The Daily Office is a section in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer, pages 35-146.
The word "office" probably evolved from a Latin word meaning "work." Over time, that "work" became an "official" work, or "office."
The Daily Office comprises the "official" daily prayers that Episcopalians offer in the Morning, at Noon, and in the Evening— both Evening Prayer in the early evening, and Compline at night.
The Psalter, or Book of Psalms, is an integral part of the Daily Office.
The oldest psalms may date to the fourteenth century before Christ, and the newest psalms may date to the 6th century before Christ.
Many, if not most, of them, may in fact be "Psalms of (King) David," written in the decades on either side of 1000 BC.
Whenever they were written, the Psalms reflect contemporary events as well as timeless themes.
Which is by way of saying that the Psalms don't reflect my own lived reality as a twenty-first century Christian who is white, comfortable financially, theologically informed, and in retirement.
For at least a couple of years now, praying the Psalms as part of my Daily Morning Office has not been as spiritually edifying as I would have wished.
And so I began marking those verses I found compatible with Jesus' teaching, relevant to my life, and honoring Christianity's inheritance from Judaism.
Now I am ready to begin publishing these emended Psalms for eventual use as I pray the Daily Office.
This series of My Book of Psalms posts will continue for a long time— there are 150 Psalms, and some of these Psalms are divided into smaller units.
While this series unfolds, it will occasionally be interrupted from time to time by other posts, and by "vacation days" between posts.
Many of this series' posts will include
1. a note about the particular day's Psalm (or Psalm portion),
2. the Psalm or portion itself with what I kept and what I jettisoned,
3. an explanation for what I kept and jettisoned, and
4. the next Psalm or portion in the series, so you can think about what you would keep or jettison according to your own lived reality.
Here, then, is the Psalm for the next post in this series.
Please note: All Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated 1979), pages 585-808.)
Book One
First Day: Morning Prayer
Psalm 1 Beatus vir qui non abiit
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.
Comments