Oremus for February 19, 2026

“Jonah and the Whale”, Folio Probably from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), ca. 1400

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/kstdbwh2

Look toward the Lord and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed. Psalm 34

Eternal God, our judge and redeemer,
we confess that we have tried to hide from you,
for we have done wrong.
We have lived for ourselves,
and apart from you.
We have turned from our neighbors,
and refused to bear the burdens of others.
We have ignored the pain of the world,
and passed by the hungry, the poor, and the oppressed.
In your great mercy forgive our sins
and free us from selfishness,
that we may choose your will
and obey your commandments;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. AmenBCW

Music: https://tinyurl.com/ufxekitx

God, come to my assistance.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory 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.

HYMN: Psalm 51; para. Tate & Brady 
Tune: St Bride https://tinyurl.com/ycxs6rt3

1 Have mercy, Lord, on me,
As Thou wert ever kind;
Let me, oppressed with loads of guilt
Thy wonted mercy find.

2 Wash off my foul offense,
And cleanse me from my sin;
For I confess my crime, and see
How great my guilt has been.

3 Against Thee, Lord, alone,
And only in Thy sight,
Have I transgressed; and, though condemned
Must own Thy judgment right.

4 Blot out my crying sins,
Nor me in anger view;
Create in me a heart that’s clean,
An upright mind renew.

5 Withdraw not Thou Thy help,
Nor cast me from Thy sight;
Nor let Thy Holy Spirit take
His everlasting flight.

6 The joy Thy favor gives
Let me, O Lord, regain;
And Thy free Spirit’s firm support
My fainting soul sustain.

PSALMS

Psalm 98 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/ybagfe5m)
1  O sing unto the Lord a new song *
 for he hath done marvellous things.
2  With his own right hand, and with his holy arm *
 hath he gotten himself the victory.
3  The Lord declared his salvation *
 his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.
4  He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel *
 and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God.
5  Shew yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands *
 sing, rejoice, and give thanks.
6  Praise the Lord upon the harp *
 sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving.
7  With trumpets also, and shawms *
 O shew yourselves joyful before the Lord the King.
8  Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is *
 the round world, and they that dwell therein.
9  Let the floods clap their hands,
and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord *
 for he is come to judge the earth.
10  With righteousness shall he judge the world *
 and the people with equity.
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.

Psalm 99 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/ycxaq7mg)
1  The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient *
 he sitteth between the cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet.
2  The Lord is great in Sion *
 and high above all people.
3  They shall give thanks unto thy Name *
 which is great, wonderful, and holy.
4  The king’s power loveth judgement; thou hast prepared equity *
 thou hast executed judgement and righteousness in Jacob.
5  O magnify the Lord our God *
 and fall down before his footstool, for he is holy.
6  Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among such as call upon his Name *
 these called upon the Lord, and he heard them.
7  He spake unto them out of the cloudy pillar *
 for they kept his testimonies, and the law that he gave them.
8  Thou heardest them, O Lord our God *
 thou forgavest them, O God, and punishedst their own inventions.
9  O magnify the Lord our God, and worship him upon his holy hill *
 for the Lord our God is holy.
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.

Psalm 100 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/ycklx9gf)
1  O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands *
 serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.
2  Be ye sure that the Lord he is God *
 it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
3  O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise *
 be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.
4  For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting *
 and his truth endureth from generation to generation.
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.

Psalm 101 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/y7mv7duf)
1  My song shall be of mercy and judgement *
 unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.
2  O let me have understanding *
 in the way of godliness.
3  When wilt thou come unto me *
 I will walk in my house with a perfect heart.
4  I will take no wicked thing in hand; I hate the sins of unfaithfulness *
 there shall no such cleave unto me.
5  A froward heart shall depart from me *
 I will not know a wicked person.
6  Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour *
 him will I destroy.
7  Whoso hath also a proud look and high stomach *
 I will not suffer him.
8  Mine eyes look upon such as are faithful in the land *
 that they may dwell with me.
9  Whoso leadeth a godly life *
 he shall be my servant.
10  There shall no deceitful person dwell in my house *
 he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
11  I shall soon destroy all the ungodly that are in the land *
 that I may root out all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.
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.

Psalm 98 (LSB Tone F: http://oremus.org/chant/Psalm-98-LSB.mp3)
Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love
and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn;
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!.
7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it,
the world and those who dwell in it!
8 Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord,
9 For he will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
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.

Psalm 99 (LSB Tone F: http://oremus.org/chant/Psalm-99-LSB.mp3)
1 The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion,
he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!
Holy. is he!
4 The king in his might loves justice;
you have established equity;
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God, worship at His footstool!
Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called upon his name.
They called to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrong-doing.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy!
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.

Psalm 100 (Plainsong: http://oremus.org/chant/Psalm-100.mp3)
1 Be joyful in the LORD, all you lands; *
serve the LORD with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.
2 Know this: The LORD himself is God; *
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
4 For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Psalm 101 (Plainsong: http://oremus.org/chant/Psalm-101.mp3)
1 I will sing of mercy and justice; *
to you, O LORD, will I sing praises.
2 I will strive to follow a blameless course;
oh, when will you come to me? *
I will walk with sincerity of heart within my house.
3 I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; *
I hate the doers of evil deeds;
they shall not remain with me.
4 A crooked heart shall be far from me; *
I will not know evil.
5 Those who in secret slander their neighbors I will destroy; *
those who have a haughty look and a proud
 heart I cannot abide.
6 My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may
 dwell with me, *
and only those who lead a blameless life shall
 be my servants.
7 Those who act deceitfully shall not dwell in my house, *
and those who tell lies shall not continue in my sight.
8 I will soon destroy all the wicked in the land, *
that I may root out all evildoers from the city of the LORD.

PRAYER

Holy God,
you are exalted over all the nations,
and just in all your ways.
Strengthen us to worship you with our deeds
and to proclaim your greatness with our lips,
for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. BCW

THE WORD OF GOD
READING: Jonah 1 and 2
The Lord’s word came to Jonah, Amittai’s son: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their evil has come to my attention.”

So Jonah got up—to flee to Tarshish from the Lord! He went down to Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to go with them to Tarshish, away from the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, so that there was a great storm on the sea; the ship looked like it might be broken to pieces. The sailors were terrified, and each one cried out to his god. They hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to make it lighter.

Now Jonah had gone down into the hold of the vessel to lie down and was deep in sleep. The ship’s officer came and said to him, “How can you possibly be sleeping so deeply? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps the god will give some thought to us so that we won’t perish.”

Meanwhile, the sailors said to each other, “Come on, let’s cast lots so that we might learn who is to blame for this evil that’s happening to us.” They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. So they said to him, “Tell us, since you’re the cause of this evil happening to us: What do you do and where are you from? What’s your country and of what people are you?” He said to them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven—who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were terrified and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men knew that Jonah was fleeing from the Lord, because he had told them.)

They said to him, “What will we do about you so that the sea will become calm around us?” (The sea was continuing to rage.) He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea! Then the sea will become calm around you. I know it’s my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

The men rowed to reach dry land, but they couldn’t manage it because the sea continued to rage against them. So they called on the Lord, saying, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish on account of this man’s life, and don’t blame us for innocent blood! You are the Lord: whatever you want, you can do.” Then they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased its raging. The men worshipped the Lord with a profound reverence; they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made solemn promises.

Meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish:

“I called out to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me.
From the belly of the underworld I cried out for help;
you have heard my voice.
You had cast me into the depths in the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounds me.
All your strong waves and rushing water passed over me.
So I said, ‘I have been driven away from your sight.
Will I ever again look on your holy temple?
Waters have grasped me to the point of death;
the deep surrounds me.
Seaweed is wrapped around my head
at the base of the undersea mountains.
I have sunk down to the underworld;
its bars held me with no end in sight.
But you brought me out of the pit.’
When my endurance was weakening,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
to your holy temple.
Those deceived by worthless things lose their chance for mercy.
But me, I will offer a sacrifice to you with a voice of thanks.
That which I have promised, I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”

Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.

HYMN: Isaac Watts
Tune: Caithness https://tinyurl.com/43v4hnkh

1 Salvation! O the joyful sound!
‘Tis music to our ears;
A sov’reign balm for ev’ry wound,
A cordial for our fears.

2 Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell’s dark door we lay:
But we arise by grace divine,
To see a heav’nly day.

3 Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around;
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound.

READING: Romans 9:1-5
I’m speaking the truth in Christ—I’m not lying, as my conscience assures me with the Holy Spirit: I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart. I wish I could be cursed, cut off from Christ if it helped my brothers and sisters, who are my flesh-and-blood relatives. They are Israelites. The adoption as God’s children, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises belong to them. The Jewish ancestors are theirs, and the Christ descended from those ancestors. He is the one who rules over all things, who is God, and who is blessed forever. Amen.

HYMN: Timothy Dudley-Smith ©
Tune: Londonderry Air https://tinyurl.com/yfbp8dye

1 Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing:
Christ over all, our undivided aim.
Fire of the Spirit, burn for our enduing,
wind of the Spirit, fan the living flame!
We turn to Christ amid our fear and failing,
the will that lacks the courage to be free,
the weary labours, all but unavailing,
to bring us nearer what a church should be.

2 Lord of the Church, we seek a Father’s blessing,
a true repentance and a faith restored,
a swift obedience and a new possessing,
filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord!
We turn to Christ from all our restless striving,
unnumbered voices with a single prayer:
the living water for our souls’ reviving,
in Christ to live, and love and serve and care.

3 Lord of the Church, we long for our uniting,
true to one calling, by one vision stirred;
one cross proclaiming and one creed reciting,
one in the truth of Jesus and his word.
So lead us on; till toil and trouble ended,
one Church triumphant one new song shall sing,
to praise his glory, risen and ascended,
Christ over all, the everlasting King!

READING: Mark 7:14-23
Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”

After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.” By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”

CANTICLE Isaiah 55:6-11
(Chant by Henry Purcell, arr. James Turle)

Seek the Lord while he wills to be found; *
    call upon him when he draws near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways *
    and the evil ones their thoughts;
And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, *
    and to our God, for he will richly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, *
    nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, *
    so are my ways higher than your ways,
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as rain and snow fall from the heavens *
    and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth, *
    seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; *
    it will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, *
    and prosper in that for which I sent it.

THE PRAYERS BCW

In penitence and faith let us make our prayer to the Father
and ask for his mercy and grace.

For your holy people,
that they may triumph over evil and grow in grace:
We pray to you, O Lord.

For candidates for baptism and confirmation,
that they may live by every word that proceeds from your mouth:
We pray to you, O Lord.

For the leaders of the nations,
that you will guide them in the ways of mercy and truth:
We pray to you, O Lord.

For the needy,
that they may not be forgotten,
nor the hope of the poor be taken away:
We pray to you, O Lord.

For the sick in body, mind and spirit,
that they may know your power to heal:
We pray to you, O Lord.

For the poor in spirit,
that they may inherit the kingdom of heaven
and see you face to face: :
We pray to you, O Lord.

Let us commend the world, for which Christ suffered,
to the mercy and protection of God. Amen.

(Plainsong Mode 2: https://tinyurl.com/yctqq8cf)DL

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today the bread of life;
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.

O Father of lights,
from whose word of truth
we have been born as firstfruits of your creatures:
make us quick to listen and slow to speak,
that the word implanted in us
may take root to nourish all our living,
and that we may be blessed in our doing and fruitful in action. 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


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

DL © Daniel Lawson; used with permission.

BCW2018 Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2018

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

The main scripture readings are © 2011 Common English Bible.

The traditional-language psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer (1662). The modern versions of Psalms 100 and 101 are from The Book of Common Prayer (1979) and are chanted by Ryland Angel. The modern versions of Psalms 98 and 99 are from Lutheran Service Book and are from the Next to the Word of God YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVRYL-MRebncw584Ql2xfg. The canticle is from Book of Common Prayer (2019) as recorded for the St Bernard Breviary https://www.bernardbreviary.com/chant-helps

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 © 2026 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.

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