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Psalm 76

1  In Judah God is known; ♦︎
   his name is great in Israel.
2  At Salem is his tabernacle, ♦︎
   and his dwelling place in Zion.
3  There broke he the flashing arrows of the bow, ♦︎
   the shield, the sword and the weapons of war.
4  In the light of splendour you appeared, ♦︎
   glorious from the eternal mountains.
5  The boastful were plundered; they have slept their sleep; ♦︎
   none of the warriors can lift their hand.
6  At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, ♦︎
   both horse and chariot fell stunned.
7  Terrible are you in majesty: ♦︎
   who can stand before your face when you are angry?
8  You caused your judgement to be heard from heaven; ♦︎
   the earth trembled and was still,
9  When God arose to judgement, ♦︎
   to save all the meek upon earth.
10  You crushed the wrath of the peoples ♦︎
   and bridled the wrathful remnant.
11  Make a vow to the Lord your God and keep it; ♦︎
   let all who are round about him bring gifts
      to him that is worthy to be feared.
12  He breaks down the spirit of princes ♦︎
   and strikes terror in the kings of the earth.

Psalm 77

1  I cry aloud to God; ♦︎
   I cry aloud to God and he will hear me.
2  In the day of my trouble I have sought the Lord; ♦︎
   by night my hand is stretched out and does not tire;
      my soul refuses comfort.
3  I think upon God and I groan; ♦︎
   I ponder, and my spirit faints.
4  You will not let my eyelids close; ♦︎
   I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5  I consider the days of old; ♦︎
   I remember the years long past;
6  I commune with my heart in the night; ♦︎
   my spirit searches for understanding.
7  Will the Lord cast us off for ever? ♦︎
   Will he no more show us his favour?
8  Has his loving mercy clean gone for ever? ♦︎
   Has his promise come to an end for evermore?
9  Has God forgotten to be gracious? ♦︎
   Has he shut up his compassion in displeasure?
10  And I said, ‘My grief is this: ♦︎
   that the right hand of the Most High has lost its strength.’
11  I will remember the works of the Lord ♦︎
   and call to mind your wonders of old time.
12  I will meditate on all your works ♦︎
   and ponder your mighty deeds.
13  Your way, O God, is holy; ♦︎
   who is so great a god as our God?
14  You are the God who worked wonders ♦︎
   and declared your power among the peoples.
15  With a mighty arm you redeemed your people, ♦︎
   the children of Jacob and Joseph.
16  The waters saw you, O God;
      the waters saw you and were afraid; ♦︎
   the depths also were troubled.
17  The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; ♦︎
   your arrows flashed on every side;
18  The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
      your lightnings lit up the ground; ♦︎
   the earth trembled and shook.
19  Your way was in the sea, and your paths in the great waters, ♦︎
   but your footsteps were not known.
20  You led your people like sheep ♦︎
   by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

God’s Covenant with David

7Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ²the king said to the prophet Nathan, ‘See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.’ ³Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.’

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: ⁵Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? ⁶I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁷Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders^* of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ⁸Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; ⁹and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ¹⁰And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, ¹¹from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. ¹²When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ¹⁴I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. ¹⁵But I will not take^* my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me;^* your throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁷In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

8 But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. ⁹I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. ¹⁰He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. ²So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. ³He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.

4 He said to me: Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel— ⁶not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. ⁸See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. ¹⁰He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; whether they hear or refuse to hear.

Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle

16 I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool; but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying in regard to this boastful confidence, I am saying not with the Lord’s authority, but as a fool; ¹⁸since many boast according to human standards,^* I will also boast. ¹⁹For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves! ²⁰For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face. ²¹To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!

But whatever anyone dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. ²⁴Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters;^{* 27}in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. ²⁸And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he for ever!) knows that I do not lie. ³²In Damascus, the governor^* under King Aretas set a guard on the city of Damascus in order to^* seize me, ³³but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall,^* and escaped from his hands.