Old/New Testament
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
God will win![a]
68 God will rise up
and he will chase his enemies away!
The people who hate him
will quickly run away from him![b]
2 God, blow them away,
as wind blows smoke away.
Destroy those wicked people,
as wax melts near a fire!
3 But righteous people will be happy,
when they come near to you.
They will shout with joy,
because they are so happy!
4 Sing songs to God!
Sing to praise his name!
He is the one who rides on the clouds,
so praise him aloud!
His name is the Lord!
Shout with joy to worship him!
5 God is a father for those who have no father.
He takes care of widows.
He rules from his holy home.
6 God gives homes and a family to lonely people.
He makes prisoners go free
so that they are happy.
But people who turn against him
have to live in a hot, dry land.[c]
7 God, you led your people out.
You took them across the desert.
Selah.
8 Then the ground shook,
and rain poured down from the sky.
You showed your power at Sinai mountain.
You are the God who rules at Sinai.[d]
You are the God that Israel's people serve.
9 God, you caused much rain to fall
on your special land.
You made it fresh again
when it had been dry.[e]
10 Your own people came to live in it.
God, because you are kind,
you gave many good things to poor people.
11 The Lord gives a command!
Very many women take his message to other places.
12 Kings with large armies quickly run away.
Yes, they run away!
The women at home share the valuable things
that the armies have left behind.
13 Even those who stayed to take care of the sheep
found valuable things,
like a dove with silver wings
and bright gold feathers.[f]
14 When the Almighty God chased away foreign kings,
it was like snow that fell on Mount Zalmon.
15 Bashan mountain is great, like God.
It has many high rocks.
16 You high mountains, why are you jealous
when you look at Zion mountain?
That is the mountain where God has chosen to live.
Yes, that is where the Lord will live for ever!
17 God has millions of chariots.
The Lord has come from Sinai mountain
to his own holy place.
18 When you went up to the highest place,
you took many prisoners with you.
You received gifts from men,
even from the men who had fought against you.
Yes, the Lord God lives there!
19 Praise the Lord, as he deserves!
Every day he helps us with our troubles.
He is the God who keeps us safe!
Selah.
20 Our God is the God who rescues people.
The Almighty Lord saves us from death.
21 He will knock down the heads of his enemies.
He will destroy their skulls and their long hair,
if they continue to turn against him.
22 The Lord says, ‘I will bring my enemies back from Bashan,
even from deep down in the sea.
23 Then you can wash your feet in their blood.
Your dogs can have as much as they want!’[g]
24 God, you are my God and my King.
People will see the great crowd that goes with you,
as you go to your holy temple.
25 The singers will march in front.
The musicians will follow them.
Young women will be with them
as they beat their tambourines.
26 They all sing,
‘Praise God, all you crowd of people!
All you people of Israel,
praise the Lord!’
27 Benjamin, the smallest tribe, will lead them all.
The leaders of Judah, with their big group, will follow.
Then will come the leaders of Zebulun and Naphtali.[h]
28 God has commanded that you should be strong.
God, please show again how strong you are,
as you have used your strength to help us in past times.
29 As you live in your temple in Jerusalem,
kings will bring gifts to you.
30 Speak against your enemies!
Some are like wild animals that live in the reeds.[i]
Some are proud nations,
like bulls among their young cows.
They must be humble and offer to you
gifts of valuable silver things.
Chase away those nations that like to fight wars.
31 Egypt's leaders will come with gifts.
People will come from Cush
and they will agree to serve God.[j]
32 All you kingdoms of the earth,
sing to God!
Yes, sing to praise the Lord!
Selah.
33 He is the one who rides in the sky,
as he has done from the beginning of time.
Listen! He shouts with a powerful voice.
34 Agree that God is very powerful!
He is the King who rules over Israel.
He shows his power in the skies.
35 God, how great you are,
as you come from your holy temple!
He is the God of Israel.
He gives power to his people,
and he makes them strong.
Praise God as he deserves!
David wrote this song for the music leader. Use special music.
Trust God for help
69 Please rescue me, God,
because the deep water has come up to my neck.
2 I will soon sink into deep mud.
There is no safe place to put my feet.
I am now in deep water,
and the floods pour over me.
3 I have shouted so much for help
that I am tired and weak.
My mouth is so dry that it hurts.
I have looked so long for help from you, my God,
that my eyes have become weak.
4 Very many people hate me with no good reason.
They are more than the number of hairs on my head!
My enemies are too strong for me.
They want to destroy me with their lies.
They make me give back to them
things that I did not take from them!
5 You know, God, that I do foolish things.
I cannot hide my sins from you.
6 My Lord, Almighty Lord, Israel's God,
do not let anyone who trusts you
become ashamed because of me.
Do not let anyone who serves you
become ashamed because of me.
7 Because I belong to you,
people insult me.
They make me feel ashamed.
8 I have become like a stranger to my brothers.
I am like a foreigner to my family.
9 My love for your house burns inside me like a fire.
Anybody who insults you,
is also insulting me!
10 When I weep and I stop eating food,
it causes people to insult me.
11 When I wear rough clothes to show that I am sad,
people laugh at me.
12 People who sit at the city gate talk about me.[k]
People who are drunk make songs
to sing about me.
13 But as for me, Lord,
I continue to pray to you.
Please answer me at the right time.
Be kind to me, God,
because of your faithful love.
Save me, as you have promised to do.
14 Save me out of the mud
and do not let me sink down into it.
Rescue me from the people that hate me.
Save me from the deep water.
15 Do not let the floods pour over me.
Do not let the deep sea cause me to drown.
Do not let me fall into the deep hole of death.
16 Please answer me, Lord,
because your faithful love is great.
Turn to hear me,
because you are so very kind.
17 Do not turn away from me, your servant.
I am in great trouble,
so please answer me very soon.
18 Come very near to me,
and make me safe.
Rescue me from my enemies.
19 God, you know that people are insulting me.
They laugh at me
to make me feel ashamed.
You can see what all my enemies are doing.
20 When they insult me,
it makes me very upset.
I feel helpless.
I hoped that someone would be kind and help me,
but there was nobody.
I wanted someone to comfort me,
but I did not find anyone.
21 Instead, my enemies put poison in my food.
When I was thirsty,
they gave me vinegar to drink.[l]
22 Please God, cause their feasts to become a trap for them.
Let it bring trouble to them and their friends.
23 Let their eyes be in the dark
so that they cannot see.
Let their bodies become weak.
24 Yes, punish them,
because you are so angry with them!
25 Let their homes become empty,
so that nobody lives in them any more.
26 Do this, because they chase after
the people that you have already punished.
They talk about the pain
of the people that you have hurt.
27 Make a note of all their sins.
Do not ever forgive them,
so that they are righteous.
28 Remove their names from the book of living people.
Do not write their names
on the list of righteous people.
29 But I have pain in my body
and trouble in my mind.
God, rescue me and keep me safe!
30 I will sing to praise God's name!
I will thank him because he is great!
31 That will please the Lord more
than if I offer him an ox,
or a great bull with horns.[m]
32 When humble people see it,
they will be very happy.
People who want to serve God
will become strong in their lives.
33 For the Lord listens to the prayers of poor people.
He does not forget to help his people
when they are prisoners.
34 Heaven and earth should praise him!
The seas and everything that lives in them
should praise him!
35 For God will rescue Zion's people.
He will build again Judah's cities.
Then his people will live there.
The land will belong to them again.
36 Then the descendants of his servants
will have the land for themselves.
The people who love God
will live there safely.
We can live by God's Spirit
8 Now we know this: God has forgiven those people who are united with Christ Jesus. God will never say that they are guilty. 2 If you belong to Christ Jesus, God's Spirit has given you a new life. God's Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. Sin and death no longer have authority over you.
3 The Law that God gave to Moses could not make us free like that. We were too weak to obey his Law because we are human. But God has done what his Law could not do. He sent his own Son to become a person like us. His human body was like the body of people who do wrong things. God's Son died as a sacrifice to take away the punishment for our sins. In that way, God destroyed the power of sin over people who are weak and human. 4 God did this so that we could become right with him. God's Law showed us how to be right with him. And now we can be right with God, if we live with God's Spirit as our guide. We do not do what our weak human thoughts want us to do.
5 Some people do what their weak human thoughts want them to do. They think about the things that will make themselves happy. But people who live with God's Spirit as their guide think about what will make God's Spirit happy. 6 People who let their human thoughts rule them will die. But people who think about what God's Spirit wants will have life with God. They will have peace inside themselves. 7 If our weak human thoughts rule us, we become God's enemies. People like that do not want to obey God's Law. They are not even able to obey it. 8 People who let their human thoughts rule them cannot make God happy.
9 But you are not like that. You no longer obey your weak human thoughts. Instead, you obey God's Spirit as your guide. That is true if God's Spirit is really living in you. But if anyone does not have Christ's Spirit in them, that person does not belong to Christ. 10 But, if Christ lives in you, you have a new life because of his Spirit. Your body will die one day because of the power of sin. But your spirit lives because Christ has made you right with God. 11 God raised Jesus, to make him alive again after his death. Now God's Spirit lives in you. So God, who raised Christ from death, will also cause your human bodies to live again. He will do that by his Spirit who lives in you.
12 So, my Christian friends, we must not obey what our weak human thoughts tell us to do. We no longer have to live like that. 13 If you agree to live in that way, you will die. Instead, you should let God's Spirit help you with his power. Then you can stop doing the wrong things that your bodies want to do. As a result, you will have life with God.
14 All those people who live with God's Spirit as their guide are God's children. 15 The Spirit that you have received from God does not make you serve him like slaves. That would make you afraid again. No. The Spirit that God has given to you causes you to become God's children. Now he takes care of you. God's Spirit makes us call God: ‘Abba, our Father.’ 16 God's Spirit himself causes us to know that we are God's children. God's Spirit and our own spirits agree that this is true. 17 Because we are God's children, we also know that we will receive good things from him. Those are the things that he has promised to give to his children. Together with Christ, we will receive the things that God has kept for him. That is true if we agree to have troubles like Christ did. Then we will also enjoy life in heaven like Christ does.
God has prepared great things for his people
18 During this time now, we have troubles and pain. But I am sure that these troubles are not really very great. One day God will show us all the great things he has prepared for us. That will make the troubles that we have now seem very small. 19 The whole universe that God has made now waits for something great to happen. Everything is waiting with hope to find out who God's children really are.
20 God has caused everything in the universe to lose its purpose. It did not choose to be like that. It was God who decided that it should be like that. Then it could hope for something better in a future time. 21 At that time, the universe will not continue to become worse and worse, as it does now. It will become free from that power. It will be free to enjoy great things from God, as God's children are also free.
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