Friday in Easter — Open Word

FIRST READING

Song of Solomon 5:9-6:3

Text not available in the Berean Standard Bible.

PSALM

Psalm 16

A Miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.

I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

Sorrows will multiply to those who chase other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood, or speak their names with my lips.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.

The lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places; surely my inheritance is delightful.

I will bless the LORD who counsels me; even at night my conscience instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely.

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Verse 1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm. Verse 2. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. Verse 3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, Verse 4. that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, Verse 5. and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Verse 6. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Verse 7. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Verse 8. And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth. Verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Verse 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Verse 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.