Daily Office

¹O come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

²Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

³For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

⁴In his hand are all the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.

⁵The sea is his, and he made it; *
and his hands prepared the dry land.

⁶O come, let us worship and bow down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

⁷For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

²⁴My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

²⁵The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
“May your heart live for ever!”

²⁶All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

²⁷For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.

²⁸To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.

²⁹My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever.

³⁰They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.

¹Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ²As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”

³Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. ⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵When they were at Salamis, they proclaimed God’s word in the Jewish synagogues. They also had John as their attendant. ⁶When they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus, ⁷who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. ⁹But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fastened his eyes on him ¹⁰and said, “You son of the devil, full of all deceit and all cunning, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? ¹¹Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!”

Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. ¹²Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem. ¹⁴But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. ¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.”

¹⁶Paul stood up, and gesturing with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen. ¹⁷The God of this people chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they stayed as aliens in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, he led them out of it. ¹⁸For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years. ²⁰After these things, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. ²¹Afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²²When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ ²³From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise, ²⁴before his coming, when John had first preached the baptism of repentance to Israel. ²⁵As John was fulfilling his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, one comes after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

²⁶“Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those amongst you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you. ²⁷For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn’t know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. ²⁸Though they found no cause for death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed. ²⁹When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰But God raised him from the dead, ³¹and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. ³²We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, ³³that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm,

‘You are my Son.
    Today I have become your father.’

³⁴“Concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ ³⁵Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’ ³⁶For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay. ³⁷But he whom God raised up saw no decay. ³⁸Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins; ³⁹and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. ⁴⁰Beware therefore, lest that come on you which is spoken in the prophets:

⁴¹‘Behold, you scoffers!
    Wonder and perish,
    for I work a work in your days,
    a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.’ ”

⁴²So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. ⁴³Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next Sabbath, almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God. ⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed.

⁴⁶Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, “It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from yourselves, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷For so has the Lord commanded us, saying,

‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles,
    that you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’ ”

⁴⁸As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. ⁴⁹The Lord’s word was spread abroad throughout all the region. ⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders. ⁵¹But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium. ⁵²The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.