Daily Readings

⁷³  Your hands have made and fashioned me;
          give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
⁷⁴  Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
          because I have hoped in your word.
⁷⁵  I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right,
          and that in faithfulness you have humbled me.
⁷⁶  Let your steadfast love become my comfort
          according to your promise to your servant.
⁷⁷  Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;
          for your law is my delight.
⁷⁸  Let the arrogant be put to shame,
          because they have subverted me with guile;
          as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
⁷⁹  Let those who fear you turn to me,
          so that they may know your decrees.
⁸⁰  May my heart be blameless in your statutes,
          so that I may not be put to shame.

¹   I will extol you, my God and King,
          and bless your name forever and ever.
²   Every day I will bless you,
          and praise your name forever and ever.
³   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
          his greatness is unsearchable.

⁴   One generation shall laud your works to another,
          and shall declare your mighty acts.
⁵   On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
          and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
⁶   The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
          and I will declare your greatness.
⁷   They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
          and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

⁸   The Lord is gracious and merciful,
          slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹   The Lord is good to all,
          and his compassion is over all that he has made.

¹⁰  All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
          and all your faithful shall bless you.
¹¹  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
          and tell of your power,
¹²  to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
          and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
          and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

     The Lord is faithful in all his words,
          and gracious in all his deeds.
¹⁴  The Lord upholds all who are falling,
          and raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵  The eyes of all look to you,
          and you give them their food in due season.
¹⁶  You open your hand,
          satisfying the desire of every living thing.
¹⁷  The Lord is just in all his ways,
          and kind in all his doings.
¹⁸  The Lord is near to all who call on him,
          to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹  He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
          he also hears their cry, and saves them.
²⁰  The Lord watches over all who love him,
          but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹  My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
          and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

¹Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. ²This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. ⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, "Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf." ⁸His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me." ¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, "What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?" ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

¹Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind - ⁶just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you - ⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." ¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

¹The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

²As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; ³the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" ⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

¹  I lift up my eyes to the hills —
          from where will my help come?
²   My help comes from the LORD,
          who made heaven and earth.

³   He will not let your foot be moved;
          he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴   He who keeps Israel
          will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵   The LORD is your keeper;
          the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
⁶   The sun shall not strike you by day,
          nor the moon by night.

⁷   The LORD will keep you from all evil;
          he will keep your life.
⁸   The LORD will keep
          your going out and your coming in
          from this time on and for evermore.

¹   O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger,
          or discipline me in your wrath.
²   Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
          O LORD, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
³   My soul also is struck with terror,
          while you, O LORD — how long?

⁴   Turn, O LORD, save my life;
          deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵   For in death there is no remembrance of you;
          in Sheol who can give you praise?

⁶   I am weary with my moaning;
          every night I flood my bed with tears;
          I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷   My eyes waste away because of grief;
          they grow weak because of all my foes.

⁸   Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
          for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹   The LORD has heard my supplication;
          the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰  All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror;
          they shall turn back, and in a moment be put to shame.