Old/New Testament

Psalm 4

To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

¹ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness (uprightness, justice, and right standing with You)! You have freed me when I was hemmed in and enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.

² O you sons of men, how long will you turn my honor and glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and futility and seek after lies? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

³ But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself [and given distinction to] him who is godly [the man of loving-kindness]. The Lord listens and heeds when I call to Him.

⁴ Be angry [or stand in awe] and sin not; commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be silent (sorry for the things you say in your hearts). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(A)

⁵ Offer just and right sacrifices; trust (lean on and be confident) in the Lord.

⁶ Many say, Oh, that we might see some good! Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord.

⁷ You have put more joy and rejoicing in my heart than [they know] when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly.

⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust.

Psalm 5

To the Chief Musician; on wind instruments. A Psalm of David.

¹ Listen to my words, O Lord, give heed to my sighing and groaning.

² Hear the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You do I pray.

³ In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].

⁴ For You are not a God Who takes pleasure in wickedness; neither will the evil [man] so much as dwell [temporarily] with You.

⁵ Boasters can have no standing in Your sight; You abhor all evildoers.

⁶ You will destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors [and rejects] the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

⁷ But as for me, I will enter Your house through the abundance of Your steadfast love and mercy; I will worship toward and at Your holy temple in reverent fear and awe of You.

⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way level (straight and right) before my face.

⁹ For there is nothing trustworthy or steadfast or truthful in their talk; their heart is destruction [or a destructive chasm, a yawning gulf]; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter and make smooth with their tongue.^(B)

¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own designs and counsels; cast them out because of the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.

¹¹ But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever sing and shout for joy, because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits.

¹² For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).

Psalm 6

To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger nor discipline and chasten me in Your hot displeasure.

² Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak (faint and withered away); O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

³ My [inner] self [as well as my body] is also exceedingly disturbed and troubled. But You, O Lord, how long [until You return and speak peace to me]?

⁴ Return [to my relief], O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love and mercy.

⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol (the place of the dead) who will give You thanks?

⁶ I am weary with my groaning; all night I soak my pillow with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping.

⁷ My eye grows dim because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.^(C)

⁹ The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord receives my prayer.

¹⁰ Let all my enemies be ashamed and sorely troubled; let them turn back and be put to shame suddenly.

¹⁶ Now while Paul was awaiting them at Athens, his spirit was grieved and roused to anger as he saw that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷ So he reasoned and argued in the synagogue with the Jews and those who worshiped there, and in the marketplace [where assemblies are held] day after day with any who chanced to be there.

¹⁸ And some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and began to engage in discussion. And some said, What is this babbler with his scrap-heap learning trying to say? Others said, He seems to be an announcer of foreign deities—because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹ And they took hold of him and brought him to the ^[a]Areopagus [Mars Hill meeting place], saying, May we know what this novel (unheard of and unprecedented) teaching is which you are openly declaring?

²⁰ For you set forth some startling things, foreign and strange to our ears; we wish to know therefore just what these things mean—

²¹ For the Athenians, all of them, and the foreign residents and visitors among them spent all their leisure time in nothing except telling or hearing something newer than the last—

²² So Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus [Mars Hill meeting place], said: Men of Athens, I perceive in every way [on every hand and with every turn I make] that you are most religious or very reverent to demons.

²³ For as I passed along and carefully observed your objects of worship, I came also upon an altar with this inscription, To the unknown god. Now what you are already worshiping as unknown, this I set forth to you.

²⁴ The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines.

²⁵ Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people].^(A)

²⁶ And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),

²⁷ So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.

²⁸ For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.

²⁹ Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented.

³⁰ Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent (^[b]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),

³¹ Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead.^(B)

³² Now when they had heard [that there had been] a resurrection from the dead, some scoffed; but others said, We will hear you again about this matter.

³³ So Paul went out from among them.

³⁴ But some men were on his side and joined him and believed (became Christians); among them were Dionysius, a judge of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris, and some others with them.