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Psalm 12

1  Help me, Lord, for no one godly is left; ♦︎
   the faithful have vanished from the whole human race.
2  They all speak falsely with their neighbour; ♦︎
   they flatter with their lips, but speak from a double heart.
3  O that the Lord would cut off all flattering lips ♦︎
   and the tongue that speaks proud boasts!
4  Those who say, ‘With our tongue will we prevail; ♦︎
   our lips we will use; who is lord over us?’
5  ‘Because of the oppression of the needy,
      and the groaning of the poor, ♦︎
   I will rise up now,’ says the Lord,
      ‘and set them in the safety that they long for.’
6  The words of the Lord are pure words, ♦︎
   like silver refined in the furnace
      and purified seven times in the fire.
7  You, O Lord, will watch over us ♦︎
   and guard us from this generation for ever.
8  The wicked strut on every side, ♦︎
   when what is vile is exalted by the whole human race.

17Better is a dry morsel with quiet
   than a house full of feasting with strife.
² A slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully,
   and will share the inheritance as one of the family.
³ The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
   but the Lord tests the heart.
⁴ An evildoer listens to wicked lips;
   and a liar gives heed to a mischievous tongue.
⁵ Those who mock the poor insult their Maker;
   those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.