Daily Office - Apr 20

Psalm 108
My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready;
I will sing and give you praise.

Awake, my soul; awake, harp and lyre,
that I may awaken the dawn.

I will give you thanks, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praise to you among the nations.

For your loving-kindness is as high as the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens and your glory over all the earth.

That your beloved may be delivered,
save us by your right hand and answer me.

God has spoken in his holiness:
‘I will triumph and divide Shechem and share out the valley of Succoth.

‘Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet and Judah my sceptre.

‘Moab shall be my washpot,
over Edom will I cast my sandal,
across Philistia will I shout in triumph.'

Who will lead me into the strong city?
Who will bring me into Edom?

Have you not cast us off, O God?
Will you no longer go forth with our troops?

O grant us your help against the enemy,
for earthly help is in vain.

Through God will we do great acts,
for it is he that shall tread down our enemies.

Psalm 110
The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.’

May the Lord stretch forth the sceptre of your power;
rule from Zion in the midst of your enemies.

‘Noble are you on this day of your birth;
on the holy mountain, from the womb of the dawn the dew of your new birth is upon you.’

The Lord has sworn and will not retract:
‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’

The king at your right hand, O Lord,
shall smite down kings in the day of his wrath.

In all his majesty, he shall judge among the nations,
smiting heads over all the wide earth.

He shall drink from the brook beside the way;
therefore shall he lift high his head.

Psalm 111
Alleluia.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the faithful and in the congregation.

The works of the Lord are great,
sought out by all who delight in them.

His work is full of majesty and honour and his righteousness endures for ever.

He appointed a memorial for his marvellous deeds;
the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

He gave food to those who feared him;
he is ever mindful of his covenant.

He showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of his hands are truth and justice;
all his commandments are sure.

They stand fast for ever and ever;
they are done in truth and equity.

He sent redemption to his people;
he commanded his covenant for ever;
holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
a good understanding have those who live by it;
his praise endures for ever.

Deuteronomy 8
This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.

Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Ephesians 3.14-end
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Collect
Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
      with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.