Psalm 128

English Standard Version

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord

A Song of ^(A)Ascents.

128 ^(B)Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who ^(C)walks in his ways!
²You ^(D)shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

³Your wife will be like ^(E)a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like ^(F)olive shoots
    around your table.
⁴Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the Lord.

⁵^(G)The Lord bless you ^(H)from Zion!
    May you see ^(I)the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
⁶May you see your ^(J)children's children!
    ^(K)Peace be upon Israel!

Isaiah 65:17-25

English Standard Version

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷“For behold, ^(A)I create new heavens
    and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
    or come into mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever
    in that which I create;
for behold, ^(B)I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
    and her people to be a gladness.
¹⁹^(C)I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and be glad in my people;
^(D)no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
    and the cry of distress.
²⁰No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for ^(E)the young man shall die a hundred years old,
    and ^(F)the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
²¹^(G)They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²^(H)They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat;
^(I)for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy^[a] the work of their hands.
²³^(J)They shall not labor in vain
    ^(K)or bear children for calamity,^[b]
for ^(L)they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
    and their descendants with them.
²⁴^(M)Before they call I will answer;
    ^(N)while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵^(O)The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    and ^(P)dust shall be the serpent's food.
^(Q)They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Isaiah 65:22 Hebrew shall wear out
Isaiah 65:23 Or for sudden terror

Romans 4:6-13

English Standard Version

⁶just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

⁷^(A)“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
⁸blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not ^(B)count his sin.”

⁹Is this blessing then only for ^(C)the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? ^(D)For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. ¹⁰How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. ¹¹^(E)He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was ^(F)to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, ¹²and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The Promise Realized Through Faith

¹³For ^(G)the promise to Abraham and his offspring ^(H)that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Read full chapter