◀ All Reading Plans / Book of Common Prayer / Ps. 93 96; Ps. 148 150; Baruch 4:21–29; Gal. 3:15–22; Luke 1:67–80 or Matt. 1:1–17 (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.

Duration: 861 days

Psalm 93

Psalm 93^[a]

God Is a Mighty King

¹The Lord is king,^[b] robed with majesty;
    the Lord is robed, girded with might.^(A)
The world will surely stand in place,
    never to be moved.^(B)
²Your throne stands firm from of old;
    you are from everlasting.^(C)
³^[c]The flood has raised up, Lord;
    the flood has raised up its roar;
    the flood has raised its pounding waves.
⁴More powerful than the roar of many waters,
    more powerful than the breakers of the sea,
    powerful in the heavens is the Lord.
⁵Your decrees are firmly established;
    holiness befits your house, Lord,
    for all the length of days.

Psalm 96

Psalm 96^[a]

God of the Universe

I

¹Sing to the Lord a new song;^(A)
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
²Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
³Tell his glory among the nations;
    among all peoples, his marvelous deeds.^(B)

II

⁴^[b]For great is the Lord and highly to be praised,
    to be feared above all gods.^(C)
⁵For the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.^(D)
⁶Splendor and power go before him;
    power and grandeur are in his holy place.

III

⁷Give to the Lord, you families of nations,
    give to the Lord glory and might;
⁸    give to the Lord the glory due his name!^(E)
Bring gifts and enter his courts;
⁹    bow down to the Lord, splendid in holiness.
Tremble before him, all the earth;
¹⁰    ^(F)declare among the nations: The Lord is king.
The world will surely stand fast, never to be shaken.
    He rules the peoples with fairness.

IV

¹¹Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
    let the sea and what fills it resound;^(G)
¹²    let the plains be joyful and all that is in them.
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice
¹³    before the Lord who comes,
    who comes to govern the earth,^(H)
To govern the world with justice
    and the peoples with faithfulness.

Psalm 148

Psalm 148^[a]

All Creation Summoned to Praise

¹Hallelujah!

I

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights.
²Praise him, all you his angels;
    give praise, all you his hosts.^(A)
³Praise him, sun and moon;
    praise him, all shining stars.
⁴Praise him, highest heavens,^[b]
    you waters above the heavens.
⁵Let them all praise the Lord’s name;
    for he commanded and they were created,^(B)
⁶Assigned them their station forever,
    set an order that will never change.

II

⁷Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you sea monsters and all the deeps of the sea;^(C)
⁸Lightning and hail, snow and thick clouds,
    storm wind that fulfills his command;
⁹Mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars;^(D)
¹⁰Animals wild and tame,
    creatures that crawl and birds that fly;^(E)
¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples,
    princes and all who govern on earth;
¹²Young men and women too,
    old and young alike.
¹³Let them all praise the Lord’s name,
    for his name alone is exalted,
    His majesty above earth and heaven.^(F)
¹⁴^[c]He has lifted high the horn of his people;
    to the praise of all his faithful,
    the Israelites, the people near to him.
Hallelujah!

Psalm 150

Psalm 150^[a]

Final Doxology

¹Hallelujah!

Praise God in his holy sanctuary;^[b]^(A)
    give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.
²Give praise for his mighty deeds,^(B)
    praise him for his great majesty.
³Give praise with blasts upon the horn,^(C)
    praise him with harp and lyre.
⁴Give praise with tambourines and dance,
    praise him with strings and pipes.^(D)
⁵Give praise with crashing cymbals,
    praise him with sounding cymbals.
⁶Let everything that has breath
    give praise to the Lord!^(E)
Hallelujah!

Baruch 4:21-29

²¹“Take courage, my children; call upon God;
    he will deliver you from oppression, from enemy hands.^(A)
²²I have put my hope for your deliverance in the Eternal One,
    and joy has come to me from the Holy One
Because of the mercy that will swiftly reach you
    from your eternal Savior.
²³With mourning and lament I sent you away,
    but God will give you back to me
    with gladness and joy forever.^(B)
²⁴As Zion’s neighbors lately saw you taken captive,
    so shall they soon see God’s salvation come to you,
    with great glory and the splendor of the Eternal One.^(C)

²⁵“My children, bear patiently the wrath^(D)
    that has come upon you from God;
Your enemies have persecuted you,
    but you will soon see their destruction
    and trample upon their necks.^[a]
²⁶My pampered children have trodden rough roads,
    carried off by their enemies like sheep in a raid.^(E)
²⁷Take courage, my children; call out to God!
    The one who brought this upon you will remember you.^(F)
²⁸As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God,
    so turn now ten times the more to seek him;
²⁹For the one who has brought disaster upon you
    will, in saving you, bring you eternal joy.”^(G)

Galatians 3:15-22

The Law Did Not Nullify the Promise. ¹⁵^[a]Brothers, in human terms I say that no one can annul or amend even a human will once ratified.^(A) ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant.^[b] It does not say, “And to descendants,” as referring to many, but as referring to one, “And to your descendant,” who is Christ.^(B) ¹⁷This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward,^[c] does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.^(C) ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law,^(D) it is no longer from a promise; but God bestowed it on Abraham through a promise.^[d]

¹⁹^[e]Why, then, the law? It was added for transgressions, until the descendant^[f] came to whom the promise had been made; it was promulgated by angels at the hand of a mediator.^(E) ²⁰Now there is no mediator when only one party is involved, and God is one.^(F) ²¹Is the law then opposed to the promises [of God]? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could bring life, then righteousness would in reality come from the law.^(G) ²²But scripture confined all things under the power of sin, that through faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.^(H)

What Faith Has Brought Us.^[g]

Footnotes

3:15–18 A third argument to support Paul’s position that salvation is not through the law but by promise (Gal 3:1–14) comes from legal practice and scriptural history. A legal agreement or human will, duly ratified, is unalterable (Gal 3:15). God’s covenant with Abraham and its repeated promises (Gn 12:2–3, 7; 13:15; 17:7–8; 22:16–18; 24:7) is not superseded by the law, which came much later, in the time of Moses. The inheritance (of the Spirit and the blessings) is by promise, not by law (Gal 3:18). Paul’s argument hinges on the fact that the same Greek word, diathēkē, can be rendered as will or testament (Gal 3:15) and as covenant (Gal 3:17).
3:16 Descendant: literally, “and to his seed.” The Hebrew, as in Gn 12:7; 15:18; 22:17–18, is a collective singular, traditionally rendered as a plural, descendants, but taken by Paul in its literal number to refer to Christ as descendant of Abraham.
3:17 Four hundred and thirty years afterward: follows Ex 12:40 in the Greek (Septuagint) version, in contrast to Gn 15:13 and Acts 7:6, for chronology.
3:18 This refutes the opponents’ contention that the promises of God are fulfilled only as a reward for human observance of the law.
3:19–22 A digression: if the Mosaic law, then, does not save or bring life, why was it given? Elsewhere, Paul says the law served to show what sin is (Rom 3:20; 7:7–8). Here the further implication is that the law in effect served to produce transgressions. Moreover, it was received at second hand by angels, through a mediator, not directly from God (Gal 3:19). The law does not, however, oppose God’s purposes, for it carries out its function (Gal 3:22), so that righteousness comes by faith and promise, not by human works of the law.
3:19 The descendant: Christ (Gal 3:16). By angels: Dt 33:2–4 stressed their presence as enhancing the importance of the law; Paul uses their role to diminish its significance (cf. Acts 7:38, 53). A mediator: Moses. But in a covenant of promise, where all depends on the one God, no mediator is needed (Gal 3:20).
3:23–29 Paul adds a further argument in support of righteousness or justification by faith and through God’s promise rather than by works of the law (Gal 2:16; 3:22): as children of God, baptized into Christ, the Galatians are all Abraham’s descendant and heirs of the promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 14, 16–18, 29). The teaching in Gal 3:23–25, that since faith (Christianity) has come, we are no longer under the law, could be taken with the previous paragraph on the role of the Mosaic law, but it also fits here as a contrast between the situation before faith (Gal 3:23) and the results after faith has come (Gal 3:25–29).

Luke 1:67-80

The Canticle of Zechariah. ⁶⁷Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied, saying:

⁶⁸^[a]“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.^(A)
⁶⁹^[b]He has raised up a horn for our salvation
    within the house of David his servant,^(B)
⁷⁰even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old:
⁷¹    salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,^(C)
⁷²to show mercy to our fathers^(D)
    and to be mindful of his holy covenant^(E)
⁷³and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father,^(F)
    and to grant us that, ⁷⁴rescued from the hand of enemies,
without fear we might worship him ⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness
    before him all our days.^(G)
⁷⁶And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go before the Lord^[c] to prepare his ways,^(H)
⁷⁷to give his people knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God^(I)
    by which the daybreak from on high^[d] will visit us^(J)
⁷⁹to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow,
    to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

⁸⁰The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.^(K)

Matthew 1:1-17

I. The Infancy Narrative

Chapter 1

The Genealogy of Jesus.^[a] ¹^(A)The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.^[b]

²^(B)Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.^(C) ³Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.^(D) Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, ⁴^(E)Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵^(F)Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, ⁶^(G)Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. ⁷^[c]^(H)Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. ⁸Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. ⁹Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. ¹⁰Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos,^[d] Amos the father of Josiah. ¹¹Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

¹²^(I)After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.^[e]

The Birth of Jesus.^[f]

Footnotes

1:1–2:23
The infancy narrative forms the prologue of the gospel. Consisting of a genealogy and five stories, it presents the coming of Jesus as the climax of Israel’s history, and the events of his conception, birth, and early childhood as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The genealogy is probably traditional material that Matthew edited. In its first two sections (Mt 1:2–11) it was drawn from Ru 4:18–22; 1 Chr 1–3. Except for Jechoniah, Shealtiel, and Zerubbabel, none of the names in the third section (Mt 1:12–16) is found in any Old Testament genealogy. While the genealogy shows the continuity of God’s providential plan from Abraham on, discontinuity is also present. The women Tamar (Mt 1:3), Rahab and Ruth (Mt 1:5), and the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba (Mt 1:6), bore their sons through unions that were in varying degrees strange and unexpected. These “irregularities” culminate in the supreme “irregularity” of the Messiah’s birth of a virgin mother; the age of fulfillment is inaugurated by a creative act of God.
Drawing upon both biblical tradition and Jewish stories, Matthew portrays Jesus as reliving the Exodus experience of Israel and the persecutions of Moses. His rejection by his own people and his passion are foreshadowed by the troubled reaction of “all Jerusalem” to the question of the magi who are seeking the “newborn king of the Jews” (Mt 2:2–3), and by Herod’s attempt to have him killed. The magi who do him homage prefigure the Gentiles who will accept the preaching of the gospel. The infancy narrative proclaims who Jesus is, the savior of his people from their sins (Mt 1:21), Emmanuel in whom “God is with us” (Mt 1:23), and the Son of God (Mt 2:15).
1:1 The Son of David, the son of Abraham: two links of the genealogical chain are singled out. Although the later, David is placed first in order to emphasize that Jesus is the royal Messiah. The mention of Abraham may be due not only to his being the father of the nation Israel but to Matthew’s interest in the universal scope of Jesus’ mission; cf. Gn 22:18 “…. in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.”
1:7 The successor of Abijah was not Asaph but Asa (see 1 Chr 3:10). Some textual witnesses read the latter name; however, Asaph is better attested. Matthew may have deliberately introduced the psalmist Asaph into the genealogy (and in Mt 1:10 the prophet Amos) in order to show that Jesus is the fulfillment not only of the promises made to David (see 2 Sm 7) but of all the Old Testament.
1:10 Amos: some textual witnesses read Amon, who was the actual successor of Manasseh (see 1 Chr 3:14).
1:17 Matthew is concerned with fourteen generations, probably because fourteen is the numerical value of the Hebrew letters forming the name of David. In the second section of the genealogy (Mt 1:6b–11), three kings of Judah, Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, have been omitted (see 1 Chr 3:11–12), so that there are fourteen generations in that section. Yet the third (Mt 1:12–16) apparently has only thirteen. Since Matthew here emphasizes that each section has fourteen, it is unlikely that the thirteen of the last was due to his oversight. Some scholars suggest that Jesus who is called the Messiah (Mt 1:16b) doubles the final member of the chain: Jesus, born within the family of David, opens up the new age as Messiah, so that in fact there are fourteen generations in the third section. This is perhaps too subtle, and the hypothesis of a slip not on the part of Matthew but of a later scribe seems likely. On Messiah, see note on Lk 2:11.
1:18–25 This first story of the infancy narrative spells out what is summarily indicated in Mt 1:16. The virginal conception of Jesus is the work of the Spirit of God. Joseph’s decision to divorce Mary is overcome by the heavenly command that he take her into his home and accept the child as his own. The natural genealogical line is broken but the promises to David are fulfilled; through Joseph’s adoption the child belongs to the family of David. Matthew sees the virginal conception as the fulfillment of Is 7:14.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 93^[a]

God Is a Mighty King

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 96^[a]

God of the Universe

I

II

III

IV

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 148^[a]

All Creation Summoned to Praise

I

II

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 150^[a]

Final Doxology

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

I. The Infancy Narrative

Chapter 1

Footnotes

Cross references

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Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 93[a]

God Is a Mighty King

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 96[a]

God of the Universe

I

II

III

IV

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 148[a]

All Creation Summoned to Praise

I

II

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 150[a]

Final Doxology

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

I. The Infancy Narrative

Chapter 1

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 93^[a]

Psalm 96^[a]

Psalm 148^[a]

Psalm 150^[a]