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Psalm 83

1  Hold not your peace, O God, do not keep silent; ♦︎
   be not unmoved, O God;
2  For your enemies are in tumult ♦︎
   and those who hate you lift up their heads.
3  They take secret counsel against your people ♦︎
   and plot against those whom you treasure.
4  They say, ‘Come, let us destroy them as a nation, ♦︎
   that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’
5  They have conspired together with one mind; ♦︎
   they are in league against you:
6  The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, ♦︎
   Moab and the Hagarenes,
7  Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, ♦︎
   the Philistines and those who dwell in Tyre.
8  Ashur also has joined them ♦︎
   and has lent a strong arm to the children of Lot.
9  Do to them as you did to Midian, ♦︎
   to Sisera and to Jabin at the river of Kishon,
10  Who perished at Endor ♦︎
   and became as dung for the earth.
11  Make their commanders like Oreb and ZeÃ«b, ♦︎
   and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12  Who said, ‘Let us take for ourselves ♦︎
   the pastures of God as our possession.’
13  O my God, make them like thistledown, ♦︎
   like chaff before the wind.
14  Like fire that consumes a forest, ♦︎
   like the flame that sets mountains ablaze,
15  So drive them with your tempest ♦︎
   and dismay them with your storm.
16  Cover their faces with shame, O Lord, ♦︎
   that they may seek your name.
17  Let them be disgraced and dismayed for ever; ♦︎
   let them be put to confusion and perish;
18  And they shall know that you, whose name is the Lord, ♦︎
   are alone the Most High over all the earth.

Psalm 84

1  How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! ♦︎
   My soul has a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord;
      my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
2  The sparrow has found her a house
      and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young: ♦︎
   at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
3  Blessed are they who dwell in your house: ♦︎
   they will always be praising you.
4  Blessed are those whose strength is in you, ♦︎
   in whose heart are the highways to Zion,
5  Who going through the barren valley find there a spring, ♦︎
   and the early rains will clothe it with blessing.
6  They will go from strength to strength ♦︎
   and appear before God in Zion.
7  O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; ♦︎
   listen, O God of Jacob.
8  Behold our defender, O God, ♦︎
   and look upon the face of your anointed.
9  For one day in your courts ♦︎
   is better than a thousand.
10  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God ♦︎
   than dwell in the tents of ungodliness.
11  For the Lord God is both sun and shield;
      he will give grace and glory; ♦︎
   no good thing shall the Lord withhold
      from those who walk with integrity.
12  O Lord God of hosts, ♦︎
   blessed are those who put their trust in you.

Job 27: 1-6, 29: 1-20

Job Maintains His Integrity

27Job again took up his discourse and said:
² ‘As God lives, who has taken away my right,
   and the Almighty,^* who has made my soul bitter,
³ as long as my breath is in me
   and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
⁴ my lips will not speak falsehood,
   and my tongue will not utter deceit.
⁵ Far be it from me to say that you are right;
   until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
⁶ I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go;
   my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

Job Finishes His Defence

29Job again took up his discourse and said:
² ‘O that I were as in the months of old,
   as in the days when God watched over me;
³ when his lamp shone over my head,
   and by his light I walked through darkness;
⁴ when I was in my prime,
   when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
⁵ when the Almighty^* was still with me,
   when my children were around me;
⁶ when my steps were washed with milk,
   and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,
   when I took my seat in the square,
⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew,
   and the aged rose up and stood;
⁹ the nobles refrained from talking,
   and laid their hands on their mouths;
¹⁰ the voices of princes were hushed,
   and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
¹¹ When the ear heard, it commended me,
   and when the eye saw, it approved;
¹² because I delivered the poor who cried,
   and the orphan who had no helper.
¹³ The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
   and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
   my justice was like a robe and a turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind,
   and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy,
   and I championed the cause of the stranger.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,
   and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
¹⁸ Then I thought, “I shall die in my nest,
   and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;^*
¹⁹ my roots spread out to the waters,
   with the dew all night on my branches;
²⁰ my glory was fresh with me,
   and my bow ever new in my hand.”

Acts 14: 1-18

Paul and Barnabas in Iconium

14The same thing occurred in Iconium, where Paul and Barnabas^* went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. ²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. ³So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace by granting signs and wonders to be done through them. ⁴But the residents of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. ⁵And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to maltreat them and to stone them, ⁶the apostles^* learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; ⁷and there they continued proclaiming the good news.

Paul and Barnabas in Lystra and Derbe

8 In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been crippled from birth. ⁹He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, ¹⁰said in a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And the man^* sprang up and began to walk. ¹¹When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ ¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city,^* brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice. ¹⁴When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵‘Friends,^* why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. ¹⁶In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; ¹⁷yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.’ ¹⁸Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.