M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 6
1 These are the commands, statutes, and decrees that the Lord, your God, directed me to teach you so that you might observe them in the land to which you are going as your inheritance. 2 Thus, you will fear the Lord, your God, and observe the statutes and commandments that I give you—you, and your children, and your children’s children—all the days of your life, so that you might live a long time.
3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that you might prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
The Law of Love.[a] 4 Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, is Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 You shall keep these things that I command you today in your heart. 7 Teach them to your children. You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 [b]Bind them as a reminder upon your hand, and wear them as a pendant between your eyes 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.
Loyalty to the Lord.10 [c]When the Lord, your God, will have brought you into the land that he promised to your forefathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that he would give to you, a land with large and pleasant cities that you did not build 11 with houses filled with all kinds of good things that you did not provide, wells that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill of them, 12 be sure not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery.
13 Fear the Lord, your God, and serve him. Swear oaths with his name. 14 You shall not seek after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you 15 for the Lord, your God, who lives among you is a jealous God.[d] Beware lest the anger of the Lord, your God, be kindled and he wipe you off of the face of the earth.
16 You shall not tempt the Lord,[e] your God, as you tempted him at Massah. 17 You shall take heed to observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the decrees and statutes that he has given to you. 18 Do what the Lord regards as right and good so that things will go well with you and that you might enter in and take possession of the good land that the Lord promised to your fathers, 19 being able to cast out all of your enemies from before you, just as the Lord has promised.
20 Instructing Children. In the future when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the Lord, our God, has commanded of you,” 21 you are to tell your son, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The Lord performed signs and wonders in our sight, great and terrible things, that he imposed upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh and upon all of his household. 23 He brought us out from there so that he might bring us into and give to us the land that he promised to our fathers.
24 “The Lord commanded us to observe all of these statutes and to fear the Lord, our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, even as we are today. 25 If we are diligent in observing all of these commandments before the Lord, our God, as he commanded of us, then this will be our righteousness.”
Psalm 89[a]
Prayer for the Fulfillment of God’s Promise
1 A maskil[b] of Ethan the Ezrahite.
2 [c]I will sing forever of the Lord’s kindness;
with my lips I will proclaim your faithfulness[d]
throughout the generations.
3 You said, “My kindness lasts forever;
my faithfulness is as firmly established as the heavens.
4 “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to my servant David:
5 ‘I will establish your descendants forever
and allow your throne to endure for all generations.’ ”[e] Selah
6 [f]Let the heavens[g] praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of your holy ones.
7 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Is there any heavenly being[h] who is like the Lord,
8 a God who is feared in the council of the holy ones,
greater and more awesome than any who stand in his presence?
9 O Lord, God of hosts,[i] who is like you?
Almighty Lord, your faithfulness is never absent.
10 You control the raging sea,
calming its surging waves.
11 You crushed Rahab[j] with a deadly blow;
you scattered your foes with your mighty arm.
12 Yours are the heavens and yours is the earth;
you founded the world[k] and all that is in it.
13 You created the north and the south;[l]
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
14 Mighty is your arm and strong is your hand;
your right hand is forever raised high.
15 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
kindness and faithfulness go before your face.[m]
16 Blessed[n] are the people who know how to acclaim you, O Lord,
who walk in the light of your countenance.
17 In your name they rejoice all day long,
and they exult in your righteousness.
18 [o]You are the strength in which they glory,
and by your kindness our horn[p] is exalted.
19 For the Lord is our shield,
the Holy One of Israel, our King.
20 [q]On one occasion you spoke in a vision[r]
and said to your faithful servants:
“I have appointed as leader one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
21 I have found David, my servant,
and with my holy oil I have anointed him.
22 “My hand will sustain him;
my arm will make him strong.
23 No enemy will overcome him;
no one who is wicked will oppress him.
24 “I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
25 My faithfulness and my kindness will be with him;
through my name his horn will be exalted.
26 “I will stretch his hand as far as the sea
and his right hand as far as the rivers.[s]
27 He will cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock of my salvation.’
28 [t]“I will designate him as my firstborn,
the highest of all earthly kings.
29 Forever I will maintain my kindness for him,
and my covenant with him will never end.
30 I will establish his dynasty forever
and his throne as long as the heavens.
31 [u]“If his descendants forsake my law
and refuse to conform to my decrees,
32 if they break my statutes
and do not keep my precepts,
33 I will punish their disobedience with the rod
and their iniquity with scourges.
34 “But I will not deprive him of my kindness
or fail to observe my faithfulness.[v]
35 [w]I will not violate my covenant
or alter the promise I have spoken.
36 “By my holiness I have sworn once and for all:
never will I break faith with David.
37 His dynasty will last forever,
and his throne will endure before me like the sun.
38 It will endure forever like the moon,
a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah
39 [x]But now you have spurned and rejected him,
you have become filled with wrath against your anointed one.[y]
40 You have repudiated your covenant with your servant
and dishonored his crown in the dust.
41 You have breached all his walls
and turned his strongholds into ruins.
42 Every passer-by has despoiled him;
he has become a laughingstock to his neighbors.
43 [z]You have exalted the right hand of his foes
and caused all his enemies to rejoice.
44 You have driven back his drawn sword
and left him to fight without your support.
45 You have put an end to his glory
and toppled his throne to the ground.
46 You have curtailed the time of his youth[aa]
and enveloped him in shame. Selah
47 [ab]How long, O Lord? Will you remain hidden forever?
How long[ac] will your wrath blaze like a fire?
48 Remember how brief is my span of life
and how weak you have made all mortals.
49 Who can live and never experience death?
Who can save himself from the power of the netherworld? Selah
50 [ad]Where is your kindness of old, O Lord,
which you swore to David in your faithfulness?
51 Remember, O Lord, the insults hurled at your servant;
recall how I have borne in my heart the slanders of all the peoples.
52 Your enemies have leveled insults at us, O Lord;
they have taunted the footsteps of your anointed one.
53 Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen! Amen![ae]
The Lord, Zion’s Defender[a]
Chapter 34
The End of Edom
1 Draw near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it listen,
the world and all that issues forth from it.
2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations
and enraged against all their armies;
he has decreed their doom
and given them over to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be cast out,
and their corpses will emit a stench;
the mountains will flow with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven will crumble into nothing,
and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.
All their host will wither away
as the leaves wither on a vine
or as the fruit withers on a fig tree.
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
lo, it will descend upon Edom,
upon a people I have doomed to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword sated with blood;
it is greasy 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
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will also be struck down alongside them
as will the bullocks with the bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood
and their soil will be greasy with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of reprisal by Zion’s defenders.
9 The streams of Edom will be turned into pitch
and her soil into sulfur;
her land will become burning pitch.[b]
10 Night or day it will never be quenched;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
never again will anyone pass through it.
11 But the hawk and the hedgehog will possess it;
the owl and the raven will dwell in it.
The Lord will stretch out over it
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
12 There will be no more nobles there
to proclaim the king;
all of its princes will have vanished.
13 Its citadels will be overgrown with thorns,
and nettles and briars will cover its fortresses.
It will become an abode for jackals
and a haunt for ostriches.
14 Desert creatures will frolic with hyenas,
and wild goats will call out to each other;
there, too, the nightjar will return to rest
and find a place for repose.
15 There will the owl nest and lay eggs,
and hatch and gather its young under her wings;
there, too, the buzzards will gather,
each one with its mate.
16 Consult the book[c] of the Lord and read it.
Not one of these will be missing,
not one will be without its mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
17 He has allotted the portion for each;
his hand has measured out their shares.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation.
Celestial Visions about What Is To Come[a]
Christ, Lord of History[b]
Chapter 4
Vision of the Throne.[c]1 Following this, I had a vision of heaven with an open door, and I heard the voice like a trumpet that I had heard speaking to me before, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was caught up in the spirit,[d] and there in heaven I beheld a throne. 3 Seated upon the throne was one whose appearance was similar to that of jasper and carnelian, and surrounding it was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.
4 Encircling the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders,[e] dressed in white with gold crowns on their heads. 5 Emanating from the throne were flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. Burning in front of the throne were seven flaming lamps, the seven spirits of God, 6 and in front of the throne there was something like a sea of glass as transparent as crystal.
In the center of the throne and around it there were four living creatures,[f] and they were covered with eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature resembled a lion, the second resembled an ox, the third had a human face, and the fourth resembled an eagle in flight. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings, and all of them were covered with eyes all around and underneath their wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God, the Almighty,
who was, and who is, and who is to come.”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders prostrate themselves before him who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. As they lay down their crowns in front of the throne, they cry out:
11 “Worthy are you, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things;
by your will they were created
and have their being.”
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