A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

Jacob Moves to Egypt

46 So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to ^(A)Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the ^(B)God of his father Isaac. ² And ^(C)God spoke to Israel ^[a]in visions of the night and said, “^(D)Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” ³ Then He said, “^(E)I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will ^(F)make you into a great nation there. ^4 (G)I will go down with you to Egypt, and ^(H)I will also assuredly bring you up again; and ^(I)Joseph will ^[b]close your eyes.”

⁵ Then Jacob left Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the ^(J)wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. ⁶ They also took their livestock and their possessions, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and ^(K)came to Egypt, Jacob and all his ^[c]descendants with him: ⁷ his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his ^[d]descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

²⁸ Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to ^[a]guide him to ^(A)Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. ²⁹ And Joseph ^[b]prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared to him, Joseph threw himself on his neck and ^(B)wept on his neck a long time. ³⁰ Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.” ³¹ But Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “^(C)I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me; ³² and the men are shepherds, for they have been ^[c]keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ ³³ When Pharaoh calls for you and says, ‘^(D)What is your occupation?’ ³⁴ you shall say, ‘Your servants have been ^[d](E)keepers of livestock since our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of ^(F)Goshen; for every shepherd is an ^(G)abomination to the Egyptians.”

Paul’s Use of Freedom

9 Am I not ^(A)free? Am I not an ^(B)apostle? Have I not ^(C)seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not ^(D)my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the ^(E)seal of my ^(F)apostleship in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this: ^4 [a](G)Do we not have a right to eat and drink? ^5 [b](H)Do we not have a right to take along a ^[c]believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ^(I)brothers of the Lord, and ^[d](J)Cephas? ⁶ Or do only ^[e](K)Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from ^[f]working? ⁷ Who at any time serves ^(L)as a soldier at his own expense? Who ^(M)plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not ^[g]consume some of the milk of the flock?

⁸ I am not just asserting these things ^(N)according to human judgment, am I? Or does the Law not say these things as well? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses: “^(O)You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.” God is not concerned about ^(P)oxen, is He? ¹⁰ Or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written ^(Q)for our sake, because ^(R)the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing in the crops. ^11 (S)If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we ^(T)did not use this right, but we endure all things ^(U)so that we will cause no hindrance to the ^(V)gospel of Christ. ^13 (W)Do you not know that those who ^(X)perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ^[h]from the altar? ¹⁴ So also ^(Y)the Lord directed those who proclaim the ^(Z)gospel to ^(AA)get their living from the gospel.

¹⁵ But I have ^(AB)used none of these things. And I have not written these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that. No one shall make ^(AC)my boast an empty one!

^30 (A)The ^(B)apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and ^(C)they did not even have time to eat.) ^32 (D)And they went away in ^(E)the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Men Fed

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ^[a]ashore, He ^(F)saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because ^(G)they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵ And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “^[b]This place is secluded and it is already late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves ^[c]something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” ^(H)And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^[d](I)denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ But He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^(J)blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied; ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full ^(K)baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were ^(L)five thousand ^[e]men who ate the loaves.

Jesus Walks on the Water

^45 (M)And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into ^(N)the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to ^(O)Bethsaida, while He Himself *dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ And after ^(P)saying goodbye to them, He left ^(Q)for the mountain to pray.