Old/New Testament

Psalm 120

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He answered me.

² Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.

³ What shall be given to you? Or what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?—

⁴ Sharp arrows of a [mighty] warrior, with [glowing] coals of the broom tree!

⁵ Woe is me that I sojourn with Meshech, that I dwell beside the tents of Kedar [as if among notoriously barbarous people]!^(A)

⁶ My life has too long had its dwelling with him who hates peace.

⁷ I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

Psalm 121

A Song of ^[b]Ascents.

¹ I will lift up my eyes to the hills [around Jerusalem, to sacred Mount Zion and Mount Moriah]—From whence shall my help come?^(B)

² My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber.^(C)

⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield].^(D)

⁶ The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.^(E)

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.

⁸ The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.^(F)

Psalm 122

A Song of ^[c]Ascents. Of David.

¹ I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!^(G)

² Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!—

³ Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compacted together—

⁴ To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

⁵ For there the thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]!

⁷ May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces!

⁸ For my brethren and companions’ sake, I will now say, Peace be within you!

⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek, inquire for, and require your good.

9 Am I not an apostle (a special messenger)? Am I not free (unrestrained and exempt from any obligation)? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you [yourselves] not [the product and proof of] my workmanship in the Lord?

² Even if I am not considered an apostle (a special messenger) by others, at least I am one to you; for you are the seal (the certificate, the living evidence) of my apostleship in the Lord [confirming and authenticating it].

³ This is my [real ground of] defense (my vindication of myself) to those who would put me on trial and cross-examine me.

⁴ Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]?

⁵ Have we not the right also to take along with us a Christian sister as wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas (Peter)?

⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from doing manual labor for a livelihood [in order to go about the work of the ministry]?

⁷ [Consider this:] What soldier at any time serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the fruit of it? Who tends a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?

⁸ Do I say this only on human authority and as a man reasons? Does not the Law endorse the same principle?

⁹ For in the Law of Moses it is written, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn. Is it [only] for oxen that God cares?^(A)

¹⁰ Or does He speak certainly and entirely for our sakes? [Assuredly] it is written for our sakes, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher ought to thresh in expectation of partaking of the harvest.

¹¹ If we have sown [the seed of] spiritual good among you, [is it too] much if we reap from your material benefits?

¹² If others share in this rightful claim upon you, do not we [have a still better and greater claim]? However, we have never exercised this right, but we endure everything rather than put a hindrance in the way [of the spread] of the good news (the Gospel) of Christ.

¹³ Do you not know that those men who are employed in the services of the temple get their food from the temple? And that those who tend the altar share with the altar [in the offerings brought]?^(B)

¹⁴ [On the same principle] the Lord directed that those who publish the good news (the Gospel) should live (get their maintenance) by the Gospel.

¹⁵ But I have not made use of any of these privileges, nor am I writing this [to suggest] that any such provision be made for me [now]. For it would be better for me to die than to have anyone make void and deprive me of my [ground for] glorifying [in this matter].

¹⁶ For if I [merely] preach the Gospel, that gives me no reason to boast, for I feel compelled of necessity to do it. Woe is me if I do not preach the glad tidings (the Gospel)!

¹⁷ For if I do this work of my own free will, then I have my pay (my reward); but if it is not of my own will, but is done reluctantly and under compulsion, I am [still] entrusted with a [sacred] trusteeship and commission.

¹⁸ What then is the [actual] reward that I get? Just this: that in my preaching the good news (the Gospel), I may offer it [absolutely] free of expense [to anybody], not taking advantage of my rights and privileges [as a preacher] of the Gospel.

¹⁹ For although I am free in every way from anyone’s control, I have made myself a bond servant to everyone, so that I might gain the more [for Christ].

²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to men under the Law, [I became] as one under the Law, though not myself being under the Law, that I might win those under the Law.

²¹ To those without (outside) law I became as one without law, not that I am without the law of God and lawless toward Him, but that I am [especially keeping] within and committed to the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.

²² To the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak (wanting in discernment) that I might win the weak and overscrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ].

²³ And I do this for the sake of the good news (the Gospel), in order that I may become a participator in it and share in its [blessings along with you].

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours.

²⁵ Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.

²⁶ Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.

²⁷ But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].