Psalm 87
Modern English Version
Psalm 87
A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song.
1 The city of His foundation is on the holy mountain.
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon
to those who know Me;
look, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia;
“This man was born there.”
5 But of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,”
for the Most High shall make her secure.
6 The Lord shall count when He registers the people,
“This one was born there.” Selah
7 As well the singers and the players of instruments say,
“All my springs are in you.”
Psalm 90
Modern English Version
BOOK FOUR
Psalms 90–106
Psalm 90
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or You had formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
3 You return man to the dust
and say, “Return, you children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a night watch in the night time.
5 You carry them away as with a flood;
they are as a dream, like renewed grass in the morning:
6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are consumed by Your anger,
and by Your wrath we are terrified.
8 You have set our iniquities before You,
even our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
9 For all our days pass away in your wrath;
we end our years with a groan.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
and if by reason of strength eighty;
yet their length is toil and sorrow,
for they soon end, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger?
Or Your wrath according to Your fear?
12 So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord, how long?
Have mercy on Your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the early morning with Your mercy,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days that You have afflicted us,
and the years that we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work be displayed to Your servants
and Your glory to their children.
17 Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands among us;
yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 136
Modern English Version
Psalm 136
1 Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,
for His mercy endures forever.
2 Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods,
for His mercy endures forever.
3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for His mercy endures forever:
4 to Him who alone does great wonders,
for His mercy endures forever;
5 to Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
for His mercy endures forever;
6 to Him who stretched out the earth above the waters,
for His mercy endures forever;
7 to Him who made the great heavenly lights,
for His mercy endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for His mercy endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for His mercy endures forever;
10 to Him who struck down in Egypt their firstborn,
for His mercy endures forever;
11 and brought out Israel from among them,
for His mercy endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm,
for His mercy endures forever;
13 to Him who divided the Red Sea into two,
for His mercy endures forever;
14 and made Israel to pass through the midst of it,
for His mercy endures forever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
for His mercy endures forever;
16 to Him who led His people through the wilderness,
for His mercy endures forever;
17 to Him who struck down great kings,
for His mercy endures forever;
18 and slew mighty kings,
for His mercy endures forever;
19 Sihon king of the Amorites,
for His mercy endures forever;
20 and Og king of Bashan,
for His mercy endures forever;
21 and gave their land for a possession,
for His mercy endures forever;
22 even an inheritance to Israel His servant,
for His mercy endures forever.
23 Who remembered us in our low place,
for His mercy endures forever;
24 and has redeemed us from our enemies,
for His mercy endures forever;
25 who gives food to all people,
for His mercy endures forever.
26 Give thanks unto the God of heaven,
for His mercy endures forever.
Numbers 13:31-14:25
Modern English Version
31 But the men that went up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people because they are stronger than we.” 32 They gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come from the giants, and in our eyes we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.”
Israel Refuses to Enter Canaan
14 And the whole assembly lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “O that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! 3 And why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 And they said one to another, “Let us select a leader, and let us return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the assembly of the children of Israel. 6 Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, from the ones who explored the land, tore their clothes. 7 And they spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to explore it is a very, very good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land because they are bread for us. Their defense is gone from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
10 But all the assembly said, “Stone them with stones.” And the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel. 11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people disgrace Me? And how long will they not believe Me, in spite of all the signs which I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make from you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses Intercedes for the People
13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your power You brought this people up from among them, 14 and they will say to the inhabitants of this land that they heard that You, Lord, are among this people, that You, Lord, are seen face to face, and Your cloud stands over them, and in the pillar of cloud You go before them by day and by a pillar of fire at night. 15 Now if You kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of You will speak, saying, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, so He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
17 “So now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your grace, just as You have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 The Lord said, “I have forgiven according to your word. 21 But truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22 Because all those men seeing My glory and My signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not listened to My voice, 23 surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who disgraced Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit with him and followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his seed will possess it. 25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites lived in the valley. Tomorrow you will turn, and you will set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
Romans 3:9-20
Modern English Version
There Is None Righteous
9 What then? Are we better than they? No, not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;[a]
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks after God.[b]
12 They have all turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
no, not one.”[c]
13 “Their throats are an open grave;
with their tongues they have used deceit”;
“the poison of vipers is under their lips”;[d]
14 “their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;[f]
16 destruction and misery are in their paths;[g]
17 and they do not know the way of peace.”[h]
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[i]
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and all the world may become accountable to God. 20 Therefore by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Read full chapter
Matthew 19:1-12
Modern English Version
Teaching About Divorce(A)
19 Now when Jesus finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
3 The Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4 He answered, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
7 They said to Him, “Then why did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to send her away?”[c]
8 He said to them, “Moses, for the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is not good to marry.”
11 But He said to them, “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are some eunuchs who have been so from birth, there are some eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are some eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.