Morning Prayer (Matins) | Evening Prayer (Vespers) | Prayer at the Close of Day (Compline)

Isaiah 65:1–12 (Listen)

Judgment and Salvation

65:1   I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
  I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that was not called by my name.
2   I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
  who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
3   a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
  sacrificing in gardens
    and making offerings on bricks;
4   who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
  who eat pig’s flesh,
    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
5   who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
  These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all the day.
6   Behold, it is written before me:
    “I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
  I will indeed repay into their lap
7     both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,
      says the LORD;
  because they made offerings on the mountains
    and insulted me on the hills,
  I will measure into their lap
    payment for their former deeds.”
8   Thus says the LORD:
  “As the new wine is found in the cluster,
    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
    for there is a blessing in it,’
  so I will do for my servants’ sake,
    and not destroy them all.
9   I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
  my chosen shall possess it,
    and my servants shall dwell there.
10   Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
    for my people who have sought me.
11   But you who forsake the LORD,
    who forget my holy mountain,
  who set a table for Fortune
    and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
12   I will destine you to the sword,
    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
  because, when I called, you did not answer;
    when I spoke, you did not listen,
  but you did what was evil in my eyes
    and chose what I did not delight in.”

1 Timothy 4 (Listen)

Some Will Depart from the Faith

4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

A Good Servant of Christ Jesus

6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Mark 12:13–27 (Listen)

Paying Taxes to Caesar

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

Morning Psalms

Psalm 143 (Listen)

My Soul Thirsts for You

A Psalm of David.

143:1   Hear my prayer, O LORD;
    give ear to my pleas for mercy!
    In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
2   Enter not into judgment with your servant,
    for no one living is righteous before you.
3   For the enemy has pursued my soul;
    he has crushed my life to the ground;
    he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4   Therefore my spirit faints within me;
    my heart within me is appalled.
5   I remember the days of old;
    I meditate on all that you have done;
    I ponder the work of your hands.
6   I stretch out my hands to you;
    my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah
7   Answer me quickly, O LORD!
    My spirit fails!
  Hide not your face from me,
    lest I be like those who go down to the pit.
8   Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
    for in you I trust.
  Make me know the way I should go,
    for to you I lift up my soul.
9   Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD!
    I have fled to you for refuge.
10   Teach me to do your will,
    for you are my God!
  Let your good Spirit lead me
    on level ground!
11   For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life!
    In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!
12   And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies,
    and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul,
    for I am your servant.

Psalm 147:13–20 (Listen)

13   For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14   He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15   He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16   He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17   He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
18   He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19   He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and rules to Israel.
20   He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his rules.
  Praise the LORD!

Evening Psalms

Psalm 81 (Listen)

Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

81:1   Sing aloud to God our strength;
    shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2   Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
    the sweet lyre with the harp.
3   Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our feast day.
4   For it is a statute for Israel,
    a rule of the God of Jacob.
5   He made it a decree in Joseph
    when he went out over the land of Egypt.
  I hear a language I had not known:
6   “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
    your hands were freed from the basket.
7   In distress you called, and I delivered you;
    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8   Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9   There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10   I am the LORD your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11   “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would not submit to me.
12   So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.
13   Oh, that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
14   I would soon subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes.
15   Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last forever.
16   But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Psalm 116 (Listen)

I Love the Lord

116:1   I love the LORD, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2   Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3   The snares of death encompassed me;
    the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
    I suffered distress and anguish.
4   Then I called on the name of the LORD:
    “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5   Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
    our God is merciful.
6   The LORD preserves the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
7   Return, O my soul, to your rest;
    for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8   For you have delivered my soul from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling;
9   I will walk before the LORD
    in the land of the living.
10   I believed, even when I spoke:
    “I am greatly afflicted”;
11   I said in my alarm,
    “All mankind are liars.”
12   What shall I render to the LORD
    for all his benefits to me?
13   I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the LORD,
14   I will pay my vows to the LORD
    in the presence of all his people.
15   Precious in the sight of the LORD
    is the death of his saints.
16   O LORD, I am your servant;
    I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
    You have loosed my bonds.
17   I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
    and call on the name of the LORD.
18   I will pay my vows to the LORD
    in the presence of all his people,
19   in the courts of the house of the LORD,
    in your midst, O Jerusalem.
  Praise the LORD!