M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David’s Song of Praise to the Lord
22 [a] David sang this song to the Lord when the Lord saved him from Saul and all his other enemies.
2 The Lord is my Rock, my fortress, my place of safety.
3 He is my God, the Rock I run to for protection.
He is my shield; by his power I am saved.[b]
He is my hiding place, my place of safety, high in the hills.
He is my savior, the one
who rescues me from the cruel enemy.
4 I called to the Lord for help,
and he saved me from my enemies.
He is worthy of my praise!
5 Waves of death were crashing around me.
A deadly flood was carrying me away.
6 The ropes of the grave wrapped around me.
Death set its trap right there in front of me.
7 In my trouble I called to the Lord.
Yes, I cried out to my God for help.
There in his temple he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for help.
8 The earth shook and shivered.
The foundations of heaven trembled.
They shook because he was angry!
9 Smoke came from his nose.
Burning flames came from his mouth.
Red-hot coals fell from him.
10 He tore open the sky and came down.
He stood on a thick, dark cloud.
11 He flew across the sky, riding on a Cherub angel,
gliding on the wings of the wind.
12 He wrapped himself in darkness that covered him like a tent.
He was hidden by dark clouds filled with water.
13 Out of the brightness before him,
flashes of lightning came down.
14 The Lord thundered from the sky.
God Most High let his voice be heard.
15 He scattered the enemy with his arrows—
the lightning bolts that threw them into confusion.
16 The Lord shouted his command,
and a powerful wind began to blow.[c]
Then the bottom of the sea could be seen,
and the earth’s foundations were uncovered.
17 The Lord reached down from above and grabbed me.
He pulled me from the deep water.
18 He saved me from my powerful enemies, who hated me.
They were too strong for me, so he saved me.
19 They attacked me in my time of trouble,
but the Lord was there to support me.
20 He was pleased with me, so he rescued me.
He took me to a safe place.
21 The Lord rewarded me for doing what is right.
He was good to me because I am innocent.
22 The Lord did this because I have obeyed him.
I have not turned against my God.
23 I always remembered his laws.
I never stopped following his rules.
24 He knows I did nothing that was wrong.
I have kept myself from sinning.
25 So the Lord rewarded me for doing what is right.
He could see that I am innocent.
26 Lord, you are faithful to those who are faithful.
You are good to those who are good.
27 You never do wrong to those who have done no wrong.
But you outsmart the wicked, no matter how clever they are.
28 You help those who are humble,
but as soon as you see the proud, you humiliate them.
29 Lord, you are my lamp.
You, Lord, turn the darkness around me into light.
30 With your help I can defeat an army.
If my God is with me, I can climb over enemy walls.
31 God’s way is perfect.
The Lord’s promise always proves to be true.
He protects those who trust in him.
32 There is no God except the Lord.
There is no Rock except our God.
33 God is my strong fortress.
He clears the path I need to take.
34 He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer.
Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling.
35 He trains me for war
so that my arms can bend the most powerful bow.
36 Lord, you have given me your shield to protect me.
It is your help that has made me great.
37 You cleared a path for my feet
so that I could walk without stumbling.
38 I chased my enemies and defeated them.
I did not stop until they were destroyed.
39 I destroyed my enemies.
I struck them down.
They did not get up again.
They fell under my feet.
40 Lord, you made me strong in battle.
You made my enemies fall before me.
41 You made my enemies turn and run away.
I destroyed those who hated me.
42 They looked for help,
but there was no one to save them.
They cried out to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
43 I beat my enemies to pieces
like dust on the ground.
I smashed them and walked on them
like mud in the streets.
44 You saved me from those who fought against me.
You made me the ruler over nations.
People I never knew now serve me.
45 Foreigners fall helpless before me!
As soon as they heard about me, they were ready to obey.
46 They lose all their courage
and come out of their hiding places shaking with fear.
47 The Lord lives!
I praise my Rock!
How great is my God, the Rock who saves me!
48 He is the God who punishes my enemies for me,
the one who puts people under my rule.
49 He saves me from my enemies!
You help me defeat those who attack me.
You save me from cruel people.
50 Lord, that is why I praise you among the nations.
That is why I sing songs of praise to your name.
51 You help your king win battle after battle.
You show your faithful love to your chosen one,[d]
to David and his descendants forever!
The Other Apostles Accepted Paul
2 After 14 years I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me. 2 I went there because God showed me that I should go. I explained to them the message that I tell the non-Jewish people. I also met alone with those who were considered to be the leaders. I wanted to be sure we were in agreement so that my past work and the work I do now would not be wasted.
3 Titus, who was with me, is a Greek. But these leaders still did not force him to be circumcised. 4 We needed to talk about these problems, because some who pretended to be our brothers had come into our group secretly. They came in like spies to find out about the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves, 5 but we did not agree with anything those false brothers wanted. We wanted the truth of the Good News to continue for you.
6 Those men who were considered to be important did not change the Good News message I tell people. (It doesn’t matter to me if they were “important” or not. To God everyone is the same.) 7 But these leaders saw that God had given me a special work, the same as Peter. God gave Peter the work of telling the Good News to the Jews. But God gave me the work of telling the Good News to the non-Jewish people. 8 God gave Peter the power to work as an apostle for the Jewish people. God gave me the power to work as an apostle too, but for those who are not Jews. 9 James, Peter, and John seemed to be the leaders. And they saw that God had given me this special gift of ministry, so they accepted Barnabas and me. They said to us, “We agree that you should go to those who are not Jews, and we will go to the Jews.” 10 They asked us to do only one thing—to remember to help those who are poor. And this was something that I really wanted to do.
Paul Shows That Peter Was Wrong
11 When Peter came to Antioch, he did something that was not right. I stood against him, because he was wrong. 12 This is what happened: When Peter first came to Antioch, he ate and associated with the non-Jewish people. But when some Jewish men came from James, Peter separated himself from the non-Jews. He stopped eating with them, because he was afraid of the Jews who believe that all non-Jewish people must be circumcised. 13 So Peter was a hypocrite. The other Jewish believers joined with him, so they were hypocrites too. Even Barnabas was influenced by what these Jewish believers did. 14 They were not following the truth of the Good News. When I saw this, I spoke to Peter in front of everyone. I said, “Peter, you are a Jew, but you don’t live like one. You live like someone who is not a Jew. So why are you trying to force those who are not Jewish to live like Jews?”
15 We are Jews by birth. We were not born “sinners,” as we call those who are not Jews. 16 But we know that no one is made right with God by following the law. It is trusting in[a] Jesus Christ that makes a person right with God. So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, because we wanted to be made right with God. And we are right with him because we trusted in[b] Christ—not because we followed the law. I can say this because no one can be made right with God by following the law.
17 We Jews came to Christ to be made right with God, so it is clear that we were sinners too. Does this mean that Christ makes us sinners? Of course not. 18 But I would be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up. 19 It was the law itself that caused me to end my life under the law. I died to the law so that I could live for God. I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20 So I am not the one living now—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in[c] the Son of God. He is the one who loved me and gave himself to save me. 21 I am not the one destroying the meaning of God’s grace. If following the law is how people are made right with God, then Christ did not have to die.
The Message Against Egypt
29 On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of exile,[a] the word of the Lord came to me. He said, 2 “Son of man,[b] look toward Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Speak for me against him and Egypt. 3 Say, ‘This is what the Lord God says:
“‘I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
You are the great monster[c] lying beside the Nile River.
You say, “This is my river!
I made this river!”
4-5 “‘But I will put hooks in your jaws.
The fish in the Nile River will stick to your scales.
I will pull you and your fish up
out of your rivers and onto the dry land.
You will fall on the ground,
and no one will pick you up or bury you.
I will give you to the wild animals and birds.
You will be their food.
6 Then all the people living in Egypt
will know that I am the Lord!
“‘Why will I do these things?
Because the people of Israel leaned on Egypt for support,
but Egypt was only a weak blade of grass.
7 The people of Israel leaned on Egypt for support,
but Egypt only pierced their hands and shoulder.
They leaned on you for support,
but you broke and twisted their back.’”
8 So this is what the Lord God says:
“I will bring a sword against you.
I will destroy all your people and animals.
9 Egypt will be empty and destroyed.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
God said, “Why will I do these things? Because you said, ‘This is my river. I made this river.’ 10 So I am against you. I am against the many branches of your Nile River. I will destroy Egypt completely. The cities will be empty from Migdol to Aswan and as far as the border of Ethiopia. 11 No person or animal will pass through Egypt. Nothing will pass through or settle there for 40 years. 12 I will destroy Egypt. The cities will be in ruins for 40 years! I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations. I will make them strangers[d] in foreign lands.”
13 This is what the Lord God says: “I will scatter the people of Egypt among many nations. But at the end of 40 years, I will gather those people together again. 14 I will bring back the Egyptian captives. I will bring back the Egyptians to the land of Pathros, to the land where they were born. But their kingdom will not be important. 15 It will be the least important kingdom. It will never again lift itself above the other nations. I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. 16 And the family of Israel will never again depend on Egypt. The Israelites will remember their sin—they will remember that they turned to Egypt for help and not to God, and they will know that I am the Lord God.”
Babylon Will Get Egypt
17 On the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year of exile,[e] the word of the Lord came to me. He said, 18 “Son of man, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army fight hard against Tyre. They shaved every soldier’s head. Every shoulder was rubbed bare from carrying heavy loads. Nebuchadnezzar and his army worked hard to defeat Tyre, but they got nothing from all that hard work.” 19 So this is what the Lord God says: “I will give Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will carry away the people. He will take the many valuable things in Egypt to pay his army. 20 I will give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as a reward for the hard work he did for me.” This is what the Lord God said!
21 “On that day I will make the family of Israel strong. So Ezekiel, I will let you speak to them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
One of Asaph’s maskils.
78 My people, listen to my teachings.
Listen to what I say.
2 I will tell you a story.
I will tell you about things from the past that are hard to understand.
3 We have heard the story, and we know it well.
Our fathers told it to us.
4 And we will not forget it.
Our people will be telling this story to the last generation.
We will all praise the Lord
and tell about the amazing things he did.
5 He made an agreement with Jacob.
He gave the law to Israel.
He gave the commands to our ancestors.
He told them to teach the law to their children.
6 Then the next generation, even the children not yet born, would learn the law.
And they would be able to teach it to their own children.
7 So they would all trust in God,
never forgetting what he had done
and always obeying his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors,
who were stubborn and refused to obey.
Their hearts were not devoted to God,
and they were not faithful to him.
9 The men from Ephraim had their weapons,
but they ran from the battle.
10 They did not keep their agreement with God.
They refused to obey his teachings.
11 They forgot the great things he had done
and the amazing things he had shown them.
12 While their ancestors watched,
he showed his great power at Zoan in Egypt.
13 He split the Red Sea and led the people across.
The water stood like a solid wall on both sides of them.
14 Each day God led them with the tall cloud,
and each night he led them with the light from the column of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the desert
and gave them an ocean of fresh water.
16 He brought a stream of water out of the rock
and made it flow like a river!
17 But they continued sinning against him.
They rebelled against God Most High in the desert.
18 Then they decided to test God
by telling him to give them the food they wanted.
19 They complained about him and said,
“Can God give us food in the desert?
20 Yes, he struck the rock and a flood of water came out.
But can he give us bread and meat?”
21 The Lord heard what they said
and became angry with Jacob’s people.
He was angry with Israel,
22 because they did not trust in him.
They did not believe that God could save them.
23-24 But then God opened the clouds above,
and manna rained down on them for food.
It was as if doors in the sky opened,
and grain poured down from a storehouse in the sky.
25 These people ate the food of angels.
God sent plenty of food to satisfy them.
26 He sent a strong wind from the east,
and by his power he made the south wind blow.
27 He made quail fall like rain until they covered the ground.
There were so many birds that they were like sand on the seashore.
28 The birds fell in the middle of the camp,
all around their tents.
29 The people ate until they were full.
God had given them what they wanted.
30 But before they were fully satisfied,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God became angry and killed even the strongest of them.
He brought down Israel’s best young men.
32 But the people continued to sin!
They did not trust in the amazing things God could do.
33 So he ended their worthless lives;
he brought their years to a close with disaster.
34 When he killed some of them, the others would turn back to him.
They would come running back to God.
35 They would remember that God was their Rock.
They would remember that God Most High had saved them.
36 But they tried to fool him with their words;
they told him lies.
37 Their hearts were not really with him.
They were not faithful to the agreement he gave them.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International