Daily Readings - 02/04/2026

^61:1 The spirit of the Lord Yahweh has been given to me, for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison;

^61:2 to proclaim a year of favour from Yahweh, a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all those who mourn

^61:3 and to give them for ashes a garland; for mourning robe the oil of gladness, for despondency, praise. They are to be called ‘terebinths of integrity’, planted by Yahweh to glorify him.

^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]

^4:16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read[*e]

^4:17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

^4:18 The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free,

^4:19 to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour[*f].

^4:20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

^4:21 Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen’.

^12:1 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

^12:2 ‘This month is the first of all the others for you, the first month of your year.

^12:3 Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, “On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock, one for each family: one animal for each household.

^12:4 If the household is too small to eat the animal, a man must join with his neighbour, the nearest to his house, as the number of persons requires. You must take into account what each can eat in deciding the number for the animal.

^12:5 It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may take it from either sheep or goats.

^12:6 You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it between the two evenings.[*a]

^12:7 Some of the blood must then be taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten.

^12:8 That night, the flesh is to be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

^12:11 You shall eat it like this: with a girdle round your waist, sandals on your feet, a staff in your hand. You shall eat it hastily: it is a passover[*b] in honour of Yahweh.

^12:12 That night, I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and I shall deal out punishment to all the gods of Egypt, I am Yahweh!

^12:13 The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt.

^12:14 This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in Yahweh’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, for ever.

^116:1 I love! For Yahweh listens to my entreaty;

^116:2 he bends down to listen to me when I call.

^116:3 Death’s cords were tightening round me, the nooses of Sheol; distress and anguish gripped me,

^116:4 I invoked the name of Yahweh: ‘Yahweh, rescue me!’

^116:5 Yahweh is righteous and merciful, our God is tenderhearted;

^116:6 Yahweh defends the simple, he saved me when I was brought to my knees.

^116:7 Return to your resting place, my soul, Yahweh has treated you kindly.

^116:8 He has rescued (me from death) my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling.

^116:9 (I will walk in Yahweh’s presence in the land of the living.)[*a]

^116:10 I have faith, even when I say, ‘I am completely crushed’.

^116:11 In my alarm, I declared, ‘No man can be relied on’.

^116:12 What return can I make to Yahweh for all his goodness to me?

^116:13 I will offer libations to my saviour, invoking the name of Yahweh.

^116:14 (I will pay what I vowed to Yahweh; may his whole nation be present!)

^116:15 The death of the devout costs Yahweh dear.

^116:16 Yahweh, I am your servant, your servant, son of a pious mother, you undo my fetters.

^116:17 I will offer you the thanksgiving sacrifice, invoking the name of Yahweh.

^116:9 I will walk in Yahweh’s presence in the land of the living.

^116:18 I will pay what I vowed to Yahweh; may his whole nation be present,

^116:19 in the courts of the house of Yahweh, in your heart, Jerusalem.

^11:23 For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,

^11:24 and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’.

^11:25 In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’

^11:26 Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death,

^13:1 It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.

^13:2 They were at supper, and the devil had already put it into the mind of Judas Iscariot son of Simon, to betray him.

^13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

^13:4 and he got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist;

^13:5 he then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet[*a] and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing.

^13:6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’

^13:7 Jesus answered, ‘At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand’.

^13:8 ‘Never!’ said Peter ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me’.

^13:9 ‘Then, Lord,’ said Simon Peter ‘not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!’

^13:10 Jesus said, ‘No one who has taken a bath needs washing, he is clean all over. You too are clean, though not all of you are.’

^13:11 He knew who was going to betray him, that was why he said, ‘though not all of you are’.

^13:12 When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’ he said ‘what I have done to you?

^13:13 You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am.

^13:14 If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet.

^13:15 I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.