This is Friday’s Common Lectionary Bible reading, which we will include in the Cam Villages pop-up prayer.
Isaiah 49.1-6
1 Listen, islands, to me.
Listen, you peoples, from afar:
the LORD has called me from the womb;
from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
He has made me a polished shaft.
He has kept me close in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have laboured in vain.
I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;
yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.”
5 Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
says to bring Jacob again to him,
and to gather Israel to him,
for I am honourable in the LORD’s eyes,
and my God has become my strength.
6 Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give you as a light to the nations,
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
Psalm 113
1 Praise the LORD!
Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the LORD’s name.
2 Blessed be the LORD’s name,
from this time forward and forever more.
3 From the rising of the sun to its going down,
The LORD’s name is to be praised.
4 The LORD is high above all nations,
his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD, our God,
who has his seat on high,
6 Who stoops down to see in heaven and in the earth?
7 He raises up the poor out of the dust.
Lifts up the needy from the ash heap,
8 that he may set him with princes,
even with the princes of his people.
9 He settles the barren woman in her home
as a joyful mother of children.
Praise the LORD!