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Psalm 21

1  The king shall rejoice in your strength, O Lord; ♦︎
   how greatly shall he rejoice in your salvation!
2  You have given him his heart’s desire ♦︎
   and have not denied the request of his lips.
3  For you come to meet him with blessings of goodness ♦︎
   and set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
4  He asked of you life and you gave it him, ♦︎
   length of days, for ever and ever.
5  His honour is great because of your salvation; ♦︎
   glory and majesty have you laid upon him.
6  You have granted him everlasting felicity ♦︎
   and will make him glad with joy in your presence.
7  For the king puts his trust in the Lord; ♦︎
   because of the loving-kindness of the Most High,
      he shall not be overthrown.
8  Your hand shall mark down all your enemies; ♦︎
   your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9  You will make them like a fiery oven
      in the time of your wrath; ♦︎
   the Lord will swallow them up in his anger
      and the fire will consume them.
10  Their fruit you will root out of the land ♦︎
   and their seed from among its inhabitants.
11  Because they intend evil against you ♦︎
   and devise wicked schemes
      which they cannot perform,
12  You will put them to flight ♦︎
   when you aim your bow at their faces.
13  Be exalted, O Lord, in your own might; ♦︎
   we will make music and sing of your power.

God’s Covenant with Abram

15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ ²But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’^{* 3}And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ ⁴But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ ⁵He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ ⁶And he believed the Lord; and the Lord ^* reckoned it to him as righteousness.

7 Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ ⁸But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ ⁹He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’ ¹⁰He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. ¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. ¹³Then the Lord ^* said to Abram, ‘Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; ¹⁴but I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

A Tree and Its Fruit

33 ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. ³⁶I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; ³⁷for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’