31st December 1969 Evening Prayer

The Psalter

Psalm 90

Domine, refugium

LORD, thou hast been our refuge, * from one generation to another.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, * thou art God from everlasting, and world without end.

Thou turnest man to destruction; * again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, * and as a watch in the night.

As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep; * and fade away suddenly like the grass.

In the morning it is green, and groweth up; * but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.

For we consume away in thy displeasure, * and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation.

Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee; * and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

For when thou art angry all our days are gone: * we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.

The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, * yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone.

But who regardeth the power of thy wrath? * or feareth aright thy indignation?

So teach us to number our days, * that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Turn thee again, O LORD, at the last, * and be gracious unto thy servants.

O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon: * so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us; * and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity.

Show thy servants thy work, * and their children thy glory.

And the glorious majesty of the LORD our God be upon us: * prosper thou the work of our hands upon us; O prosper thou our handy-work.

Psalm 150

Laudate Dominum

O PRAISE God in his sanctuary: * praise him in the firmament of his power.

Praise him in his noble acts: * praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Praise him in the sound of the trumpet: * praise him upon the lute and harp.

Praise him in the timbrels and dances: * praise him upon the strings and pipe.

Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals: * praise him upon the loud cymbals.

Let every thing that hath breath * praise the LORD.

The First Lesson

Deut10:12-

And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

11 Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

The Second Lesson

Heb1:3-

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

The Nativity of our Lord, or the Birthday of Christ, commonly called Christmas Day.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.