Psalm 18

Royal Thanksgiving for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

⁴⁷ The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery!”^{(A) 48} Then the king promoted Daniel, gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.^(B)

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world,^(A)

¹⁷ And the world and its desire^[a] are passing away, but those who do the will of God abide forever.^(A)

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,^{(A) 2} during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.^{(B) 3} He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

⁷ John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^{(E) 8} Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.^{(F) 9} Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”^(G)

¹⁰ And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?”^{(H) 11} In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.”^{(I) 12} Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”^{(J) 13} He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”^{(K) 14} Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”^(L)