Day 203 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Psalm 87 (88)

1 A song of a Psalm for the sons of Core for the end, upon Maeleth for responsive [strains], of instruction for Æman the Israelite. 2 O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee. 3 Let my prayer come in before thee; incline thine ear to my supplication, O Lord. 4 For my soul is filled with troubles, and my life has drawn nigh to Hades. 5 I have been reckoned with them that go down to the pit; I became as a man without help; 6 free among the dead, as the slain ones cast out, who sleep in the tomb; whom thou rememberest no more; and they are rejected from thy hand. 7 They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark [places], and in the shadow of death. 8 Thy wrath has pressed heavily upon me, and thou hast brought upon me all thy billows. Pause. 9 Thou hast removed my acquaintance far from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves; I have been delivered up, and have not gone forth. 10 Mine eyes are dimmed from poverty; but I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread forth my hands to thee. 11 Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise [them] up, that they shall praise thee? 12 Shall any one declare thy mercy in the tomb? and thy truth in destruction? 13 Shall thy wonders be known in darkness? and thy righteousness in a forgotten land? 14 But I cried to thee, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 15 Wherefore, O Lord, dost thou reject my prayer, [and] turn thy face away from me? 16 I am poor and in troubles from my youth; and having been exalted, I was brought low and into despair. 17 Thy wrath has passed over me; and thy terrors have greatly disquieted me. 18 They compassed me like water; all the day they beset me together. 19 Thou hast put far from me [every] friend, and mine acquaintances because of [my] wretchedness.

Psalm 88 (89)

1 [A Psalm] of instruction for Ætham the Israelite. 2 I will sing of thy mercies, O Lord, for ever: I will declare thy truth with my mouth to all generations. 3 For thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy truth shall be established in the heavens. 4 I made a covenant with my chosen ones, I sware unto David my servant. 5 I will establish thy seed for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Pause. 6 The heavens shall declare thy wonders, O Lord; and thy truth in the assembly of the saints. 7 For who in the heavens shall be compared to the Lord? and who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God? 8 God is glorified in the council of the saints; great and terrible toward all that are round about him. 9 O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee. 10 Thou rulest the power of the sea; and thou calmest the tumult of its waves. 11 Thou hast brought down the proud as one that is slain; and with the arm of thy power thou hast scattered thine enemies. 12 The heavens are thine, and the earth is thine: thou hast founded the world, and the fulness of it. 13 Thou hast created the north and the west: Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. 14 Thine is the mighty arm: let thy hand be strengthened, let thy right hand be exalted. 15 Justice and judgment are the establishment of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 16 Blessed is the people that knows the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. 17 And in thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 18 For thou art the boast of their strength; and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted, 19 for [our] help is of the Lord; and of the Holy One of Israel, our king. 20 Then thou spokest in vision to thy children, and saidst, I have laid help on a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of my people. 21 I have found David my servant; I have anointed him by [my] holy mercy. 22 For my hand shall support him; and mine arm shall strengthen him. 23 The enemy shall have no advantage against him; and the son of transgression shall not hurt him again. 24 And I will hew down his foes before him, and put to flight those that hate him. 25 But my truth and my mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his horn be exalted. 26 And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. 27 He shall call upon me, [saying], Thou art my Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation. 28 And I will make him [my] first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. 29 I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant [shall be] firm with him. 30 And I will establish his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 31 If his children should forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 32 if they should profane my ordinances, and not keep my commandments; 33 I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges. 34 But my mercy I will not utterly remove from him, nor wrong my truth. 35 Neither will I by any means profane my covenant; and I will not make void the things that proceed out of my lips. 36 Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie to David. 37 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me; 38 and as the moon [that is] established for ever, and as the faithful witness in heaven. Pause. 39 But thou hast cast off and set at nought, thou hast rejected thine anointed. 40 Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his sanctuary, [casting it] to the ground. 41 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast made his strong holds a terror. 42 All that go by the way have spoiled him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours. 43 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 44 Thou hast turned back the help of his sword, and hast not helped him in the battle. 45 Thou hast deprived him of glory: thou hast broken down his throne to the ground. 46 Thou hast shortened the days of his throne: thou hast poured shame upon him. Pause. 47 How long, O Lord, wilt thou turn away, for ever? shall thine anger flame out as fire? 48 Remember what my being is: for hast thou created all the sons of men in vain? 49 What man is there who shall live, and not see death? shall [any one] deliver his soul from the hand of Hades? Pause. 50 Where are thine ancient mercies, O Lord, which thou swarest to David in thy truth? 51 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom, [even the reproach] of many nations; 52 wherewith thine enemies have reviled, O Lord: wherewith they have reviled the recompence of thine anointed. 53 Blessed be the Lord for ever. So be it, so be it.

Psalm 89 (90)

1 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our refuge in all generations. 2 Before the mountains existed, and [before] the earth and the world were formed, even from age to age, Thou art. 3 Turn not man back to [his] low place, whereas thou saidst, Return, ye sons of men? 4 For a thousand years in thy sight are as the yesterday which is past, and as a watch in the night. 5 Years shall be vanity to them: let the morning pass away as grass. 6 In the morning let it flower, and pass away: in the evening let it droop, let it be withered and dried up. 7 For we have perished in thine anger, and in thy wrath we have been troubled. 8 Thou hast set our transgressions before thee: our age is in the light of thy countenance. 9 For all our days are gone, and we have passed away in thy wrath: our years have spun out their tale as a spider. 10 [As for] the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if [men should be] in strength, eighty years: and the greater part of them would be labour and trouble; for weakness overtakes us, and we shall be chastened. 11 Who knows the power of thy wrath? 12 and [who knows how] to number [his days] because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand, and those that are instructed in wisdom in the heart. 13 Return, O Lord, how long? and be intreated concerning thy servants. 14 We have been satisfied in the morning with thy mercy; and we did exult and rejoice: 15 let us rejoice in all our days, in return for the days wherein thou didst afflict us, the years wherein we saw evil. 16 And look upon thy servants, and upon thy works; and guide their children. 17 And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and do thou direct for us the works of our hands.

Romans 7

1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. 6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; 11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good. 13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. 16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. 17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. 19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. 20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present. 22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward person, 23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.