Daily Readings - 22/08/2026

^85:1 Yahweh, you favour your own country, you bring back the captives of Jacob,

^85:2 you take your people’s guilt away, you blot out all their sins, (pause)

^85:3 you retract all your anger, you abjure your fiery rage.

^85:4 Bring us back, God our saviour, master your resentment against us.

^85:5 Do you mean to be angry with us for ever, to prolong your wrath age after age?

^85:6 Will you not give us life again, for your people to rejoice in you?

^85:7 Yahweh, show us your love, grant us your saving help.

^85:8 I am listening. What is Yahweh saying? What God is saying means peace for his people, for his friends, if only they renounce their folly;

^85:9 for those who fear him, his saving help is near, and the glory will then live in our country.

^85:10 Love and Loyalty now meet, Righteousness and Peace now embrace;

^85:11 Loyalty reaches up from earth and Righteousness leans down from heaven.

^85:12 Yahweh himself bestows happiness as our soil gives its harvest,

^85:13 Righteousness always preceding him and Peace following his footsteps.

^23:1 Then addressing the people and his disciples Jesus said,

^23:2 ‘The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses.

^23:3 You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach.

^23:4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they!

^23:5 Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels[*a],

^23:6 like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues,

^23:7 being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.

^23:8 ‘You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers.

^23:9 You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven.

^23:10 Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ.

^23:11 The greatest among you must be your servant.

^23:12 Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will exalted.

^22:19 I dismiss you from your office, I remove you from your post,

^22:20 and the same day I call on my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

^22:21 I invest him with your robe, gird him with your sash, entrust him with your authority; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.

^22:22 I place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; should he open, no one shall close, should he close, no one shall open.

^22:23 I drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.

^138:1 I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, because you have heard what I said. In the presence of the angels I play for you,

^138:2 and bow down towards your holy Temple. I give thanks to your name for your love and faithfulness; your promise is even greater than your fame.

^138:3 The day I called for help, you heard me and you increased my strength.

^138:4 Yahweh, all kings on earth give thanks to you, for they have heard your promises;

^138:5 they celebrate Yahweh’s actions, ‘Great is the glory of Yahweh!’

^138:6 From far above, Yahweh sees the humble, from far away he marks down the arrogant.

^138:7 Though I live surrounded by trouble, you keep me alive-to my enemies’ fury! You stretch your hand out and save me, your right hand

^138:8 will do everything for me. Yahweh, your love is everlasting, do not abandon us whom you have made.

^11:33 How rich are the depths of God – how deep his wisdom and knowledge – and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods!

^11:34 Who could ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor?

^11:35 Who could ever give him anything or lend him anything?[*h]

^11:36 All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.

^16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’

^16:14 And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’.

^16:15 ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’

^16:16 Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God’.

^16:17 Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

^16:18 So I now say to you: You are Peter[*b] and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld[*c] can never hold out against it.

^16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.'[*d]

^16:20 Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.