Daily Readings - 21/06/2026

^20:10 I hear so many disparaging me, ‘”Terror from every side!” Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’

^20:11 But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

^20:12 But you, Yahweh Sabaoth, you who probe with justice, who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.

^20:13 Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

^69:1 Save me, God! The water is already up to my neck!

^69:2 I am sinking in the deepest swamp, there is no foothold; I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.

^69:3 Worn out with calling, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are strained, looking for my God.

^69:4 More people hate me for no reason than I have hairs on my head, more are groundlessly hostile than I have hair to show. (They ask me to give back what I never took.)

^69:5 God, you know how foolish I have been, my offences are not hidden from you;

^69:6 but let those who hope in you not blush for me, Yahweh Sabaoth[*a] Let those who seek you not be ashamed of me, God of Israel!

^69:7 It is for you I am putting up with insults that cover me with shame,

^69:8 that make me a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s other sons;

^69:9 zeal for your house devours me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

^69:10 If I mortify myself with fasting, they make this a pretext for insulting me;

^69:11 if I dress myself in sackcloth, I become their laughing-stock,

^69:12 the gossip of people sitting at the city gate, and the theme of drunken songs.

^69:13 For my part, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time you wish; in your great love, answer me, God, faithful in saving power.

^69:14 Pull me out of this swamp; let me sink no further, let me escape those who hate me, save me from deep water!

^69:15 Do not let the waves wash over me, do not let the deep swallow me or the Pit close its mouth on me.

^69:16 In your loving kindness, answer me, Yahweh, in your great tenderness turn to me;

^69:17 do not hide your face from your servant, quick, I am in trouble, answer me;

^69:18 come to my side, redeem me, from so many enemies ransom me.

^69:21 They gave me poison to eat instead, when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.

^69:22 May their own table prove a trap for them, and their plentiful supplies, a snare!

^69:23 may their eyes grow dim, go blind, strike their loins with chronic palsy!

^69:24 Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them;

^69:25 may their camp be reduced to ruin, and their tents left unoccupied:

^69:26 for hounding a man after you had struck him, for adding more wounds to those which you inflicted.

^69:27 Charge them with crime after crime, deny them further access to your righteousness,

^69:28 blot them out of the book of life, strike them off the roll of the virtuous!

^69:29 For myself, wounded wretch that I am, by your saving power, God, lift me up!

^69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, I will extol him with my thanksgiving,

^69:31 more pleasing to Yahweh than any ox or bull with horn and hoof.

^69:32 Then, seeing this, the humble can rejoice: long life to your hearts, all you who seek for God!

^69:33 Yahweh will always hear those who are in need, will never scorn his captive people.

^69:34 Let heaven and earth acclaim him, the oceans and all that moves in them!

^69:35 For God will save Zion, and rebuild the towns of Judah: they will be lived in, owned,

^69:36 handed down to his servants’ descendants, and lived in by those who love his name.

^5:12 Well then, sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.

^5:13 Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’,

^5:14 yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law. Adam prefigured the One to come,

^5:15 but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.

^10:26 ‘Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.

^10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.

^10:28 ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

^10:29 Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.

^10:30 Why, every hair on your head has been counted.

^10:31 So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

^10:32 ‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.

^10:33 But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.