Holston Presbytery

• Daily Lectionary Readings for May 24, 2012
  

  Morning Psalm 47

  ¹   Clap your hands, all you peoples;
  
            shout to God with loud songs of joy.
  
  ²   For the LORD, the Most High, is awesome,
  
            a great king over all the earth.
  
  ³   He subdued peoples under us,
  
            and nations under our feet.
  
  ⁴   He chose our heritage for us,
  
            the pride of Jacob whom he loves.                    Selah

  ⁵   God has gone up with a shout,
  
            the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
  
  ⁶   Sing praises to God, sing praises;
  
            sing praises to our King, sing praises.
  
  ⁷   For God is the king of all the earth;
  
            sing praises with a psalm.

  ⁸   God is king over the nations;
  
            God sits on his holy throne.
  
  ⁹   The princes of the peoples gather
  
            as the people of the God of Abraham.
  
       For the shields of the earth belong to God;
  
            he is highly exalted.

  Morning Psalm 147:12-20

  ¹²  Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
  
            Praise your God, O Zion!
  
  ¹³  For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
  
            he blesses your children within you.
  
  ¹⁴  He grants peace within your borders;
  
            he fills you with the finest of wheat.
  
  ¹⁵  He sends out his command to the earth;
  
            his word runs swiftly.
  
  ¹⁶  He gives snow like wool;
  
            he scatters frost like ashes.
  
  ¹⁷  He hurls down hail like crumbs —
  
            who can stand before his cold?
  
  ¹⁸  He sends out his word, and melts them;
  
            he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
  
  ¹⁹  He declares his word to Jacob,
  
            his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
  
  ²⁰  He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
  
            they do not know his ordinances.
  
       Praise the Lord!

  First Reading Zechariah 4:1-14

  ¹The angel who talked
  with me came again, and wakened me, as one is wakened
  from sleep. ²He said to
  me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see
  a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it;
  there are seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of
  the lamps that are on the top of it. ³And by it there are two olive
  trees, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its
  left.” ⁴I said to
  the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my
  lord?” ⁵Then the
  angel who talked with me answered me, “Do you not
  know what these are?” I said, “No, my
  lord.” ⁶He said to
  me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not
  by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD
  of hosts. ⁷What are
  you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become
  a plain; and he shall bring out the top stone amid shouts
  of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

  ⁸Moreover the word of
  the LORD came to me, saying, ⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have
  laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also
  complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts
  has sent me to you. ¹⁰For whoever has despised the day
  of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet
  in the hand of Zerubbabel.

  “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range
  through the whole earth.” ¹¹Then I said to him, “What
  are these two olive trees on the right and the left of
  the lampstand?” ¹²And a second time I said to him,
  “What are these two branches of the olive trees,
  which pour out the oil through the two golden
  pipes?” ¹³He said
  to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I
  said, “No, my lord.” ¹⁴Then he said, “These are the
  two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole
  earth.”

  Second Reading Ephesians 4:17-32

  ¹⁷Now this I affirm and
  insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the
  Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.
  ¹⁸They are darkened in
  their understanding, alienated from the life of God
  because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
  ¹⁹They have lost all
  sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to
  licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of
  impurity. ²⁰That is not
  the way you learned Christ! ²¹For surely you have heard about
  him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.
  ²²You were taught to
  put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt
  and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit
  of your minds, ²⁴and to
  clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to
  the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

  ²⁵So then, putting away
  falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our
  neighbors, for we are members of one another.
  ²⁶Be angry but do not
  sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
  ²⁷and do not make room
  for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing;
  rather let them labor and work honestly with their own
  hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
  ²⁹Let no evil talk come
  out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building
  up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace
  to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit
  of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the
  day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness
  and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together
  with all malice, ³²and
  be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
  another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

  Gospel Matthew 9:1-8

  ¹And after getting into
  a boat he crossed the sea and came to his own town.

  ²And just then some
  people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When
  Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
  “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
  ³Then some of the
  scribes said to themselves, “This man is
  blaspheming.” ⁴But
  Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you
  think evil in your hearts? ⁵For which is easier, to say,
  ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand
  up and walk’? ⁶But
  so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on
  earth to forgive sins” – he then said to the
  paralytic – “Stand up, take your bed and go to your
  home.” ⁷And he
  stood up and went to his home. ⁸When the crowds saw it, they were
  filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given
  such authority to human beings.

  Evening Psalm 68

  ¹   Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered;
  
            let those who hate him flee before him.
  
  ²   As smoke is driven away, so drive them away;
  
            as wax melts before the fire,
  
            let the wicked perish before God.
  
  ³   But let the righteous be joyful;
  
            let them exult before God;
  
            let them be jubilant with joy.

  ⁴   Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
  
            lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds —
  
       his name is the LORD —
            be exultant before him.

  ⁵   Father of orphans and protector of widows
  
            is God in his holy habitation.
  
  ⁶   God gives the desolate a home to live in;
  
            he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
  
            but the rebellious live in a parched land.

  ⁷   O God, when you went out before your people,
  
            when you marched through the wilderness                          Selah
  
  ⁸   the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain
  
            at the presence of God, the God of Sinai,
  
            at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
  
  ⁹   Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad;
  
            you restored your heritage when it languished;
  
  ¹⁰  your flock found a dwelling in it;
  
            in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

  ¹¹  The Lord gives the command;
  
            great is the company of those who bore the tidings
  
  ¹²       “The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee!”
  
       The women at home divide the spoil,
  
  ¹³       though they stay among the sheepfolds —
  
       the wings of a dove covered with silver,
  
            its pinions with green gold.
  
  ¹⁴  When the Almighty scattered kings there,
  
            snow fell on Zalmon.

  ¹⁵  O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan;
  
            O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
  
  ¹⁶  Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountain,
  
            at the mount that God desired for his abode,
  
            where the LORD will reside for ever?

  ¹⁷  With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand,
  
            thousands upon thousands,
  
            the Lord came from Sinai into the holy place.
  
  ¹⁸  You ascended the high mount,
  
            leading captives in your train
  
            and receiving gifts from people,
  
       even from those who rebel against the LORD God’s biding there.
  
  ¹⁹  Blessed be the Lord,
  
            who daily bears us up;
  
            God is our salvation.                                                                        Selah
  ²⁰  Our God is a God of salvation,
  
            and to GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death.

  ²¹  But God will shatter the heads of his enemies,
  
            the hairy crown of those who walk in their guilty ways.
  
  ²²  The Lord said,
  
            “I will bring them back from Bashan,
  
       I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
  
  ²³  so that you may bathe your feet in blood,
  
            so that the tongues of your dogs may have their share from the foe.”

  ²⁴  Your solemn processions are seen, O God,
  
            the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary —
  
  ²⁵  the singers in front, the musicians last,
  
            between them girls playing tambourines:

  ²⁶  “Bless God in the great congregation,
  
            the LORD, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!”
  
  ²⁷  There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,
  
            the princes of Judah in a body,
  
            the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

  ²⁸  Summon your might, O God;
  
            show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before.
  
  ²⁹  Because of your temple at Jerusalem
  
            kings bear gifts to you.
  
  ³⁰  Rebuke the wild animals that live among the reeds,
  
            the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.
  
       Trample under foot those who lust after tribute;
  
            scatter the peoples who delight in war.
  
  ³¹  Let bronze be brought from Egypt;
  
            let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God.

  ³²  Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth;
  
            sing praises to the Lord,                                                                   Selah
  
  ³³  O rider in the heavens, the ancient heavens;
  
            listen, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.
  
  ³⁴  Ascribe power to God,
  
            whose majesty is over Israel;
  
            and whose power is in the skies.
  
  ³⁵  Awesome is God in his sanctuary,
  
            the God of Israel;
  
            he gives power and strength to his people.

       Blessed be God!

  Evening Psalm 113

  ¹   Praise the LORD!
  
       Praise, O servants of the LORD;
  
            praise the name of the LORD.

  ²   Blessed be the name of the LORD
  
            from this time on and forevermore.
  
  ³   From the rising of the sun to its setting
  
            the name of the LORD is to be praised.
  
  ⁴   The LORD is high above all nations,
  
            and his glory above the heavens.

  ⁵   Who is like the LORD our God,
  
            who is seated on high,
  
  ⁶   who looks far down
  
            on the heavens and the earth?

  ⁷   He raises the poor from the dust,
  
            and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
  
  ⁸   to make them sit with princes,
  
            with the princes of his people.
  
  ⁹   He gives the barren woman a home,
  
            making her the joyous mother of children.
  
       Praise the LORD!

Weekly Church

Reedy Creek Presbyterian Church 6044 Orebank Road Kingsport TN

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