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Psalm 69:1-23 (Listen)

• Psalm 68
• Psalm 69
• Psalm 70

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to tLilies. Of David.

69 Save me, O God!

For uthe waters have come up to my neck.1

2 I sink in deep vmire,

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the flood wsweeps over me.

3 xI am weary with my crying out;

ymy throat is parched.

zMy eyes grow dim

with awaiting for my God.

4 bMore in number than the hairs of my head

are cthose who hate me dwithout cause;

mighty are those who would destroy me,

ethose who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal

must I now restore?

5 O God, you know my folly;

the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

6 Let not those who hope in you fbe put to shame through me,

O Lord God of hosts;

let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,

O God of Israel.

7 For it is gfor your sake that I have borne reproach,

that dishonor has covered my face.

8 I have become ha stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my mother's sons.

9 For izeal for your house has consumed me,

and jthe reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10 When I wept and humbled2 my soul with fasting,

it became my reproach.

11 When I made ksackcloth my clothing,

I became la byword to them.

12 I am the talk of those who msit in the gate,

and the drunkards make nsongs about me.

13 But as for me, my oprayer is to you, O Lord.

At pan acceptable time, O God,

in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

14 Deliver me

from sinking in qthe mire;

rlet me be delivered from my enemies

and from sthe deep waters.

15 Let not the flood sweep over me,

or the deep swallow me up,

or tthe pit close uits mouth over me.

16 Answer me, O Lord, for your vsteadfast love is good;

according to your abundant wmercy, xturn to me.

17 yHide not your face from your servant;

zfor I am in distress; amake haste to answer me.

18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me;

ransom me because of my enemies!

19 You know my breproach,

and my shame and my dishonor;

my foes are all known to you.

20 bReproaches have broken my heart,

so that I am in cdespair.

I dlooked for epity, but there was none,

and for fcomforters, but I found none.

21 They gave me gpoison for food,

and for my thirst they gave me hsour wine to drink.

22 iLet their own jtable before them become a snare;

kand when they are at peace, let it become a trap.3

23 lLet their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,

mand make their loins tremble continually.

• Psalm 68
• Psalm 69
• Psalm 70

Psalm 69:24-30 (Listen)

• Psalm 68
• Psalm 69
• Psalm 70

24 Pour out your indignation upon them,

and let your burning anger overtake them.

25 nMay their camp be a desolation;

let no one dwell in their tents.

26 For they opersecute him whom pyou have struck down,

and they recount the pain of qthose you have wounded.

27 rAdd to them punishment upon punishment;

may they have no acquittal from you.1

28 Let them be sblotted out of the book of the living;

let them not be tenrolled among the righteous.

29 But I am afflicted and in pain;

let your salvation, O God, uset me on high!

30 I will vpraise the name of God with a song;

I will wmagnify him with xthanksgiving.

Psalm 69:31-36 (Listen)

• Psalm 68
• Psalm 69
• Psalm 70

31 This will yplease the Lord more than an ox

or a bull zwith horns and hoofs.

32 When athe humble see it they will be glad;

you who seek God, alet your hearts revive.

33 For the Lord hears the needy

and bdoes not despise his own people who are prisoners.

34 Let cheaven and earth praise him,

the seas and everything that moves in them.

35 For dGod will save Zion

and build up the cities of Judah,

and people shall dwell there and possess it;

36 ethe offspring of his servants shall inherit it,

and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

Psalm 73 (Listen)

• Psalm 72
• Psalm 73
• Psalm 74

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of bAsaph.

73 Truly God is good to cIsrael,

to those who are dpure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

3 eFor I was fenvious of the arrogant

when I saw the gprosperity of the wicked.

4 For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

5 They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not hstricken like the rest of mankind.

6 Therefore pride is itheir necklace;

violence covers them as ja garment.

7 Their keyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

8 They scoff and lspeak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

9 They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

10 Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find mno fault in them.1

11 And they say, n“How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12 Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they oincrease in riches.

13 All in vain have I pkept my heart clean

and qwashed my hands in innocence.

14 For all the day long I have been hstricken

and rrebuked severy morning.

15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have betrayed tthe generation of your children.

16 But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me ua wearisome task,

17 until I went into vthe sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their wend.

18 Truly you set them in xslippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

19 How they are destroyed yin a moment,

swept away utterly by zterrors!

20 Like aa dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when byou rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

21 When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

22 I was cbrutish and ignorant;

I was like da beast toward you.

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you ehold my right hand.

24 You fguide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will greceive me to glory.

25 hWhom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26 iMy flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is jthe strength2 of my heart and my kportion lforever.

27 For behold, those who are mfar from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is nunfaithful to you.

28 But for me it is good to obe near God;

I have made the Lord God my prefuge,

that I may qtell of all your works.

• Psalm 72
• Psalm 73
• Psalm 74

Genesis 24:1-27 (Listen)

• Genesis 23
• Genesis 24
• Genesis 25

Isaac and Rebekah

24 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord mhad blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said to his servant, nthe oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, o“Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that pyou will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 qbut will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” 6 Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord, the God of heaven, rwho took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, s‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ the will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then uyou will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant vput his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.

10 Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to wMesopotamia1 to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when xwomen go out to draw water. 12 And he said, “O Lord, yGod of my master Abraham, zplease grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, aI am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. bBy this2 I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”

15 Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of cMilcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder. 16 The young woman dwas very attractive in appearance, a maiden3 whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.” 18 She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. 21 The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel,4 and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, 23 and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?” 24 She said to him, e“I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.” 26 fThe man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord 27 and said, “Blessed be the Lord, gthe God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken hhis steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord ihas led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen.”

• Genesis 23
• Genesis 24
• Genesis 25

Hebrews 12:3-11 (Listen)

• Hebrews 11
• Hebrews 12
• Hebrews 13

Do Not Grow Weary

3 dConsider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or efainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

f“My son, gdo not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

6 For hthe Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. iGod is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, jin which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to kthe Father of spirits land live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, mthat we may share his holiness. 11 nFor the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields othe peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

John 7:1-13 (Listen)

• John 6
• John 7
• John 8

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because pthe Jews1 were seeking to kill him. 2 Now qthe Jews' Feast of rBooths was at hand. 3 sSo his brothers2 said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, tshow yourself to the world.” 5 uFor not even vhis brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, w“My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but xit hates me because I testify about it that yits works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not3 going up to this feast, for zmy time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

10 But after ahis brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11 bThe Jews cwere looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12 And there was much dmuttering about him among the people. eWhile some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, fhe is leading the people astray.” 13 Yet gfor fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

• John 6
• John 7
• John 8