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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)
Version
Psalm 24

Psalm 24

The King of Glory

Heading
By David. A psalm.

The King of Glory Owns the Whole World

The earth is the Lord’s
and everything that fills it,
the world and all who live in it,
because he founded it on the seas,
and he established it on the rivers.[a]

The King of Glory Is Served by a Holy People

Who may go up to the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
whose soul is not set on what is false,
who does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God who saves him.
Such are the people of Jacob who look for the Lord,
who seek your face.[b] Interlude

The King of Glory Comes

Lift up your heads, you gates.
Lift yourselves up, you ancient doors,
and the King of Glory will come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you gates.
Lift up, you ancient doors,
and the King of Glory will come in.
10 Who is he, this King of Glory?
The Lord of Armies—he is the King of Glory. Interlude[c]

Psalm 29

Psalm 29

The God of Glory Thunders

Heading
A psalm by David.

The God of Glory Thunders

Ascribe to the Lord, you sons of God,[a]
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.
Bow down to the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
The voice of the Lord is heard over the waters.
The God of glory thunders.
The Lord thunders above the mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord thunders in power.
The voice of the Lord thunders in majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.
The Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Mount Lebanon skip like a calf.
Sirion[b] skips like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord slashes with flashes of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.
The Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord destroys the oaks[c]
and strips the forests bare.
So in his temple they all say, “Glory!”
10 The Lord is seated over the flood.
The Lord is seated as King forever.
11 The Lord gives strength to his people.
The Lord blesses his people with peace.

Psalm 8

Psalm 8

Your Name Is Majestic

Heading

For the choir director. According to gittith.[a] A psalm by David.

The Glory of God Declared by the Heavens
The Glory of God Declared by Children

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Set this glory of yours above the heavens.[b]
From the lips of little children and nursing babies
    you have established strength[c] because of your foes,
        to put a stop to the enemy and the avenger.

The Glory of the Son of Man

Whenever I look up at your heavens, the works of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place—
what is man that you remember him,
the son of man[d] that you pay attention to him!
Nevertheless, you make him suffer need,
    apart from God for a while,[e]
but you crown him with glory and honor.
You make him the ruler over the works of your hands.
You put everything under his feet:
all flocks and cattle, and even the wild animals,
the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea,
    which pass through the currents of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 84

Psalm 84

How Loved Is Your Dwelling Place

Heading

For the choir director. According to gittith.[a] By the Sons of Korah.[b]
A psalm.

How Loved Is Your Dwelling Place

How I love your dwelling place, O Lord of Armies.
My soul grows weak and even wastes away,
as I long for the courtyards of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow has found a nest for herself,
where she may place her young near your altars,
O Lord of Armies, my King and my God.

The Blessings of Being There

How blessed are those who live in your house. Interlude
They are always praising you.
How blessed is everyone whose strength is found in you.
The highways to Jerusalem[c] are in their hearts.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,[d]
    it becomes full of springs.[e]
The autumn rain also covers it with pools.[f]
They go from strength to strength.
Each one will appear before God in Zion.

Prayer

O Lord, God of Armies, hear my prayer. Interlude
Give ear, O God of Jacob.
Look upon our Shield, O God.
Look with favor on the face of your Anointed One.[g]

The Blessings of Being There

10 Yes, one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather wait at the doorway of the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord is a sun and shield.
God gives grace and glory.
The Lord does not withhold any good thing
    from those who walk with integrity.
12 O Lord of Armies, how blessed is everyone who trusts in you.

Job 38:1

The Lord’s Challenge to Job

38 Then the Lord responded to Job out of a violent storm. He said:

Job 38:18-41

18 Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

19 How can someone get to the dwelling of light?
Where is the place for darkness?
20 Could you lead it to its property?
Do you know the way to its house?
21 You must know that, since you were born before it,
and you have lived for so many days!

22 Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept?
Have you seen the warehouses[a] where the hail is stored?
23 I have reserved them for troubled times,
for days of battle and war.

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning divides,[b]
where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
25 Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters
and a road for the rolling thunder?
26 They bring rain to lands where no one lives,
to a wilderness without a person in it.
27 The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland
and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb produces the ice?
Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
30 The water is disguised as stone,
and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.

31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you lead out the constellations at the right season
and guide the Bear with her cubs?[c]
33 Do you know the laws that govern the skies?
Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of water submerges you?
35 Can you unleash the lightning bolts,
so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?

36 Who has placed wisdom in the human heart
and given understanding to the mind?[d]

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds
and to empty the water jars of the sky,
38 when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden,
and the clods of dirt are cemented together?

39 Can you hunt prey for a lioness?
Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
or they lie in wait in the thicket?

41 Who prepares its provisions for the raven,
when its young are screaming to God,
while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?

Revelation 18:1-8

Babylon Has Fallen

18 After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was given light by his glory. He called out with a loud voice, saying:

Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the Great.
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
    and a prison for every unclean spirit,
    and a prison for every unclean bird,[a]
    and a prison for every unclean and hated beast.
For all the nations have drunk from[b] the wine of her adulterous desire,
    and the kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth became rich from the abundance of her luxury.

And I heard another voice from heaven say:

Come out of her, my people,
    so that you will not share in her sins,
    and so that you will not receive any of her plagues,
because her sins have reached heaven
    and God has remembered her crimes.
Pay her back even as she has paid.
Pay her back double for what she has done.
In the cup that she mixed, mix her a double portion.
As much glory and luxury as she gave herself,
give that much torture and grief to her,
    because in her heart she says:
            I sit as a queen,
            I am not a widow, and
            I will never mourn.
For this reason her plagues will come on a single day:
death, mourning, and famine,
and she will be burned in fire,
    because the Lord God, who judges her, is powerful.

Matthew 5:21-26

Sinful Anger

21 “You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause[b] will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’[c] will have to answer to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of hell[d] fire.

23 “So if you are about to offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.

25 “If someone accuses you, reach an agreement with him quickly, while you are with him on the way. Otherwise your accuser may bring you to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Amen I tell you: You will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.