Psalm 21
English Standard Version
The King Rejoices in the Lord's Strength
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
21 O Lord, in your (A)strength the king rejoices,
and in your (B)salvation how greatly he exults!
2 You have (C)given him his heart's desire
and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For you (D)meet him with rich blessings;
you set (E)a crown of (F)fine gold upon his head.
4 He asked life of you; you (G)gave it to him,
(H)length of days forever and ever.
5 His (I)glory is great through your salvation;
(J)splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever;[a]
you make him glad with the (K)joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord,
and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be (L)moved.
8 Your hand will (M)find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as (N)a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his (O)wrath,
and (P)fire will consume them.
10 You (Q)will destroy their (R)descendants from the earth,
and their offspring from among the children of man.
11 Though they plan evil against you,
though they (S)devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them (T)to flight;
you will (U)aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.
Footnotes
- Psalm 21:6 Or make him a source of blessing forever
Psalm 21
The Message
21 1-7 Your strength, God, is the king’s strength.
Helped, he’s hollering Hosannas.
You gave him exactly what he wanted;
you didn’t hold back.
You filled his arms with gifts;
you gave him a right royal welcome.
He wanted a good life; you gave it to him,
and then made it a long life as a bonus.
You lifted him high and bright as a cumulus cloud,
then dressed him in rainbow colors.
You pile blessings on him;
you make him glad when you smile.
Is it any wonder the king loves God?
that he’s sticking with the Best?
8-12 With a fistful of enemies in one hand
and a fistful of haters in the other,
You radiate with such brilliance
that they cringe as before a furnace.
Now the furnace swallows them whole,
the fire eats them alive!
You purge the earth of their progeny,
you wipe the slate clean.
All their evil schemes, the plots they cook up,
have fizzled—every one.
You sent them packing;
they couldn’t face you.
13 Show your strength, God, so no one can miss it.
We are out singing the good news!
Isaiah 41:14-20
English Standard Version
14 Fear not, you (A)worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
your (B)Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 (C)Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh (D)the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 (E)you shall winnow them, and (F)the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
(G)And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
17 (H)When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 (I)I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
(J)I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 (K)I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert (L)the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
20 that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that (M)the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Isaiah 41:14-20
The Message
14-16 “Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?
Don’t be afraid.
Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?
I’ll help you.
I, God, want to reassure you.
The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.
I’m transforming you from worm to harrow,
from insect to iron.
As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains,
turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.
You’ll open the rough ground to the weather,
to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.
But you’ll be confident and exuberant,
expansive in The Holy of Israel!
17-20 “The poor and homeless are desperate for water,
their tongues parched and no water to be found.
But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,
and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.
I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,
spout fountains in the valleys.
I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,
the waterless waste into splashing creeks.
I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,
also acacia, myrtle, and olive.
I’ll place the cypress in the desert,
with plenty of oaks and pines.
Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—
unavoidable, indisputable evidence
That I, God, personally did this.
It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel.
Romans 15:14-21
English Standard Version
Paul the Minister to the Gentiles
14 (A)I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers,[a] that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with (B)all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, (C)because of the grace given me by God 16 to be (D)a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles (E)in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that (F)the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have (G)reason to be proud of (H)my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except (I)what Christ has accomplished through me (J)to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 (K)by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that (L)from Jerusalem and all the way around (M)to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, (N)lest I build on someone else's foundation, 21 but as it is written,
(O)“Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”
Footnotes
- Romans 15:14 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 30
Romans 15:14-21
The Message
14-16 Personally, I’ve been completely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. You seem to me to be well-motivated and well-instructed, quite capable of guiding and advising one another. So, my dear friends, don’t take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It’s not criticism. I’m simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God’s Holy Spirit.
17-21 Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,
Those who were never told of him—
they’ll see him!
Those who’ve never heard of him—
they’ll get the message!
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Read full chapterThe Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson