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Old/New Testament

Each day includes a passage from both the Old Testament and New Testament.
Duration: 365 days
The Voice (VOICE)
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Psalm 72-73

Psalm 72

A song of Solomon.

True God, bestow Your honest judgments upon the king
    and anoint the king’s son with Your righteousness.
May he be honest and fair in his judgments over Your people
    and offer justice to the burdened and suffering.
Under his reign, may this land of mountains and hills know peace
    and experience justice for all the people.
May the king offer justice to the burdened and suffering,
    rescue the poor and needy,
    and demolish the oppressor!

[May the people fear You][a] for as long as the sun shines,
    as long as the moon rises in the night sky, throughout the generations.
May the king be like the refreshing rains, which fall upon fields of freshly mown grass—
    like showers that cool and nourish the earth.
May good and honest people flourish for as long as he reigns,
    and may peace fill the land until the moon no longer rises.

May the king rule from one sea to the next,
    and may his rule extend from the Euphrates River to the far reaches of the earth.
Let the desert wanderers bow down before him
    and his enemies lay prostrate and taste the dirt.
10 Let the kings of Tarshish and the island kings
    shower him with gifts
And the kings of Sheba and Seba bring him presents as well.
11 Let every king on earth bow down before him
    and every nation be in his service.
12 For he will rescue the needy when they ask for help!
    He will save the burdened and come to the aid of those who have no other help.
13 He offers compassion to the weak and the poor;
    he will help and protect the lives of the needy!
14 He will liberate them from the fierce sting of persecution and violence;
    in his eyes, their blood is precious.

15 May he live a long, long time
    and the gold of Sheba be given to him.
May the people constantly lift up prayers for him,
    and may they call upon God to bless him always.
16 Let grain grow plentifully in this land of promise,
    let it sway in the breeze on the hilltops,
    let it grow strong as do the cedars of Lebanon,

Woven throughout the psalms are songs describing and praising those anointed as kings over God’s people. Psalm 2, one of the introductory psalms, describes the king as the son of God, the ruler of nations, and the anointed one. During the monarchical period in Israel, psalms like these were tied to the kings themselves, idealizing them as perfectly just and righteous and victorious. But during the exile, God’s exiled people longed for freedom and the implications of these songs began to change. Many Jews began to interpret these psalms as referring to a coming ruler, a Davidic king who would usher in an eternal kingdom and perfect peace. This hope was realized in Jesus. So this is why the earliest followers of Jesus went back to the psalms again and again. They found within many of the psalms, the story of Jesus anticipated and celebrated.

And may those who live in the city bloom and flourish
    just as the grass of the fields and meadows.
17 May his name live on forever
    and his reputation grow for as long as the sun gives light.
May people from all nations find in him a blessing;
    may all peoples declare him blessed.

18 May the Eternal God, the God of Israel, be blessed,
    for He alone works miracles and wonders!
19 May His glorious name be blessed forever
    and the whole earth be filled with His eternal glory!
Amen. Amen.

20 The prayers of King David, Jesse’s son, are ended.

Book Three

Many of the psalms in Book Three (Psalms 73–89) are attributed to Asaph. He was a Levite musician appointed by David to lead the worship that surrounded the covenant chest in the congregation tent (1 Chronicles 16:4–6). Asaph and his descendants continued this work through much of Israel’s history, specifically when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12), when Josiah revived the worship of the Eternal One in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:15), and when Ezra and Nehemiah dedicated the wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35).

The psalms attributed to Asaph were liturgical, that is, they were chanted or sung as a part of the regular worship of God in the temple by the priests, Levites, and perhaps other worshipers too. Whether songs of lament, requests for guidance, or pleas for mercy, these psalms were sung in the one place God would hear them best—at His temple—the nexus between heaven and earth.

Psalm 73

A song of Asaph.

Truly God is good to His people, Israel,
    to those with pure hearts.
Though I know this is true, I almost lost my footing;
    yes, my steps were on slippery ground.
You see, there was a time when I envied arrogant men
    and thought, “The wicked look pretty happy to me.”

For they seem to live carefree lives, free of suffering;
    their bodies are strong and healthy.
They don’t know trouble as we do;
    they are not plagued with problems as the rest of us are.
They’ve got pearls of pride strung around their necks;
    they clothe their bodies with violence.
They have so much more than enough.
    Their eyes bulge because they are so fat with possessions.
    They have more than their hearts could have ever imagined.
There is nothing sacred, and no one is safe.
    Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips;
    they bully and threaten to crush their enemies.
They even mock God as if He were not above;
    their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth; they feel invincible.

10 Even God’s people turn and are carried away by them;
    they watch and listen, yet find no fault in them.
11 You will hear them say, “How can the True God possibly know anyway? He’s not even here.
    So how can the Most High have any knowledge of what happens here?
12 Let me tell you what I know about the wicked:
    they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is growing and growing.
13 Oh, let this not be me! It seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean
    and washed my hands in innocence.
    And for what? Nothing.
14 For all day long, I am being punished,
    each day awakening to stern chastisement.

15 If I had said to others these kinds of things about the plight of God’s good people,
    then I know I would have betrayed the next generation.
16 Trying to solve this mystery on my own exhausted me;
    I couldn’t bear to look at it any further.
17 So I took my questions to the True God,
    and in His sanctuary I realized something so chilling and final: their lives have a deadly end.
18 Because You have certainly set the wicked upon a slippery slope,
    You’ve set them up to slide to their destruction.
19 And they won’t see it coming. It will happen so fast:
    first, a flash of terror, and then desolation.
20 It is like a dream from which someone awakes.
    You will wake up, Lord, and loathe what has become of them.
21 You see, my heart overflowed with bitterness and cynicism;
    I felt as if someone stabbed me in the back.
22 But I didn’t know the truth;
    I have been acting like a stupid animal toward You.
23 But look at this: You are still holding my right hand;
    You have been all along.
24 Even though I was angry and hard-hearted, You gave me good advice;
    when it’s all over, You will receive me into Your glory.
25 For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven.
    There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.
26 I admit how broken I am in body and spirit,
    but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever.

27 It will happen: whoever shuns You will be silenced forever;
    You will bring an end to all who refuse to be true to You.
28 But the closer I am to You, my God, the better because life with You is good.
    O Lord, the Eternal, You keep me safe—
    I will tell everyone what You have done.

Romans 9:1-15

In all of Paul’s letters, there is no more triumphant note than in this declaration. He has reached the climax of what it means to live em powered by God’s Spirit. We are champions, one and all. We will taste victory and sweet success made possible by His love and gifts to us. We may fear the harsh judgment of the majority. We may bristle under the scowls of others. We may even be unsettled by thoughts of death, persecution, and dark spiritual powers. But Paul celebrates the absolute assurance that no one and nothing can come between us and the love of God.

Now let me speak the truth as plainly as I know it in the Anointed One. I am not lying when I say that my conscience and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to my state of constant grief. It may sound extreme; but I wish that I were lost, cursed, and totally separated from the Anointed—if that would change the eternal destination of my brothers and sisters, my flesh and countrymen. They are, after all, Israelites who have been adopted into God’s family; the glory, the covenants, the gift of the law, the temple service, and God’s promises are their rightful heritage. The patriarchs are theirs, too; and from their bloodline comes the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who reigns supreme over all things, God blessed forever. Amen.

The tone changes abruptly. One minute Paul is celebrating the power of Jesus’ love; the next he is grieving because they are not pressing their way into the Kingdom.

Clearly it is not that God’s word has failed. The truth is that not everyone descended from Israel is truly Israel. Just because people can claim Abraham as their father does not make them his true children. But in the Scriptures, it says, “Through Isaac your covenant children will be named.”[a] The proper interpretation is this: Abraham’s children by natural descent are not necessarily God’s covenant people; what matters is that His children receive and live the promise. For this is the word God promised: “In due time, I will come, and Sarah will give birth to a son.”[b] 10 But the story didn’t stop there. Remember when Rebekah conceived her twin boys by our father Isaac? 11-12 The twins were in Rebekah’s womb when God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”[c] This was not based on merit or actions; the twins had not done anything to please or displease God. This was God’s call on each son and His desired purposes. 13 Just as the Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”[d]

14 So how do we talk about that? Are God’s dealings unjust? Absolutely not! 15 Because He said to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I choose to show mercy, and I will demonstrate compassion on whomever I choose to have compassion.”[e]

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.