M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
22 David said the words of this song to Adonai on the day Adonai delivered him from the power of all his enemies and from the power of Sha’ul. 2 He said:
“Adonai is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer,
3 the God who is my Rock, in whom I find shelter,
my shield, the power that saves me,
my stronghold and my refuge.
My savior, you have saved me from violence.
4 I call on Adonai, who is worthy of praise;
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 “For death’s breakers were closing over me,
the floods of B’liya‘al terrified me,
6 the ropes of Sh’ol were wrapped around me,
the snares of death lay there before me.
7 In my distress I called to Adonai;
yes, I called to my God.
Out of his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry entered his ears.
8 “Then the earth quaked and shook,
the foundations of heaven trembled.
They were shaken because he was angry.
9 Smoke arose in his nostrils;
and from his mouth, devouring fire,
with coals blazing from it.
10 He lowered heaven and came down
with thick darkness under his feet.
11 He rode on a keruv and flew,
he was seen on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his canopy around him,
thick clouds in the skies dense with water.
13 From the brightness before him,
fiery coals flamed out.
14 “Adonai thundered from heaven,
Ha‘Elyon sounded his voice.
15 He sent out arrows and scattered them;
with lightning he routed them.
16 The channels of the sea appeared,
the foundations of the world were exposed
at Adonai’s rebuke,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He sent from on high, he took me
and pulled me out of deep water;
18 he rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from those who hated me, for they were stronger than I.
19 They came against me on my day of calamity,
but Adonai was my support.
20 “He brought me out to an open place;
he rescued me, because he took pleasure in me.
21 Adonai rewarded me for my uprightness,
he repaid me because my hands were clean.
22 “For I have kept the ways of Adonai,
I have not done evil by leaving my God;
23 for all his rulings were before me,
I did not depart from his regulations.
24 I was pure-hearted toward him
and kept myself from my sin.
25 “Hence Adonai repaid me for my uprightness,
according to my purity in his view.
26 With the merciful, you are merciful;
with the champion of purity, you are pure;
27 with the honest, you are honest;
but with the crooked you are cunning.
28 People afflicted, you save;
but when your eyes are on the haughty, you humble them.
29 “For you, Adonai, are my lamp;
Adonai lights up my darkness.
30 With you I can run through a whole troop of men,
with my God I can leap a wall.
31 “As for God, his way is perfect,
the word of Adonai has been tested by fire;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
32 For who is God but Adonai,
and who is a Rock but our God?
33 “God is my strength and protection;
he makes my way go straight.
34 He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer
and enables me to stand on my high places.
35 He trains my hands for war
until my arms can bend a bow of bronze;
36 You give me your shield, which is salvation;
your answers make me great.
37 You lengthen the steps I can take,
yet my ankles do not turn.
38 “I pursued my enemies and wiped them out,
without turning back until they were destroyed.
39 I destroyed them, crushed them; they can’t get up;
they have fallen under my feet.
40 “For you braced me with strength for the battle
and bent down my adversaries beneath me.
41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
so that I could destroy those who hate me.
42 “They looked, but there was no one to help,
even to Adonai, but he didn’t answer.
43 I pulverized them like dust on the ground,
pounded and stamped on them like mud in the streets.
44 “You also freed me from the quarrels of my people.
You kept me to be the head of the nations;
a people I did not know now serve me.
45 Foreigners come cringing to me;
the moment they hear of me, they obey me.
46 Foreigners lose heart as they stagger from their fortresses.
47 “Adonai is alive! Blessed is my Rock!
Exalted be God, the Rock of my salvation,
48 the God who gives me vengeance
and makes peoples submit to me.
49 He brings me out from my enemies.
You raise me over those who rebel against me,
you rescue me from violent men.
50 “So I give thanks to you, Adonai, among the nations;
I sing praises to your name.
51 He is a tower of salvation for his king;
he displays grace to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”
2 Then after fourteen years I again went up to Yerushalayim, this time with Bar-Nabba; and I took with me Titus. 2 I went up in obedience to a revelation, and I explained to them the Good News as I proclaim it among the Gentiles — but privately, to the acknowledged leaders. I did this out of concern that my current or previous work might have been in vain.
3 But they didn’t force my Gentile companion Titus to undergo b’rit-milah. 4 Indeed, the question came up only because some men who pretended to be brothers had been sneaked in — they came in surreptitiously to spy out the freedom we have in the Messiah Yeshua, so that they might enslave us. 5 Not even for a minute did we give in to them, so that the truth of the Good News might be preserved for you.
6 Moreover, those who were the acknowledged leaders — what they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by outward appearances — these leaders added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Uncircumcised, just as Kefa had been for the Circumcised; 8 since the One working in Kefa to make him an emissary to the Circumcised had worked in me to make me an emissary to the Gentiles. 9 So, having perceived what grace had been given to me, Ya‘akov, Kefa and Yochanan, the acknowledged pillars of the community, extended to me and Bar-Nabba the right hand of fellowship; so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the Circumcised. 10 Their only request was that we should remember the poor — which very thing I have spared no pains to do.
11 Furthermore, when Kefa came to Antioch, I opposed him publicly, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 For prior to the arrival of certain people from [the community headed by] Ya‘akov, he had been eating with the Gentile believers; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of the faction who favored circumcising Gentile believers. 13 And the other Jewish believers became hypocrites along with him, so that even Bar-Nabba was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, keeping in line with the truth of the Good News, I said to Kefa, right in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Goy and not like a Jew, why are you forcing the Goyim to live like Jews? 15 We are Jews by birth, not so-called ‘Goyishe sinners’; 16 even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous by God on the ground of his legalistic observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua’s trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we too have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to him, in order that we might be declared righteous on the ground of the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness and not on the ground of our legalistic observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous.[a]
17 But if, in seeking to be declared righteous by God through our union with the Messiah, we ourselves are indeed found to be sinners, then is the Messiah an aider and abettor of sin? Heaven forbid! 18 Indeed, if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed, I really do make myself a transgressor. 19 For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God. 20 When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless.
29 On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the tenth year, the word of Adonai came to me: 2 “Human being, turn your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt; prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3 speak out; and say that Adonai Elohim says:
‘I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
you big crocodile
lying in the streams of the Nile!
You say, “My Nile is mine;
I made it for myself.”
4 But I will put hooks in your jaws
and make your Nile fish stick to your scales.
Yes, I will bring you up from your Nile,
with all your Nile fish sticking to your scales,
5 and leave you in the desert,
you and all your Nile fish.
You will fall in the open field
and not be gathered or buried;
but I will give you as food
to wild animals and birds.
6 Then all who live in Egypt
will know that I am Adonai,
because they have been a support made of straw
for the house of Isra’el.
7 When they grasped you in hand, you splintered
and threw all their shoulders out of joint;
when they leaned on you, you broke
and made them all wrench their backs.’
8 “Therefore Adonai Elohim says, ‘I will bring the sword against you and eliminate both your people and your animals. 9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate waste, and they will know that I am Adonai; because he said, “The Nile is mine; I made it.” 10 So I am against you and your Nile; and I will make the land of Egypt a totally desolate waste from Migdol to S’venah, all the way to the border of Ethiopia. 11 No human foot will pass through it, and no animal foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years. 12 Yes, I will make the land of Egypt desolate, even when compared with other desolate countries, likewise her cities in comparison with other ruined cities; they will be desolate forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries.’
13 “For this is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered — 14 I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and cause them to return to the land of their origin, Patros. But there they will be a humble kingdom, 15 the humblest of kingdoms. It will never again dominate other nations; I will reduce them, so that they never again rule other nations. 16 Moreover, they will no longer be a source of confidence for Isra’el to turn to; rather, it will only bring to mind their guilt in having turned to them before. Then they will know that I am Adonai Elohim.’”
17 On the first day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year, the word of Adonai came to me: 18 “Human being, N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel had his army mount a massive expedition against Tzor; [the loads of dirt they carried] made every head bald and every shoulder raw; yet neither he nor his army derived any benefit from Tzor out of this expedition against it. 19 Therefore Adonai Elohim says, ‘I will give the land of Egypt to N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel. He will carry off its riches, take its spoil and its prey; and these will be the wages for his army. 20 I am giving him the land of Egypt as his wages for which he worked, because they were working for me,’ says Adonai Elohim. 21 ‘When that day comes I will cause power to return to the house of Isra’el, and I will enable you [Yechezk’el] to open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am Adonai.’”
78 (0) A maskil of Asaf:
(1) Listen, my people, to my teaching;
turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2 I will speak to you in parables
and explain mysteries from days of old.
3 The things which we have heard and known,
and which our fathers told us
4 we will not hide from their descendants;
we will tell the generation to come
the praises of Adonai and his strength,
the wonders that he has performed.
5 He raised up a testimony in Ya‘akov
and established a Torah in Isra’el.
He commanded our ancestors
to make this known to their children,
6 so that the next generation would know it,
the children not yet born,
who would themselves arise
and tell their own children,
7 who could then put their confidence in God,
not forgetting God’s deeds,
but obeying his mitzvot.
8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation with unprepared hearts,
with spirits unfaithful to God.
9 The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows,
turned their backs on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to live by his Torah.
11 They forgot what he had done,
his wonders which he had shown them.
12 He had done wonderful things
in the presence of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt,
in the region of Tzo‘an.
13 He split the sea and made them pass through,
he made the waters stand up like a wall.
14 He also led them by day with a cloud
and all night long with light from a fire.
15 He broke apart the rocks in the desert
and let them drink as if from boundless depths;
16 yes, he brought streams out of the rock,
making the water flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High;
18 in their hearts they tested God
by demanding food that would satisfy their cravings.
19 Yes, they spoke against God by asking,
“Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out,
until the vadis overflowed;
but what about bread? Can he give that?
Can he provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when Adonai heard, he was angry;
fire blazed up against Ya‘akov;
his anger mounted against Isra’el;
22 because they had no faith in God,
no trust in his power to save.
23 So he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down man on them as food;
he gave them grain from heaven —
25 mortals ate the bread of angels;
he provided for them to the full.
26 He stirred up the east wind in heaven,
brought on the south wind by his power,
27 and rained down meat on them like dust,
birds flying thick as the sand on the seashore.
28 He let them fall in the middle of their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate till they were satisfied;
he gave them what they craved.
30 They were still fulfilling their craving,
the food was still in their mouths,
31 when the anger of God rose up against them
and slaughtered their strongest men,
laying low the young men of Isra’el.
32 Still, they kept on sinning
and put no faith in his wonders.
33 Therefore, he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 When he brought death among them, they would seek him;
they would repent and seek God eagerly,
35 remembering that God was their Rock,
El ‘Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they tried to deceive him with their words,
they lied to him with their tongues;
37 for their hearts were not right with him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.