Evening Prayer

Wednesday after Epiphany 2
Wednesday, January 21, 2026

The Invitatory and Psalter

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

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.

Alleluia.

O Gracious Light Phos hilaron

O gracious light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Psalm 40:7–19 Sacrificium et oblationem

In sacrifice and offering you take no pleasure *

(you have given me ears to hear you);

Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required, *

and so I said, “Behold, I come.

In the roll of the book it is written concerning me: *

‘I love to do your will, O my God;

your law is deep in my heart.’”

I proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation; *

behold, I did not restrain my lips;

and that, O Lord, you know.

Your righteousness have I not hidden in my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance; *

I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from the great congregation.

You are the Lord;

do not withhold your compassion from me; *

let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe for ever,

For innumerable troubles have crowded upon me;

my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see; *

they are more in number than the hairs of my head,

and my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; *

O Lord, make haste to help me.

Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed

who seek after my life to destroy it; *

let them draw back and be disgraced who take pleasure in my misfortune.

Let those who say “Aha!” and gloat over me be confounded, *

because they are ashamed.

Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad; *

let those who love your salvation continually say,

“Great is the Lord!”

Though I am poor and afflicted, *

the Lord will have regard for me.

You are my helper and my deliverer; *

do not tarry, O 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.

The Lessons

First Lesson Isaiah 48:12–21 (NRSV)

¹²Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called:

I am He; I am the first,

and I am the last.

¹³My hand laid the foundation of the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I summon them,

they stand at attention.

¹⁴Assemble, all of you, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

The Lord loves him;

he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,

and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken and called him,

I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

¹⁶Draw near to me, hear this!

From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,

from the time it came to be I have been there.

And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you for your own good,

who leads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸O that you had paid attention to my commandments!

Then your prosperity would have been like a river,

and your success like the waves of the sea;

¹⁹your offspring would have been like the sand,

and your descendants like its grains;

their name would never be cut off

or destroyed from before me.

²⁰Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,

declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,

send it forth to the end of the earth;

say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flow for them from the rock;

he split open the rock and the water gushed out.

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.