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Psalm 32

1  Happy the one whose transgression is forgiven, ♦︎
   and whose sin is covered.
2  Happy the one to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, ♦︎
   and in whose spirit there is no guile.
3  For I held my tongue; ♦︎
   my bones wasted away
      through my groaning all the day long.
4  Your hand was heavy upon me day and night; ♦︎
   my moisture was dried up like the drought in summer.
5  Then I acknowledged my sin to you ♦︎
   and my iniquity I did not hide.
6  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ ♦︎
   and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
7  Therefore let all the faithful make their prayers to you
      in time of trouble; ♦︎
   in the great water flood, it shall not reach them.
8  You are a place for me to hide in;
      you preserve me from trouble; ♦︎
   you surround me with songs of deliverance.
9  ‘I will instruct you and teach you
      in the way that you should go; ♦︎
   I will guide you with my eye.
10  ‘Be not like horse and mule which have no understanding; ♦︎
   whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle,
      or else they will not stay near you.’
11  Great tribulations remain for the wicked, ♦︎
   but mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord.
12  Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; ♦︎
   shout for joy, all who are true of heart.

³⁰See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord.’ ³²See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.

33 When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,^* and I will cast you off, says the Lord.’ ³⁴And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, ‘The burden of the Lord’, I will punish them and their households. ³⁵Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall ask the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸But if you say, ‘the burden of the Lord’, thus says the Lord: Because you have said these words, ‘the burden of the Lord’, when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, ‘the burden of the Lord’, ³⁹therefore, I will surely lift you up^* and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Testing the Spirits

4Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^* is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. ⁴Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.