Psalm 50

English Standard Version

God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

50 ^(B)The Mighty One, God the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth
    ^(C)from the rising of the sun to its setting.
²Out of Zion, ^(D)the perfection of beauty,
    ^(E)God shines forth.

³Our God comes; he ^(F)does not keep silence;^[a]
    before him is a devouring ^(G)fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
⁴^(H)He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵“Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made ^(I)a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
⁶^(J)The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for ^(K)God himself is judge! Selah

⁷^(L)“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    ^(M)I am God, your God.
⁸Not for your sacrifices ^(N)do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹^(O)I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹²“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    ^(P)for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴^(Q)Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^[b]
    and ^(R)perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵and ^(S)call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will ^(T)deliver you, and you shall ^(U)glorify me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷^(V)For you hate discipline,
    ^(W)and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸If you see a thief, ^(X)you are pleased with him,
    ^(Y)and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    ^(Z)and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
²¹These things you have done, and I ^(AA)have been silent;
    you thought that I^[c] was one like yourself.
But now I ^(AB)rebuke you and ^(AC)lay the charge before you.

²²“Mark this, then, you who ^(AD)forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be ^(AE)none to deliver!
²³The one who ^(AF)offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who ^(AG)orders his way rightly
    I will show the ^(AH)salvation of God!”

Footnotes

Psalm 50:3 Or May our God come, and not keep silence
Psalm 50:14 Or Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God
Psalm 50:21 Or that the I am

Psalm 8

English Standard Version

How Majestic Is Your Name

To the choirmaster: according to The ^(A)Gittith.^[a] A Psalm of David.

8 O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your ^(B)name in all the earth!
You have set your ^(C)glory above the heavens.
²    ^(D)Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established ^(E)strength because of your foes,
    to still ^(F)the enemy and the avenger.

³When I ^(G)look at your heavens, the work of your ^(H)fingers,
the moon and the stars, ^(I)which you have set in place,
⁴^(J)what is man that you are ^(K)mindful of him,
and ^(L)the son of man that you ^(M)care for him?

⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than ^(N)the heavenly beings^[b]
    and crowned him with ^(O)glory and honor.
⁶You have given him ^(P)dominion over the works of your hands;
    ^(Q)you have put all things under his feet,
⁷all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Footnotes

Psalm 8:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 8:5 Or than God; Septuagint than the angels

Psalm 84

English Standard Version

My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)The Gittith.^[a] A Psalm of ^(B)the Sons of Korah.

84 How ^(C)lovely is your ^(D)dwelling place,
    O Lord of hosts!
²My soul ^(E)longs, yes, ^(F)faints
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
    to ^(G)the living God.

³Even the sparrow finds a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
    ^(H)my King and my God.
⁴^(I)Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
    ever ^(J)singing your praise! Selah

⁵Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    ^(K)in whose heart are the highways to Zion.^[b]
⁶As they go through the Valley of Baca
    they make it a place of springs;
    ^(L)the early rain also covers it with ^(M)pools.
⁷They go ^(N)from strength to strength;
    each one ^(O)appears before God in Zion.

⁸O ^(P)Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
⁹^(Q)Behold our ^(R)shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!

¹⁰For a day ^(S)in your courts is better
    than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be ^(T)a doorkeeper in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
¹¹For the Lord God is ^(U)a sun and ^(V)shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor.
^(W)No good thing does he withhold
    from those who ^(X)walk uprightly.
¹²O Lord of hosts,
    ^(Y)blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Footnotes

Psalm 84:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 84:5 Hebrew lacks to Zion

Deuteronomy 16:18-20

English Standard Version

Justice

¹⁸“You shall appoint ^(A)judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹^(B)You shall not pervert justice. ^(C)You shall not show partiality, ^(D)and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. ²⁰Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

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Deuteronomy 17:14-20

English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Israel's Kings

¹⁴“When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^(A)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵you may indeed set a king over you ^(B)whom the Lord your God will choose. One ^(C)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶Only he must not acquire many ^(D)horses for himself or cause the people ^(E)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(F)‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷And he ^(G)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^(H)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^(I)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ^(J)approved by^[a] the Levitical priests. ¹⁹And ^(K)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^(L)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^(M)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^(N)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

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Footnotes

Deuteronomy 17:18 Hebrew from before

2 Corinthians 8:1-16

English Standard Version

Encouragement to Give Generously

8 We want you to know, brothers,^[a] about the grace of God that has been ^(A)given among the churches of Macedonia, ²for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and ^(B)their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³For they gave ^(C)according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴begging us earnestly ^(D)for the favor^[b] of taking part in ^(E)the relief of the saints— ⁵and this, not as we expected, but they ^(F)gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. ⁶Accordingly, ^(G)we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you ^(H)this act of grace. ⁷But as ^(I)you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you^[c]—^(J)see that you excel in this act of grace also.

⁸^(K)I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ^(L)though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. ¹⁰And in this matter ^(M)I give my judgment: ^(N)this benefits you, who ^(O)a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. ¹¹So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. ¹²For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable ^(P)according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. ¹³For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness ¹⁴your abundance at the present time should supply ^(Q)their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. ¹⁵As it is written, ^(R)“Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Commendation of Titus

¹⁶But ^(S)thanks be to God, ^(T)who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you.

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Footnotes

2 Corinthians 8:1 Or brothers and sisters
2 Corinthians 8:4 The Greek word charis can mean favor or grace or thanks, depending on the context
2 Corinthians 8:7 Some manuscripts in your love for us

Luke 18:1-8

English Standard Version

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought ^(A)always to pray and not ^(B)lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who ^(C)neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ^(D)‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And ^(E)will not God give justice to ^(F)his elect, ^(G)who cry to him day and night? ^(H)^(I)Will he delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them ^(J)speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, ^(K)will he find faith on earth?”