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Duration: 365 days

Psalm 113-115

Psalm 113^[a]

113 Praise the Lord.
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
²May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore.
³From east to west^[b]
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
⁴The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.^[c]
⁵Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?^[d]
⁶He bends down to look^[e]
at the sky and the earth.
⁷He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,^[f]
⁸that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
⁹He makes the barren woman of the family^[g]
a happy mother of children.^[h]
Praise the Lord.

Psalm 114^[i]

114 When Israel left Egypt,
when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind,^[j]
²Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his kingdom.
³The sea looked and fled;^[k]
the Jordan River^[l] turned back.^[m]
⁴The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.^[n]
⁵Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
⁶Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
⁷Tremble, O earth, before the Lord—
before the God of Jacob,
⁸who turned a rock into a pool of water,
a hard rock into springs of water.^[o]

Psalm 115^[p]

115 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name bring honor,^[q]
for the sake of your loyal love and faithfulness.^[r]
²Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
³Our God is in heaven.
He does whatever he pleases.^[s]
⁴Their^[t] idols are made of silver and gold—
they are man-made.^[u]
⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
⁶ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell,
⁷hands, but cannot touch,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot even clear their throats.^[v]
⁸Those who make them will end up^[w] like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
⁹O Israel, trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer^[x] and protector.^[y]
¹⁰O family^[z] of Aaron, trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer^[aa] and protector.^[ab]
¹¹You loyal followers of the Lord,^[ac] trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer^[ad] and protector.^[ae]
¹²The Lord takes notice of us;^[af] he will bless^[ag]—
he will bless the family^[ah] of Israel,
he will bless the family of Aaron.
¹³He will bless his loyal followers,^[ai]
both young and old.^[aj]
¹⁴May he increase your numbers,
yours and your children’s.^[ak]
¹⁵May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Creator^[al] of heaven and earth.
¹⁶The heavens belong to the Lord,^[am]
but the earth he has given to mankind.^[an]
¹⁷The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any of those who descend into the silence of death.^[ao]
¹⁸But we will praise the Lord
now and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!

Footnotes

Psalm 113:1 sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.
Psalm 113:3 tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.
Psalm 113:4 tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
Psalm 113:5 tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
Psalm 113:6 tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
Psalm 113:7 sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “of the house.”
Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “sons.”
Psalm 114:1 sn Psalm 114. The psalmist recalls the events of the exodus and conquest and celebrates God’s kingship over his covenant people.
Psalm 114:1 tn Heb “the house of Jacob from a nation speaking a foreign language.”
Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
Psalm 114:3 tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).
Psalm 114:4 sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).
Psalm 114:8 sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).
Psalm 115:1 sn Psalm 115. The psalmist affirms that Israel’s God is superior to pagan idols and urges Israel to place their confidence in him.
Psalm 115:1 tn Or “give glory.”
Psalm 115:1 sn The psalmist asks the Lord to demonstrate his loyal love and faithfulness, not simply so Israel may benefit, but primarily so that the Lord will receive honor among the nations, who will recognize, contrary to their present view (see v. 2), that Israel’s God is committed to his people.
Psalm 115:3 sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).
Psalm 115:4 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
Psalm 115:4 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
Psalm 115:7 tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).
Psalm 115:8 tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.” sn Because the idols are lifeless, they cannot help their worshipers in times of crisis. Consequently the worshipers end up as dead as the gods in which they trust.
Psalm 115:9 tn Or “[source of] help.”
Psalm 115:9 tn Heb “and their shield.”
Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “house.”
Psalm 115:10 tn Or “[source of] help.”
Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “and their shield.”
Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.
Psalm 115:11 tn Or “[source of] help.”
Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “and their shield.”
Psalm 115:12 tn Or “remembers us.”
Psalm 115:12 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).
Psalm 115:12 tn Heb “house.”
Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”
Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).
Psalm 115:14 tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.
Psalm 115:15 tn Or “maker.”
Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “the heavens [are] heavens to the Lord.”
Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “to the sons of man.”
Psalm 115:17 tn Heb “silence,” a metonymy here for death (see Ps 94:17).

1 Corinthians 6

Lawsuits

6 When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints? ²Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits? ³Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters! ⁴So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?^[a] ⁵I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians?^[b] ⁶Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian,^[c] and do this before unbelievers? ⁷The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸But you yourselves wrong and cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!^[d]

⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners,^[e] practicing homosexuals,^[f] ¹⁰thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive,^[g] and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹Some of you once lived this way.^[h] But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ^[i] and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Sexual Immorality

¹²“All things are lawful for me”^[j]—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.”^[k] The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that anyone who is united with^[l] a prostitute is one body with her?^[m] For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”^[n] ¹⁷But the one united with^[o] the Lord is one spirit with him.^[p] ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”^[q]—but the immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,^[r] whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 6:4 tn Or “if you have ordinary lawsuits, appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church!” This alternative reading (cf. KJV, NIV) takes the Greek verb καθίζετε (kathizete) as an ironic imperative instead of a question. This verb comes, however, at the end of the sentence. It is not impossible that Paul meant for it to be understood this way, but its placement in the sentence does not make this probable.
1 Corinthians 6:5 tn Grk “to decide between his brother (and his opponent),” but see the note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
1 Corinthians 6:6 tn Grk “does a brother sue a brother,” but see the note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
1 Corinthians 6:8 tn Grk “brothers.” The Greek term “brother” literally refers to family relationships, but here it is used in a broader sense to connote familial relationships within the family of God (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a). See also the note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
1 Corinthians 6:9 tn This term is sometimes rendered “effeminate,” although in contemporary English usage such a translation could be taken to refer to demeanor rather than behavior. BDAG 613 s.v. μαλακός 2 has “pert. to being passive in a same-sex relationship, effeminate esp. of catamites, of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a relationship.” L&N 88.281 states, “the passive male partner in homosexual intercourse—‘homosexual.’…As in Greek, a number of other languages also have entirely distinct terms for the active and passive roles in homosexual intercourse.” See also the discussion in G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 243-44. A number of modern translations have adopted the phrase “male prostitutes” for μαλακοί in 1 Cor 6:9 (NIV, NRSV, NLT) but this could be misunderstood by the modern reader to mean “males who sell their services to women,” while the term in question appears, at least in context, to relate to homosexual activity between males. Furthermore, it is far from certain that prostitution as commonly understood (the selling of sexual favors) is specified here, as opposed to a consensual relationship. Thus the translation “passive homosexual partners” has been used here.
1 Corinthians 6:9 tn On this term BDAG 135 s.v. ἀρσενοκοίτης states, “a male who engages in sexual activity w. a pers. of his own sex, pederast 1 Cor 6:9…of one who assumes the dominant role in same-sex activity, opp. μαλακός…1 Ti 1:10; Pol 5:3. Cp. Ro 1:27.” L&N 88.280 states, “a male partner in homosexual intercourse—‘homosexual.’…It is possible that ἀρσενοκοίτης in certain contexts refers to the active male partner in homosexual intercourse in contrast with μαλακός, the passive male partner.” Since there is a distinction in contemporary usage between sexual orientation and actual behavior, the qualification “practicing” was supplied in the translation, following the emphasis in BDAG.
1 Corinthians 6:10 tn Or “revilers”; BDAG 602 s.v. λοίδορος defines the term as “reviler, abusive person.” Because the term “abusive” without further qualification has become associated in contemporary English with both physical and sexual abuse, the qualifier “verbally” has been supplied in the translation.
1 Corinthians 6:11 tn Grk “and some [of you] were these.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 tc The external evidence in support of the reading ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Iēsou Christou, “Jesus Christ”) is quite impressive: P^11vid,46 א B C^vid D* P 33 81 104 365 629 630 1739 1881 2464 al lat bo as well as several fathers, while the reading with merely ᾿Ιησοῦ has significantly poorer support (A D² Ψ M sa). Although the wording of the original could certainly have been expanded, it is also possible that Χριστοῦ as a nomen sacrum could have accidentally dropped out. Although the latter is not as likely under normal circumstances, in light of the early and widespread witnesses for the fuller expression, the wording of the Ausgangstext seems to have been ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
1 Corinthians 6:12 sn All things are lawful for me. In the expressions in vv. 12-13 within quotation marks, Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior. Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
1 Corinthians 6:13 tn Grk “both this [stomach] and these [foods].”sn There is debate as to the extent of the Corinthian slogan which Paul quotes here. Some argue that the slogan is only the first sentence—“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food”—with the second statement forming Paul’s rejoinder, while others argue that the slogan contains both sentences (as in the translation above). The argument which favors the latter is the tight conceptual and grammatical parallelism which occurs if Paul’s response begins with “The body is not for sexual immorality” and then continues through the end of v. 14. For discussion and diagrams of this structure, see G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 253-57.
1 Corinthians 6:16 tn Or “is in relationship with.”
1 Corinthians 6:16 tn Grk “is one body,” implying the association “with her.”
1 Corinthians 6:16 sn A quotation from Gen 2:24.
1 Corinthians 6:17 tn Grk “in relationship with.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 tn Grk “is one spirit,” implying the association “with him.”
1 Corinthians 6:18 sn It is debated whether this is a Corinthian slogan. If it is not, then Paul is essentially arguing that there are two types of sin, nonsexual sins which take place outside the body and sexual sins which are against a person’s very own body. If it is a Corinthian slogan, then it is a slogan used by the Corinthians to justify their immoral behavior. With it they are claiming that anything done in the body or through the body had no moral relevance. A decision here is very difficult, but the latter is to be preferred for two main reasons. (1) This is the most natural understanding of the statement as it is written. To construe it as a statement by Paul requires a substantial clarification in the sense (e.g., “All other sins…” [NIV]). (2) Theologically the former is more difficult: Why would Paul single out sexual sins as more intrinsically related to the body than other sins, such as gluttony or drunkenness? For these reasons, it is more likely that the phrase in quotation marks is indeed a Corinthian slogan which Paul turns against them in the course of his argument, although the decision must be regarded as tentative.
1 Corinthians 6:19 tn Grk “the ‘in you’ Holy Spirit.” The position of the prepositional phrase ἐν ὑμῖν (en humin, “in you”) between the article and the adjective effectively places the prepositional phrase in first attributive position. Such constructions are generally translated into English as relative clauses.

New English Translation (NET)

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Old/New Testament

Psalm 113[a]

Psalm 114[i]

Psalm 115[p]

Footnotes

Lawsuits

Flee Sexual Immorality

Footnotes

Psalm 113^[a]

Psalm 114^[i]

Psalm 115^[p]