OPENING SENTENCES
If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night," darkness is not dark to you, O Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike. Psalm 139:10, 11
CONFESSION OF SIN
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Evening Examen: Was there time today when I felt guilty, ashamed, or lonely? What was most joyful about my day? Let God guide you as you reflect on your day by asking him for light, grace, and gratitude.
O God, make speed to save us. *
O Lord, make haste to help us.
EVENING PSALM
Psalm 35
Fight those who fight me, O Lord; *
attack those who are attacking me.
Take up shield and armor *
and rise up to help me.
Draw the sword and bar the way against those
who pursue me; *
say to my soul, "I am your salvation."
Let those who seek after my life be shamed and humbled; *
let those who plot my ruin fall back and be dismayed.
Let them be like chaff before the wind, *
and let the angel of the Lord drive them away.
Let their way be dark and slippery, *
and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.
For they have secretly spread a net for me without a cause; *
without a cause they have dug a pit to take me alive.
Let ruin come upon them unawares; *
let them be caught in the net they hid;
let them fall into the pit they dug.
Then I will be joyful in the Lord; *
I will glory in his victory.
My very bones will say, "Lord, who is like you? *
You deliver the poor from those who are too strong for them,
the poor and needy from those who rob them."
Malicious witnesses rise up against me; *
they charge me with matters I know nothing about.
They pay me evil in exchange for good; *
my soul is full of despair.
But when they were sick I dressed in sack-cloth *
and humbled myself by fasting;
I prayed with my whole heart,
as one would for a friend or a brother; *
I behaved like one who mourns for his mother,
bowed down and grieving.
But when I stumbled, they were glad and gathered together;
they gathered against me; *
strangers whom I did not know tore me to pieces and
would not stop.
They put me to the test and mocked me; *
they gnashed at me with their teeth.
O Lord, how long will you look on? *
rescue me from the roaring beasts,
and my life from the young lions.
I will give you thanks in the great congregation; *
I will praise you in the mighty throng.
Do not let my treacherous foes rejoice over me, *
nor let those who hate me without a cause
wink at each other.
For they do not plan for peace, *
but invent deceitful schemes against the
quiet in the land.
They opened their mouths at me and said, *
"Aha! we saw it with our own eyes."
You saw it, O Lord; do not be silent; *
O Lord, be not far from me.
Awake, arise, to my cause! *
to my defense, my God and my Lord!
Give me justice, O Lord my God,
according to your righteousness; *
do not let them triumph over me.
Do not let them say in their hearts,
"Aha! just what we want!" *
Do not let them say, "We have swallowed him up."
Let all who rejoice at my ruin be ashamed and disgraced; *
let those who boast against me be clothed with
dismay and shame.
Let those who favor my cause sing out with joy and be glad; *
let them say always, "Great is the Lord,
who desires the prosperity of his servant."
And my tongue shall be talking of your righteousness *
and of your praise all the day long.
Lord God, you rose to the aid of your beloved Son against those who unjustly sought his life. Look on your Church as we journey to you, and rescue the poor from their oppressors, that they may tell of your righteousness and your praise; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit; *
as it was in the beginning
is now and shall be for ever. Amen.
EVENING SONG
Father, Let Your Kingdom Come - The Porter's Gate Worship Project
EVENING LESSONS
1 Samuel 21:1-15
David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” David said to the priest Ahimelech, “The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘No one must know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” David answered the priest, “Indeed women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. David said to Ahimelech, “Is there no spear or sword here with you? I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is none here except that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
David rose and fled that day from Saul; he went to King Achish of Gath. The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
Acts 13:13-25
Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem;
but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.” So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: “You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised; before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.”
CONCLUDING PRAYER
In the evening, pray for:
peace
individuals and their needs
Conclude with the Lord's Prayer and/or the following Collect:
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Let us bless the Lord. *
Thanks be to God!
The Almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless us and keep us. Amen.