Noah and the Flood

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,

Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.

“The whole assembly of the Lord says: ‘How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now?

He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails;

I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always.

We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

“Now Lord, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me faithfully as you have done.’

“Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God.

Psalm 12

For the director of music. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.

Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.

“What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.

For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people. And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?

Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?

He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.