Oremus for Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Antiphon¹

Ant. The Lord will overshadow you with his pinions, *
and you will find refuge under his wings.
His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield.
V. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
and abides in the shade of the Almighty,
says to the Lord, “My refuge, *
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!” Psalm 91

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires, known,
and from whom no secrets are hid:
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Music: https://tinyurl.com/ycn4djk5

O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will declare your praise.
Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
make haste to help me, O Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Praise to you, O Christ, Alleluia!

HYMN: Sebastian Temple ©
Tune: https://tinyurl.com/3a2osfft

1 Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

2 Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light,
and where there’s sadness, ever joy. 

3 Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand, 
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

4 Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving of ourselves that we receive,
and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

PSALMS
For psalms in contemporary language, https://tinyurl.com/y9tjh7rk

Psalm 18 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/yx7qz95s)

1  I will love thee, O Lord, my strength;
the Lord is my stony rock, and my defence *
 my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust,
my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge.
2  I will call upon the Lord, which is worthy to be praised *
 so shall I be safe from mine enemies.
3  The sorrows of death compassed me *
 and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid.
4  The pains of hell came about me *
 the snares of death overtook me.
5  In my trouble I will call upon the Lord *
 and complain unto my God.
6  So shall he hear my voice out of his holy temple *
 and my complaint shall come before him,
it shall enter even into his ears.
7  The earth trembled and quaked *
 the very foundations also of the hills shook,
and were removed, because he was wroth.
8  There went a smoke out in his presence *
 and a consuming fire out of his mouth,
so that coals were kindled at it.
9  He bowed the heavens also, and came down *
 and it was dark under his feet.
10  He rode upon the cherubims, and did fly *
 he came flying upon the wings of the wind.
11  He made darkness his secret place *
 his pavilion round about him with dark water,
and thick clouds to cover him.
12  At the brightness of his presence his clouds removed *
 hail-stones, and coals of fire.
13  The Lord also thundered out of heaven,
and the Highest gave his thunder *
 hail-stones, and coals of fire.
14  He sent out his arrows, and scattered them *
 he cast forth lightnings, and destroyed them.
15  The springs of waters were seen,
and the foundations of the round world were discovered,
at thy chiding, O Lord *
 at the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure.
16  He shall send down from on high to fetch me *
 and shall take me out of many waters.
17  He shall deliver me from my strongest enemy,
and from them which hate me *
 for they are too mighty for me.
18  They prevented me in the day of my trouble *
 but the Lord was my upholder.
19  He brought me forth also into a place of liberty *
 he brought me forth, even because he had a favour unto me.
20  The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealing *
 according to the cleanness of my hands shall he recompense me.
21  Because I have kept the ways of the Lord *
 and have not forsaken my God, as the wicked doth.
22  For I have an eye unto all his laws *
 and will not cast out his commandments from me.
23  I was also uncorrupt before him *
 and eschewed mine own wickedness.
24  Therefore shall the Lord reward me after my righteous dealing *
 and according unto the cleanness of my hands in his eye-sight.
25  With the holy thou shalt be holy *
 and with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect.
26  With the clean thou shalt be clean *
 and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness.
27  For thou shalt save the people that are in adversity *
 and shalt bring down the high looks of the proud.
28  Thou also shalt light my candle *
 the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light.
29  For in thee I shall discomfit an host of men *
 and with the help of my God I shall leap over the wall.
30  The way of God is an undefiled way *
 the word of the Lord also is tried in the fire;
he is the defender of all them that put their trust in him.
31  For who is God, but the Lord *
 or who hath any strength, except our God?
32  It is God, that girdeth me with strength of war *
 and maketh my way perfect.
33  He maketh my feet like harts’ feet *
 and setteth me up on high.
34  He teacheth mine hands to fight *
 and mine arms shall break even a bow of steel.
35  Thou hast given me the defence of thy salvation *
 thy right hand also shall hold me up,
and thy loving correction shall make me great.
36  Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go *
 that my footsteps shall not slide.
37  I will follow upon mine enemies, and overtake them *
 neither will I turn again till I have destroyed them.
38  I will smite them, that they shall not be able to stand *
 but fall under my feet.
39  Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle *
 thou shalt throw down mine enemies under me.
40  Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn their backs upon me *
 and I shall destroy them that hate me.
41  They shall cry, but there shall be none to help them *
 yea, even unto the Lord shall they cry, but he shall not hear them.
42  I will beat them as small as the dust before the wind *
 I will cast them out as the clay in the streets.
43  Thou shalt deliver me from the strivings of the people *
 and thou shalt make me the head of the heathen.
44  A people whom I have not known *
 shall serve me.
45  As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me *
 but the strange children shall dissemble with me.
46  The strange children shall fail *
 and be afraid out of their prisons.
47  The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong helper *
 and praised be the God of my salvation.
48  Even the God that seeth that I be avenged *
 and subdueth the people unto me.
49  It is he that delivereth me from my cruel enemies,
and setteth me up above mine adversaries *
 thou shalt rid me from the wicked man.
50  For this cause will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles *
 and sing praises unto thy Name.
51  Great prosperity giveth he unto his King *
 and sheweth loving-kindness unto David his Anointed,
and unto his seed for evermore.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.

PRAYER

Praise to you, God of our salvation.
You come to our help and set us free.
May your strength be our shield
and your word, our lamp,
that we may serve you with pure hearts
and find deliverance in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. ^BCW

THE WORD OF GOD

Reading: Judges 14:20 — 15:20

And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, ‘I want to go into my wife’s room.’ But her father would not allow him to go in. Her father said, ‘I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Why not take her instead?’ Samson said to them, ‘This time, when I do mischief to the Philistines, I will be without blame.’ So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took some torches; and he turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. Then the Philistines asked, ‘Who has done this?’ And they said, ‘Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to his companion.’ So the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father. Samson said to them, ‘If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.’ He struck them down hip and thigh with great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi. The men of Judah said, ‘Why have you come up against us?’ They said, ‘We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.’ Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?’ He replied, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them.’ They said to him, ‘We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.’ Samson answered them, ‘Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.’ They said to him, ‘No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you.’ So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men. And Samson said,
‘With the jawbone of a donkey,
   heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
   I have slain a thousand men.’
When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.

By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, ‘You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’ So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore, which is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

HYMN: Psalm 71; para. Isaac Watts
Tune: Downs https://tinyurl.com/nzmyt8ar

1 My God, my everlasting hope,
I live upon thy truth;
Thine hands have held my childhood up,
And strengthen’d all my youth.

2 My flesh was fashion’d by thy pow’r
With all these limbs of mine;
And from my mother’s painful hour
I’ve been entirely thine.

3 Still has my life new wonders seen
Repeated ev’ry year;
Behold, my days that yet remain,
I trust them to thy care.

4 Cast me not off when strength declines,
When hoary hairs arise;
And round me let thy glory shine,
When’er thy servant dies.

5 Then, in the hist’ry of my age,
When men review my days,
They’ll read your love in ev’ry page,
In ev’ry line thy praise.

Reading: Romans 10:1-21

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’ But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
‘The word is near you,
   on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for
‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
   and their words to the ends of the world.’
Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
   with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
‘I have been found by those who did not seek me;
   I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’
But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’

HYMN: George Bradford Caird ©
Tune: Cornwall https://tinyurl.com/2nc44na4

1 Not far beyond the sea, nor high
above the heavens, but very nigh
thy voice, O God, is heard.
For each new step of faith we take
thou hast more truth and light to break
forth from thy holy word.

2 Rooted and grounded in thy love,
with saints on earth and saints above
we join in full accord,
to grasp the breadth, length, depth, and height,
the crucified and risen might
of Christ, the Incarnate Word.

3 Help us to press toward that mark,
and, though our vision now is dark,
to live by what we see.
So, when we see thee face to face,
thy truth and light our dwelling-place
for evermore shall be.

Reading: Matthew 8:28-34

When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood.

CANTICLE: Luke 1:68-79
(Consiglio: https://tinyurl.com/ya8y3kqs)

Ant. Blest be the Lord God of Israel; *
who has come to his people and set them free.

God has raiséd up a Savior strong and proud,
born of his servant David.
And through holy prophets God has promised from of old,
to save us from all our foes, from the hands of all who hate us. Ant.

God promised to show mercy to our ancestors
to remember the covenant.
This was the oath sworn to father Abraham,
to set us free from our enemies’ hands,
free to worship God without fear, *
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. Ant.

You, little child, are the prophet of the Lord,
you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,
To give the people knowledge of salvation
by forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high breaks upon us,
to shine on us who dwell in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet on the way of peace. Ant.

THE PRAYERS ^BCW

Give us your peace, O God, that we may rejoice in your goodness to us and to all
your children, and be thankful for your love revealed in Jesus Christ. Especially
we thank you for
people who reveal your truth and righteousness . . .
courage to be bold disciples . . .
those who show hospitality . . .
surprises that have blessed us . . .
the unity of the church of Jesus Christ. . . .

Give us your peace, O God, that we may be confident of your care for us and all
your children, as we remember the needs of others. Especially we pray for
friends and relatives who are far away . . .
neighbors in special need . . .
those who suffer hunger and thirst . . .
those who work at night while others sleep . . .
Episcopal and Methodist churches. . . .

Setting: Sanford Dole https://tinyurl.com/y7ldq7h5

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.

God our refuge and hope,
when race, status, or gender divide us,
when despondency and despair haunt and afflict us,
when community lies shattered:
comfort and convict us with the stillness of your presence,
that we may confess all you have done,
through Christ to whom we belong
and in whom we are one. Amen. ^RCLP

Music: https://tinyurl.com/y9efvwm5
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. 2 Cor. 13:14

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^BCW Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1993.

^EH Exciting Holiness, Ed. Brother Tristram SSF © European Province of the Society of Saint Francis, 1997

^RCLP Revised Common Lectionary Prayers. © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress.

^BCP The Book of Common Prayer (1979), The Episcopal Church

¹ Adam Bartlett, Simple English Propers; audio from https://musicasacra.com/additional-publications/sep-practice-videos/ ©

The three main scripture readings are from the The New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the 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 psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer (1662).

Musical links are usually either to artists’ albums posted on Spotify or to recordings made available at smallchurchmusic.com. Audio stripped from YouTube videos is footnoted accordingly above.

Compilation © 2020 Stephen T. Benner. All links worked at the time they were created, but I cannot accept responsibility for their content or any damage resulting from their use. The linked content is under the control of the respective content creators and is subject to change at any time. Any copyright texts included in this compilation are provided for non-commercial purposes related to study or worship. Please contact the respective copyright holders for permission to use the texts in other contexts.