Bible Browser

Psalm 64

1  Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; ♦︎
   preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2  Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, ♦︎
   from the gathering of evildoers.
3  They sharpen their tongue like a sword ♦︎
   and aim their bitter words like arrows,
4  That they may shoot at the blameless from hiding places; ♦︎
   suddenly they shoot, and are not seen.
5  They hold fast to their evil course; ♦︎
   they talk of laying snares, saying, ‘Who will see us?’
6  They search out wickedness and lay a cunning trap, ♦︎
   for deep are the inward thoughts of the heart.
7  But God will shoot at them with his swift arrow, ♦︎
   and suddenly they shall be wounded.
8  Their own tongues shall make them fall, ♦︎
   and all who see them shall wag their heads in scorn.
9  All peoples shall fear and tell what God has done, ♦︎
   and they will ponder all his works.
10  The righteous shall rejoice in the Lord
      and put their trust in him, ♦︎
   and all that are true of heart shall exult.

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
² ‘How long will you hunt for words?
   Consider, and then we shall speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
   Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger—
   shall the earth be forsaken because of you,
   or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ ‘Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
   and the flame of their fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is dark in their tent,
   and the lamp above them is put out.
⁷ Their strong steps are shortened,
   and their own schemes throw them down.
⁸ For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
   and they walk into a pitfall.
⁹ A trap seizes them by the heel;
   a snare lays hold of them.
¹⁰ A rope is hid for them in the ground,
   a trap for them in the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten them on every side,
   and chase them at their heels.
¹² Their strength is consumed by hunger,^*
   and calamity is ready for their stumbling.
¹³ By disease their skin is consumed,^*
   the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the tent in which they trusted,
   and are brought to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In their tents nothing remains;
   sulphur is scattered upon their habitations.
¹⁶ Their roots dry up beneath,
   and their branches wither above.
¹⁷ Their memory perishes from the earth,
   and they have no name in the street.
¹⁸ They are thrust from light into darkness,
   and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ They have no offspring or descendant among their people,
   and no survivor where they used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at their fate,
   and horror seizes those of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly,
   such is the place of those who do not know God.’

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:^* not many of you were wise by human standards,^* not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no one^* might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in^* the Lord.’