Opening response

Hurry, God, to deliver us.
LORD, come quickly to help us.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord God, creator of day and night:
to you be praise and glory forever.
As darkness falls you renew your promise
to reveal among us the light of your presence.
By the light of Christ, your living Word,
dispel the darkness of our hearts
that we may walk as children of light
and sing your praise throughout the world.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.

That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and forever.
Amen.

Hymn

A Charge to Keep

Charles Wesley

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify!
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky;

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfil;
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master's will.

Arm me with jealous care,
As in thy sight to live;
And oh, thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give.

Help me to watch and pray,
And on thyself rely;
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall forever die.

Confession of sin

Seek the LORD while he may be found.
Call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways,
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
to our God, for he will freely pardon.

cf Isaiah 55

A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have committed evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your faithful love.
Wash us completely clean of our guilt; purify us from our sin.
Put a new, faithful spirit deep inside us,
and return the joy of your salvation to us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

cf Psalm 51

May the Father of all mercies
cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Blessed be the LORD,
because he has heard the voice of our petitions.

Therefore our hearts greatly rejoice.
With our song we will thank him.

cf Psalm 28:7, 9

Psalm 39

Refrain:
LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days.

I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.
I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
I was mute with silence.
I held my peace, even from good.
My sorrow was stirred.
My heart was hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burnt.
I spoke with my tongue:
“LORD, show me my end,
what is the measure of my days.
Let me know how frail I am.
Behold, you have made my days hand widths.
My lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.

“Surely every man walks like a shadow.
Surely they busy themselves in vain.
He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
I was mute.
I didn’t open my mouth,
because you did it.
Remove your scourge away from me.
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,
you consume his wealth like a moth.
Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.

“Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry.
Don’t be silent at my tears.
For I am a stranger with you,
a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,
before I go away and exist no more.”

Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.

Refrain:
LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days.

Psalm prayer

O Christ, Son of the living God,
help us when we are too cast down to pray,
and grant that we may trust you all our days,
for you are with us in our living and our dying,
Jesus, Lord and God.

Psalm 40

Refrain:
Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done.

I waited patiently for the LORD.
He turned to me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay.
He set my feet on a rock,
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.
Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust,
and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done,
and your thoughts which are towards us.
They can’t be declared back to you.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire.
You have opened my ears.
You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
Then I said, “Behold, I have come.
It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
I delight to do your will, my God.
Yes, your law is within my heart.”
I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly.
Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know.
I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart.
I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation.
I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD.
Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have surrounded me.
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up.
They are more than the hairs of my head.
My heart has failed me.
Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me.
Hurry to help me, LORD.
Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it.
Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonour who delight in my hurt.
Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let the LORD be exalted!”
But I am poor and needy.
May the Lord think about me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
Don’t delay, my God.

Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.

Refrain:
Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done.

Psalm prayer

Free us from our sins, O God,
and may our sacrifices be of praise
to the glory of your Son,
our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Old Testament reading

1 Samuel 17:1-30

Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah in Ephesdammim. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he wore a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had bronze shin armour on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. His shield bearer went before him. He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.” The Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel today! Give me a man, that we may fight together!”

When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons. The man was an elderly old man in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle; and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest; and the three oldest followed Saul. Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

The Philistine came near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.

Jesse said to David his son, “Now take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand; and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news.” Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper, and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the place of the wagons as the army which was going out to the fight shouted for the battle. Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army. David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and said the same words; and David heard them. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were terrified. The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter, and will make his father’s house tax-free in Israel.”

David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

The people answered him in this way, saying, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burnt against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle.”

David said, “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” He turned away from him towards another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body. While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth.

The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

They remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles. These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

Refrain:
Your mercy is for generations and generations on those who fear you.

My soul magnifies the Lord.
My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,
for he has looked at the humble state of his servant.
For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.
For he who is mighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
His mercy is for generations and generations on those who fear him.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down princes from their thrones,
and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things.
He has sent the rich away empty.
He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and his offspring forever.

Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.

Refrain:
Your mercy is for generations and generations on those who fear you.

Brief silence.

The Apostle’s Creed

Let us unite in this historic confession of the Christian faith:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

Thanksgiving and intercession

Thanksgiving may be made for the day.

Intercessions are offered
for peace
for individuals and their needs

Prayers may include the following concerns:

Local government, community leaders
All who provide local services
Those who work with young or elderly people
Schools, colleges and universities
Emergency and rescue organizations

Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.

Response

Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

As our Savior taught us, so we pray

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.

Conclusion

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore.
Amen.