Bible Browser

Psalm 106

A Confession of Israel’s Sins

¹ Praise the Lord!
   O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.
² Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord,
   or declare all his praise?
³ Happy are those who observe justice,
   who do righteousness at all times.

⁴ Remember me, O Lord, when you show favour to your people;
   help me when you deliver them;
⁵ that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
   that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
   that I may glory in your heritage.

⁶ Both we and our ancestors have sinned;
   we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.
⁷ Our ancestors, when they were in Egypt,
   did not consider your wonderful works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
   but rebelled against the Most High^* at the Red Sea.^*
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
   so that he might make known his mighty power.
⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea,^* and it became dry;
   he led them through the deep as through a desert.
¹⁰ So he saved them from the hand of the foe,
   and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.
¹¹ The waters covered their adversaries;
   not one of them was left.
¹² Then they believed his words;
   they sang his praise.

¹³ But they soon forgot his works;
   they did not wait for his counsel.
¹⁴ But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness,
   and put God to the test in the desert;
¹⁵ he gave them what they asked,
   but sent a wasting disease among them.

¹⁶ They were jealous of Moses in the camp,
   and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
¹⁷ The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
   and covered the faction of Abiram.
¹⁸ Fire also broke out in their company;
   the flame burned up the wicked.

Balak Summons Balaam to Curse Israel

22The Israelites set out, and camped in the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho. ²Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. ³Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were so numerous; Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. ⁴And Moab said to the elders of Midian, ‘This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.’ Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. ⁵He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is on the Euphrates, in the land of Amaw,^* to summon him, saying, ‘A people has come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth, and they have settled next to me. ⁶Come now, curse this people for me, since they are stronger than I; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land; for I know that whomsoever you bless is blessed, and whomsoever you curse is cursed.’

7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam, and gave him Balak’s message. ⁸He said to them, ‘Stay here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, just as the Lord speaks to me’; so the officials of Moab stayed with Balaam. ⁹God came to Balaam and said, ‘Who are these men with you?’ ¹⁰Balaam said to God, ‘King Balak son of Zippor of Moab has sent me this message: ¹¹“A people has come out of Egypt and has spread over the face of the earth; now come, curse them for me; perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.” ’ ¹²God said to Balaam, ‘You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.’ ¹³So Balaam rose in the morning, and said to the officials of Balak, ‘Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.’ ¹⁴So the officials of Moab rose and went to Balak, and said, ‘Balaam refuses to come with us.’

15 Once again Balak sent officials, more numerous and more distinguished than these. ¹⁶They came to Balaam and said to him, ‘Thus says Balak son of Zippor: “Do not let anything hinder you from coming to me; ¹⁷for I will surely do you great honour, and whatever you say to me I will do; come, curse this people for me.” ’ ¹⁸But Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, ‘Although Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God, to do less or more. ¹⁹You remain here, as the others did, so that I may learn what more the Lord may say to me.’ ²⁰That night God came to Balaam and said to him, ‘If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them; but do only what I tell you to do.’ ²¹So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab.

12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments^* of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments^* of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.^* For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 Then Jesus entered the temple^* and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³He said to them, ‘It is written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard^* the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry ¹⁶and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,
“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
   you have prepared praise for yourself”?’
¹⁷He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

18 In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. ²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ ²¹Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. ²²Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’