Old Testament: Jeremiah 18:1-11

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.⁴The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. ⁹And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.

¹¹Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

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 30:15-20

¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Psalm: Psalm 1

¹ Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of
                           the wicked, *
        nor lingered in the way of sinners,
        nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
² Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *
        and they meditate on his law day and night.
³ They are like trees planted by streams of water,
  bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
        everything they do shall prosper.
⁴ It is not so with the wicked; *
        they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when
                           judgment comes, *
        nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
        but the way of the wicked is doomed.