Day 216

Daily Bible Reading

(ESV: Through The Bible)

Psalms 73-74 (Listen)

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of Asaph.

73:1 Truly God is good to Israel,
  to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
  my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
  when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;
  their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
  they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
  violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
  their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
  loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
  and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
  and find no fault in them. [1]
And they say, “How can God know?
  Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
  always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
  and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
  and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
  I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,
  it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
  then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;
  you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
  swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
  O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
  when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
  I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
  you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
  and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
  but God is the strength [2] of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
  you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
  I have made the Lord God my refuge,
  that I may tell of all your works.

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

A Maskil [3] of Asaph.

74:1 O God, why do you cast us off forever?
  Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,
  which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!
  Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
  the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
  they set up their own signs for signs.
They were like those who swing axes
  in a forest of trees. [4]
And all its carved wood
  they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
They set your sanctuary on fire;
  they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
  bringing it down to the ground.
They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
  they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

We do not see our signs;
  there is no longer any prophet,
  and there is none among us who knows how long.
How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
  Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
  Take it from the fold of your garment [5] and destroy them!

Yet God my King is from of old,
  working salvation in the midst of the earth.
You divided the sea by your might;
  you broke the heads of the sea monsters [6] on the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
  you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
You split open springs and brooks;
  you dried up ever-flowing streams.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
  you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
  you have made summer and winter.

Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
  and a foolish people reviles your name.
Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
  do not forget the life of your poor forever.

Have regard for the covenant,
  for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
  let the poor and needy praise your name.

Arise, O God, defend your cause;
  remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
  the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

Romans 5 (Listen)

Peace with God Through Faith

5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we [7] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith [8] into this grace in which we stand, and we [9] rejoice [10] in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass [11] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness [12] leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Footnotes

[1] 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them
[2] 73:26 Hebrew rock
[3] 74:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
[4] 74:5 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
[5] 74:11 Hebrew from your bosom
[6] 74:13 Or the great sea creatures
[7] 5:1 Some manuscripts let us
[8] 5:2 Some manuscripts omit by faith
[9] 5:2 Or let us; also verse 3
[10] 5:2 Or boast; also verses 3, 11
[11] 5:18 Or the trespass of one
[12] 5:18 Or the act of righteousness of one

 

 

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