January 22nd, 2021

Friday of Epiphany 2

Collect
Morning Psalm · Ps. 14
First Reading · Joel 2:1-17
Evening Psalm · Ps. 16
Second Reading · Rom. 11:1-24

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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Morning Psalm · Ps. 14

Folly of the Godless, and God’s Final Triumph

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

14 The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.

²The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
³They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.

⁴Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call on the Lord?
⁵There they are in great fear,
For God is with the generation of the righteous.
⁶You shame the counsel of the poor,
But the Lord is his refuge.

⁷Oh,^[a] that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord brings back ^[b]the captivity of His people,
Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

Footnotes:

Psalm 14:7 Lit. Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?
Psalm 14:7 Or His captive people

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First Reading · Joel 2:1-17

The Day of the Lord

2 Blow the ^[a]trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
²A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.

³A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
⁴Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like ^[b]swift steeds, so they run.
⁵With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces ^[c]are drained of color.
⁷They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ranks.
⁸They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own ^[d]column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not ^[e]cut down.
⁹They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter at the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
¹¹The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?

A Call to Repentance

¹²“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
¹³So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
¹⁴Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?

¹⁵Blow the ^[f]trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
¹⁶Gather the people,
Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
¹⁷Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should ^[g]rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”

Footnotes:

Joel 2:1 ram’s horn
Joel 2:4 Or horsemen
Joel 2:6 LXX, Tg., Vg. gather blackness
Joel 2:8 Lit. highway
Joel 2:8 Halted by losses
Joel 2:15 ram’s horn
Joel 2:17 Or speak a proverb against them

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Evening Psalm · Ps. 16

The Hope of the Faithful, and the Messiah’s Victory

A Michtam of David.

16 Preserve^[a] me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

²O my soul, you have said to the Lord,
“You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
³As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

⁴Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.

⁵O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You ^[b]maintain my lot.
⁶The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.

⁷I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My ^[c]heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
⁸I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will ^[d]rest in hope.
¹⁰For You will not leave my soul in ^[e]Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to ^[f]see corruption.
¹¹You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Footnotes:

Psalm 16:1 Watch over
Psalm 16:5 Lit. uphold
Psalm 16:7 Mind, lit. kidneys
Psalm 16:9 Or dwell securely
Psalm 16:10 The abode of the dead
Psalm 16:10 undergo

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Second Reading · Rom. 11:1-24

Israel’s Rejection Not Total

11 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ³“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? ⁴But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. ^[a]But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

⁷What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. ⁸Just as it is written:

“God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”

⁹And David says:

“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always.”

Israel’s Rejection Not Final

¹¹I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their ^[b]fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. ¹²Now if their ^[c]fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

¹⁶For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and ^[d]fatness of the olive tree, ¹⁸do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. ²²Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, ^[e]goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?