Psalm 50

The Acceptable Sacrifice

A Psalm of Asaph.

Psalm 46

God’s Defense of His City and People

To the leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth. A Song.

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.^{(A) 2} The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master.^{(B) 3} His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.^{(C) 4} So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.^{(D) 5} From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.^{(E) 6} So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and with him there he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. ⁷ And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”^{(F) 8} But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. ⁹ He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”^{(G) 10} And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. ¹¹ One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, ¹² she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside.^{(H) 13} When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, ¹⁴ she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband^[a] has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice, ¹⁵ and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” ¹⁶ Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, ¹⁷ and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me,^{(I) 18} but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”

¹⁹ When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged.^{(J) 20} And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison.^{(K) 21} But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.^{(L) 22} The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.^{(M) 23} The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.^(N)

¹⁴ Those who are unspiritual^[a] do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.^{(A) 15} Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

But we have the mind of Christ.^(B)

On Divisions in the Corinthian Church

3 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people but rather as fleshly, as infants in Christ.^{(C) 2} I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,^{(D) 3} for you are still fleshly. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling^[b] among you, are you not fleshly and behaving according to human inclinations?^{(E) 4} For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not all too human?^(F)

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor.^{(G) 9} For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.^(H)

¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Let each builder choose with care how to build on it.^{(I) 11} For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.^{(J) 12} Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³ the work of each builder will become visible, for the day^[c] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.^{(K) 14} If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. ¹⁵ If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them.^{(A) 3} Then some people^[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.^{(B) 4} And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”^{(C) 8} At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” ¹² And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”^(D)