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Psalm 57

1  Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, ♦︎
   for my soul takes refuge in you;
2  In the shadow of your wings will I take refuge ♦︎
   until the storm of destruction has passed by.
3  I will call upon the Most High God, ♦︎
   the God who fulfils his purpose for me.
4  He will send from heaven and save me
      and rebuke those that would trample upon me; ♦︎
   God will send forth his love and his faithfulness.
5  I lie in the midst of lions, ♦︎
   people whose teeth are spears and arrows,
      and their tongue a sharp sword.
6  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, ♦︎
   and your glory over all the earth.
7  They have laid a net for my feet;
      my soul is pressed down; ♦︎
   they have dug a pit before me
      and will fall into it themselves.
8  My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready; ♦︎
   I will sing and give you praise.
9  Awake, my soul; awake, harp and lyre, ♦︎
   that I may awaken the dawn.
10  I will give you thanks, O Lord, among the peoples; ♦︎
   I will sing praise to you among the nations.
11  For your loving-kindness is as high as the heavens, ♦︎
   and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
12  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, ♦︎
   and your glory over all the earth.

Psalm 58

1  Do you indeed speak justly, you mighty? ♦︎
   Do you rule the peoples with equity?
2  With unjust heart you act throughout the land; ♦︎
   your hands mete out violence.
3  The wicked are estranged, even from the womb; ♦︎
   those who speak falsehood go astray from their birth.
4  They are as venomous as a serpent; ♦︎
   they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears,
5  Which does not heed the voice of the charmers, ♦︎
   and is deaf to the skilful weaver of spells.
6  Break, O God, their teeth in their mouths; ♦︎
   smash the fangs of these lions, O Lord.
7  Let them vanish like water that runs away; ♦︎
   let them wither like trodden grass.
8  Let them be as the slimy track of the snail, ♦︎
   like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9  Before ever their pots feel the heat of the thorns, ♦︎
   green or blazing, let them be swept away.
10  The righteous will be glad when they see God’s vengeance; ♦︎
   they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11  So that people will say,
      ‘Truly, there is a harvest for the righteous; ♦︎
   truly, there is a God who judges in the earth.’

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.