Old/New Testament
Trusting Money Is Foolish
For the director of music. A song of the sons of Korah.
49 Listen to this, all you nations.
Listen, all you who live on earth.
2 Listen, both great and small,
rich and poor together.
3 What I say is wise.
My heart speaks with understanding.
4 I will pay attention to a wise saying.
I will explain my riddle on the harp.
5 Why should I be afraid of bad days?
Why should I fear when evil men surround me?
6 They trust in their money.
They brag about their riches.
7 No one can buy back the life of another person.
No one can pay God for his own life.
8 The price of a life is high.
No payment is ever enough.
9 Do people live forever?
Don’t they all face death?
10 See, even wise men die.
Fools and stupid people also die.
They leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves will always be their homes.
They will live there from now on,
even though they named places after themselves.
12 Even rich people do not live forever.
Like the animals, people die.
13 This is what will happen to people who trust in themselves.
And this will happen to their followers who believe them. Selah
14 Like sheep, they must die.
And death will be their shepherd.
Honest people will rule over them in the morning.
Their bodies will rot in a grave far from home.
15 But God will save my life.
He will take me from the grave. Selah
16 Don’t be afraid of a rich man
because his house is more beautiful.
17 He won’t take anything to the grave.
His wealth won’t die with him.
18 He was praised when he was alive.
(And people may praise you when you succeed.)
19 But he will go to where his ancestors are.
He will never see light again.
20 Rich people with no understanding
are just like animals that die.
God Wants True Worship
A song of Asaph.
50 The God of gods, the Lord, speaks.
He calls the earth from the rising to the setting sun.
2 God shines from Jerusalem,
whose beauty is perfect.
3 Our God comes, and he will not be silent.
A fire burns in front of him,
and a storm surrounds him.
4 He calls to the sky and to the earth
to see him judge his people.
5 He says, “You who worship me, gather around.
You have made an agreement with me, using a sacrifice.”
6 God is the judge.
Even the skies say he is right. Selah
7 God says, “My people, listen to me.
Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not scold you for your sacrifices.
You always bring me your burnt offerings.
9 But I do not need the bulls from your stalls
or the goats from your pens.
10 Every animal of the forest is already mine.
The cattle on a thousand hills are mine.
11 I know every bird on the mountains.
Every living thing in the fields is mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you.
The earth and everything on it are mine.
13 I don’t eat the meat of bulls
or drink the blood of goats.
14 Give an offering to show thanks to God.
Give God Most High what you have promised.
15 Call to me in times of trouble.
I will save you, and you will honor me.”
16 But God says to the wicked people,
“Why do you talk about my laws?
Why do you mention my agreement?
17 You hate my teachings.
You turn your back on what I say.
18 When you see a thief, you join him.
You take part in adultery.
19 You don’t stop your mouth from speaking evil.
Your tongue makes up lies.
20 You speak against your brother.
You lie about your mother’s son.
21 I have kept quiet while you did these things.
So you thought I was just like you.
But I will scold you.
I will accuse you to your face.
22 “Think about this, you people who forget God.
Otherwise, I will tear you apart,
and no one will save you.
23 Those people honor me
who give me offerings to show thanks.
And I, God, will save those who do that.”
A Prayer of Thanks
1 From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God called me to be an apostle and chose me to tell the Good News.
2 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets. That promise is written in the Holy Scriptures. 3-4 The Good News is about God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. As a man, he was born from the family of David. But through the Spirit of holiness he was declared to be God’s Son with great power by rising from death. 5 Through Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle. This was to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. I do this work for Christ. 6 And you who are in Rome are also called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 This letter is to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people.
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ show you kindness and give you peace.
8 First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. I thank God because people everywhere in the world are talking about your great faith. 9-10 God knows that every time I pray I always mention you. God is the One I serve with my whole heart by telling the Good News about his Son. I pray that I will be allowed to come to you, and this will happen if God wants it. 11 I want very much to see you, to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong. 12 I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith that we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you. 13 Brothers, I want you to know that I planned many times to come to you. But this has not been possible. I wanted to come so that I could help you grow spiritually. I wanted to help you as I have helped the other non-Jewish people.
14 I must serve all people—Greeks and non-Greeks, the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I want so much to preach the Good News to you in Rome.
16 I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power God uses to save everyone who believes—to save the Jews first, and then to save the non-Jews. 17 The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself. God’s way of making people right with him begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “The person who is made right with God by faith will live forever.”[a]
All People Have Done Wrong
18 God’s anger is shown from heaven against all the evil and wrong things that people do. By their own evil lives they hide the truth. 19 God shows his anger because everything that may be known about God has been made clear. Yes, God has clearly shown them everything that may be known about him. 20 There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand. They are made clear by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do. 21 They knew God. But they did not give glory to God, and they did not thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish minds were filled with darkness. 22 They said they were wise, but they became fools. 23 They gave up the glory of God who lives forever. They traded that glory for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people. They traded God’s glory for things that look like birds, animals, and snakes.
24 People were full of sin, wanting only to do evil. So God left them to follow their evil desires, and they made one another’s bodies impure by what they did. 25 They traded the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served things that were made by man. But they did not worship and serve the God who made those things. God should be praised forever. Amen.
26 Because people did those things, God left them and let them do the shameful things they wanted to do. Women stopped having natural physical relations with men for what is unnatural. 27 In the same way, men stopped having natural physical relations with women and began wanting each other. Men did shameful things with other men. And in their bodies they received the punishment for those wrongs.
28 People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking. And so those people do the things that they should not do. 29 They are filled with every kind of sin, evil, selfishness, and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and thinking the worst about each other. They gossip 30 and say evil things about each other. They hate God. They are rude and conceited and brag about themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They do not obey their parents. 31 They are foolish, they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to other people. 32 They know God’s law says that those who live like this should die. But they continue to do these evil things. And they also feel that those who do these things are doing right.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.