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Daily Readings For March 26

Please note that two distinct lectionaries are provided on this page: the two-year Daily Lectionary from the Book of Common Worship and the three-year Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for Sundays and festivals; be sure you select the appropriate one.

Daily Readings Sunday/Festival Readings

Daily Readings for Sunday, March 26, 2023


Morning Psalm 84

1   How lovely is your dwelling place,
          O LORD of hosts!
2   My soul longs, indeed it faints
          for the courts of the LORD;
     my heart and my flesh sing for joy
          to the living God.


3   Even the sparrow finds a home,
          and the swallow a nest for herself,
          where she may lay her young,
     at your altars, O LORD of hosts,
          my King and my God.
4   Happy are those who live in your house,
          ever singing your praise. Selah


5   Happy are those whose strength is in you,
          in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6   As they go through the valley of Baca
          they make it a place of springs;
          the early rain also covers it with pools.
7   They go from strength to strength;
          the God of gods will be seen in Zion.


8   O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
          give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9   Behold our shield, O God;
          look on the face of your anointed.


10  For a day in your courts is better
          than a thousand elsewhere.
     I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
          than live in the tents of wickedness.
11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
          he bestows favor and honor.
     No good thing does the LORD withhold
          from those who walk uprightly.
12  O LORD of hosts,
          happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Morning Psalm 150

1   Praise the Lord!
     Praise God in his sanctuary;
          praise him in his mighty firmament!
2   Praise him for his mighty deeds;
          praise him according to his surpassing greatness!


3   Praise him with trumpet sound;
          praise him with lute and harp!
4   Praise him with tambourine and dance;
          praise him with strings and pipe!
5   Praise him with clanging cymbals;
          praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6   Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
     Praise the Lord!

First Reading Jeremiah 23:16-32

16Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17They keep saying to those who despise the word of the LORD, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”

18  For who has stood in the council of the LORD
          so as to see and to hear his word?
          Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
19  Look, the storm of the LORD!
          Wrath has gone forth,
     a whirling tempest;
          it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20  The anger of the LORD will not turn back
          until he has executed and accomplished
          the intents of his mind.
     In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

21  I did not send the prophets,
          yet they ran;
     I did not speak to them,
          yet they prophesied.
22  But if they had stood in my council,
          then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
     and they would have turned them from their evil way,
          and from the evil of their doings.

23Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off? 24Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. 25I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” 26How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back — those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. 29Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31See, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the LORD.” 32See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the LORD.

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 9:19-27

19For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

24Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. 26So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

Gospel Reading Mark 8:31-9:1

8:31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

9:1And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Evening Psalm 42

1   As a deer longs for flowing streams,
          so my soul longs for you, O God.
2   My soul thirsts for God,
          for the living God.
     When shall I come and behold
          the face of God?
3   My tears have been my food
          day and night,
     while people say to me continually,
          “Where is your God?”


4   These things I remember,
          as I pour out my soul:
     how I went with the throng,
          and led them in procession to the house of God,
     with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
          a multitude keeping festival.
5   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
          and why are you disquieted within me?
     Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
          my help 6and my God.


     My soul is cast down within me;
          therefore I remember you
     from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
          from Mount Mizar.
7   Deep calls to deep
          at the thunder of your cataracts;
     all your waves and your billows
          have gone over me.
8   By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
          and at night his song is with me,
          a prayer to the God of my life.


9   I say to God, my rock,
          “Why have you forgotten me?
     Why must I walk about mournfully
          because the enemy oppresses me?”
10  As with a deadly wound in my body,
          my adversaries taunt me,
     while they say to me continually,
          “Where is your God?”


11  Why are you cast down, O my soul,
          and why are you disquieted within me?
     Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
          my help and my God.

Evening Psalm 32

1   Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
          whose sin is covered.
2   Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity,
          and in whose spirit there is no deceit.


3   While I kept silence, my body wasted away
          through my groaning all day long.
4   For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
          my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah


5   Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
          and I did not hide my iniquity;
     I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
          and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah


6   Therefore let all who are faithful
          offer prayer to you;
     at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
          shall not reach them.

7   You are a hiding place for me;
          you preserve me from trouble;
          you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah


8   I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
          I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9   Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
          whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
          else it will not stay near you.


10   Many are the torments of the wicked,
          but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.
11   Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous,
          and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.