Prayers From The Fenlands

Prayers From The Fenlands

Menu

Evening Prayer

Evening Prayer for the 16th of June 2026  

Evening Prayer Is Updated Everyday Apart From Sunday    


First Reading

Ezra 3    

3When the seventh month came, and the Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together in Jerusalem. 2Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his kin set out to build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings on it, as prescribed in the law of Moses the man of God. 3They set up the altar on its foundation, because they were in dread of the neighbouring peoples, and they offered burnt-offerings upon it to the Lord, morning and evening. 4And they kept the festival of booths, as prescribed, and offered the daily burnt-offerings by number according to the ordinance, as required for each day, 5and after that the regular burnt-offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the sacred festivals of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill-offering to the Lord. 6From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt-offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from King Cyrus of Persia.

8 In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upwards, to have the oversight of the work on the house of the Lord. 9And Jeshua with his sons and his kin, and Kadmiel and his sons, Binnui and Hodaviah along with the sons of Henadad, the Levites, their sons and kin, together took charge of the workers in the house of God.

10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the Lord with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel; 11and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
‘For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever towards Israel.’
And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

 

Second Reading

Romans 9.19–end    

19 You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ 20But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; 23and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25As indeed he says in Hosea,
‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”,
   and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’
26 ‘And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”,
   there they shall be called children of the living God.’

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; 28for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’29And as Isaiah predicted,
‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us,
   we would have fared like Sodom
   and been made like Gomorrah.’

30 What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; 31but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. 32Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone, 33as it is written,
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,
   and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’

 

The Psalm

Psalm 50    

1  The Lord, the most mighty God, has spoken ♦︎
   and called the world from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2  Out of Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth; ♦︎
   our God comes and will not keep silence.
3  Consuming fire goes out before him ♦︎
   and a mighty tempest stirs about him.
4  He calls the heaven above, ♦︎
   and the earth, that he may judge his people:
5  ‘Gather to me my faithful, ♦︎
   who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice.’
6  Let the heavens declare his righteousness, ♦︎
   for God himself is judge.
7  Hear, O my people, and I will speak: ♦︎
   ‘I will testify against you, O Israel;
      for I am God, your God.
8  ‘I will not reprove you for your sacrifices, ♦︎
   for your burnt offerings are always before me.
9  ‘I will take no bull out of your house, ♦︎
   nor he-goat out of your folds,
10  ‘For all the beasts of the forest are mine, ♦︎
   the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11  ‘I know every bird of the mountains ♦︎
   and the insect of the field is mine.
12  ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you, ♦︎
   for the whole world is mine and all that fills it.
13  ‘Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, ♦︎
   or drink the blood of goats?
14  ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving ♦︎
   and fulfil your vows to God Most High.
15  ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble; ♦︎
   I will deliver you and you shall honour me.’
16  But to the wicked, says God: ♦︎
   ‘Why do you recite my statutes
      and take my covenant upon your lips,
17  ‘Since you refuse to be disciplined ♦︎
   and have cast my words behind you?
18  ‘When you saw a thief, you made friends with him ♦︎
   and you threw in your lot with adulterers.
19  ‘You have loosed your lips for evil ♦︎
   and harnessed your tongue to deceit.
20  ‘You sit and speak evil of your brother; ♦︎
   you slander your own mother’s son.
21  ‘These things have you done, and should I keep silence? ♦︎
   Did you think that I am even such a one as yourself?
22  ‘But no, I must reprove you, ♦︎
   and set before your eyes the things that you have done.
23  ‘You that forget God, consider this well, ♦︎
   lest I tear you apart and there is none to deliver you.
24  ‘Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me ♦︎
   and to those who keep my way
      will I show the salvation of God.’

X