The Lord Is My Rock and My Fortress

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, ^(A)the servant of the Lord, ^(B)who addressed the words of this ^(C)song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

David's Census

24 ^(A)(B)Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ^(C)“Go, number Israel and Judah.” ² So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army,^[a] who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, ^(D)from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” ³ But Joab said to the king, ^(E)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from ^(F)Aroer,^[b] and from the city that is in the middle of the ^(G)valley, toward Gad and on to ^(H)Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites;^[c] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[d] they went around to ^(I)Sidon, ⁷ and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^(J)Hivites and ^(K)Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men ^(L)who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

The Lord's Judgment of David's Sin

¹⁰ But ^(M)David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, ^(N)“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done ^(O)very foolishly.” ¹¹ And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to ^(P)the prophet Gad, David's ^(Q)seer, saying, ¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer^[e] you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(R)three^[f] years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(S)for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

^15 (T)So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from ^(U)Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. ¹⁶ And when ^(V)the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem ^(W)to destroy it, ^(X)the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel ^(Y)who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And ^(Z)the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of ^(AA)Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^(AB)Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad's word, as the Lord commanded. ²⁰ And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague ^(AC)may be averted from the people.” ²² Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the ^(AD)threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God ^(AE)accept you.” ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels^[g] of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ^(AF)So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

The New Life

¹⁷ Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They ^(D)are darkened in their understanding, ^(E)alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to ^(F)their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They ^(G)have become callous and ^(H)have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ But that is not the way you ^(I)learned Christ!— ²¹ assuming that ^(J)you have heard about him and ^(K)were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²² to ^(L)put off ^(M)your old self,^[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through ^(N)deceitful desires, ²³ and ^(O)to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on ^(P)the new self, ^(Q)created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you ^(R)speak the truth with his neighbor, for ^(S)we are members one of another. ^26 (T)Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and ^(U)give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸ Let the thief no longer steal, but rather ^(V)let him labor, ^(W)doing honest work with his own hands, so ^(X)that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ^29 (Y)Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give ^(Z)grace to those who hear. ³⁰ And ^(AA)do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ^(AB)by whom you were sealed for the day of ^(AC)redemption. ^31 (AD)Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ^32 (AE)Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, ^(AF)forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.