Open Word

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Nehemiah 8:1-12

Verse 1. At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. Verse 2. On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand. Verse 3. So Ezra read it aloud from daybreak until noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate, in front of the men and women and those who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Verse 4. Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and at his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. Verse 5. Ezra opened the book in full view of all the people, since he was standing above them all, and as he opened it, all the people stood up. Verse 6. Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and with their hands uplifted, all the people said, “Amen, Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Verse 7. The Levites — Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah — instructed the people in the Law as they stood in their places. Verse 8. So they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight, so that the people could understand what was being read. Verse 9. Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law. Verse 10. Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Verse 11. And the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Do not grieve.” Verse 12. Then all the people began to eat and drink, to send out portions, and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that had been made known to them.

PSALM

Psalm 78

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.

They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.

He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.

He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night.

He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers.

But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.

Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.

He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved.

Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember His power — the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.

He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity— a band of destroying angels.

He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.

He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage.

Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.

He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.

So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Joel 1:1-14

Verse 1. This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: Verse 2. Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Verse 3. Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. Verse 4. What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. Verse 5. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. Verse 6. For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. Verse 7. It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white. Verse 8. Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. Verse 9. Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. Verse 10. The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. Verse 11. Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. Verse 12. The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard— are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. Verse 13. Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Verse 14. Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

PSALM

Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.

So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.

Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift my hands.

My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.

When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

For You are my help; I will sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings.

My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life to destroy it will go into the depths of the earth.

They will fall to the power of the sword; they will become a portion for foxes.

But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by Him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut.

SECOND READING

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Verse 6. But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you. Verse 7. For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we have been reassured about you, because of your faith. Verse 8. For now we can go on living, as long as you are standing firm in the Lord. Verse 9. How can we adequately thank God for you in return for our great joy over you in His presence? Verse 10. Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. Verse 11. Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. Verse 12. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows, Verse 13. so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.