Tuesday Evening Prayer – 2nd January 2024 Readings: Psalm 7; 8; Isaiah 30. 15-28; John 3. 1-21

Led by Felicity Scott, Liturgical Assistant at St John the Baptist Anglican Church Bulimba, QLD, Australia.

The full prayer transcript is available by going to this episode on the Podcast website.

https://dailyprayeranglicanprayerbookforaustralia.podbean.com

Welcome to Tuesday evening prayer from the Anglican ‘A prayer book for Australia’.

We proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ:

GOD in his infinite mercy, forgives all sins, and through our baptism in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we are given a rebirth into new life, free from the burden of all sin. ALLELUIA

Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed be God forever.

Let us Pray.

1

O sing to the Lord a new song:

sing to the Lord all the earth. 

Psalm 96.1

Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 

as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.

2 The Opening Canticle, The Song of the Three

Blessed are you, the God of our forebears: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Blessed is your holy and glorious name: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Blessed are you, glorious in your holy temple: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Blessed are you who behold the depths: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Blessed are you in the heights of heaven: 

worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. 

Song of the Three 29–34

3 The Opening Prayer

The day is now past and the night is at hand. 

Let us pray with one heart and mind. 

Silence may be kept.

Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our evening sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. 

Amen.

4 The Psalms as appointed. A pause is observed after each.

Psalm 7; 8

7

1 O Lord my God, to you have I come for shelter:

save me from all who pursue me, O save and deliver me,

2 Lest like lions they tear my throat:

lest they carry me off and none can save me.

3 O Lord my God, if I have done such a thing:

if there is any wickedness on my hands,

4 If I have repaid with evil one that was my friend:

or plundered my enemy without just cause,

5 Then let the enemy pursue me and overtake me:

let them trample my life to the ground,

and lay my honour in the dust.

6 Arise, O Lord, in your anger:

rise up in wrath against my adversaries.

7 Awake, my God, you that ordain justice:

and let the assembly of the peoples gather about you;

8 Take your seat high above them:

and sit in judgement, O Lord, over the nations.

9 Judge for me, O Lord, according to my righteousness:

and as my integrity requires.

10 Let the wickedness of the ungodly cease,

but establish the righteous:

for you try our very hearts and minds, O righteous God.

11 God is my shield over me:

he preserves the true of heart.

12 God vindicates the righteous:

but God condemns evil every day.

13 If an evildoer will not turn, he whets his sword:

he strings the bow and makes it ready;

14 He prepares the instruments of death:

and makes his arrows darts of fire.

15 See how the ungodly conceive mischief:

how they swell with wickedness and give birth to lies.

16 They dig a pit and hollow it out:

but fall themselves into the trap they had made for others.

17 Their mischief rebounds upon their own head:

and their violence comes down on their own pate.

18 I will thank the Lord for his justice:

I will sing praises to the Lord Most High.

8

1 O Lord our Governor:

how glorious is your name in all the earth!

2 Your majesty above the heavens is yet recounted:

by the mouths of babes and sucklings.

3 You have founded a strong defence

against your adversaries:

to quell the enemy and the avenger.

4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers:

the moon and the stars which you have set in order,

5 What are we, that you should be mindful of us:

what are we, that you should care for us?

6 Yet you have made us little less than gods:

and have crowned us with glory and honour.

7 You have given us dominion over your handiwork:

and have put all things in subjection beneath our feet,

8 All sheep and oxen:

and all the creatures of the field,

9 The birds of the air and the fish of the sea:

and everything that moves

in the pathways of the great waters.

10 O Lord our Governor:

how glorious is your name in all the earth!

5 At the end of the (last) pause there may follow

God of grace, we thank you for all your gifts to us:

grant us to accept both pain and joy in faith and hope,

and never to fail in love to you

 and to our sisters and brothers;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. 

Amen.

6 One or two Readings from the Bible as appointed.

1st Reading

Isaiah 30.15-28

15 For thus said the Lord God , the Holy One of Israel:

In returning and rest you shall be saved;

     in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

But you refused 

16 and said,

‘No! We will flee upon horses’—

     therefore you shall flee!

and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’—

     therefore your pursuers shall be swift! 

17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,

     at the threat of five you shall flee,

until you are left

     like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,

     like a signal on a hill. 

18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;

     therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

     blessed are all those who wait for him. 

19 Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. 

20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 

21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ 

22 Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, ‘Away with you!’ 

23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which wi