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Psalm 87

1  His foundation is on the holy mountains. ♦︎
   The Lord loves the gates of Zion
      more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
2  Glorious things are spoken of you, ♦︎
   Zion, city of our God.
3  I record Egypt and Babylon as those who know me; ♦︎
   behold Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia:
      in Zion were they born.
4  And of Zion it shall be said, ‘Each one was born in her, ♦︎
   and the Most High himself has established her.’
5  The Lord will record as he writes up the peoples, ♦︎
   ‘This one also was born there.’
6  And as they dance they shall sing, ♦︎
   ‘All my fresh springs are in you.’

Psalm 88

1  O Lord, God of my salvation, ♦︎
   I have cried day and night before you.
2  Let my prayer come into your presence; ♦︎
   incline your ear to my cry.
3  For my soul is full of troubles; ♦︎
   my life draws near to the land of death.
4  I am counted as one gone down to the Pit; ♦︎
   I am like one that has no strength,
5  Lost among the dead, ♦︎
   like the slain who lie in the grave,
6  Whom you remember no more, ♦︎
   for they are cut off from your hand.
7  You have laid me in the lowest pit, ♦︎
   in a place of darkness in the abyss.
8  Your anger lies heavy upon me, ♦︎
   and you have afflicted me with all your waves.
9  You have put my friends far from me ♦︎
   and made me to be abhorred by them.
10  I am so fast in prison that I cannot get free; ♦︎
   my eyes fail from all my trouble.
11  Lord, I have called daily upon you; ♦︎
   I have stretched out my hands to you.
12  Do you work wonders for the dead? ♦︎
   Will the shades stand up and praise you?
13  Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave, ♦︎
   your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
14  Shall your wonders be known in the dark ♦︎
   or your righteous deeds in the land where all is forgotten?
15  But as for me, O Lord, I will cry to you; ♦︎
   early in the morning my prayer shall come before you.
16  Lord, why have you rejected my soul? ♦︎
   Why have you hidden your face from me?
17  I have been wretched and at the point of death from my youth; ♦︎
   I suffer your terrors and am no more seen.
18  Your wrath sweeps over me; ♦︎
   your horrors are come to destroy me;
19  All day long they come about me like water; ♦︎
   they close me in on every side.
20  Lover and friend have you put far from me ♦︎
   and hid my companions out of my sight.

Job Finishes His Defence

29Job again took up his discourse and said:

30‘But now they make sport of me,
   those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
   to set with the dogs of my flock.
² What could I gain from the strength of their hands?
   All their vigour is gone.
¹⁶ ‘And now my soul is poured out within me;
   days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷ The night racks my bones,
   and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸ With violence he seizes my garment;^*
   he grasps me by^* the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹ He has cast me into the mire,
   and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰ I cry to you and you do not answer me;
   I stand, and you merely look at me.
²¹ You have turned cruel to me;
   with the might of your hand you persecute me.
²² You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it,
   and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
²³ I know that you will bring me to death,
   and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ ‘Surely one does not turn against the needy,^*
   when in disaster they cry for help.^*
25 Did I not weep for those whose day was hard?
   Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
²⁶ But when I looked for good, evil came;
   and when I waited for light, darkness came.
²⁷ My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still;
   days of affliction come to meet me.
²⁸ I go about in sunless gloom;
   I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
²⁹ I am a brother of jackals,
   and a companion of ostriches.
³⁰ My skin turns black and falls from me,
   and my bones burn with heat.
³¹ My lyre is turned to mourning,
   and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

19 But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

The Return to Antioch in Syria

21 After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. ²²There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, ‘It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.’ ²³And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.

24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. ²⁵When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. ²⁶From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work^* that they had completed. ²⁷When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. ²⁸And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.