Psalm 115

¹ Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your name give glory, for Your mercy and loving-kindness and for the sake of Your truth and faithfulness!

² Why should the nations say, Where is now their God?

³ But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.

⁴ The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

⁵ They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

⁶ They have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not;

⁷ They have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither can they make a sound with their throats.

⁸ They who make idols are like them; so are all who trust in and lean on them.^(A)

⁹ O Israel, trust and take refuge in the Lord! [Lean on, rely on, and be confident in Him!] He is their Help and their Shield.

¹⁰ O house of Aaron [the priesthood], trust in and lean on the Lord! He is their Help and their Shield.

¹¹ You who [reverently] fear the Lord, trust in and lean on the Lord! He is their Help and their Shield.

¹² The Lord has been mindful of us, He will bless us: He will bless the house of Israel, He will bless the house of Aaron [the priesthood],

¹³ He will bless those who reverently and worshipfully fear the Lord, both small and great.^(B)

¹⁴ May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children.

¹⁵ May you be blessed of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth!

¹⁶ The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth has He given to the children of men.

¹⁷ The dead praise not the Lord, neither any who go down into silence.

¹⁸ But we will bless (affectionately and gratefully praise) the Lord from this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

⁵ And the Lord said to Moses,

⁶ Take the ^[a]Levites from among the Israelites and cleanse them.

⁷ And thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification [water to be used in case of sin] upon them, and let them pass a razor over all their flesh and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves.^(A)

⁸ Then let them take a young bull and its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and another young bull you shall take for a sin offering.

⁹ You shall present the Levites before the Tent of Meeting, and you shall assemble the whole Israelite congregation.

¹⁰ And you shall present the Levites before the Lord, and the Israelites shall put their hands upon the Levites,

¹¹ And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites and on their behalf, that they may do the service of the Lord.

¹² Then the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord, to make atonement for the Levites.

¹³ And you shall present the Levites before Aaron and his sons and offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.

¹⁴ Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the Israelites, and the Levites shall be Mine [in a very special sense].

¹⁵ And after that the Levites shall go in to do service at the Tent of Meeting, when you have cleansed them and offered them as a wave offering.

¹⁶ For they are wholly given to Me from among the Israelites; instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the Israelites, I have taken the Levites for Myself.

¹⁷ For all the firstborn of the Israelites are Mine, both of man and beast; on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt [not of Israel], I consecrated them and set them apart for Myself.

¹⁸ And I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the Israelites.

¹⁹ And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the Israelites to do the service of the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement for them, that there may be no plague among the Israelites if they should come near the sanctuary.

²⁰ So Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the Israelites did thus to the Levites; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning [them], so did the Israelites to them.

²¹ The Levites cleansed and purified themselves and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the Lord and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

²² And after that the Levites went in to do their service in the Tent of Meeting with the attendance of Aaron and his sons; as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they to them.

1 Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) to stimulate and promote the faith of God’s chosen ones and to lead them on to accurate discernment and recognition of and acquaintance with the Truth which belongs to and harmonizes with and tends to godliness,

² [Resting] in the hope of eternal life, [life] which the ever truthful God Who cannot deceive promised before the world or the ages of time began.

³ And [now] in His own appointed time He has made manifest (made known) His Word and revealed it as His message through the preaching entrusted to me by command of God our Savior;

⁴ To Titus, my true child according to a common (general) faith: Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) and [heart] peace from God the Father and the Lord Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵ For this reason I left you [behind] in Crete, that you might set right what was defective and finish what was left undone, and that you might appoint elders and set them over the churches (assemblies) in every city as I directed you.

⁶ [These elders should be] men who are of unquestionable integrity and are irreproachable, the husband of [but] one wife, whose children are [well trained and are] believers, not open to the accusation of being loose in morals and conduct or unruly and disorderly.

⁷ For the bishop (an overseer) as God’s steward must be blameless, not self-willed or arrogant or presumptuous; he must not be quick-tempered or given to drink or pugnacious (brawling, violent); he must not be grasping and greedy for filthy lucre (financial gain);

⁸ But he must be hospitable (loving and a friend to believers, especially to strangers and foreigners); [he must be] a lover of goodness [of good people and good things], sober-minded (sensible, discreet), upright and fair-minded, a devout man and religiously correct, temperate and keeping himself in hand.

⁹ He must hold fast to the sure and trustworthy Word of God as he was taught it, so that he may be able both to give stimulating instruction and encouragement in sound (wholesome) doctrine and to refute and convict those who contradict and oppose it [showing the wayward their error].