It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Daily Prayer, April 7, 2012, Holy Saturday

Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.


Morning
Invitatory Psalm 102
Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you.
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.
....
My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever;
your name endures to all generations.
You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
  for it is time to favor it;
the appointed time has come.
For your servants hold its stones dear,
  and have pity on its dust.
...
Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
  and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you endure;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
The children of your servants shall live secure;
their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Psalm 50
The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Our God comes and does not keep silence,
   before him is a devouring fire,
   and a mighty tempest all around him.
He calls to the heavens above and to the earth,
   that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge. Selah

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
   I am God, your God.

Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house,
   or goats from your folds.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
   the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the air,
   and all that moves in the field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
   for the world and all that is in it is mine.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
   and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
....
Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me;
   to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
   according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
   and done what is evil in your sight,
   so that you are justified in your sentence
   and blameless when you pass judgment.
Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
   and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
   if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
   then you will delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Daily Lectionary, First Reading, Job 14:1-14
Daily Lectionary, Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16 


Morning Prayer: O God, whose face shines upon us, we offer the prayers we carry deep in our hearts that those who need deliverance may know your steadfast love and salvation....Release us from the time of trial and oppression, that we may witness to the eternal hope of grief becoming joy and life rising from death. Amen. (RCL Prayers, Fortress Press)

Evening
Psalm 75
We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks;
your name is near.
People tell of your wondrous deeds.
At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.
When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants,
   it is I who keep its pillars steady. Selah
....

But I will rejoice forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
   but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

Daily Lectionary, Second Reading, 1 Peter 4:1-8
Daily Lectionary, Gospel Reading, Matthew 27:57-66


Evening Prayer: Merciful and everliving God, Creator of heaven and earth, the crucified body of your Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy day. Grant that we may wait with him the dawning of the third day and rise in newness of life, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen. UMBOW 367


Psalm 77
I cry aloud to God, aloud to God,
   that he may hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out
   without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
I think of God, and I moan;
I meditate, and my spirit faints. Selah

You keep my eyelids from closing;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I consider the days of old,
   and remember the years of long ago.
I commune with my heart in the night;
I meditate and search my spirit:
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
   and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love ceased forever?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

And I say, “It is my grief that
   the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all your work,
   and muse on your mighty deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is so great as our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have displayed your might among the peoples.
With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
   the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

When the waters saw you, O God,
   when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
       the very deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
   your path, through the mighty waters;
   yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
   by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

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