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Psalm 63

1  O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; ♦︎
   my soul is athirst for you.
2  My flesh also faints for you, ♦︎
   as in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
3  So would I gaze upon you in your holy place, ♦︎
   that I might behold your power and your glory.
4  Your loving-kindness is better than life itself ♦︎
   and so my lips shall praise you.
5  I will bless you as long as I live ♦︎
   and lift up my hands in your name.
6  My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness, ♦︎
   and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
7  When I remember you upon my bed ♦︎
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night.
8  For you have been my helper ♦︎
   and under the shadow of your wings will I rejoice.
9  My soul clings to you; ♦︎
   your right hand shall hold me fast.
10  But those who seek my soul to destroy it ♦︎
   shall go down to the depths of the earth;
11  Let them fall by the edge of the sword ♦︎
   and become a portion for jackals.
12  But the king shall rejoice in God;
      all those who swear by him shall be glad, ♦︎
   for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

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.

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

20Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ²Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. ³The next morning when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has named you not Pashhur but ‘Terror-all-around.’ ⁴For thus says the Lord: I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword. ⁵I will give all the wealth of this city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, shall go into captivity, and to Babylon you shall go; there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors

⁷ O Lord, you have enticed me,
   and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
   and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
   everyone mocks me.
⁸ For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
   I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me
   a reproach and derision all day long.
⁹ If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
   or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
   shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
   and I cannot.
¹⁰ For I hear many whispering:
   ‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
   All my close friends
   are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed,
   and we can prevail against him,
   and take our revenge on him.’
¹¹ But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
   therefore my persecutors will stumble,
   and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
   for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour
   will never be forgotten.

Do Not Judge Another

14Welcome those who are weak in faith,^* but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord^* is able to make them stand.

5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.

7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister?^* Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?^* For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God.^{* 11}For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
   and every tongue shall give praise to^* God.’
¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.^*

Do Not Make Another Stumble

13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another.^{* 14}I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵If your brother or sister^* is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Mission of the Seventy

10After this the Lord appointed seventy^* others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ²He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. ³Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” ⁶And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. ⁸Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”^{* 10}But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”^*

16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

The Return of the Seventy

17 The seventy^* returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ ¹⁸He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’