Bible Browser

Psalm 18

1  I love you, O Lord my strength. ♦︎
   The Lord is my crag, my fortress and my deliverer,
2  My God, my rock in whom I take refuge, ♦︎
   my shield, the horn of my salvation and my stronghold.
3  I cried to the Lord in my anguish ♦︎
   and I was saved from my enemies.
20  He brought me out into a place of liberty; ♦︎
   he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21  The Lord rewarded me after my righteous dealing; ♦︎
   according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me,
22  Because I had kept the ways of the Lord ♦︎
   and had not gone wickedly away from my God,
23  For I had an eye to all his laws, ♦︎
   and did not cast out his commandments from me.
24  I was also wholehearted before him ♦︎
   and kept myself from iniquity;
25  Therefore the Lord rewarded me
      after my righteous dealing, ♦︎
   and according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
26  With the faithful you show yourself faithful; ♦︎
   with the true you show yourself true;
27  With the pure you show yourself pure, ♦︎
   but with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
28  For you will save a lowly people ♦︎
   and bring down the high looks of the proud.
29  You also shall light my candle; ♦︎
   the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be bright.
30  By your help I shall run at an enemy host; ♦︎
   with the help of my God I can leap over a wall.
31  As for God, his way is perfect;
      the word of the Lord is tried in the fire; ♦︎
   he is a shield to all who trust in him.
32  For who is God but the Lord, ♦︎
   and who is the rock except our God?

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
   who rule this people in Jerusalem.
¹⁵ Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death,
   and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
   it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
   and in falsehood we have taken shelter’;
¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God,
See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone,
   a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
   ‘One who trusts will not panic.’
¹⁷ And I will make justice the line,
   and righteousness the plummet;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
   and waters will overwhelm the shelter.
¹⁸ Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
   and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
   you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will take you;
   for morning by morning it will pass through,
   by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
   and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim,
   he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon
to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
   and to work his work—alien is his work!
²² Now therefore do not scoff,
   or your bonds will be made stronger;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
   from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.

The Anointing at Bethany

6 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,^{* 7}a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. ⁸But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? ⁹For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ ¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. ¹¹For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. ¹³Truly I tell you, wherever this good news^* is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’