Old Testament: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

¹Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ²Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” ³Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” [⁵Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” ⁶He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”] ⁸He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

⁹At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”¹⁰He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹¹He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”

Psalm: Psalm 42 and 43

¹ As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *
        so longs my soul for you, O God.
² My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *
        when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night, *
        while all day long they say to me,
        “Where now is your God?”
⁴ I pour out my soul when I think on these things: *
        how I went with the multitude and led them into the
                              house of God,
⁵ With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *
        among those who keep holy-day.
⁶ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁷ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
⁸ My soul is heavy within me; *
        therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
        and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.
⁹ One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; *
        all your rapids and floods have gone over me.
¹⁰ The Lord grants his loving-kindness in the daytime; *
        in the night season his song is with me,
        a prayer to the God of my life.
¹¹ I will say to the God of my strength,
   “Why have you forgotten me? *
        and why do I go so heavily while the enemy
                              oppresses me?”
¹² While my bones are being broken, *
        my enemies mock me to my face;
¹³ All day long they mock me *
        and say to me, “Where now is your God?”
¹⁴ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
¹⁵ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

¹ Give judgment for me, O God,
   and defend my cause against an ungodly people; *
        deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
² For you are the God of my strength;
  why have you put me from you? *
        and why do I go so heavily while the enemy
                               oppresses me?
³ Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, *
        and bring me to your holy hill
        and to your dwelling;
⁴ That I may go to the altar of God,
   to the God of my joy and gladness; *
        and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
⁵ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁶ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Old Testament: Isaiah 65:1-9

¹I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name. ²I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; ³a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks; ⁴who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; ⁵who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long. ⁶See, it is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their laps⁷their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together, says the Lord; because they offered incense on the mountains and reviled me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their actions.

⁸Thus says the Lord: As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, “Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,” so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. ⁹I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah inheritors of my mountains; my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall settle there.

Psalm: Psalm 22:18-27

¹⁸ Be not far away, O Lord; *
        you are my strength; hasten to help me.
¹⁹ Save me from the sword, *
        my life from the power of the dog.
²⁰ Save me from the lion’s mouth, *
        my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.
²¹ I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
        in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
²² Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
        stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
        all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
²³ For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
    neither does he hide his face from them; *
         but when they cry to him he hears them.
²⁴ My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
        I will perform my vows in the presence of those who
                           worship him.
²⁵ The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
    and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
        “May your heart live for ever!”
²⁶ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
                              the Lord, *
        and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
²⁷ For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
        he rules over the nations.