THEINC-HIM DAILY BIBLE MEDITATION: May 18

Friday, October 23, 2009

May 18

Genesis 1:1 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

MAY 18

PSALMS: 18, 48, 78, 108, 138

PROVERBS: 18

OLD TESTAMENT

EZRA 4:24 - 6:22

NEW TESTAMENT

1 CORINTHIANS 3:5 - 23

PSALMS: 18

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

1I love you, O LORD, my strength.

2The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield and the hornA of my salvation, my stronghold.

3I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,

and I am saved from my enemies.

4The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

5The cords of the graveB coiled around me;

the snares of death confronted me.

6In my distress I called to the LORD;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

7The earth trembled and quaked,

and the foundations of the mountains shook;

they trembled because he was angry.

8Smoke rose from his nostrils;

consuming fire came from his mouth,

burning coals blazed out of it.

9He parted the heavens and came down;

dark clouds were under his feet.

10He mounted the cherubim and flew;

he soared on the wings of the wind. [1]

11He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him--

the dark rain clouds of the sky.

12Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,

with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

13The LORD thundered from heaven;

the voice of the Most High resounded.C

14He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies,

great bolts of lightning and routed them.

15The valleys of the sea were exposed

and the foundations of the earth laid bare

at your rebuke, O LORD,

at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

16He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

17He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

18They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the LORD was my support.

19He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

20The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

21For I have kept the ways of the LORD;

I have not done evil by turning from my God.

22All his laws are before me;

I have not turned away from his decrees.

23I have been blameless before him

and have kept myself from sin.

24The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.[2]

25To the faithful you show yourself faithful,

to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

26to the pure you show yourself pure,

but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

27You save the humble

but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

28You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;

my God turns my darkness into light.

29With your help I can advance against a troopD;

with my God I can scale a wall.

30As for God, his way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield

for all who take refuge in him.

31For who is God besides the LORD?

And who is the Rock except our God?

32It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

33He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he enables me to stand on the heights.

34He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35You give me your shield of victory,

and your right hand sustains me;

you stoop down to make me great.

36You broaden the path beneath me,

so that my ankles do not turn.

37I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

38I crushed them so that they could not rise;

they fell beneath my feet. [3]

39You armed me with strength for battle;

you made my adversaries bow at my feet.

40You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,

and I destroyed my foes.

41They cried for help, but there was no one to save them--

to the LORD, but he did not answer.

42I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind;

I poured them out like mud in the streets.

43You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;

you have made me the head of nations;

people I did not know are subject to me.

44As soon as they hear me, they obey me;

foreigners cringe before me.

45They all lose heart;

they come trembling from their strongholds.

46The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!

Exalted be God my Savior!

47He is the God who avenges me,

who subdues nations under me,

48who saves me from my enemies.

You exalted me above my foes;

from violent men you rescued me.

49Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD;

I will sing praises to your name.

50He gives his king great victories;

he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever. [4]

PSALMS: 48

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,

in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

2It is beautiful in its loftiness,

the joy of the whole earth.

Like the utmost heights of ZaphonA is Mount Zion,

theB city of the Great King.

3God is in her citadels;

he has shown himself to be her fortress.

4When the kings joined forces,

when they advanced together,

5they saw her and were astounded;

they fled in terror.

6Trembling seized them there,

pain like that of a woman in labor.

7You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish

shattered by an east wind.

8As we have heard,

so have we seen

in the city of the LORD Almighty,

in the city of our God:

God makes her secure forever.

Selah

9Within your temple, O God,

we meditate on your unfailing love.

10Like your name, O God,

your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;

your right hand is filled with righteousness. [5]

11Mount Zion rejoices,

the villages of Judah are glad

because of your judgments.

12Walk about Zion, go around her,

count her towers,

13consider well her ramparts,

view her citadels,

that you may tell of them to the next generation.

14For this God is our God for ever and ever;

he will be our guide even to the end. [6]

PSALMS: 78

A maskilA of Asaph.

1O my people, hear my teaching;

listen to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter hidden things, things from of old--

3what we have heard and known,

what our fathers have told us.

4We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

5He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children,

6so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

7Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

8They would not be like their forefathers--

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

whose spirits were not faithful to him.

9The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,

turned back on the day of battle;

10they did not keep God's covenant

and refused to live by his law.

11They forgot what he had done,

the wonders he had shown them.

12He did miracles in the sight of their fathers

in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13He divided the sea and led them through;

he made the water stand firm like a wall.

14He guided them with the cloud by day

and with light from the fire all night.

15He split the rocks in the desert

and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

16he brought streams out of a rocky crag

and made water flow down like rivers.

17But they continued to sin against him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18They willfully put God to the test

by demanding the food they craved.

19They spoke against God, saying,

"Can God spread a table in the desert?

20When he struck the rock, water gushed out,

and streams flowed abundantly.

But can he also give us food?

Can he supply meat for his people?"

21When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;

his fire broke out against Jacob,

and his wrath rose against Israel,

22for they did not believe in God

or trust in his deliverance.

23Yet he gave a command to the skies above

and opened the doors of the heavens;

24he rained down manna for the people to eat, [7]

he gave them the grain of heaven.

25Men ate the bread of angels;

he sent them all the food they could eat.

26He let loose the east wind from the heavens

and led forth the south wind by his power.

27He rained meat down on them like dust,

flying birds like sand on the seashore.

28He made them come down inside their camp,

all around their tents.

29They ate till they had more than enough,

for he had given them what they craved.

30But before they turned from the food they craved,

even while it was still in their mouths,

31God's anger rose against them;

he put to death the sturdiest among them,

cutting down the young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

33So he ended their days in futility

and their years in terror.

34Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

they eagerly turned to him again.

35They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

36But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

lying to him with their tongues;

37their hearts were not loyal to him,

they were not faithful to his covenant.

38Yet he was merciful;

he forgave their iniquities

and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

and did not stir up his full wrath. [8]

39He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

40How often they rebelled against him in the desert

and grieved him in the wasteland!

41Again and again they put God to the test;

they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember his power--

the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the region of Zoan.

44He turned their rivers to blood;

they could not drink from their streams.

45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

46He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

their produce to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49He unleashed against them his hot anger,

his wrath, indignation and hostility--

a band of destroying angels.

50He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

52But he brought his people out like a flock;

he led them like sheep through the desert.

53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

54Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, [9]

to the hill country his right hand had taken.

55He drove out nations before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

56But they put God to the test

and rebelled against the Most High;

they did not keep his statutes.

57Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,

as unreliable as a faulty bow.

58They angered him with their high places;

they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

59When God heard them, he was very angry;

he rejected Israel completely.

60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

the tent he had set up among men.

61He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

62He gave his people over to the sword;

he was very angry with his inheritance.

63Fire consumed their young men,

and their maidens had no wedding songs;

64their priests were put to the sword,

and their widows could not weep.

65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

66He beat back his enemies;

he put them to everlasting shame.

67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68but he chose the tribe of Judah, [10]

Mount Zion, which he loved.

69He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth that he established forever.

70He chose David his servant

and took him from the sheep pens;

71from tending the sheep he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

of Israel his inheritance.

72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

with skillful hands he led them. [11]

PSALMS: 108

A song. A psalm of David.

1My heart is steadfast, O God;

I will sing and make music with all my soul.

2Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

3I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

4For great is your love, higher than the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,

and let your glory be over all the earth.

6Save us and help us with your right hand,

that those you love may be delivered.

7God has spoken from his sanctuary:

"In triumph I will parcel out Shechem

and measure off the Valley of Succoth.

8Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim is my helmet,

Judah my scepter.

9Moab is my washbasin,

upon Edom I toss my sandal;

over Philistia I shout in triumph."

10Who will bring me to the fortified city?

Who will lead me to Edom?

11Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us

and no longer go out with our armies?

12Give us aid against the enemy,

for the help of man is worthless.

13With God we will gain the victory, [12]

and he will trample down our enemies. [13]

PSALMS: 138

Of David.

1I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;

before the "gods" I will sing your praise.

2I will bow down toward your holy temple

and will praise your name

for your love and your faithfulness,

for you have exalted above all things

your name and your word.

3When I called, you answered me;

you made me bold and stouthearted.

4May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,

when they hear the words of your mouth.

5May they sing of the ways of the LORD,

6Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,

but the proud he knows from afar.

7Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

you preserve my life;

you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,

with your right hand you save me.

8The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;

your love, O LORD, endures forever--

do not abandon the works of your hands. [14]

PROVERBS: 18

181 An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;

he defies all sound judgment.

2A fool finds no pleasure in understanding

but delights in airing his own opinions.

3When wickedness comes, so does contempt,

and with shame comes disgrace.

4The words of a man's mouth are deep waters,

but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

5It is not good to be partial to the wicked

or to deprive the innocent of justice.

6A fool's lips bring him strife,

and his mouth invites a beating.

7A fool's mouth is his undoing,

and his lips are a snare to his soul.

8The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;

they go down to a man's inmost parts.

9One who is slack in his work

is brother to one who destroys.

10The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe.

11The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;

they imagine it an unscalable wall.[15]

12Before his downfall a man's heart is proud,

but humility comes before honor.

13He who answers before listening--

that is his folly and his shame.

14A man's spirit sustains him in sickness,

but a crushed spirit who can bear?

15The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge;

the ears of the wise seek it out.

16A gift opens the way for the giver

and ushers him into the presence of the great.

17The first to present his case seems right,

till another comes forward and questions him.

18Casting the lot settles disputes

and keeps strong opponents apart.

19An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,

and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

20From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;

with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

21The tongue has the power of life and death,

and those who love it will eat its fruit.

22He who finds a wife finds what is good

and receives favor from the LORD. [16]

23A poor man pleads for mercy,

but a rich man answers harshly.

24A man of many companions may come to ruin,

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. [17]

OLD TESTAMENT

EZRA 4:24 - 6:22

24Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

51Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

3At that time Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates went to them and asked, "Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?" 4They also asked, "What are the names of the men constructing this building?"A 5But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.

6This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, the officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius. 7The report they sent him read as follows:

To King Darius:

Cordial greetings.

8The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction.

9We questioned the elders and asked them, "Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?" 10We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.

11This is the answer they gave us:

"We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished. 12But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.

13"However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. 14He even removed from [18]the templeB of Babylon the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the templeC in Babylon.

"Then King Cyrus gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor, 15and he told him, `Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem. And rebuild the house of God on its site.'

16So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished."

17Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.

61King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon. 2A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it:

Memorandum:

3In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem:

Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be ninety feetA high and ninety feet wide, 4with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. 5Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God. there. 7Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.

8Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God:

The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. 9Whatever is needed--young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem--must be given them daily without fail, 10so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.

11Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And for this crime his house is to be made a pile of rubble. 12May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem.

I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence.

13Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence. 14So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

16Then the people of Israel--the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles--celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. 17For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. 18And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

19On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover. 20The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their brothers the priests and for themselves. 21So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the LORD, the God of Israel. 22For seven days they celebrated with joy the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the [19]LORD had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria, so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.[20]

6Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow officials of that province, stay away from [21]

NEW TESTAMENT

1 CORINTHIANS 3:5 - 23

5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

18Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"A; 20and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."B 21So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22whether Paul or Apollos or CephasC or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours, 23and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.[22]

^{John 3:16-21 16}"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^F that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.^G ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."^H

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