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Psalm 97

The Glory of God’s Reign

¹ The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;
   let the many coastlands be glad!
² Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
   righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
³ Fire goes before him,
   and consumes his adversaries on every side.
⁴ His lightnings light up the world;
   the earth sees and trembles.
⁵ The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
   before the Lord of all the earth.

⁶ The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
   and all the peoples behold his glory.
⁷ All worshippers of images are put to shame,
   those who make their boast in worthless idols;
   all gods bow down before him.
⁸ Zion hears and is glad,
   and the towns^* of Judah rejoice,
   because of your judgements, O God.
⁹ For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
   you are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰ The Lord loves those who hate^* evil;
   he guards the lives of his faithful;
   he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
¹¹ Light dawns^* for the righteous,
   and joy for the upright in heart.
¹² Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
   and give thanks to his holy name!

Psalm 99

Praise to God for His Holiness

¹ The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
   He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
² The Lord is great in Zion;
   he is exalted over all the peoples.
³ Let them praise your great and awesome name.
   Holy is he!
⁴ Mighty King,^* lover of justice,
   you have established equity;
you have executed justice
   and righteousness in Jacob.
⁵ Extol the Lord our God;
   worship at his footstool.
   Holy is he!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
   Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
   They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
   they kept his decrees,
   and the statutes that he gave them.

⁸ O Lord our God, you answered them;
   you were a forgiving God to them,
   but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
⁹ Extol the Lord our God,
   and worship at his holy mountain;
   for the Lord our God is holy.

Psalm 100

All Lands Summoned to Praise God

A Psalm of thanksgiving.
¹ Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
²   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing.

³ Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;^*
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name.

⁵ For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 94

God the Avenger of the Righteous

¹ O Lord, you God of vengeance,
   you God of vengeance, shine forth!
² Rise up, O judge of the earth;
   give to the proud what they deserve!
³ O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
   how long shall the wicked exult?

⁴ They pour out their arrogant words;
   all the evildoers boast.
⁵ They crush your people, O Lord,
   and afflict your heritage.
⁶ They kill the widow and the stranger,
   they murder the orphan,
⁷ and they say, ‘The Lord does not see;
   the God of Jacob does not perceive.’

⁸ Understand, O dullest of the people;
   fools, when will you be wise?
⁹ He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
¹⁰ He who disciplines the nations,
he who teaches knowledge to humankind,
   does he not chastise?
¹¹ The Lord knows our thoughts,^*
   that they are but an empty breath.

¹² Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,
   and whom you teach out of your law,
¹³ giving them respite from days of trouble,
   until a pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the Lord will not forsake his people;
   he will not abandon his heritage;
¹⁵ for justice will return to the righteous,
   and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶ Who rises up for me against the wicked?
   Who stands up for me against evildoers?
¹⁷ If the Lord had not been my help,
   my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
¹⁸ When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’,
   your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
¹⁹ When the cares of my heart are many,
   your consolations cheer my soul.
²⁰ Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
   those who contrive mischief by statute?
²¹ They band together against the life of the righteous,
   and condemn the innocent to death.
²² But the Lord has become my stronghold,
   and my God the rock of my refuge.
²³ He will repay them for their iniquity
   and wipe them out for their wickedness;
   the Lord our God will wipe them out.

Psalm 95

A Call to Worship and Obedience

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
³ For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
⁷ For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
⁸   Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
   as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ when your ancestors tested me,
   and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation
   and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
   and they do not regard my ways.’
¹¹ Therefore in my anger I swore,
   ‘They shall not enter my rest.’

20 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: ²¹Separate yourselves from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment. ²²They fell on their faces, and said, ‘O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?’

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴Say to the congregation: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. ²⁵So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶He said to the congregation, ‘Turn away from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.’ ²⁷So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. ²⁸And Moses said, ‘This is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord: ²⁹If these people die a natural death, or if a natural fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.’

31 As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart. ³²The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods. ³³So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, ‘The earth will swallow us too!’ ³⁵And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense.

The Example of Abraham

4What then are we to say was gained by^* Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ ⁴Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works:
⁷ ‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
   and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.’

9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, ‘Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.’ ¹⁰How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. ¹¹He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, ¹²and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ ²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ ²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ ²⁸Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold,^* and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.