The Daily Readings for December 31, 2021

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.

1 Kings 3:5-14

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you." And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."

James 4:13-17, 5:7-11

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

John 5:1-15

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Morning Psalms

Psalm 46 Deus noster refugium

¹   God is our refuge and strength, *
a very present help in trouble.
²   Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, *
and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;
³   Though its waters rage and foam, *
and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.
⁴   The LORD of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
⁵   There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, *
the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁶   God is in the midst of her; she shall not be overthrown; *
God shall help her at the break of day.
⁷   The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken; *
God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.
⁸   The LORD of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
⁹   Come now and look upon the works of the LORD, *
what awesome things he has done on earth.
¹⁰   It is he who makes war to cease in all the world; *
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.
¹¹   Be still, then, and know that I am God; *
I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.
¹²   The LORD of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Psalm 48 Magnus Dominus

¹   Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; *
in the city of our God is his holy hill.
²   Beautiful and lofty, the joy of all the earth, is the hill of Zion, *
the very center of the world and the city of the great King.
³   God is in her citadels; *
he is known to be her sure refuge.
⁴   Behold, the kings of the earth assembled *
and marched forward together.
⁵   They looked and were astounded; *
they retreated and fled in terror.
⁶   Trembling seized them there; *
they writhed like a woman in childbirth, like ships of the sea when the east wind shatters them.
⁷   As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God; *
God has established her for ever.
⁸   We have waited in silence on your loving-kindness, O God, *
in the midst of your temple.
⁹   Your praise, like your Name, O God, reaches to the world's end; *
your right hand is full of justice.
¹⁰   Let Mount Zion be glad and the cities of Judah rejoice, *
because of your judgments.
¹¹   Make the circuit of Zion; walk round about her; *
count the number of her towers.
¹²   Consider well her bulwarks; examine her strongholds; *
that you may tell those who come after.
¹³   This God is our God for ever and ever; *
he shall be our guide for evermore.

Evening Psalms

Psalm 90 Domine, refugium

¹   Lord, you have been our refuge *
from one generation to another.
²   Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the earth were born, *
from age to age you are God.
³   You turn us back to the dust and say, *
"Go back, O child of earth."
⁴   For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past *
and like a watch in the night.
⁵   You sweep us away like a dream; *
we fade away suddenly like the grass.
⁶   In the morning it is green and flourishes; *
in the evening it is dried up and withered.
⁷   For we consume away in your displeasure; *
we are afraid because of your wrathful indignation.
⁸   Our iniquities you have set before you, *
and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
⁹   When you are angry, all our days are gone; *
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰   The span of our life is seventy years, perhaps in strength even eighty; *
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow, for they pass away quickly and we are gone.
¹¹   Who regards the power of your wrath? *
who rightly fears your indignation?
¹²   So teach us to number our days *
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
¹³   Return, O LORD; how long will you tarry? *
be gracious to your servants.
¹⁴   Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; *
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
¹⁵   Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us *
and the years in which we suffered adversity.
¹⁶   Show your servants your works *
and your splendor to their children.
¹⁷   May the graciousness of the LORD our God be upon us; *
prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork.

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.