M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David sings to praise God[a]
22 David wrote this song when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies when Saul was king.
2 This is what he sang:
‘The Lord keeps me safe.
He is my great rock and my strong place.
3 My God is my high rock.
I run to him to hide and be safe.
He keeps me safe like a soldier's shield.
He is the strong place where I can hide safely.
God, you have saved me from men who want to attack me.
4 I praise the Lord because he deserves it!
When I called to him for help,
he saved me from my enemies.
5 Death was near enough to catch me!
Danger was like a river that wanted to drown me.
6 Death was tying me up with ropes,
to pull me into the deep hole of the grave.
7 In my trouble I prayed to the Lord.
I called to my God to help me.
He heard my voice from his home in heaven.
My prayer reached his ears.
8 Then the earth moved and it shook.
Even the sky shook,
because God was angry.
9 He breathed out smoke from his nose.
Fire and hot coals came out from his mouth,
to destroy his enemies.
10 God caused the sky to bend as he came down.
Dark clouds were under his feet.
11 He sat on a cherub and he flew.
He flew like the wind.
12 God put darkness all round him.
He hid himself under dark clouds that held rain.
13 Bright light went in front of him.
There was lightning like hot coals!
14 The Lord sent thunder from the sky.
People everywhere heard the voice of the Most High God.
15 The Lord shot arrows of lightning.
He caused his enemies to run away.
16 When the Lord shouted against his enemies,
even the bottom of the deep sea appeared.
People could see the deepest places of the earth,
when he breathed out in anger.
17 The Lord reached down to me from above.
He took hold of me and he pulled me up out of the deep water.
18 Yes, he saved me from my powerful enemies.
The people who hated me were too strong for me,
but the Lord saved me from their power.
19 They attacked me when I was in trouble,
but the Lord helped me.
20 He led me out to an open place where I would be safe.
He saved me because I made him happy.
21 The Lord was kind to me
because I do things that please him.
He blesses me
because I am not guilty of bad things.
22 I have obeyed the Lord's commands.
I have not turned against my God.
23 I understand all his rules,
and I do not refuse to obey them.
24 He knows that I have done nothing that is wrong.
I kept away from any sin.
25 The Lord was kind to me,
because I did good things.
He sees that I am not guilty.
26 Lord, if people are faithful to you,
then you are faithful to them.
If people do nothing that is bad,
they can trust you to do nothing bad to them.
27 If people keep themselves pure,
they can trust you to do only good things.
But if people are wicked,
you turn against them.
28 You save people who are humble.
But if people are proud, you cause them to fall.
29 Lord, you make my lamp burn brightly.
You are my light in the dark.
30 You make me strong,
so that I can chase a whole army!
With the help of my God,
I can climb over any high wall.
31 God's way is perfect.
The Lord's promises are always true.
He keeps safe everyone who goes to him for help,
like a shield that keeps a soldier safe.
32 We know that the Lord is God,
and no one else.
Only our God can keep us safe,
like a strong rock!
33 It is God who makes me strong.
He shows me the safe way through my life.
34 He makes my feet stand strongly on the ground.
Like a deer,
I can stand on high hills and not fall.
35 He teaches me how to fight in war.
He makes my arms strong
to shoot arrows from a metal bow.
36 You keep me safe in the battle,
like a shield.
Your kind help has made me great.
37 You have helped me to move safely,
so that my feet do not slip.
38 I ran after my enemies and I destroyed them.
I did not turn back until I had killed them.
39 I destroyed them completely.
I knocked them down to the ground.
They could not get up again.
They fell under my feet.
40 You have made me strong to fight battles
so that I win against my enemies.
41 You caused my enemies to turn their backs,
and they ran away from me.
I destroyed those who hate me.
42 They called out for help,
but nobody was there to save them.
They called to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
43 I beat them until they became like dust.
I walked over them,
like dirt that lies on the streets.
44 You have saved me when my people were attacking me.
You have made me a ruler of other nations.
People that I did not know before
now serve me as their ruler.
45 Foreign people cannot stand against me,
because they are afraid.
When they hear about me,
they choose to obey me.
46 They are not brave enough to fight me.
They shake with fear
as they leave their strong cities.
47 The Lord is alive! He is my strong Rock!
Everyone should praise him!
He rules as king!
He is the strong God who saves me.
48 He is the true God who punishes my enemies.
He makes the nations obey me.
49 He is the one who saves me from my enemies.
Yes, God, you give me power
to win against those who attack me.
You keep me safe from angry and cruel men.
50 Lord, I will thank you,
so that all the nations know about you.
I will sing to praise your name.
51 Yes, the Lord gives power to me, David, his king.
He gives me great strength to win against my enemies.
I am the special king that he has chosen.
He will continue to be kind to me
and to my descendants for ever.’
The apostles in Jerusalem accept Paul
2 14 years later, I went to Jerusalem again. This time I went with Barnabas, and I also took Titus with me. 2 I went there because God had shown me that I should go. I talked to the Christian leaders there. I explained to them the good news that I teach to the Gentiles. But I talked only to those men who seemed to be the leaders. I wanted to be sure that they agreed with the message that I taught. I did not want my work, both in past times and now, to be worth nothing. 3 Titus was with me then. He is a Greek person and nobody had circumcised him. But the leaders in Jerusalem did not say that we must circumcise him.[a]
4 But some men did want us to obey all the Jewish rules. Those men came secretly among our group. They said that they were believers, but they were not really true believers. They wanted to see how we lived as believers. They wanted to know how Christ Jesus has made us free from the Jewish rules. They wanted to make us slaves to those rules. 5 But we did not allow them to do this to us. They wanted to spoil the true good news that you have believed. We kept the good news safe for you.
6 The church leaders in Jerusalem did not argue with me. (They were the people who seemed to be the leaders. It does not matter to me whether they were really important people or not. God does not respect some people more than others.) Those leaders did not tell me to change the message that I teach. 7 Instead they saw that God had given a special job to me. God wanted me to tell the good news about Christ to the Gentiles. In the same way, he had told Peter to tell the good news to the Jews. 8 God gave Peter the authority to be his apostle to the Jews. God also gave me the authority to be his apostle to the Gentiles.
9 James, Peter and John understood that God had given this special job to me. They are the leaders that the church in Jerusalem respects. And they were happy to accept Barnabas and me as their friends. They agreed that we should teach God's message to the Gentiles. They themselves would continue to teach the Jews. 10 They only asked us to do this: We should remember to help the poor people among their group. That is something that I myself wanted very much to do.
Paul argues with Peter
11 But later, when Peter came to Antioch, I spoke against him. I told him clearly that he had done something wrong. 12 When he first arrived in Antioch, Peter had been eating meals with the Gentile believers there. Then James sent some Jewish believers from Jerusalem to Antioch. After those men had arrived, Peter started to keep himself separate from the Gentiles. He stopped eating meals with them. He was afraid of those Jews who wanted to circumcise the Gentile believers. 13 The other Jewish believers in Antioch also did what Peter did. They became hypocrites like him. Even Barnabas agreed and he copied their example.
14 But I could see that they were wrong to do this. They were not living in a way that agrees with God's true message. So I spoke to Peter in front of all of them. I said to him, ‘You were born as a Jew, but you have been living like a Gentile. As a believer, you no longer obey all the Jewish rules. So you should not try to make Gentile believers obey those Jewish rules.’
15 We were born as Jewish people. We are not Gentiles who have never obeyed God's rules. 16 But we know that we do not become right with God because we obey his Law. A person only becomes right with God when they believe in Jesus Christ. And we, as Jewish believers, have believed in Christ Jesus. We have become right with God because we trust in what Christ has done. It is not because we obey God's Law that he accepts us. Nobody becomes right with God only because they obey the rules in God's Law.
17 So then, we Jews become right with God when we believe in Christ. That means that we no longer obey all the Jewish rules. But that does not mean that Christ causes us to do wrong things. Certainly, it does not mean that! 18 Instead, I would really be doing something wrong if I tried to obey all those rules again. I would be building again something that I had destroyed. That would really be against God's Law. 19 But God's Law showed me that I could never obey all its rules. So I became like a dead person, free from the authority of those rules. That means that I can now live to please God.[b]
20 Christ died on the cross on my behalf. It is like I died there with him. So I do not live my own life any more. Instead, Christ lives in me. The life that I live now in my body, I live because I trust what he has done for me. He has loved me so much that he died on my behalf. 21 So I do not refuse to accept the kind gift of God. If the rules of God's Law could make me right with him, then Christ would have died for no reason!
God warns Egypt
29 The Lord gave this message to me on the 12th day of the 10th month of the 10th year: 2 ‘Son of man, turn and look towards Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. You must speak my message to warn him and all Egypt's people. 3 Tell them, “The Almighty Lord says this:
Listen, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, I have become your enemy.
You are like the great monster that lies in Egypt's streams.
You say, ‘The Nile river belongs to me! I made it for myself.’
4 But I will put hooks into your mouth and catch you.
I will cause the fish in your streams to hang on your scales.[a]
I will pull you out from the streams with all those fish on you.
5 I will leave you in the wilderness with all your fish.
You will lie on the ground in the open fields.
Nobody will pick you up or take care of you.
I will give you to the wild animals and birds to be their food.
6 Then all the people who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord. Israel's people thought that you would help them. But you were only like a weak stick for them. 7 When they wanted you to hold them up, you broke into pieces. Your sharp pieces tore their shoulders. When they held on to you, you caused their legs to shake.
8 So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I will bring am army to attack you. I will use them to kill all your men and your animals. 9 The land of Egypt will become an empty place. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
You said, ‘The Nile river belongs to me. I made it for myself.’ 10 Because of that, I have become the enemy of you and your streams. I will destroy the land of Egypt. It will be an empty place, and its buildings will become heaps of stones. I will do that everywhere, from Migdol to Aswan and as far as Ethiopia's border. 11 No men or animals will walk through that land. Nobody will live there for 40 years. 12 Egypt will become like a desert among empty lands. Its cities will be empty for 40 years, among cities that have become heaps of stones. I will cause the Egyptians to go and live among other nations in places far away.
13 But this is what the Almighty Lord says: After 40 years, I will bring the Egyptians back from the places where I sent them. 14 I will bring them back home to live in peace. I will bring them to Pathros, the land of their ancestors. There they will be a weak kingdom. 15 Egypt will be the least important of all kingdoms. It will never again have power over other nations. I will make it too weak to rule over other nations. 16 Israel will never again hope that Egypt has the power to help them. Instead, Egypt will cause Israel's people to remember their sin. Their sin was to ask Egypt for help. Then they will know that I am the Almighty Lord.” ’
17 The Lord gave this message to me on the first day of the first month of the 27th year: 18 ‘Son of man, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked the city of Tyre with his army. His soldiers had to work very hard. They carried heavy loads so that it hurt their heads and their shoulders. They had a lot of pain. But they did not get anything valuable from Tyre, even though they worked so hard.
19 So this is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen! I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He will take away all its riches and its valuable things. He will take all those things to pay the soldiers of his army. 20 I will give Egypt to him to pay him for his work. When his army attacked Tyre, they did that work for me. That is what the Almighty Lord says.
21 At that time, I will make Israel a powerful nation again. Then I will give you a message to speak to them, Ezekiel. They will listen to what you say. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
Asaph wrote this special song.
God has been good to his people[a]
78 My people, listen to what I am teaching you.
Listen to the words that I speak.
2 I will tell you something to make you wise.
Then you will understand
things that happened long ago.
3 We have heard about these things
and we know them.
Our ancestors have told them to us,
4 and we will not hide them from our children.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren
why they should praise the Lord.
We will tell them about his strength,
and about the great things that he has done.
5 He gave his laws to Jacob's descendants,
the Israelite people.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6 Then the children would know about them,
even the children still to be born.
When the time came,
they too would tell their children.
7 Then their family would trust in God.
They would not forget what God had done.
They would obey his commands.
8 So they would not be like their ancestors,
who turned against God.
Those people refused to obey God,
and they did not trust him to be their guide.
9 The soldiers of Ephraim had bows and arrows,
but they ran away when the battle started![b]
10 They did not obey the covenant
that God had made with them.
They refused to obey his laws.
11 They forgot about what he had done for them.
They forgot the miracles that he had shown them.
12 He did miracles for their ancestors to see,
in the region of Egypt that is called Zoan.
13 He cut the sea into two separate parts,
and he led them through it.
He made a path between two walls of water.[c]
14 He showed them the way with a cloud in the day
and with light from a fire all night.[d]
15 He broke rocks into pieces in the wilderness
so that his people had plenty of water.
Springs of water came from deep in the earth.
16 He caused streams to pour from the rocks
so that the waters ran like rivers.[e]
17 But his people continued to do bad things against him.
In the wilderness,
they turned against the Most High God.
18 They decided to test God,
to see what he would do.
They demanded to have the food that they liked best.
19 They spoke against God, and they said,
‘Can God give us food to eat here in the wilderness?
20 Yes, water did come out when he hit the rock.
There were streams of water that poured out like a river.
But can he also give us food to eat?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was very angry.
So he sent fire to punish his people.
He became very angry against the Israelites.
22 They did not trust God,
that he had the power to save them.
23 So God commanded the clouds high above
to give food to his people.
He caused the skies to open like a door.
24 He poured down manna like rain,
so that they could eat grain that came from heaven.[f]
25 In that way, people ate the special bread of angels!
God gave them all the food that they could eat.
26 Then God caused a wind to blow from the east.
He used his power to send a south wind too.
27 He caused meat to pour down on them,
like dust from the sky.
The birds covered all the ground
like sand on the shore of the sea.[g]
28 God made the birds fall near the tents
where his people were living.
29 They ate as much as they could eat.
Yes, God gave them what they had demanded!
30-31 But God became very angry with them,
even before they had finished eating.
While the food was still in their mouths,
he killed the strongest men among them.
Many of the best young Israelite men died.
32 Even when this happened,
the people continued to do bad things.
When God had done these miracles,
they still did not trust him to help them.
33 So he made their lives end quickly, like a breath.
They became very afraid.
34 When God killed some of them,
the other people turned to God.
They were sorry and they prayed to him.
35 They remembered that God
was their strong Rock.
They remembered that the Most High God
was their Redeemer.
36 But they deceived him with their words.
What they said to him was lies.
37 They did not really trust him.
They did not obey the covenant
that he had made with them.
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