Bible Browser

Psalm 90

1  Lord, you have been our refuge ♦︎
   from one generation to another.
2  Before the mountains were brought forth,
      or the earth and the world were formed, ♦︎
   from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3  You turn us back to dust and say: ♦︎
   ‘Turn back, O children of earth.’
4  For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, ♦︎
   which passes like a watch in the night.
5  You sweep them away like a dream; ♦︎
   they fade away suddenly like the grass.
6  In the morning it is green and flourishes; ♦︎
   in the evening it is dried up and withered.
7  For we consume away in your displeasure; ♦︎
   we are afraid at your wrathful indignation.
8  You have set our misdeeds before you ♦︎
   and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9  When you are angry, all our days are gone; ♦︎
   our years come to an end like a sigh.
10  The days of our life are three score years and ten,
      or if our strength endures, even four score; ♦︎
   yet the sum of them is but labour and sorrow,
      for they soon pass away and we are gone.
11  Who regards the power of your wrath ♦︎
   and your indignation like those who fear you?
12  So teach us to number our days ♦︎
   that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
13  Turn again, O Lord; how long will you delay? ♦︎
   Have compassion on your servants.
14  Satisfy us with your loving-kindness in the morning, ♦︎
   that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15  Give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us, ♦︎
   and for the years in which we have seen adversity.
16  Show your servants your works, ♦︎
   and let your glory be over their children.
17  May the gracious favour of the Lord our God be upon us; ♦︎
   prosper our handiwork; O prosper the work of our hands.

Joshua

God’s Commission to Joshua

1After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, ²‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. ³Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. ⁴From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. ⁵No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. ⁶Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. ⁷Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. ⁹I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’

Preparations for the Invasion

10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, ¹¹‘Pass through the camp, and command the people: “Prepare your provisions; for in three days you are to cross over the Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess.” ’

12 To the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, ¹³‘Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, “The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest, and will give you this land.” ¹⁴Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you shall cross over armed before your kindred and shall help them, ¹⁵until the Lord gives rest to your kindred as well as to you, and they too take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan to the east.’

16 They answered Joshua: ‘All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! ¹⁸Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.’

Israel’s Rejection Is Not Final

11I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? ³‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ ⁴But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ ⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.^*

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written,
‘God gave them a sluggish spirit,
   eyes that would not see
   and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.’
⁹And David says,
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,
   a stumbling-block and a retribution for them;
¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
   and keep their backs for ever bent.’

The Salvation of the Gentiles

11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling^* salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel^* jealous. ¹²Now if their stumbling^* means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!