Theme for the 6th Week  of Lent

Theme: Lord God, by your Word fill me with a spirit of obedience and humility.   

– Reading for Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Lent

Psalm 22

To the leader: according to The Deer of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
    and by night but find no rest.

³ Yet you are holy,
    enthroned on the praises of Israel.
⁴ In you our ancestors trusted;
    they trusted, and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶ But I am a worm and not human,
    scorned by others and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
    they sneer at me; they shake their heads;
⁸ “Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—
    let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”

⁹ Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
    you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ On you I was cast from my birth,
    and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
¹¹ Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near,
    and there is no one to help.

¹² Many bulls encircle me;
    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
¹³ they open wide their mouths at me,
    like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
    it is melted within my breast;
¹⁵ my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ For dogs are all around me;
    a company of evildoers encircles me;
they bound my hands and feet.
¹⁷ I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
¹⁸ they divide my clothes among themselves,
    and for my clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
    O my help, come quickly to my aid!
²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword,
    my life from the power of the dog!
²¹     Save me from the mouth of the lion!

From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
²² I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
    in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
²³ You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
    stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
²⁴ For he did not despise or abhor
    the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me
    but heard when I cried to him.

²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
    my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
    May your hearts live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember
    and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    shall worship before him.
²⁸ For dominion belongs to the Lord,
    and he rules over the nations.

²⁹ To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
    before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
    and I shall live for him.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord
³¹ and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
    saying that he has done it.

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