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Psalm 91

1  Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High ♦︎
   and abides under the shadow of the Almighty,
2  Shall say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my stronghold, ♦︎
   my God, in whom I put my trust.’
3  For he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler ♦︎
   and from the deadly pestilence.
4  He shall cover you with his wings
      and you shall be safe under his feathers; ♦︎
   his faithfulness shall be your shield and buckler.
5  You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, ♦︎
   nor of the arrow that flies by day;
6  Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, ♦︎
   nor of the sickness that destroys at noonday.
14  Because they have set their love upon me,
      therefore will I deliver them; ♦︎
   I will lift them up, because they know my name.
15  They will call upon me and I will answer them; ♦︎
   I am with them in trouble,
      I will deliver them and bring them to honour.
16  With long life will I satisfy them ♦︎
   and show them my salvation.

False Prophets of Hope Denounced

9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is crushed within me,
   all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard,
   like one overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
   and because of his holy words.
¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers;
   because of the curse the land mourns,
   and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course has been evil,
   and their might is not right.
¹¹ Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
   even in my house I have found their wickedness,

says the Lord.
¹² Therefore their way shall be to them
   like slippery paths in the darkness,
   into which they shall be driven and fall;
for I will bring disaster upon them
   in the year of their punishment,

says the Lord.
¹³ In the prophets of Samaria
   I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
   and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴ But in the prophets of Jerusalem
   I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
   they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
   so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me,
   and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
‘I am going to make them eat wormwood,
   and give them poisoned water to drink;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
   ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’

16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’

¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of the Lord
   so as to see and to hear his word?
   Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
¹⁹ Look, the storm of the Lord!
   Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
   it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back
   until he has executed and accomplished
   the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

²¹ I did not send the prophets,
   yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
   yet they prophesied.
²² But if they had stood in my council,
   then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
   and from the evil of their doings.

8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the generous act^* of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. ¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— ¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. ¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. ¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between ¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. ¹⁵As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
   and the one who had little did not have too little.’