Psalm 41

English Standard Version

O Lord, Be Gracious to Me

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

41 ^(A)Blessed is the one who considers the poor!^[a]
    ^(B)In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
²the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
    he is called blessed in the land;
    you ^(C)do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
³The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
    in his illness you restore him to full health.^[b]

⁴As for me, I said, “O Lord, ^(D)be gracious to me;
    ^(E)heal me,^[c] for I have sinned against you!”
⁵My enemies say of me in malice,
    “When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶And when one comes to see me, ^(F)he utters empty words,
    while his heart gathers iniquity;
    when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
⁷All who hate me whisper together about me;
    they imagine the worst for me.^[d]

⁸They say, “A deadly thing is poured out^[e] on him;
    he will not rise again from where he lies.”
⁹Even my ^(G)close friend in whom I trusted,
    who ^(H)ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
¹⁰But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
    and raise me up, that I may repay them!

¹¹By this I know that ^(I)you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
¹²But ^(J)you have upheld me because of ^(K)my integrity,
and ^(L)set me in your presence ^(M)forever.

¹³^(N)Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.

Footnotes

Psalm 41:1 Or weak
Psalm 41:3 Hebrew you turn all his bed
Psalm 41:4 Hebrew my soul
Psalm 41:7 Or they devise evil against me
Psalm 41:8 Or has fastened

Psalm 52

English Standard Version

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil^[a] of David, when ^(A)Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

52 Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
²Your ^(B)tongue plots destruction,
    like ^(C)a sharp razor, you ^(D)worker of deceit.
³You love evil more than good,
    and ^(E)lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
⁴You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.

⁵But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and ^(F)tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from ^(G)the land of the living. Selah
⁶The righteous shall ^(H)see and fear,
    and shall ^(I)laugh at him, saying,
⁷“See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
but ^(J)trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!”^[b]

⁸But I am like ^(K)a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
⁹I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, ^(L)for it is good,
    in the presence of the ^(M)godly.

Footnotes

Psalm 52:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 52:7 Or in his work of destruction

Psalm 44

English Standard Version

Come to Our Help

To the choirmaster. ^(A)A Maskil^[a] of the Sons of Korah.

44 O God, we have heard with our ears,
    ^(B)our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
    ^(C)in the days of old:
²you with your own hand ^(D)drove out the nations,
    but ^(E)them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
    but ^(F)them you set free;
³for not ^(G)by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
    and ^(H)the light of your face,
    ^(I)for you delighted in them.

⁴^(J)You are my King, O God;
    ^(K)ordain salvation for Jacob!
⁵Through you we ^(L)push down our foes;
    through your name we ^(M)tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶For not in ^(N)my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
⁷But you have saved us from our foes
    and have ^(O)put to shame those who hate us.
⁸^(P)In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

⁹But you have ^(Q)rejected us and disgraced us
    and ^(R)have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰You have made us ^(S)turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
¹¹You have made us like ^(T)sheep for slaughter
    and have ^(U)scattered us among the nations.
¹²^(V)You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
¹³You have made us ^(W)the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and ^(X)scorn of those around us.
¹⁴You have made us ^(Y)a byword among the nations,
    ^(Z)a laughingstock^[b] among the peoples.
¹⁵All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and ^(AA)shame has covered my face
¹⁶at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of ^(AB)the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷^(AC)All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our ^(AD)steps ^(AE)departed from your way;
¹⁹yet you have ^(AF)broken us in the place of ^(AG)jackals
    and covered us with ^(AH)the shadow of death.
²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or ^(AI)spread out our hands to ^(AJ)a foreign god,
²¹^(AK)would not God discover this?
    ^(AL)For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²²Yet ^(AM)for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³^(AN)Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! ^(AO)Do not reject us forever!
²⁴Why ^(AP)do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵For our ^(AQ)soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶Rise up; ^(AR)come to our help!
    ^(AS)Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Footnotes

Psalm 44:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 44:14 Hebrew a shaking of the head

Deuteronomy 11:13-19

English Standard Version

¹³“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, ^(A)to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴^(B)he^[a] will give the rain for your land in its season, ^(C)the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. ¹⁵^(D)And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and ^(E)you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶Take care ^(F)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(G)serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷then ^(H)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he ^(I)will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and ^(J)you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸^(K)“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and ^(L)you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

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Footnotes

Deuteronomy 11:14 Samaritan, Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew I; also verse 15

2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2

English Standard Version

The Ministry of Reconciliation

¹¹Therefore, knowing ^(A)the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But ^(B)what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. ¹²^(C)We are not commending ourselves to you again but ^(D)giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. ¹³For if we ^(E)are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ ^(F)controls us, because we have concluded this: that ^(G)one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵and he died for all, ^(H)that those who live might no longer live for themselves but ^(I)for him who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶From now on, therefore, ^(J)we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is ^(K)in Christ, he is ^(L)a new creation.^[a] ^(M)The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸All this is from God, ^(N)who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us ^(O)the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling^[b] the world to himself, ^(P)not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us ^(Q)the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, ^(R)we are ambassadors for Christ, ^(S)God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹^(T)For our sake he made him to be sin ^(U)who knew no sin, so that in him we might become ^(V)the righteousness of God.

6 ^(W)Working together with him, then, ^(X)we appeal to you ^(Y)not to receive the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,

^(Z)“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, ^(AA)now is the ^(AB)favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Footnotes

2 Corinthians 5:17 Or creature
2 Corinthians 5:19 Or God was in Christ, reconciling

Luke 17:1-10

English Standard Version

Temptations to Sin

17 And he said to his disciples, ^(A)“Temptations to sin^[a] are ^(B)sure to come, but ^(C)woe to the one through whom they come! ²^(D)It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.^[b] ³Pay attention to yourselves! ^(E)If your brother sins, ^(F)rebuke him, and if he repents, ^(G)forgive him, ⁴and if he sins against you ^(H)seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Increase Our Faith

⁵^(I)The apostles said to the Lord, ^(J)“Increase our faith!” ⁶And the Lord said, ^(K)“If you had faith like ^(L)a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this ^(M)mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Unworthy Servants

⁷“Will any one of you who has a servant^[c] plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? ⁸Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and ^(N)dress properly,^[d] and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are ^(O)unworthy servants;^[e] we have only done what was our duty.’”