The Daily Readings for May 26, 2023

We've included both the Morning and Evening Psalms for the Daily Office; they are listed after the other readings. If you'd like to filter for a particular day's readings, you can do it at The Daily Readings Anytime.

Deuteronomy 5:22-33

These words the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; and you said, "Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live. So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the LORD our God will say. Then tell us everything that the LORD our God tells you, and we will listen and do it." The LORD heard your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: "I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! Go say to them, 'Return to your tents.' But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess." You must therefore be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. You must follow exactly the path that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture-- "I believed, and so I spoke"-- we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling-- if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

Luke 16:19-31

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Morning Psalms

Psalm 30 Exaltabo te, Domine

¹   I will exalt you, O LORD, because you have lifted me up *
and have not let my enemies triumph over me.
²   O LORD my God, I cried out to you, *
and you restored me to health.
³   You brought me up, O LORD, from the dead; *
you restored my life as I was going down to the grave.
⁴   Sing to the LORD, you servants of his; *
give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.
⁵   For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, *
his favor for a lifetime.
⁶   Weeping may spend the night, *
but joy comes in the morning.
⁷   While I felt secure, I said, "I shall never be disturbed. *
You, LORD, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains."
⁸   Then you hid your face, *
and I was filled with fear.
⁹   I cried to you, O LORD; *
I pleaded with the Lord, saying,
¹⁰   What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the Pit? *
will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?
¹¹   Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me; *
O LORD, be my helper."
¹²   You have turned my wailing into dancing; *
you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.
¹³   Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; *
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

Psalm 32 Beati quorum

¹   Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, *
and whose sin is put away!
²   Happy are they to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, *
and in whose spirit there is no guile!
³   While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, *
because of my groaning all day long.
⁴   For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; *
my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.
⁵   Then I acknowledged my sin to you, *
and did not conceal my guilt.
⁶   I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD." *
Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.
⁷   Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; *
when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them.
⁸   You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble; *
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
⁹   I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; *
I will guide you with my eye.
¹⁰   Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; *
who must be fitted with bit and bridle, or else they will not stay near you."
¹¹   Great are the tribulations of the wicked; *
but mercy embraces those who trust in the LORD.
¹²   Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the LORD; *
shout for joy, all who are true of heart.

Evening Psalms

Psalm 42 Quemadmodum

¹   As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *
so longs my soul for you, O God.
²   My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
³   My tears have been my food day and night, *
while all day long they say to me, "Where now is your God?"
⁴   I pour out my soul when I think on these things; *
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,
⁵   With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *
among those who keep holy-day.
⁶   Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁷   Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
⁸   My soul is heavy within me; *
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.
⁹   One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; *
all your rapids and floods have gone over me.
¹⁰   The LORD grants his loving-kindness in the daytime; *
in the night season his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
¹¹   I will say to the God of my strength, "Why have you forgotten me? *
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?"
¹²   While my bones are being broken, *
my enemies mock me to my face;
¹³   All day long they mock me *
and say to me, "Where now is your God?"
¹⁴   Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?
¹⁵   Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43 Judica me, Deus

¹   Give judgment for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; *
deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
²   For you are the God of my strength; why have you put me from you? *
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?
³   Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, *
and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;
⁴   That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; *
and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
⁵   Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁶   Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New Revised Standard Version Bible may be quoted and/or reprinted up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, provided the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible or account for fifty percent (50%) of the total work in which they are quoted.