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

Isaiah 63:15–64:9 (Listen)

Prayer for Mercy

15   Look down from heaven and see,
    from your holy and beautiful habitation.
  Where are your zeal and your might?
    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
    are held back from me.
16   For you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
  you, O LORD, are our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17   O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways
    and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
  Return for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes of your heritage.
18   Your holy people held possession for a little while;
    our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
19   We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
    like those who are not called by your name.
64:1   Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2   as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
  to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3   When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4   From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
  no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
5   You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
  Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6   We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
  We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7   There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
  for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
8   But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
9   Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
    and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.

2 Timothy 1:15–2:13 (Listen)

15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

2:1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for:

  If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12   if we endure, we will also reign with him;
  if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13   if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

Luke 11:37–52 (Listen)

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

Morning Psalms

Psalm 42 (Listen)

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

42:1   As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
2   My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
  When shall I come and appear before God?
3   My tears have been my food
    day and night,
  while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4   These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
  how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
  with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.
5   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation 6 and my God.
  My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
  from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7   Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
  all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
8   By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9   I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
  Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10   As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
  while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
11   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Psalm 146 (Listen)

Put Not Your Trust in Princes

146:1   Praise the LORD!
  Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2   I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3   Put not your trust in princes,
    in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4   When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
    on that very day his plans perish.
5   Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6   who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them,
  who keeps faith forever;
7     who executes justice for the oppressed,
    who gives food to the hungry.
  The LORD sets the prisoners free;
8     the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
  The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the LORD loves the righteous.
9   The LORD watches over the sojourners;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10   The LORD will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, to all generations.
  Praise the LORD!

Evening Psalms

Psalm 102 (Listen)

Do Not Hide Your Face from Me

A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.

102:1   Hear my prayer, O LORD;
  let my cry come to you!
2   Do not hide your face from me
    in the day of my distress!
  Incline your ear to me;
    answer me speedily in the day when I call!
3   For my days pass away like smoke,
    and my bones burn like a furnace.
4   My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
    I forget to eat my bread.
5   Because of my loud groaning
    my bones cling to my flesh.
6   I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
    like an owl of the waste places;
7   I lie awake;
    I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
8   All the day my enemies taunt me;
    those who deride me use my name for a curse.
9   For I eat ashes like bread
    and mingle tears with my drink,
10   because of your indignation and anger;
    for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
11   My days are like an evening shadow;
    I wither away like grass.
12   But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever;
    you are remembered throughout all generations.
13   You will arise and have pity on Zion;
    it is the time to favor her;
    the appointed time has come.
14   For your servants hold her stones dear
    and have pity on her dust.
15   Nations will fear the name of the LORD,
    and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
16   For the LORD builds up Zion;
    he appears in his glory;
17   he regards the prayer of the destitute
    and does not despise their prayer.
18   Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
    so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
19   that he looked down from his holy height;
    from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
20   to hear the groans of the prisoners,
    to set free those who were doomed to die,
21   that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
    and in Jerusalem his praise,
22   when peoples gather together,
    and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
23   He has broken my strength in midcourse;
    he has shortened my days.
24   “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
    in the midst of my days—
  you whose years endure
    throughout all generations!”
25   Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26   They will perish, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
  You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27     but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28   The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
    their offspring shall be established before you.

Psalm 133 (Listen)

When Brothers Dwell in Unity

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

133:1   Behold, how good and pleasant it is
    when brothers dwell in unity!
2   It is like the precious oil on the head,
    running down on the beard,
  on the beard of Aaron,
    running down on the collar of his robes!
3   It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion!
  For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
    life forevermore.