M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 Moses called together all Israel and said this to them: Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am speaking in your hearing today so that you learn them and are conscientious about carrying them out. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with those who are here today, all of us who are living today. 4 Face-to-face the Lord spoke with you at the mountain from the middle of the fire. 5 At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to relate to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and you did not go up on the mountain.
Then the Lord said:
6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.[a]
7 You shall have no other gods beside me.[b] 8 You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. 9 Do not bow down to them or be subservient to[c] them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.[d] I follow up on[e] the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren if they also hate me. 10 But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished.
12 Observe the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy, just as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you are to serve and perform all of your regular work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. You are not to do any regular work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the alien who resides inside your gates, in order that your male servant and your female servant may rest like you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the day of rest.
16 Honor your father and your mother, just as the Lord your God commanded you, so that you may prolong your days and so that it may go well for you on the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
17 You shall not commit murder.
18 You shall not commit adultery.
19 You shall not steal.
20 You shall not give lying testimony against your neighbor.
21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house or his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
22 These are the words the Lord spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the thick cloud, and the gloom, with a loud voice, and he did not add anything. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 When you heard the voice from the middle of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
24 Then you said, “See how the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even though God has spoken to him. 25 But now, why should we die, because this great fire will consume us? If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we will die. 26 For who of all flesh has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of fire as we have and has lived? 27 You go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says, and then you speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28 The Lord heard what you said when you spoke to me. So the Lord said to me, “I heard what these people said when they spoke to you. Everything that they spoke to you is good. 29 If only this would be in their hearts—to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well for them and for their children continually. 30 Go and say to them, ‘Go back to your tents.’ 31 As for you, stand here with me and I will speak to you all the commands and the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them and that they are to do in the land that I am giving them as a possession. 32 Tell them:[f] ‘Be conscientious about doing just as the Lord your God commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk in every way the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be good for you and you may live long in the land that you will possess.’”
Psalm 88
Darkness Is My Friend
The Headings
A song. A psalm. By the Sons of Korah.
For the choir director. According to mahalath leannoth.[a]
A maskil[b] of Heman the Ezrahite.
Opening Plea
1 O Lord, the God who saves me, by day I cry out.
At night I cry before you.
2 May my prayer come before you.
Turn your ear to my cry.
The Problem
3 Indeed, my soul has had its fill of troubles,
and my life has arrived at the grave.
4 I am treated like those who go down to the pit.
I am like someone without strength.
5 I am turned loose with the dead.
I am like the slain who lie in the grave,
like the ones you do not remember anymore,
like those who are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
in dark places, in the depths.
7 Your wrath presses against me. Interlude
You have battered me with all your breakers.
8 You have distanced my acquaintances from me.
You have made me repulsive to them.
I am shut in and I cannot get out.
9 My eyesight grows dim from affliction.
I call to you, O Lord, every day.
I spread out my hands to you.
The Darkness of Death
10 Is it for the dead that you do a miracle? Interlude
Do the spirits of the dead rise up and praise you?
11 Is your mercy declared in the tomb,
your faithfulness in decay?
12 Is your wonderful work known in the darkness?
Is your righteousness known in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I cry to you, O Lord,
and in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, O Lord, do you reject my soul?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 I have been afflicted
and I have been close to death since my youth.
I have endured your terrors.
I am in despair.
16 Your rage has swept over me.
Your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like water.
They have battered me completely.
18 You have distanced my loved one and friend from me.
My only friend is darkness.
Rise Up, O Lord!
33
Woe to you who destroy, even though you have not been destroyed,
you who betray, though you have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed,
and when you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
2 O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait hopefully for you.
Be our strength every morning.
Be our salvation in times of trouble.
3 At the thunder of your voice, people flee.
When you stir up your great power, nations scatter.
4 Your plunder will be taken away
the way a caterpillar[a] eats things up.
People will swarm on it like a locust swarm.
5 The Lord is exalted, because he dwells on high.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 There will be stability in your time,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Your treasure will be the fear of the Lord.
7 Listen! Their elite troops[b] are crying in the streets.
The peace envoys weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted.
All travel has stopped.
The treaty has been broken.
Witnesses[c] are despised,
and no one is respected.
9 The land mourns and becomes weak.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
The Plain of Sharon is like the Arabah,
and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.
10 Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
11 You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
12 People will be burned to lime,[d]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
13 You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
15 Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
16 they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.
17 Your eyes will see the King[e] in his splendor.
They will see a land that stretches far and wide.
18 Your heart will think about the past terrors.
You will think, “Where is the one who took the inventory?[f]
Where is the one who weighed the silver?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19 You will no longer see a barbaric people,
a people with unintelligible speech, which you cannot understand,
a people who babble in a language that makes no sense.
20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold our festivals.
You will see Jerusalem as a peaceful place,
as a tent that cannot be removed.
Its stakes will never be pulled up.
Its ropes will never be broken.
21 There the Lord will be with us in majesty,
as in a place with wide rivers and streams,
where no enemy warship can row,
where no sailing ship can slip past.
22 Because the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
and the Lord is our king,
he is the one who will save us.
23 Your rigging hangs loose.
The mast is not steady.
The sail is not set.[g]
When they divide all the plunder,
there will be so much that even the crippled will take part.
24 No one who lives there will say, “I am sick.”
The guilt of the people who live there will be forgiven.
Letter to the Church in Sardis
3 To the messenger of the church in Sardis write:
The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you.
4 Yet you have a few names in Sardis, people who have not defiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothing, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious in this way[a] will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
7 To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write:
The Holy One, the one who is true, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open, says this:
8 I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Look, I will make those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not but are lying—look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them realize that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come over the whole inhabited world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown.
12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. I will also write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.
13 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Laodicea
14 To the messenger of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation, says this:
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. If only you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm and not hot or cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich. I have become very wealthy and need nothing.” But you do not know that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not become public, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
19 I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. So take this seriously and repent.
20 Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me. 21 To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.