Daily Readings - 19/03/2026

^89:1 I will celebrate your love for ever, Yahweh, age after age my words shall proclaim your faithfulness;

^89:2 for I claim that love is built to last for ever and your faithfulness founded firmly in the heavens.

^89:3 ‘I have made a covenant with my Chosen, I have given my servant David my sworn word:

^89:4 I have founded your dynasty to last for ever, I have built you a throne to outlast all time.’ (pause)

^89:5 Yahweh, the assembly of holy ones in heaven applaud the marvel of your faithfulness.

^89:6 Who in the skies can compare with Yahweh? Which of the heaven-born can rival him?

^89:7 God, dreaded in the assembly of holy ones, great and terrible to all around him,

^89:8 Yahweh, God of Sabaoth, who is like you?-mighty Yahweh, clothed in your faithfulness!

^89:9 You control the pride of the ocean, when its waves ride high, you calm them;

^89:10 you split Rahab[*a] in two like a carcase and scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

^89:11 The heavens are yours and the earth is yours, you founded the world and all it holds,

^89:12 you created north and south; Tabor and Hermon hail your name with joy.

^89:13 Yours was the arm, and yours the prowess, mighty and exalted your right hand;

^89:14 Righteousness and Justice support your throne, Love and Faithfulness are your attendants.

^89:15 Happy the people who learn to acclaim you! Yahweh, they will live in the light of your favour;

^89:16 they will rejoice in your name all day and exult in your righteousness.

^89:17 You are their glory and their strength, you, by your kindness, raise our fortunes,

^89:18 since both our shield and our king belong to Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

^89:19 Once you spoke in vision and said to your friends,[*b] I have conferred the crown on a hero, and promoted one chosen from my people.

^89:20 I have selected my servant David and anointed him with my holy oil;

^89:21 my hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm.

^89:22 ‘No enemy will be able to outwit him, no wicked man to worst him,

^89:23 I myself will crush his opponents, I will strike dead all who hate him.

^89:24 ‘With my faithfulness and love, his fortunes shall rise in my name.

^89:25 I will give him control of the sea, complete control of the rivers.

^89:26 ‘He will invoke me, “My father, my God and rock of my safety”,

^89:27 and I shall make him my first-born, the Most High for kings on earth.

^89:28 ‘I will keep my love for him always, my covenant with him shall stand,

^89:29 I have founded his dynasty to last for ever, his throne to be as lasting as the heavens.

^89:30 ‘Should his descendants desert my Law and disregard my rulings,

^89:31 should they violate my statutes and not keep my commandments,

^89:32 ‘I will punish their sins with the rod and their crimes with the whip,

^89:33 but never withdraw my love from him or fail in my faithfulness.

^89:34 ‘I will not break my covenant, I will not revoke my given word;

^89:35 I have sworn on my holiness, once for all, and cannot turn liar to David.

^89:36 ‘His dynasty shall last for ever, I see his throne like the sun,

^89:37 enduring for ever like the moon, that faithful witness in the sky.’ (pause)

^89:38 And yet you have rejected, disowned and raged at your anointed;

^89:39 you have repudiated the covenant with your servant and flung his crown dishonoured to the ground.

^89:40 You have pierced all his defences, and laid his forts in ruins;

^89:41 anyone may go and loot him, his neighbours treat him with scorn.

^89:42 You have let his opponents get the upper hand, and made all his enemies happy,

^89:43 you have snapped his sword on a rock and failed to support him in battle.

^89:44 You have stripped him of his glorious sceptre, and toppled his throne to the ground,

^89:45 you have aged him before his time and covered him in shame. (pause)

^89:46 Yahweh, how much longer will you hide? For ever? How much longer must your anger smoulder like a fire?

^89:47 Remember me, the short time I have left and the void to which you destine mankind.

^89:48 What man can cling to life and not see death? Who can evade the clutches of Sheol?

^89:49 Lord, where are those earlier signs of your love? You swore your oath to David on your faithfulness!

^89:50 Lord, do not forget how your servant was insulted, (pause) how I take these pagans’ taunts to heart,

^89:51 insults, Yahweh, that your enemies have offered, insults to your anointed wherever he goes. Blessed be Yahweh for ever. Amen. Amen![*c]

^4:13 The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith.

^4:16 That is why what fulfils the promise depends on faith, so that it may be a free gift and be available to all of Abraham’s descendants, not only those who belong to the Law but also those who belong to the faith of Abraham who is the father of all of us.

^4:17 As scripture says: I have made you the ancestor of many nations[*c] Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not exist.

^4:18 Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars.[*d]

^4:22 This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him’.

^1:16 and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

^1:18 This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph;[*b] but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

^1:19 Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.

^1:20 He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.

^1:21 She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save[*c] his people from their sins.’

^1:24 When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home

^2:41 Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.

^2:42 When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual.

^2:43 When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.

^2:44 They assumed he was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances.

^2:45 When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.

^2:46 Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them, and asking them questions;

^2:47 and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.

^2:48 They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have, you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for

^2:49 ‘Why were you looking for me?’ he replied ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’

^2:50 But they did not understand what he meant.

^2:51 He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.