Psalm 121

New King James Version

God the Help of Those Who Seek Him

A Song of Ascents.

121 I ^(A)will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
²^(B)My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

³^(C)He will not allow your foot to ^[a]be moved;
^(D)He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵The Lord is your ^[b]keeper;
The Lord is ^(E)your shade ^(F)at your right hand.
⁶^(G)The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

⁷The Lord shall ^[c]preserve you from all evil;
He shall ^(H)preserve your soul.
⁸The Lord shall ^(I)preserve^[d] your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Footnotes

Psalm 121:3 slip
Psalm 121:5 protector
Psalm 121:7 keep
Psalm 121:8 keep

Psalm 123-125

New King James Version

Prayer for Relief from Contempt

A Song of Ascents.

123 Unto You ^(A)I lift up my eyes,
O You ^(B)who dwell in the heavens.
²Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
^(C)So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us.

³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!
For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled
With the scorn of those who are at ease,
With the contempt of the proud.

The Lord the Defense of His People

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our ^(D)side,”
^(E)Let Israel now say—
²“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
³Then they would have ^(F)swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
⁴Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have ^[a]gone over our soul;
⁵Then the swollen waters
Would have ^[b]gone over our soul.”

⁶Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
⁷^(G)Our soul has escaped ^(H)as a bird from the snare of the ^[c]fowlers;
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
⁸^(I)Our help is in the name of the Lord,
^(J)Who made heaven and earth.

The Lord the Strength of His People

A Song of Ascents.

125 Those who trust in the Lord
Are like Mount Zion,
Which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
²As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
So the Lord surrounds His people
From this time forth and forever.

³For ^(K)the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
On the land allotted to the righteous,
Lest the righteous reach out their hands to iniquity.

⁴Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
And to those who are upright in their hearts.

⁵As for such as turn aside to their ^(L)crooked ways,
The Lord shall lead them away
With the workers of iniquity.

^(M)Peace be upon Israel!

Footnotes

Psalm 124:4 swept over
Psalm 124:5 swept over
Psalm 124:7 Persons who catch birds in a trap or snare

Galatians 2

New King James Version

Defending the Gospel^(A)

2 Then after fourteen years ^(B)I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. ²And I went up ^[a]by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but ^(C)privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means ^(D)I might run, or had run, in vain. ³Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ⁴And this occurred because of ^(E)false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our ^(F)liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, ^(G)that they might bring us into bondage), ⁵to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that ^(H)the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

⁶But from those ^(I)who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; ^(J)God ^[b]shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something ^(K)added nothing to me. ⁷But on the contrary, ^(L)when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised ^(M)had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter ⁸(for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the ^(N)circumcised ^(O)also ^(P)worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), ⁹and when James, ^[c]Cephas, and John, who seemed to be ^(Q)pillars, perceived ^(R)the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, ^(S)that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰They desired only that we should remember the poor, ^(T)the very thing which I also was eager to do.

No Return to the Law

¹¹^(U)Now when ^[d]Peter had come to Antioch, I ^[e]withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; ¹²for before certain men came from James, ^(V)he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing ^[f]those who were of the circumcision. ¹³And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

¹⁴But when I saw that they were not straightforward about ^(W)the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter ^(X)before them all, ^(Y)“If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, ^[g]why do you compel Gentiles to live as ^[h]Jews? ¹⁵^(Z)We who are Jews by nature, and not ^(AA)sinners of the Gentiles, ¹⁶^(AB)knowing that a man is not ^[i]justified by the works of the law but ^(AC)by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not ^(AD)by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

¹⁷“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found ^(AE)sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. ¹⁹For I ^(AF)through the law ^(AG)died to the law that I might ^(AH)live to God. ²⁰I have been ^(AI)crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh ^(AJ)I live by faith in the Son of God, ^(AK)who loved me and gave Himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God; for ^(AL)if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died ^[j]in vain.”