Daily Readings - 26/09/2026

^11:9 Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days. Follow the promptings of your heart and the desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement.

^11:10 Cast worry from your heart, shield your flesh from pain. Yet youth, the age of dark hair, is vanity.

^12:1 And remember your creator in the days of your youth, before evil days come and the years approach when you say, ‘These give me no pleasure’,

^12:2 before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;

^12:3 the day when those who keep the house tremble[*a] and strong men are bowed; when the women grind no longer at the mill, because day is darkening at the windows

^12:4 and the street doors are shut; when the sound of the mill is faint, when the voice of the bird is silenced, and song notes are stilled,

^12:5 when to go uphill is an ordeal and a walk is something to dread. Yet the almond tree is in flower, the grasshopper is heavy with food and the caper bush bears its fruit, while man goes to his everlasting home. And the mourners are already walking to and fro in the street

^12:6 before the silver cord has snapped, or the golden lamp been broken, or the pitcher shattered at the spring, or the pulley cracked at the well,

^12:7 Or before the dust returns to the earth as it once came from it; and the breath to God who gave it.

^12:8 Vanity of vanities, Qoheleth says. All is vanity.

^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]

^9:43 and everyone was awestruck by the greatness of God.

^9:44 ‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men’.

^9:45 But they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.

^24:1 To Yahweh belong earth and all it holds, the world and all who live in it;

^24:2 he himself founded it on the ocean, based it firmly on the nether sea

^24:3 Who has the right to climb the mountain of Yahweh, who the right to stand in his holy place?

^24:4 He whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, whose soul does not pay homage to worthless things and who never swears to a lie.

^24:5 The blessing of Yahweh is his, and Vindication from God his saviour.

^24:6 Such are the people who seek him, who seek your presence, God of Jacob! (pause)

^24:7 Gates, raise your arches, rise, you ancient doors, let the king of glory in!

^24:8 Who is this king of glory? Yahweh the strong, the valiant, Yahweh valiant in battle!

^24:9 Gates, raise your arches, rise you ancient doors, let the king of glory in!

^24:10 Who is this king of glory? He is Yahweh Sabaoth, King of glory, he! (pause)

^2:1 If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy,

^2:2 then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy.

^2:3 There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself,

^2:4 So that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other s people’s interests instead.

^2:5 In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus:[*a]

^2:6 His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God

^2:7 but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are,

^2:8 he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.

^2:9 But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names

^2:10 so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee[*b] at the name of Jesus

^2:11 and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

^21:28 ‘What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, “My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today”.

^21:29 He answered, “I will not go”, but afterwards thought better of it and went.

^21:30 The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, “Certainly, sir”, but did not go.

^21:31 Which of the two did the father’s will?’ ‘The first’ they said. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.

^21:32 For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.