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Psalm 20

Prayer for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David.
¹ The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
   The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
² May he send you help from the sanctuary,
   and give you support from Zion.
³ May he remember all your offerings,
   and regard with favour your burnt sacrifices.
          Selah

⁴ May he grant you your heart’s desire,
   and fulfil all your plans.
⁵ May we shout for joy over your victory,
   and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfil all your petitions.

⁶ Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
   he will answer him from his holy heaven
   with mighty victories by his right hand.
⁷ Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
   but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
⁸ They will collapse and fall,
   but we shall rise and stand upright.

⁹ Give victory to the king, O Lord;
   answer us when we call.^*

Psalm 21

Thanksgiving for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David.
¹ In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord,
   and in your help how greatly he exults!
² You have given him his heart’s desire,
   and have not withheld the request of his lips.
          Selah
³ For you meet him with rich blessings;
   you set a crown of fine gold on his head.
⁴ He asked you for life; you gave it to him—
   length of days for ever and ever.
⁵ His glory is great through your help;
   splendour and majesty you bestow on him.
⁶ You bestow on him blessings for ever;
   you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
⁷ For the king trusts in the Lord,
   and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

⁸ Your hand will find out all your enemies;
   your right hand will find out those who hate you.
⁹ You will make them like a fiery furnace
   when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
   and fire will consume them.
¹⁰ You will destroy their offspring from the earth,
   and their children from among humankind.
¹¹ If they plan evil against you,
   if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
¹² For you will put them to flight;
   you will aim at their faces with your bows.

¹³ Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
   We will sing and praise your power.

Moses the Mediator of God’s Will

22 These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. ²³When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; ²⁴and you said, ‘Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live. ²⁵So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die. ²⁶For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? ²⁷Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and do it.’

28 The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. ²⁹If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children for ever! ³⁰Go, say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ ³²You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. ³³You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

Further Warning

13This is the third time I am coming to you. ‘Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.’ ²I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient— ³since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. ⁴For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him,^* but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to pass the test! ⁶I hope you will find out that we have not failed. ⁷But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have passed the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. ⁸For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect. ¹⁰So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

Final Greetings and Benediction

11 Finally, brothers and sisters,^* farewell.^* Put things in order, listen to my appeal,^* agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹²Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of^* the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

²²On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” ²³Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

Hearers and Doers

24 ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’

28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.