Friday of the Third Week of Lent – Morning Prayer

Psalm 88

1 O LORD, my God, my Savior,*
by day and night I cry to you.

2 Let my prayer enter into your presence;*
incline your ear to my lamentation.

3 For I am full of trouble;*
my life is at the brink of the grave.

4 I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;*
I have become like one who has no strength;

5 Lost among the dead,*
like the slain who lie in the grave,

6 Whom you remember no more,*
for they are cut off from your hand.

7 You have laid me in the depths of the Pit,*
in dark places, and in the abyss.

8 Your anger weighs upon me heavily,*
and all your great waves overwhelm me.

9 You have put my friends far from me;
you have made me to be abhorred by them;*
I am in prison and cannot get free.

10 My sight has failed me because of trouble;*
LORD, I have called upon you daily;
I have stretched out my hands to you.

11 Do you work wonders for the dead?*
will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?

12 Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave?*
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?

13 Will your wonders be known in the dark?*
or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?

14 But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help;*
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

15 LORD, why have you rejected me?*
why have you hidden your face from me?

16 Ever since my youth, I have been wretched and at the point of death;*
I have borne your terrors with a troubled mind.

17 Your blazing anger has swept over me;*
your terrors have destroyed me;

18 They surround me all day long like a flood;*
they encompass me on every side.

19 My friend and my neighbor you have put away from me,*
and darkness is my only companion.

 

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent – Evening Prayer

Psalm 85

1 You have been gracious to your land, O LORD,*
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.

2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people*
and blotted out all their sins.

3 You have withdrawn all your fury*
and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.

4 Restore us then, O God our Savior;*
let your anger depart from us.

5 Will you be displeased with us for ever?*
will you prolong your anger from age to age?

6 Will you not give us life again,*
that your people may rejoice in you?

7 Show us your mercy, O LORD,*
and grant us your salvation.

8 I will listen to what the LORD God is saying,*
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him,*
that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth have met together;*
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring up from the earth,*
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 The LORD will indeed grant prosperity,*
and our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him,*
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

 

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent – Morning Prayer

Psalm 42

1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks,*
so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;*
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,*
while all day long they say to me,
“Where now is your God?”

4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things;*
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,

5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving,*
among those who keep holy-day.

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?*
and why are you so disquieted within me?

7 Put your trust in God;*
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

8 My soul is heavy within me;*
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.

9 One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts;*
all your rapids and floods have gone over me.

10 The LORD grants his loving-kindness in the daytime;*
in the night season his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

11 I will say to the God of my strength,
“Why have you forgotten me?*
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?”

12 While my bones are being broken,*
my enemies mock me to my face;

13 All day long they mock me*
and say to me, “Where now is your God?”

14 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?*
and why are you so disquieted within me?

15 Put your trust in God;*
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent – Evening Prayer

Psalm 81

1 Sing with joy to God our strength*
and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.

2 Raise a song and sound the timbrel,*
the merry harp, and the lyre.

3 Blow the ram’s-horn at the new moon,*
and at the full moon, the day of our feast.

4 For this is a statute for Israel,*
a law of the God of Jacob.

5 He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph,*
when he came out of the land of Egypt.

6 I heard an unfamiliar voice saying,*
“I eased his shoulder from the burden;
his hands were set free from bearing the load.”

7 You called on me in trouble, and I saved you;*
I answered you from the secret place of thunder
and tested you at the waters of Meribah.

8 Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you:*
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

9 There shall be no strange god among you;*
you shall not worship a foreign god.

10 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said,*
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

11 And yet my people did not hear my voice,*
and Israel would not obey me.

12 So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their hearts,*
to follow their own devices.

13 Oh, that my people would listen to me!*
that Israel would walk in my ways!

14 I should soon subdue their enemies*
and turn my hand against their foes.

15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him,*
and their punishment would last for ever.

16 But Israel would I feed with the finest wheat*
and satisfy him with honey from the rock.

 

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent – Morning Prayer

Psalm 119:97-120

97 Oh, how I love your law!*
all the day long it is in my mind.

98 Your commandment has made me wiser than my enemies,*
and it is always with me.

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,*
for your decrees are my study.

100 I am wiser than the elders,*
because I observe your commandments.

101 I restrain my feet from every evil way,*
that I may keep your word.

102 I do not shrink from your judgments,*
because you yourself have taught me.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste!*
they are sweeter than honey to my mouth.

104 Through your commandments I gain understanding;*
therefore I hate every lying way.

105 Your word is a lantern to my feet*
and a light upon my path.

106 I have sworn and am determined*
to keep your righteous judgments.

107 I am deeply troubled;*
preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.

108 Accept, O LORD, the willing tribute of my lips,*
and teach me your judgments.

109 My life is always in my hand,*
yet I do not forget your law.

110 The wicked have set a trap for me,*
but I have not strayed from your commandments.

111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever;*
truly, they are the joy of my heart.

112 I have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes*
for ever and to the end.

113 I hate those who have a divided heart,*
but your law do I love.

114 You are my refuge and shield;*
my hope is in your word.

115 Away from me, you wicked!*
I will keep the commandments of my God.

116 Sustain me according to your promise, that I may live,*
and let me not be disappointed in my hope.

117 Hold me up, and I shall be safe,*
and my delight shall be ever in your statutes.

118 You spurn all who stray from your statutes;*
their deceitfulness is in vain.

119 In your sight all the wicked of the earth are but dross;*
therefore I love your decrees.

120 My flesh trembles with dread of you;*
I am afraid of your judgments.

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent – Evening Prayer

Psalm 78:40-72

40 How often the people disobeyed him in the wilderness*
and offended him in the desert!

41 Again and again they tempted God*
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his power*
in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy;

43 How he wrought his signs in Egypt*
and his omens in the field of Zoan.

44 He turned their rivers into blood,*
so that they could not drink of their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up,*
and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar,*
the fruit of their toil to the locust.

47 He killed their vines with hail*
and their sycamores with frost.

48 He delivered their cattle to hailstones*
and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

49 He poured out upon them his blazing anger:*
fury, indignation, and distress,
a troop of destroying angels.

50 He gave full rein to his anger;
he did not spare their souls from death;*
but delivered their lives to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,*
the flower of manhood in the dwellings of Ham.

52 He led out his people like sheep*
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 He led them to safety, and they were not afraid;*
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 He brought them to his holy land,*
the mountain his right hand had won.

55 He drove out the Canaanites before them
and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot;*
he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 But they tested the Most High God, and defied him,*
and did not keep his commandments.

57 They turned away and were disloyal like their fathers;*
they were undependable like a warped bow.

58 They grieved him with their hill-altars*
they provoked his displeasure with their idols.

59 When God heard this, he was angry*
and utterly rejected Israel.

60 He forsook the shrine at Shiloh,*
the tabernacle where he had lived among his people.

61 He delivered the ark into captivity,*
his glory into the adversary’s hand.

62 He gave his people to the sword*
and was angered against his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men;*
there were no wedding songs for their maidens.

64 Their priests fell by the sword,*
and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the LORD woke as though from sleep,*
like a warrior refreshed with wine.

66 He struck his enemies on the backside*
and put them to perpetual shame.

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph*
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah*
and Mount Zion, which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven,*
like the earth which he founded for ever.

70 He chose David his servant,*
and took him away from the sheepfolds.

71 He brought him from following the ewes,*
to be a shepherd over Jacob his people
and over Israel his inheritance.

72 So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart*
and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent – Morning Prayer

Psalm 78:1-39

1 Hear my teaching, O my people;*
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable;*
I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

3 That which we have heard and known,
and what our forefathers have told us,*
we will not hide from their children.

4 We will recount to generations to come
the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD,*
and the wonderful works he has done.

5 He gave his decrees to Jacob
and established a law for Israel,*
which he commanded them to teach their children;

6 That the generations to come might know,
and the children yet unborn;*
that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

7 So that they might put their trust in God,*
and not forget the deeds of God,
but keep his commandments;

8 And not be like their forefathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,*
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow,*
turned back in the day of battle;

10 They did not keep the covenant of God,*
and refused to walk in his law;

11 They forgot what he had done,*
and the wonders he had shown them.

12 He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers,*
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He split open the sea and let them pass through;*
he made the waters stand up like walls.

14 He led them with a cloud by day,*
and all the night through with a glow of fire.

15 He split the hard rocks in the wilderness*
and gave them drink as from the great deep.

16 He brought streams out of the cliff,*
and the waters gushed out like rivers.

17 But they went on sinning against him,*
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18 They tested God in their hearts,*
demanding food for their craving.

19 They railed against God and said,*
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20 True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed;*
but is he able to give bread
or to provide meat for his people?”

21 When the LORD heard this, he was full of wrath;*
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and his anger mounted against Israel;

22 For they had no faith in God,*
nor did they put their trust in his saving power.

23 So he commanded the clouds above*
and opened the doors of heaven.

24 He rained down manna upon them to eat*
and gave them grain from heaven.

25 So mortals ate the bread of angels;*
he provided for them food enough.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens*
and led out the south wind by his might.

27 He rained down flesh upon them like dust*
and winge!d birds like the sand of the sea.

28 He let it fall in the midst of their camp*
and round about their dwellings.

29 So they ate and were well filled,*
for he gave them what they craved.

30 But they did not stop their craving,*
though the food was still in their mouths.

31 So God’s anger mounted against them;*
he slew their strongest men
and laid low the youth of Israel.

32 In spite of all this, they went on sinning*
and had no faith in his wonderful works.

33 So he brought their days to an end like a breath*
and their years in sudden terror.

34 Whenever he slew them, they would seek him,*
and repent, and diligently search for God.

35 They would remember that God was their rock,*
and the Most High God their redeemer.

36 But they flattered him with their mouths*
and lied to him with their tongues.

37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him,*
and they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins
and did not destroy them;*
many times he held back his anger
and did not permit his wrath to be roused.

39 For he remembered that they were but flesh,*
a breath that goes forth and does not return.

 

Monday of the Third Week of Lent – Evening Prayer

Psalm 77

1 I will cry aloud to God;*
I will cry aloud, and he will hear me.

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;*
my hands were stretched out by night and did not tire;
I refused to be comforted.

3 I think of God, I am restless,*
I ponder, and my spirit faints.

4 You will not let my eyelids close;*
I am troubled and I cannot speak.

5 I consider the days of old;*
I remember the years long past;

6 I commune with my heart in the night;*
I ponder and search my mind.

7 Will the Lord cast me off for ever?*
will he no more show his favor?

8 Has his loving-kindness come to an end for ever?*
has his promise failed for evermore?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?*
has he, in his anger, withheld his compassion?

10 And I said, “My grief is this:*
the right hand of the Most High has lost its power.”

11 I will remember the works of the LORD,*
and call to mind your wonders of old time.

12 I will meditate on all your acts*
and ponder your mighty deeds.

13 Your way, O God, is holy;*
who is so great a god as our God?

14 You are the God who works wonders*
and have declared your power among the peoples.

15 By your strength you have redeemed your people,*
the children of Jacob and Joseph.

16 The waters saw you, O God;
the waters saw you and trembled;*
the very depths were shaken.

17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;*
your arrows flashed to and fro;

18 The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;*
the earth trembled and shook.

19 Your way was in the sea,
and your paths in the great waters,*
yet your footsteps were not seen.

20 You led your people like a flock*
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Monday of the Third Week of Lent – Morning Prayer

Psalm 80

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock;*
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,*
stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts;*
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4 O LORD God of hosts,*
how long will you be angered
despite the prayers of your people?

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears;*
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6 You have made us the derision of our neighbors,*
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts;*
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt;*
you cast out the nations and planted it.

9 You prepared the ground for it;*
it took root and filled the land.

10 The mountains were covered by its shadow*
and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.

11 You stretched out its tendrils to the Sea*
and its branches to the River.

12 Why have you broken down its wall,*
so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?

13 The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it,*
and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.

14 Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven;
behold and tend this vine;*
preserve what your right hand has planted.

15 They burn it with fire like rubbish;*
at the rebuke of your countenance let them perish.

16 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand,*
and son of man you have made so strong for yourself.

17 And so will we never turn away from you;*
give us life, that we may call upon your Name.

18 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;*
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Third Sunday in Lent – Evening Prayer

Psalm 34

1 I will bless the LORD at all times; *
his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2 I will glory in the LORD; *
let the humble hear and rejoice.

3 Proclaim with me the greatness of the LORD; *
let us exalt his Name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me *
and delivered me out of all my terror.

5 Look upon him and be radiant, *
and let not your faces be ashamed.

6 I called in my affliction and the LORD heard me *
and saved me from all my troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encompasses those who fear him,*
and he will deliver them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; *
happy are they who trust in him!

9 Fear the LORD, you that are his saints, *
for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *
but those who seek the LORD lack nothing that is good.

11 Come, children, and listen to me; *
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12 Who among you loves life *
and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

13 Keep your tongue from evil-speaking *
and your lips from lying words.

14 Turn from evil and do good; *
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, *
and his ears are open to their cry.

16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, *
to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears them *
and delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted *
and will save those whose spirits are crushed.

19 Many are the troubles of the righteous, *
but the LORD will deliver him out of them all.

20 He will keep safe all his bones; *
not one of them shall be broken.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked, *
and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

22 The LORD ransoms the life of his servants, *
and none will be punished who trust in him.