Evening Prayer Readings
Good Friday

The First Lesson
The Second Lesson
The Collect
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The Psalter


Psalm 69:1-22


The Sixty-Ninth Psalm

Salvum me fac.


SAVE me, O God; * for the waters are come in, even unto my soul.
 
I stick fast in the deep mire, where no ground is; * I am come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me.
 
I am weary of crying; my throat is dry; * my sight faileth me for waiting so long upon my God.
 
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; * they that are mine enemies, and would destroy me guiltless, are mighty.
 
I paid them the things that I never took: * God, thou knowest my simpleness, and my faults are not hid from thee.
 
Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my cause; * let not those that seek thee be confounded through me, O Lord God of Israel.
 
And why? for thy sake have I suffered reproof; * shame hath covered my face.
 
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, * even an alien unto my mother's children.
 
For the zeal of thine house hath even eaten me; * and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me.
 
I wept, and chastened myself with fasting, * and that was turned to my reproof.
 
I put on sackcloth also, * and they jested upon me.
 
They that sit in the gate speak against me, * and the drunkards make songs upon me.
 
But, LORD, I make my prayer unto thee * in an acceptable time.
 
Hear me, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, * even in the truth of thy salvation.
 
Take me out of the mire, that I sink not; * O let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
 
Let not the water-flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up; * and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
 
Hear me, O LORD, for thy loving-kindness is comfortable; * turn thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies.
 
And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: * O haste thee, and hear me.
 
Draw nigh unto my soul, and save it; * O deliver me, because of mine enemies.
 
Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour: * mine adversaries are all in thy sight.
 
Reproach hath broken my heart; I am full of heaviness: * I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no man, neither found I any to comfort me.
 
They gave me gall to eat; * and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.
 

 
vs 23 Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal; * and let the things that should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling.
 
Let their eyes be blinded, that they see not; * and ever bow thou down their backs.
 
Pour out thine indignation upon them, * and let thy wrathful displeasure take hold of them.
 
Let their habitation be void, * and no man to dwell in their tents.
 
For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; * and they talk how they may vex them whom thou hast wounded.
 
Let them fall from one wickedness to another, * and not come into thy righteousness.
 
Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, * and not be written among the righteous.
 

 
vs 30 As for me, when I am poor and in heaviness, * thy help, O God, shall lift me up.
 
I will praise the Name of God with a song, * and magnify it with thanksgiving.
 
This also shall please the LORD * better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
 
The humble shall consider this, and be glad: * seek ye after God, and your soul shall live.
 
For the LORD heareth the poor, * and despiseth not his prisoners.
 
Let heaven and earth praise him: * the sea, and all that moveth therein.
 
For God will save Sion, and build the cities of Judah, * that men may dwell there, and have it in possession.
 
The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it; * and they that love his Name shall dwell therein.


Psalm 88


The Eighty-Eighth Psalm

Domine, Deus.


O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: * O let my prayer enter into thy presence, incline thine ear unto my calling;
 
For my soul is full of trouble, * and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
 
I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit, * and I am even as a man that hath no strength;
 
Cast off among the dead, like unto them that are slain, and lie in the grave, * who are out of remembrance, and are cut away from thy hand.
 
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, * in a place of darkness, and in the deep.
 
Thine indignation lieth hard upon me, * and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms.
 
Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me, * and made me to be abhorred of them.
 
I am so fast in prison * that I cannot get forth.
 
My sight faileth for very trouble; * LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched forth my hands unto thee.
 
Dost thou show wonders among the dead? * or shall the dead rise up again, and praise thee?
 
Shall thy loving-kindness be showed in the grave? * or thy faithfulness in destruction?
 
Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark? * and thy righteousness in the land where all things are forgotten?
 
Unto thee have I cried, O LORD; * and early shall my prayer come before thee.
 
LORD, why abhorrest thou my soul, * and hidest thou thy face from me?
 
I am in misery, and like unto him that is at the point to die; * even from my youth up, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.
 
Thy wrathful displeasure goeth over me, * and the fear of thee hath undone me.
 
They came round about me daily like water, * and compassed me together on every side.
 
My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me, * and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight.



 

The First Lesson


Isaiah 52:13-53:12


Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.



 

The Second Lesson

I Peter 2:11

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.



 

The Collect

Good Friday

ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold, that they may be made one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.



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