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Psalms 70-72 (Listen)

O Lord, Do Not Delay

To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering.

70:1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
  O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion
  who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
  who delight in my hurt!
Let them turn back because of their shame
  who say, “Aha, Aha!”

May all who seek you
  rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
  say evermore, “God is great!”
But I am poor and needy;
  hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
  O Lord, do not delay!

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

71:1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
  let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
  incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge,
  to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
  for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
  from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
  my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
  you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,
  but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise,
  and with your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
  forsake me not when my strength is spent.
For my enemies speak concerning me;
  those who watch for my life consult together
and say, “God has forsaken him;
  pursue and seize him,
  for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;
  O my God, make haste to help me!
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
  with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
  who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually
  and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
  of your deeds of salvation all the day,
  for their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
  I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
  and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
  O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
  your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
  reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
  O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
  will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
  you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
  and comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harp
  for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
  O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
  when I sing praises to you;
  my soul also, which you have redeemed.
And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
  who sought to do me hurt.

Give the King Your Justice

Of Solomon.

72:1 Give the king your justice, O God,
  and your righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge your people with righteousness,
  and your poor with justice!
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
  and the hills, in righteousness!
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
  give deliverance to the children of the needy,
  and crush the oppressor!

May they fear you [1] while the sun endures,
  and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
  like showers that water the earth!
In his days may the righteous flourish,
  and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

May he have dominion from sea to sea,
  and from the River [2] to the ends of the earth!
May desert tribes bow down before him,
  and his enemies lick the dust!
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
  render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
  bring gifts!
May all kings fall down before him,
  all nations serve him!

For he delivers the needy when he calls,
  the poor and him who has no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
  and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
  and precious is their blood in his sight.

Long may he live;
  may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
  and blessings invoked for him all the day!
May there be abundance of grain in the land;
  on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
  may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
  like the grass of the field!
May his name endure forever,
  his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
  all nations call him blessed!

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
  who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
  may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
     Amen and Amen!

The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

Romans 4 (Listen)

Abraham Justified by Faith

4:1 What then shall we say was gained by [3] Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in [4] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The Promise Realized Through Faith

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Footnotes

[1] 72:5 Septuagint He shall endure
[2] 72:8 That is, the Euphrates
[3] 4:1 Some manuscripts say about
[4] 4:5 Or but trusts; compare verse 24