Old/New Testament
Psalm 72[a]
The Kingdom of the Messiah
1 Of Solomon.
O God, endow the king with your judgment,
the son of kings with your righteousness.
2 [b]He will govern your people fairly
and deal justly with your poor ones.
3 The mountains will yield peace for the people,
and the hills, righteousness.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor,
and overwhelm the oppressor.
5 He will reign as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 He will descend like rain on the meadow,
like showers that water the earth.
7 Justice will reign in his days,
and peace will abound
until the moon is no more.
8 His rule will extend from sea to sea,[c]
and from the river to the ends of the earth.
9 His foes[d] will bow down before him,
and his enemies will lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish[e] and the Islands
will offer him tribute;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
will present him with gifts.
11 All kings will pay him homage,
and all nations will serve him.
12 For he will save the poor who cry out
and the needy who have no one to help them.
13 He will have pity on the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the needy he will save.
14 He will free them from oppression and violence,
for their blood is precious in his sight.
15 [f]Long may he live!
May the gold of Sheba be given to him.
May people pray for him unceasingly
and invoke blessings[g] on him all day long.
16 May grain abound throughout the land,
even growing abundantly on the mountain tops.
May its crops[h] be as plenteous as those of Lebanon,
and may its people flourish like the grass of the field.
17 May his name[i] be blessed forever;
may it endure as long as the sun.
May all peoples be blessed in him;
may all the nations proclaim his greatness.
18 [j]Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone can perform such wondrous deeds.
19 May his glorious name be blessed forever,
and may the whole world be filled with his glory.
Amen. Amen.
20 The end of the psalms of David, son of Jesse.[k]
Book III—Psalms 73–89[l]
Psalm 73[m]
False Happiness of the Wicked
1 A psalm of Asaph.[n]
God is truly good to the upright,[o]
to those who are pure in heart.
2 [p]But as for me, I nearly lost my balance;[q]
I was almost at the point of stumbling.
3 For I was filled with envy of the arrogant
when I perceived how the wicked prosper.
4 [r]They endure no painful suffering;
their bodies are healthy and well fed.
5 They are not plagued with burdens common to all;
the troubles of life do not afflict them.
6 So they wear arrogance like a necklace
and don violence like a robe.
7 Their callous hearts overflow with malice,
and their minds are completely taken up with evil plans.
8 They mock and pour forth their malevolence;
in their haughtiness they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths rage against the heavens
while their tongues are never stilled on the earth.
10 [s]So the people blindly follow them
and find nothing offensive in their words.[t]
11 They say: “How does God know?
Does the Most High notice anything?”
12 Such are the wicked,
as they pile up wealth, without any concerns.
13 [u]Is it in vain that I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence?
14 For I am stricken day after day
and punished every morning.
15 If I had decided, “I will speak like them,”
I would not have been true to your children.[v]
16 [w]When I tried to understand all this,
I found it too difficult for me,
17 until I entered the sanctuary of God[x]
and realized what their final end would be.
18 [y]Indeed, you set them on a slippery slope
and cast them headlong into utter ruin.
19 How suddenly they are destroyed,
completely wiped out by terrors!
20 When you arise, O Lord,
you will dismiss them
as one discards a dream on awakening.
21 [z]When my heart was embittered
and my soul was deeply tormented,
22 I was stupid and unable to comprehend—
like a brute beast in your presence.
23 [aa]Yet I am always with you;
you grasp me by the right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me into glory.[ab]
25 Whom do I have in heaven except you?
And besides you there is nothing else I desire on earth.
26 Even should my heart and my flesh[ac] fail,
God is the rock of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 [ad]But all those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy those who are unfaithful to you.
28 As for me, my happiness is to be near God,
and I have made the Lord God my refuge;
I will proclaim all your works[ae]
at the gates of the Daughter of Zion.
The Lot of the Jewish People[a]
Chapter 9
Paul’s Love for Israel. 1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying, as my conscience bears witness for me through the Holy Spirit 2 that I have great sorrow and unending anguish in my heart. 3 I would even be willing to be accursed, cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren who are my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites[b] who have the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, God forever, who is over all.[c] Amen.
The Word of God Has Not Proved False. 6 It is not as though the word of God has proved false. For not all who were Israelites truly belong to Israel, 7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that descendants will bear your name.”
8 In other words, it is not through physical descent that people are regarded as children of God. Rather, the children of the promise are those who are counted as descendants. 9 For this is how the promise was worded: “About this time next year I shall return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 And not only that, but Rebekah became pregnant by one man, her husband Isaac. 11 Yet even before her children had been born or done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might prevail, 12 dependent not on human works but on his call, she was told, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written,
“I loved Jacob,
but Esau I hated.”[d]
14 Has God Been Unjust?[e]What then are we to say to that? Has God been unjust? Of course not! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy
on whomever I will have mercy,
and I will have pity
on whomever I will have pity.”
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