M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Great Commandment
6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it; 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them; that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;[a] 5 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.[b]
Caution against Disobedience
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, 12 then take heed lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; 15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes; 23 and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
God’s Covenant with David
A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
89 I will sing of thy steadfast love, O Lord,[a] for ever;
with my mouth I will proclaim thy faithfulness to all generations.
2 For thy steadfast love was established for ever,
thy faithfulness is firm as the heavens.
3 Thou hast said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants for ever,
and build your throne for all generations.’”Selah
5 Let the heavens praise thy wonders, O Lord,
thy faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings[b] is like the Lord,
7 a God feared in the council of the holy ones,
great and terrible[c] above all that are round about him?
8 O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as thou art, O Lord,
with thy faithfulness round about thee?
9 Thou dost rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, thou stillest them.
10 Thou didst crush Rahab like a carcass,
thou didst scatter thy enemies with thy mighty arm.
11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine;
the world and all that is in it, thou hast founded them.
12 The north and the south, thou hast created them;
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise thy name.
13 Thou hast a mighty arm;
strong is thy hand, high thy right hand.
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before thee.
15 Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance,
16 who exult in thy name all the day,
and extol[d] thy righteousness.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength;
by thy favor our horn is exalted.
18 For our shield belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.
19 Of old thou didst speak in a vision
to thy faithful one, and say:
“I have set the crown[e] upon one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 so that my hand shall ever abide with him,
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘Thou art my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
27 And I will make him the first-born,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever,
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his line for ever
and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his children forsake my law
and do not walk according to my ordinances,
31 if they violate my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod
and their iniquity with scourges;
33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love,
or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my covenant,
or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36 His line shall endure for ever,
his throne as long as the sun before me.
37 Like the moon it shall be established for ever;
it shall stand firm while the skies endure.”[f]Selah
38 But now thou hast cast off and rejected,
thou art full of wrath against thy anointed.
39 Thou hast renounced the covenant with thy servant;
thou hast defiled his crown in the dust.
40 Thou hast breached all his walls;
thou hast laid his strongholds in ruins.
41 All that pass by despoil him;
he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his foes;
thou hast made all his enemies rejoice.
43 Yea, thou hast turned back the edge of his sword,
and thou hast not made him stand in battle.
44 Thou hast removed the scepter from his hand,[g]
and cast his throne to the ground.
45 Thou hast cut short the days of his youth;
thou hast covered him with shame.Selah
46 How long, O Lord? Wilt thou hide thyself for ever?
How long will thy wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember, O Lord,[h] what the measure of life is,
for what vanity thou hast created all the sons of men!
48 What man can live and never see death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?Selah
49 Lord, where is thy steadfast love of old,
which by thy faithfulness thou didst swear to David?
50 Remember, O Lord, how thy servant is scorned;
how I bear in my bosom the insults[i] of the peoples,
51 with which thy enemies taunt, O Lord,
with which they mock the footsteps of thy anointed.
52 Blessed be the Lord for ever!
Amen and Amen.
Judgment on the Nations
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and hearken, O peoples!
Let the earth listen, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host,
he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have doomed.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood,
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
and their soil made rich with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 And the streams of Edom[a] shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into brimstone;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up for ever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plummet of chaos over[b] its nobles.
12 They shall name it No Kingdom There,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas,
the satyr shall cry to his fellow;
yea, there shall the night hag alight,
and find for herself a resting place.
15 There shall the owl nest and lay
and hatch and gather her young in her shadow;
yea, there shall the kites be gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it for ever,
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
The Heavenly Worship
4 After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! 3 And he who sat there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.[a] 4 Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders,[b] clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. 5 From the throne issue flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder, and before the throne burn seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God; 6 and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures,[c] full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing,
“Holy, holy, holy,[d] is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,
11 “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for thou didst create all things,
and by thy will they existed and were created.”
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.