M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
15 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, for the Lord’s release is proclaimed.
3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother [Israelite] your hand shall release.
4 But there will be no poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess,
5 If only you carefully listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to do watchfully all these commandments which I command you this day.
6 When the Lord your God blesses you as He promised you, then you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
7 If there is among you a poor man, one of your kinsmen in any of the towns of your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your [minds and] hearts or close your hands to your poor brother;
8 But you shall open your hands wide to him and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
9 Beware lest there be a base thought in your [minds and] hearts, and you say, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and it be sin in you.
10 You shall give to him freely without begrudging it; because of this the Lord will bless you in all your work and in all you undertake.
11 For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hands to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor in your land.
12 And if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
13 And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed.
14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress; of what the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
15 And you shall [earnestly] remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I give you this command today.
16 But if the servant says to you, I will not go away from you, because he loves you and your household, since he does well with you,
17 Then take an awl and pierce his ear through to the door, and he shall be your servant always. And also to your bondwoman you shall do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years; and the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.
19 All the firstling males that are born of your herd and flock you shall set apart for the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock.
20 You shall eat it before the Lord your God annually in the place [for worship] which the Lord shall choose, you and your household.
21 But if it has any blemish, if it is lame, blind, or has any bad blemish whatsoever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.
22 You shall eat it within your towns; the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a hart.
23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.
Psalm 102
A Prayer of the afflicted; when he is overwhelmed and faint and pours out his complaint to God.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.
2 Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that [in absorption] I forget to eat my food.
5 By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.
6 I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the waste places.
7 I am sleepless and lie awake [mourning], like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.
8 My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten the ashes [in which I sat] as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines [with the sun]; and I am withered like grass.
12 But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come [the moment designated].(A)
14 For Your servants take [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins] and show pity for her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.(B)
16 When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;
17 He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord.
19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,
20 To hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those who are appointed to death,
21 So that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem
22 When peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to worship and serve the Lord.
23 He has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me low [with sorrow] in the way; He has shortened my days [aging me prematurely].
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose years continue throughout all generations.
25 At the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing You shall change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.
27 But You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.(C)
28 The children of Your servants shall dwell safely and continue, and their descendants shall be established before You.
42 Behold my [a]Servant, Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice and right and reveal truth to the nations.(A)
2 He will not cry or shout aloud or cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.(B)
4 He will not fail or become weak or be crushed and discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the islands and coastal regions shall wait hopefully for Him and expect His direction and law.(C)
5 Thus says God the Lord—He Who created the heavens and stretched them forth, He Who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it, He Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I the Lord have called You [the Messiah] for a righteous purpose and in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and will keep You; I will give You for a covenant to the people [Israel], for a light to the nations [Gentiles],
7 To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison.(D)
8 I am the Lord; that is My name! And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10 Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands and coastal regions and the inhabitants of them [sing a song such as has never been heard in the heathen world]!
11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of the rock [Sela or Petra] sing; let them shout from the tops of the mountains!
12 Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the islands and coastal regions.
13 The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation and vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies.
14 [Thus says the Lord] I have for a long time held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant together.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them and make uneven places into a plain. These things I have determined to do [for them]; and I will not leave them forsaken.
17 They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, You are our gods.
18 Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see!
19 Who is blind but My servant [Israel]? Or deaf like My messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the one who is at peace with Me [who has been admitted to covenant relationship with Me]? Yes, who is blind like the Lord’s servant?
20 You have seen many things, but you do not observe or apprehend their true meaning. His ears are open, but he hears not!
21 It was the Lord’s pleasure for His righteousness’ sake [in accordance with a steadfast and consistent purpose] to magnify instruction and revelation and glorify them.
22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes and hidden in houses of bondage. They have become a prey, with no one to deliver them, a spoil, with no one to say, Restore them! [This shows the condition that will ensue as Israel’s punishment for not recognizing the Servant of the Lord and the day of His visit among them.] [Luke19:41-44.]
23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear in the time to come?
24 Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, He against Whom we [of Judah] have sinned and in Whose ways they [of Israel] would not walk, neither were they obedient to His law or His teaching?
25 Therefore He poured out upon [Israel] the fierceness of His anger and the strength of battle. And it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; it burned him, but he did not lay it to heart.
12 And a great sign (wonder)—[warning of future events of ominous significance] appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and with a crownlike garland (tiara) of twelve stars on her head.
2 She was pregnant and she cried out in her birth pangs, in the anguish of her delivery.
3 Then another ominous sign (wonder) was seen in heaven: Behold, a huge, fiery-red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven kingly crowns (diadems) upon his heads.(A)
4 His tail swept [across the sky] and dragged down a third of the stars and flung them to the earth. And the dragon stationed himself in front of the woman who was about to be delivered, so that he might devour her child as soon as she brought it forth.(B)
5 And she brought forth a male Child, One Who is destined to shepherd (rule) all the nations with an iron staff (scepter), and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.(C)
6 And the woman [herself] fled into the desert (wilderness), where she has a retreat prepared [for her] by God, in which she is to be fed and kept safe for 1,260 days (42 months; three and one-half years).
7 Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels went forth to battle with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.
8 But they were defeated, and there was no room found for them in heaven any longer.
9 And the huge dragon was cast down and out—that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity the world over; he was forced out and down to the earth, and his angels were flung out along with him.(D)
10 Then I heard a strong (loud) voice in heaven, saying, Now it has come—the salvation and the power and the kingdom (the dominion, the reign) of our God, and the power (the sovereignty, the authority) of His Christ (the Messiah); for the accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out!(E)
11 And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].
12 Therefore be glad (exult), O heavens and you that dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in fierce anger (fury), because he knows that he has [only] a short time [left]!(F)
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he went in pursuit of the woman who had given birth to the male Child.
14 But the woman was supplied with the two wings of a giant eagle, so that she might fly from the presence of the serpent into the desert (wilderness), to the retreat where she is to be kept safe and fed for a time, and times, and half a time (three and one-half years, or 1,260 days).(G)
15 Then out of his mouth the serpent spouted forth water like a flood after the woman, that she might be carried off with the torrent.
16 But the earth came to the rescue of the woman, and the ground opened its mouth and swallowed up the stream of water which the dragon had spouted from his mouth.
17 So then the dragon was furious (enraged) at the woman, and he went away to wage war on the remainder of her descendants—[on those] who obey God’s commandments and who have the testimony of Jesus Christ [and adhere to it and [a]bear witness to Him].
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