Saturday 4 November 2023 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Saturday 4 November 2023
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Nehemiah 4:1-23

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry
and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews. He said in the presence
of his associates and of the army of Samaria, ‘What are these feeble
Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they
finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of
rubbish—and burnt ones at that?’ Tobiah the Ammonite was beside
him, and he said, ‘That stone wall they are building—any fox going
up on it would break it down!’ Hear, O our God, for we are despised;
turn their taunt back on their own heads, and give them over as
plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover their guilt, and do not
let their sin be blotted out from your sight; for they have hurled
insults in the face of the builders.

 So we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half
its height; for the people had a mind to work.

 *But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and
the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was
going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very
angry, and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem
and to cause confusion in it. So we prayed to our God, and set a guard
as a protection against them day and night.

 But Judah said, ‘The strength of the burden-bearers is failing,
and there is too much rubbish, so that we are unable to work on the
wall.’ And our enemies said, ‘They will not know or see anything
before we come upon them and kill them and stop the work.’ When the
Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, ‘From all
the places where they live* they will come up against us.’* So in
the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I
stationed the people according to their families,* with their swords,
their spears, and their bows. After I looked these things over, I
stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the
people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great
and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your
wives, and your homes.’

 When our enemies heard that their plot was known to us, and that God
had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From
that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held
the spears, shields, bows, and body-armour; and the leaders posted
themselves behind the whole house of Judah, who were building the
wall. The burden-bearers carried their loads in such a way that each
laboured on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon.
And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he
built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to
the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, ‘The work is
great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another
on the wall. Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet.
Our God will fight for us.’

 So we laboured at the work, and half of them held the spears from
break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at
that time, ‘Let every man and his servant pass the night inside
Jerusalem, so that they may be a guard for us by night and may labour
by day.’ So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of
the guard who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his
weapon in his right hand.
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Revelation 7:4-17

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and
forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of
Israel: 5From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed,from the tribe
of Reuben twelve thousand,from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, 6from
the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,from the tribe of Naphtali twelve
thousand,from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, 7from the tribe
of Simeon twelve thousand,from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,from
the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, 8from the tribe of Zebulun
twelve thousand,from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand,from the
tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand sealed.
 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in
white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud
voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to
the Lamb!’ 
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and
the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the
throne and worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed
in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you
are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who
have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
   and worship him day and night within his temple,
   and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
   the sun will not strike them,
   nor any scorching heat; 
for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,
   and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
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Matthew 13:31-35
 
He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a
mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the
smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of
shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make
nests in its branches.’
 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed in with* three measures of flour until all
of it was leavened.’
 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a
parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken
through the prophet:*
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
   I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the
world.’
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 55

Psalm 55

Give ear to my prayer, O God;
   do not hide yourself from my supplication. 
Attend to me, and answer me;
   I am troubled in my complaint.
I am distraught by the noise of the enemy,
   because of the clamour of the wicked.
For they bring* trouble upon me,
   and in anger they cherish enmity against me. 

My heart is in anguish within me,
   the terrors of death have fallen upon me. 
Fear and trembling come upon me,
   and horror overwhelms me. 
And I say, ‘O that I had wings like a dove!
   I would fly away and be at rest; 
truly, I would flee far away;
   I would lodge in the wilderness;
          Selah 
I would hurry to find a shelter for myself
   from the raging wind and tempest.’ 

Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;
   for I see violence and strife in the city. 
Day and night they go around it
   on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it; 
   ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
   do not depart from its market-place. 

It is not enemies who taunt me—
   I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—
   I could hide from them. 
But it is you, my equal,
   my companion, my familiar friend, 
with whom I kept pleasant company;
   we walked in the house of God with the throng. 
Let death come upon them;
   let them go down alive to Sheol;
   for evil is in their homes and in their hearts. 

But I call upon God,
   and the Lord will save me. 
Evening and morning and at noon
   I utter my complaint and moan,
   and he will hear my voice. 
He will redeem me unharmed
   from the battle that I wage,
   for many are arrayed against me. 
God, who is enthroned from of old,
          Selah
   will hear, and will humble them—
because they do not change,
   and do not fear God. 

My companion laid hands on a friend
   and violated a covenant with me* 
with speech smoother than butter,
   but with a heart set on war;
with words that were softer than oil,
   but in fact were drawn swords. 

Cast your burden* on the Lord,
   and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
   the righteous to be moved. 

But you, O God, will cast them down
   into the lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous
   shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 138, 139:1-23

Psalm 138

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
   before the gods I sing your praise; 
I bow down towards your holy temple
   and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your
faithfulness;
   for you have exalted your name and your word
   above everything.* 
On the day I called, you answered me,
   you increased my strength of soul.* 

All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
   for they have heard the words of your mouth. 
They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
   for great is the glory of the Lord. 
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
   but the haughty he perceives from far away. 

Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
   you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
   and your right hand delivers me. 
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
   your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
   Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 139:1-23

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away. 
You search out my path and my lying down,
   and are acquainted with all my ways. 
Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely. 
You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me. 
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is so high that I cannot attain it. 

Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence? 
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 
If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 
even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast. 
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’, 
even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you. 

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
   Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well. 
   My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
   all the days that were formed for me,
   when none of them as yet existed. 
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them! 
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
   I come to the end*—I am still with you. 

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
   and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me— 
those who speak of you maliciously,
   and lift themselves up against you for evil!* 
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
   And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 
I hate them with perfect hatred;
   I count them my enemies. 
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my thoughts. 
See if there is any wicked* way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.
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