O consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me; according to your promise, give me life.
Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.
Great is your compassion, O Lord; give me life, according to your judgements.
Many there are that persecute and oppress me, yet do I not swerve from your testimonies.
It grieves me when I see the treacherous, for they do not keep your word.
Consider, O Lord, how I love your commandments; give me life according to your loving-kindness.
The sum of your word is truth, and all your righteous judgements endure for evermore.
Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your word.
I am as glad of your word as one who finds great spoils.
As for lies, I hate and abhor them, but your law do I love.
Seven times a day do I praise you, because of your righteous judgements.
Great peace have they who love your law; nothing shall make them stumble.
Lord, I have looked for your salvation and I have fulfilled your commandments.
My soul has kept your testimonies and greatly have I loved them.
I have kept your commandments and testimonies, for all my ways are before you.
Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding, according to your word.
Let my supplication come before you; deliver me, according to your promise.
My lips shall pour forth your praise, when you have taught me your statutes.
My tongue shall sing of your word, for all your commandments are righteous.
Let your hand reach out to help me, for I have chosen your commandments.
I have longed for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight.
Let my soul live and it shall praise you, and let your judgements be my help.
I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; O seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.
Job 3
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job said:
‘Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, “A man-child is conceived.”
Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, or light shine on it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
Yes, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it.
Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none; may it not see the eyelids of the morning -
because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, and hide trouble from my eyes.
Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?
Why were there knees to receive me, or breasts for me to suck?
Now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep;
then I would be at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth who rebuild ruins for themselves,
or with princes who have gold, who fill their houses with silver.
Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there, and the slaves are free from their masters.
Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it does not come, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in?
For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes.’
Romans 2.1-16
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, ‘We know that God’s judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.’ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.
The Collect
O Lord, from whom all good things come: grant to us your humble servants, that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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