not go back from thee:
Quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 [j]Turn us again, O Jehovah God of hosts;
Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

Psalm 77

Comfort in trouble from recalling God’s mighty deeds.

For the Chief Musician; after the manner of Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

77 I will cry unto God with my voice,
Even unto God with my voice; and he will give ear unto me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:
My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not;
My soul refused to be comforted.
I remember God, and am disquieted:
I complain, and my spirit [a]is overwhelmed. Selah

Thou holdest mine eyes watching:
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old,
The years of ancient times.
I call to remembrance my song in the night:
I commune with mine own heart;
And my spirit maketh diligent search.
Will the Lord cast off for ever?
And will he be favorable no more?
Is his lovingkindness clean gone for ever?
Doth his promise fail for evermore?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah
10 And I said, [b]This is my infirmity;
But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
11 I will make mention of the deeds of [c]Jehovah;
For I will remember thy wonders of old.
12 I will meditate also upon all thy work,
And muse on thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is [d]in the sanctuary:
Who is a great god like unto God?
14 Thou art the God that doest wonders:
Thou hast made known thy strength among the peoples.
15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 The waters saw thee, O God;
The waters saw thee, they [e]were afraid:
The depths also trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
The skies sent out a sound:
Thine arrows also went abroad.
18 The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind;
The lightnings lightened the world:
The earth trembled and shook.
19 Thy way was in the sea,
And thy paths in the great waters,
And thy footsteps were not known.
20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock,
By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 79

A lament over the destruction of Jerusalem, and prayer for help.

A Psalm of Asaph.

79 O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance;
Thy holy temple have they defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food unto the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem;
And there was none to bury them.
We are become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us.
How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever?
Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not,
And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.
For they have devoured Jacob,
And laid waste his [a]habitation.
Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers:
Let thy tender mercies speedily meet us;
For we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name;
And deliver us, and [b]forgive our sins, for thy name’s sake.
10 Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God?
Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed
Be known among the nations in our sight.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee:
According to the greatness of [c]thy power preserve thou [d]those that are appointed to death;
12 And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom
Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture
Will give thee thanks for ever:
We will show forth thy praise to all generations.

Nehemiah 9:1-25

Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped Jehovah their God. Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto Jehovah their God.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Jehovah your God from everlasting to everlasting; and [a]blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou art Jehovah, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art [b]Jehovah the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham, and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it unto his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous.

And thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red Sea, 10 and showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land; for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them, and didst get thee a name, as it is this day. 11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their pursuers thou didst cast into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters. 12 Moreover in a pillar of cloud thou leddest them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. 13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses thy servant, 15 and gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commandedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst [c]sworn to give them.

16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments, 17 and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art [d]a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and forsookest them not. 18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; 19 yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud departed not from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. 20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. 21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. 22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and peoples, [e]which thou didst allot after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land concerning which thou didst say to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it. 24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

Revelation 18:1-8

18 After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a [a]hold of every unclean spirit, and a [b]hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For [c]by [d]the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her [e]wantonness.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins [f]have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Render unto her even as she rendered, and double unto her the double according to her works: in the cup which she mingled, mingle unto her double. How much soever she glorified herself, and waxed [g]wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is [h]the Lord God who judged her.

Matthew 15:1-20

15 Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. And he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said, [a]Honor thy father and thy mother: and, [b]He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him [c]die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given to God; he shall not honor his father. [d]And ye have made void the [e]word of God because of your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

[f]This people honoreth me with their lips;
But their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

10 And he called to him the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11 Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man. 12 Then came the disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were [g]offended, when they heard this saying? 13 But he answered and said, Every [h]plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit. 15 And Peter answered and said unto him, Declare unto us the parable. 16 And he said, Are ye also even yet without understanding? 17 Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: 20 these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.