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Psalm 134

Praise in the Night

A Song of Ascents.
¹ Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
   who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
² Lift up your hands to the holy place,
   and bless the Lord.

³ May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,
   bless you from Zion.

¹¹ See, the Lord commands,
   and the great house shall be shattered to bits,
   and the little house to pieces.
¹² Do horses run on rocks?
   Does one plough the sea with oxen?^*
But you have turned justice into poison
   and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
¹³ you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^*
   who say, ‘Have we not by our own strength
   taken Karnaim^* for ourselves?’
¹⁴ Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
   O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
   to the Wadi Arabah.

The Two Foundations

46 ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. ⁴⁸That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.^{* 49}But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’

6 Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, ⁷so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. ⁸And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.’ ⁹For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.’ ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’^{* 12}But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, ‘Whoever does the works of the law^* will live by them.’ ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’— ¹⁴in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The Promise to Abraham

15 Brothers and sisters,^* I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will^* has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring;^* it does not say, ‘And to offsprings’,^* as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring’,^* that is, to one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷My point is this: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.

The Purpose of the Law

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring^* would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. ²²But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ^* might be given to those who believe.

23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.