Old Testament: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

¹Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. ²At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; ³the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶The Lordcalled again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lordhad not yet been revealed to him. ⁸The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

[¹¹Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. ¹²On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.” ¹⁵Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

¹⁹As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.]

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

¹ Lord, you have searched me out and known me; *
       you know my sitting down and my rising up;
       you discern my thoughts from afar.
² You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
       and are acquainted with all my ways.
³ Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
       but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
⁴ You press upon me behind and before *
       and lay your hand upon me.
⁵ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
       it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
¹² For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹³ I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
       your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
¹⁴ My body was not hidden from you, *
       while I was being made in secret
       and woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁵ Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
    all of them were written in your book; *
        they were fashioned day by day,
       when as yet there was none of them.
¹⁶ How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
       how great is the sum of them!
¹⁷ If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *
       to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

¹²Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lordyour God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Psalm: Psalm 81:1-10

¹ Sing with joy to God our strength *
       and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.
² Raise a song and sound the timbrel, *
       the merry harp, and the lyre.
³ Blow the ram’s-horn at the new moon, *
       and at the full moon, the day of our feast.
⁴ For this is a statute for Israel, *
       a law of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, *
       when he came out of the land of Egypt.
⁶ I heard an unfamiliar voice saying *
      “I eased his shoulder from the burden;
       his hands were set free from bearing the load.”
⁷ You called on me in trouble, and I saved you; *
       I answered you from the secret place of thunder
       and tested you at the waters of Meribah.
⁸ Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: *
       O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you; *
       you shall not worship a foreign god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
   who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said, *
      “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”