Old/New Testament
Psalm 57
For the worship leader. A prayer[a] of David to the tune “Do Not Destroy,”[b] when he hid from Saul in a cave.
This individual lament refers back to those perilous times when David fled from Saul and hid in caves (1 Samuel 22; 24). David found real security not in the hidden recesses of the caves but in the shadow of God’s wings.
1 Mercy. May Your mercy come to me, O God,
for my soul is safe within You, the guardian of my life.
I will seek protection in the shade of Your wings
until the destruction has passed.
2 I cry out to God, the Most High,
to God who always does what is good for me.
3 Out of heaven my rescue comes.
He dispatches His mercy and truth
And goes after whoever tries to run over me.
[pause][c]
4 I am surrounded by lions;
I lie in a den of ravenous beasts.
Those around me have spears and arrows for teeth,
a sharpened blade for a tongue.
5 O God, be lifted up above the heavens;
may Your glory cover the earth.
6 Yet my foes cast a net to catch my feet and bring me to my knees.
I am weary from all of this.
They dug a pit to snare me
but fell into their own trap.
[pause]
7 My heart is ready, O God;
my heart is ready,
And I will sing!
Yes, I will sing praise!
8 Wake up, my glory!
Wake up, harp and lyre;
I will stir the sleepy dawn with praise!
9 I will offer You my thanks, O Lord, before the nations of the world;
I will sing of Your greatness no matter where I am.
10 For Your amazing mercy ascends far into the heavens;
Your truth rises above the clouds.
11 O God, be lifted up above the heavens;
may Your glory cover the earth.
Psalm 58
For the worship leader. A prayer[d] of David to the tune “Do Not Destroy.”[e]
1 Can you, panel of judges, get anything right?
When you judge people, do you tell the truth and pursue justice?
2 No, your real selves have been revealed. You have wickedness in your heart,
and many people have suffered by your hands.
3 Evildoers are naturally offensive, wayward at birth!
They were born telling lies and willfully wandering from the truth.
4 Their bite is painful; their venom is like the deadly poison of a snake;
they are like a cobra that closes up its ears
5 To escape the voice of the charmers,
no matter how enchanting the spells may be.
6 O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths!
Render the young lions harmless; break out their fangs, O Eternal One.
7 Let them run off like the waters of a flood,
and though they aim their arrows, let them fly without their heads.
8 Let them melt like a snail that oozes along;
may they be like a stillborn that never catches its first breath, never sees the sun.
9 Before your cook pots know the furious flame of a fire of thorns—
whether green or burning—He will blow the wicked away.
10 Cheers will rise as the right-living watch Him settle the score,
their feet washed in the blood after the onslaught of the wicked.
11 And it will be heard, “Those who seek justice will be rewarded.
Indeed, there is a God who brings justice to the earth!”
Psalm 59
For the worship leader. A prayer[f] of David to the tune “Do Not Destroy,”[g] when Saul sent assassins to David’s house.
Psalm 59 was inspired by the time there was a plan to kill David that was thwarted by David’s wife, Michal, who was Saul’s own daughter. She warned her husband, lowered him out of a window, and then deceived her father’s officers into believing David was bedridden with illness (1 Samuel 19:11–17).
1 Rescue me! Save me, O my God, from my enemies;
set me in a safe place, far above any who come to attack me.
2 Rescue me from those malicious people,
and save me from blood-thirsty murderers.
3 They have staked out my life; they are going to ambush me!
Those brutes are aligned, ready to attack me
For no good cause, my Eternal One.
I have not crossed them.
4 I’ve done nothing wrong, yet they rush ahead to start the assault.
I beg You to help me; come and see for Yourself!
5 I plead with You, Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, True God of Israel,
to get up and punish these people;
do not let any betrayer off the hook; show no mercy to malicious evildoers!
[pause][h]
6 Treacherous souls return to the city in the evening;
they prowl about,
howling like dogs.
7 Watch them! Snarling, dribbling their malicious insults.
Their words cut loose from their lips like swords,
and in their backstabbing they say, “Who’s listening anyway?”
8 But You, O Eternal One, laugh at them;
You make fun of all the nations.
9 I will watch for You, for You keep me strong.
God, You are my security!
10 My God is one step ahead of me with His mercy;
He will show me the victory I desire over my enemies.
11 Don’t wipe them out, or my people may one day forget.
Instead, use Your power to scatter and bring them to ruin.
O Lord, You are our protection.
12 Sin pours from their mouths, cruel words from their lips.
May they be caught in their pride.
For their foul curses and lies,
13 devour them with Your wrath,
eat them up, leave no one alive.
Then people will surely know that the one True God rules over Jacob,
even to the far ends of the earth.
[pause]
14 Treacherous souls return to the city in the evening;
they prowl about,
howling like dogs.
15 They search through the city, scavenging for meat
as they growl and grumble in dissatisfaction.
16 But me? I will sing of Your strength.
I will awake with the sun to sing of Your loving mercy
Because in my most troubled hour,
You defended me. You were my shelter.
17 I will lift my voice to sing Your praise, O my Strength—
for You came to my defense.
O God, You have shown me Your loving mercy.
4 In light of all of this, what should we say about our ancestor Abraham? 2 If Abraham was made right by performing certain works, then he would surely have something to brag about. Right? Not before the Creator God, 3 because as the Scriptures say, “Abraham believed God and trusted in His promises, so God counted it to his favor as righteousness.”[a] 4 Now, when you work a job, do your wages come as a gift or as compensation for your work? It is most certainly not a gift—you are only paid what you have earned. 5 So for the person who does not work, but instead trusts in the One who makes the ungodly right, his faith is counted for him as righteousness.
6 Remember the psalm where David speaks about the benefits that come to the person whom God credits with righteousness apart from works? He said,
7 Blessed are those whose wrongs have been forgiven
and whose sins have been covered.
8 Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will not take into account.[b]
9 So is this blessing spoken only for the circumcised or for all uncircumcised people too? We remind you what the Scripture has to say: faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.[c]
10 So when was the credit awarded to Abraham? Was it before or after his circumcision? Well, it certainly wasn’t after—it was before he was circumcised. 11 Eventually he was given circumcision as a sign of his right standing, indicating that he was credited on the basis of the faith he possessed before he was circumcised. It happened this way so that Abraham might become the spiritual father of all those who are not circumcised but are made right through their faith. 12 In the same way, God destined him to be the spiritual father of all those who are circumcised as more than an outward sign, but who walk in our father Abraham’s faithful footsteps—a faith he possessed while he was still uncircumcised.
13 The promise given to Abraham and his children, that one day they would inherit the world, did not come because he followed the rules of the law. It came as a result of his right standing before God, a standing he obtained through faith. 14 If this inheritance is available only to those who keep the law, then faith is a useless commodity and the promise is canceled. 15 For the law brings God’s wrath against sin. But where the law doesn’t draw the line, there can be no crime.
16 This is the reason that faith is the single source of the promise—so that grace would be offered to all Abraham’s children, those whose lives are defined by the law and those who follow the path of faith charted by Abraham, our common father. 17 As it is recorded in the Scriptures, “I have appointed you the father of many nations.”[d] In the presence of the God who creates out of nothing and holds the power to bring to life what is dead, Abraham believed and so became our father.
18 Against the odds, Abraham’s hope grew into full-fledged faith that he would turn out to be the father of many nations, just as God had promised when He said, “That’s how many your descendants will be.”[e] 19 His faith did not fail, although he was well aware that his impotent body, after nearly 100 years, was as good as dead and that Sarah’s womb, too, was dead. 20 In spite of all this, his faith in God’s promise did not falter. In fact, his faith grew as he gave glory to God 21 because he was supremely confident that God could deliver on His promise. 22 This is why, you see, God saw his faith and counted him as righteous; this is how he became right with God.
23 The story of how faith was credited to Abraham was not recorded for him and him alone, 24 but was written for all of us who would one day be credited for having faith in God, the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the realm of the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and raised so that we might be made right with God.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.