Friday in Season after Pentecost

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Isaiah 12

Verse 1. In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. Verse 2. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.” Verse 3. With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, Verse 4. and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted. Verse 5. Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. Verse 6. Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

2 Samuel 21:1-14

Verse 1. During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.” Verse 2. At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.) Verse 3. So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?” Verse 4. The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied. Verse 5. And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel, Verse 6. let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king. Verse 7. Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul. Verse 8. But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. Verse 9. And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest. Verse 10. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. Verse 11. When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done, Verse 12. he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa. Verse 13. So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. Verse 14. And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.

PSALM

Psalm 98

A Psalm. Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand and holy arm have gained Him the victory.

The LORD has proclaimed His salvation and revealed His righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth — let your cry ring out, and sing praises!

Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, in melodious song with the harp.

With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy

before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

SECOND READING

Isaiah 59:1-15a

Verse 1. Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. Verse 2. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. Verse 3. For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice. Verse 4. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. Verse 5. They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched. Verse 6. Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Verse 7. Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake. Verse 8. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace. Verse 9. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. Verse 10. Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead. Verse 11. We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us. Verse 12. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities: Verse 13. rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart. Verse 14. So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. Verse 15. Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey.

SECOND READING

2 Thessalonians 1:3-12

Verse 3. We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing. Verse 4. That is why we boast among God’s churches about your perseverance and faith in the face of all the persecution and affliction you are enduring. Verse 5. All this is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment. And so you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. Verse 6. After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, Verse 7. and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels Verse 8. in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Verse 9. They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might, Verse 10. on the day He comes to be glorified in His saints and regarded with wonder by all who have believed, including you who have believed our testimony. Verse 11. To this end, we always pray for you, that our God will count you worthy of His calling, and that He will powerfully fulfill your every good desire and work of faith, Verse 12. so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.