M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
A Psalm by David
(Psalm 18)[a]
22 David spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the grasp of all his enemies, even from the grasp of Saul. 2 He said:
The Lord is my rocky cliff,
my stronghold, and my deliverer.
3 My God is my rock. I take refuge in him.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my high fortress, my refuge, and my savior.
You save me from violence.
4 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 The waves of death swirled around me.
Floodwaters of destruction[b] rolled over me.
6 The ropes of the grave wrapped around me.
The traps of death threatened me.
7 In my distress I called to the Lord.
To my God I cried out.
He heard my voice from his temple.
My cry for help reached his ears.
8 Then the earth shook and quaked,
and the foundations of the heavens[c] trembled.
They shook because the Lord was angry.
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and fire out of his mouth devoured.
Coals were set on fire by it.
10 Then he tore open the heavens and came down.
A dark cloud was under his feet.
11 He rode upon a cherub,[d] and he flew.
He soared[e] on the wings of the wind.
12 He made the darkness around him his shelter,
the dark rain clouds of the sky.[f]
13 From the brightness in front of him, coals of fire burned.
14 Then the Lord thundered in the heavens.
The Most High raised his voice.
15 Then he shot his arrows and scattered the enemy.
He hurled great bolts of lightning and routed them.
16 Then the sources of the sea[g] were revealed,
and the foundations of the world were uncovered
by the rebuke of the Lord,
by the breath of wind from his nostrils.
17 He reached down from on high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of deep waters.
18 Because they were too strong for me,
he rescued me from my powerful enemies,
from those who hate me.
19 They confronted me on the day of my disaster,
but the Lord supported me.
20 Then he brought me out into a wide open space.
He rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands, he has repaid me,
22 because I have kept the ways of the Lord.
I have not done evil and departed from my God.
23 So all his just decrees remain before me,
and I have not turned away from his statutes.
24 I have been blameless with him.
I have kept myself from guilt.
25 The Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands[h] in his sight.
26 To the merciful[i] you reveal yourself as merciful.
To the blameless person you reveal yourself as blameless.
27 To the pure you reveal yourself as pure,
but to the crooked you reveal yourself as crafty.[j]
28 Yes, you save humble people,
but your eyes are on the proud, and you bring them down.
29 Yes, you are my lamp, O Lord.
The Lord turns my darkness to light.
30 For with you I can charge against a battalion,[k]
and with my God I can jump over a wall.
31 This God—his way is blameless.
The speech of the Lord is pure.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
32 For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
33 This God wraps me with strength[l]
and makes my way smooth.[m]
34 By making my feet like those of a deer,
he enables me to stand on high places.
35 Because he trains my hands for battle,
my arms can draw a bronze bow.
36 Then you give me the shield of your salvation.
Your response makes me great.
37 You widen the path under my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.
38 I pursued my enemies, and I destroyed them.
Yes, I did not turn back until they were wiped out.
39 I wiped them out. I crushed them.
They could not rise again.
They fell beneath my feet.
40 You wrapped me with strength for battle.
You made those who rose up against me bow down to me.
41 You made my enemies turn their backs and flee.
I destroyed those who hate me.
42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them.
They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
43 So I ground them as fine as dust of the earth.
I scattered them and trampled them down like mud in the streets.
44 You delivered me from the accusations of my people.
You preserved me as the head of nations.
A people I did not know serve me.
45 Foreigners cringe before me.
As soon as they hear me, they obey me.
46 Foreigners fall exhausted.
They come trembling from their strongholds.
47 The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock!
May God, the Rock who saves me, be exalted!
48 This God, who avenges me, subdues peoples under me.
49 You delivered me from my enemies.
Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me.
You rescued me from the violent man.
50 Therefore, I will thank you among the nations, Lord.
To your name I will make music.
51 By providing great salvation for his King,
he shows mercy to his Anointed One,
to David and to his Seed[n] forever.
Paul’s Fellowship With Those in Jerusalem
2 Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, also taking Titus with me. 2 I went up in keeping with a revelation, and I laid before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately before those who were considered important, in order to make sure that I was not running—or had not run—in vain. 3 But Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, even though he is Greek. 4 This was an issue because of the false brothers, who slipped in under false pretenses to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. Their goal was to make us slaves. 5 We refused to give in to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue with you.
6 But as for those who were considered to be important (what sort of people they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality), indeed, those who were considered to be important added nothing to my gospel. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised. 8 For God, who worked effectively in Peter to serve as an apostle to the circumcised, also worked effectively in me to serve as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 And because James, Cephas, and John, who were considered to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we were to go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 The only thing they asked was that we remember the poor, the very thing that I was also eager to do.
Paul Opposed Cephas (Peter)
11 But when Cephas[a] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when those people came, he drew back and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision group. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not acting according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, “If you, a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?”
Justified Through Faith!
15 “We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. 16 We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no one[b] will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were also found to be sinners, then is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18 “In fact, if I build up again those things that I destroyed, I bring on myself the judgment of being a lawbreaker. 19 Indeed, through the law I died to the law that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not regard the grace of God as nothing. As a matter of fact, if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
An Oracle Against Egypt
29 In the tenth year in the tenth month,[a] on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.
2 Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 3 Speak and tell them that this is what the Lord God says.
I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great monster who stretches out in the channels[b] of the Nile. You say, “It is my Nile. I made it for myself.” 4 But I, the Lord, will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your Nile stick to your scales. I will haul you up from the middle of your Nile with all the fish from the Nile clinging to your scales. 5 I will leave you in the wilderness—you and all the fish of your Nile. You will lie fallen on the surface of the ground. You will not be collected or gathered up.[c] I will give you as food to the wild animals of the earth and to the birds of the air. 6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord.
For the house of Israel, the Egyptians have been a staff made out of a reed. 7 When Israel grasped you with their hands, you would splinter and tear open all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you would break and make them lose their balance.[d] 8 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: I am about to bring a sword against you and cut off man and beast from you. 9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate ruin, and they will know that I am the Lord.
Because he said, “It is my Nile. I made it for myself,” 10 therefore, I am against you and against the channels of your Nile. I will turn the land of Egypt into ruins, a parched desolation—from Migdol to Aswan, that is, up to the border with Cush.[e] 11 No one will set foot in it. No animal will set foot in it. It will remain uninhabited for forty years. 12 I will make the land of Egypt more desolate than any other land, and its cities will be the most desolate of ruined cities for forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.
13 Furthermore, this is what the Lord God says. At the end of forty years, I will gather the Egyptians from among the peoples where they were scattered. 14 I will bring about the restoration of Egypt and return them to Upper Egypt,[f] the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. 15 It will be the lowliest of kingdoms, and it will never again exalt itself above other nations. I will make it so weak that it will never again rule over the nations. 16 It will never again be a source of trust for the house of Israel. It will be a reminder of their guilt when they turned to Egypt for help. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.
A Reward for Babylon
17 In the twenty-seventh year,[g] in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.
18 Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw, yet neither he nor his army received any reward for the labor they had expended against Tyre.
19 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. I am about to give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off its wealth, plunder it, and pillage it. That will be the reward for his army. 20 As his pay for which he labored, I have given him the land of Egypt, because his army did it for me, declares the Lord God.
A Horn for Israel
21 On that day I will make a horn[h] sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Psalm 78
How Often They Rebelled
Heading
A maskil by Asaph.
A Solemn Call to Hear
1 Give ear, O my people, to my instruction.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth to share a lesson.
I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
3 things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He set up testimony for Jacob.
In Israel he established the law.
He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
6 Then the next generation would know it,
even the children not yet born.
They would rise up and tell their children.
7 Then they would put their confidence in God,
and they would not forget the deeds of God,
but they would keep his commands.
8 Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast,
whose spirits were not faithful to God.
The Rebellion
9 The tribe of Ephraim, equipped and armed with bows,
deserted on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to walk in his law.
11 They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.
God’s Goodness in the Wilderness
12 In the presence of their fathers he had performed a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and let them cross through it.
He made the water stand like a wall.
14 He led them with the cloud by day
and all through the night with light from the fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he let them drink water as plentiful as the deep sea.
16 He brought streams out of the rocky cliff.
He made water flow down like rivers.
Israel’s Rebellion in the Wilderness
17 But they continued to sin against him even more,
by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their hearts by demanding food for their cravings.
19 Then they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?
20 Sure, he struck the rock and water flowed out,
and stream beds overflowed,
but can he really give us bread?
Can he really supply meat for his people?”
God’s Judgment in the Wilderness
21 Then the Lord heard, and he showed his anger.
Fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God,
and they did not trust in his salvation.
God’s Mercy in the Wilderness
23 Nevertheless, he gave a command to the skies above,
and he opened the doors of the heavens.
24 He rained down manna for them to eat,
and he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Each of them ate the bread of the mighty ones.
He sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He sent out the east wind from the heavens,
and he led out the south wind by his power.
27 Then he rained meat down on them like dust,
and flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made the birds fall down inside their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 Then they ate until they had more than enough,
for he had brought them what they craved.
30 They had not yet turned away from what they craved.
Their food was still in their mouths.
31 Then God’s anger rose up against them.
He killed the strongest among them.
He cut down the best young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he ended their days in frustration[a]
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
37 Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.