Psalm 92; Numbers 13:1–3; Numbers 13:17–33; Luke 18:1–17

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Psalm 92

How Great Are Your Works

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

fIt is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praises to your name, gO Most High;

to declare your hsteadfast love in ithe morning,

and your hfaithfulness by inight,

to the music of jthe lute and jthe harp,

to the melody of jthe lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your kwork;

at lthe works of your hands I sing for joy.

How mgreat are your works, O Lord!

Your nthoughts are very odeep!

The stupid man cannot know;

the fool cannot understand this:

that though pthe wicked sprout like grass

and all qevildoers flourish,

they are doomed to destruction forever;

but you, O Lord, are ron high forever.

For behold, your enemies, O Lord,

for behold, your enemies shall perish;

all evildoers shall be sscattered.

10  But you have exalted my thorn like that of uthe wild ox;

you have vpoured over me1 fresh oil.

11  My weyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;

my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

12  xThe righteous flourish like the palm tree

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13  They are planted in the house of the Lord;

they flourish in ythe courts of our God.

14  They still bear fruit in old age;

they are ever full of sap and green,

15  zto declare that the Lord is upright;

he is my arock, and there is bno unrighteousness in him.


Numbers 13:1–3

Spies Sent into Canaan

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, gSend men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. So Moses sent them from hthe wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.


Numbers 13:17–33

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up into lthe Negeb and go up into mthe hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is nrich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. oBe of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land pfrom the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, qnear Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into mthe Negeb and came to rHebron. sAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the tdescendants of Anak, were there. (uHebron was built seven years before uZoan in Egypt.) 23 And vthey came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,1 because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

Report of the Spies

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at wKadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, We came to the land to which you sent us. It xflows with milk and honey, yand this is its fruit. 28 zHowever, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 aThe Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. bAnd the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.

30 But cCaleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. 31 dThen the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. 32 So ethey brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and fall the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the gNephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the gNephilim), and we seemed to ourselves hlike grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.


Luke 18:1–17

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought ralways to pray and not slose heart. He said, In a certain city there was a judge who tneither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, uThough I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And vwill not God give justice to whis elect, xwho cry to him day and night? yzWill he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them aspeedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, bwill he find faith on earth?

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some cwho trusted din themselves that they were righteous, eand treated others with contempt: 10 Two men fwent up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, gstanding by himself, prayed1 hthus: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 iI fast twice a week; jI give tithes of all that I get. 13 But the tax collector, gstanding far off, kwould not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but lbeat his breast, saying, God, mbe merciful to me, a sinner! 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For neveryone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Let the Children Come to Me

15 oNow they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they prebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, qLet the children come to me, and rdo not hinder them, qfor to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 sTruly, I say to you, whoever does not treceive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.