Bible Browser

Psalm 66

1  Be joyful in God, all the earth; ♦︎
   sing the glory of his name;
      sing the glory of his praise.
2  Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! ♦︎
   Because of your great strength
      your enemies shall bow before you.
3  ‘All the earth shall worship you, ♦︎
   sing to you, sing praise to your name.’
4  Come now and behold the works of God, ♦︎
   how wonderful he is in his dealings with humankind.
5  He turned the sea into dry land;
      the river they passed through on foot; ♦︎
   there we rejoiced in him.
6  In his might he rules for ever;
      his eyes keep watch over the nations; ♦︎
   let no rebel rise up against him.
7  Bless our God, O you peoples; ♦︎
   make the voice of his praise to be heard,
8  Who holds our souls in life ♦︎
   and suffers not our feet to slip.
9  For you, O God, have proved us; ♦︎
   you have tried us as silver is tried.

Manasseh Reigns over Judah

21Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ²He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole,^* as King Ahab of Israel had done, worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. ⁴He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put my name.’ ⁵He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶He made his son pass through fire; he practised soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷The carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever; ⁸I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.’ ⁹But they did not listen; Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations had done that the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

10 The Lord said by his servants the prophets, ¹¹‘Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these abominations, has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols; ¹²therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ¹³I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line for Samaria, and the plummet for the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴I will cast off the remnant of my heritage, and give them into the hand of their enemies; they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their ancestors came out of Egypt, even to this day.’

The Inner Conflict

14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.^{* 15}I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.