Open Word

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Song of Solomon 8:5-7

Verse 5. Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth. Verse 6. Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all. Verse 7. Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.

PSALM

Psalm 144:9-15

I will sing to You a new song, O God; on a harp of ten strings I will make music to You —

to Him who gives victory to kings, who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.

Set me free and rescue me from the grasp of foreigners, whose mouths speak falsehood, whose right hands are deceitful.

Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.

Our storehouses will be full, supplying all manner of produce; our flocks will bring forth thousands, tens of thousands in our fields.

Our oxen will bear great loads. There will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of lament in our streets.

Blessed are the people of whom this is so; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 4:21-40

Verse 21. The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. Verse 22. For I will not be crossing the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land. Verse 23. Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you. Verse 24. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Verse 25. After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form— doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger— Verse 26. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed. Verse 27. Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. Verse 28. And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. Verse 29. But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Verse 30. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. Verse 31. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath. Verse 32. Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported? Verse 33. Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived? Verse 34. Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation — by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors — as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes? Verse 35. You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him. Verse 36. He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire. Verse 37. Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power, Verse 38. to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day. Verse 39. Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. Verse 40. Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

PSALM

Psalm 106:1-6, 13-23, 47-48

Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise?

Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.

We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, that we may glory in Your praise.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!

SECOND READING

Mark 7:9-23

Verse 9. He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition. Verse 10. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ Verse 11. But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God ), Verse 12. he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother. Verse 13. Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.” Verse 14. Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand: Verse 15. Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.” Verse 17. After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable. Verse 18. “Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him, Verse 19. because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.) Verse 20. He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him. Verse 21. For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, Verse 22. greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. Verse 23. All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”