THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - July 24 - Full Text!

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

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation

JULY 24

PSALMS: 24, 54, 84, 114, 144

PROVERBS: 24

OLD TESTAMENT: JEREMIAH 22:1 - 23:30

NEW TESTAMENT: 2 THESSALONIANS 1:1 - 12

PSALMS: 24

Of David. A psalm.

¹ The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

² for he founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the waters.

³ Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?

Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear by what is false. ^A

⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD

and vindication from God his Savior.

⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek your face, O God of Jacob. ^B

Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

⁸ Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰ Who is he, this King of glory?

The LORD Almighty--

he is the King of glory. ¹

Selah ²

PSALMS: 54

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil ^A of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, "Is not David hiding among us?"

¹ Save me, O God, by your name;

vindicate me by your might.

² Hear my prayer, O God;

listen to the words of my mouth.

³ Strangers are attacking me;

ruthless men seek my life--

men without regard for God.

Selah

⁴ Surely God is my help;

the Lord is the one who sustains me.

⁵ Let evil recoil on those who slander me;

in your faithfulness destroy them.

⁶ I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;

I will praise your name, O LORD,

for it is good.

⁷ For he has delivered me from all my troubles,

and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes. ³

PSALMS: 84

For the director of music. According to gittith. ^A Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

¹ How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

² My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

³ Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young--

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Selah

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools. ^B

⁷ They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

⁸ Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;

listen to me, O God of Jacob.

Selah

⁹ Look upon our shield, ^C O God;

look with favor on your anointed one. ⁴

¹⁰ Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.

¹² O LORD Almighty,

blessed is the man who trusts in you. ⁵

PSALMS: 114

¹ When Israel came out of Egypt,

the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

² Judah became God's sanctuary,

Israel his dominion.

³ The sea looked and fled,

the Jordan turned back;

⁴ the mountains skipped like rams,

the hills like lambs.

⁵ Why was it, O sea, that you fled,

O Jordan, that you turned back,

⁶ you mountains, that you skipped like rams,

you hills, like lambs?

⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,

at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸ who turned the rock into a pool,

the hard rock into springs of water. ⁶

PSALMS: 144

Of David.

¹ Praise be to the LORD my Rock,

who trains my hands for war,

my fingers for battle.

² He is my loving God and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, in whom I take refuge,

who subdues peoples ^A under me.

³ O LORD, what is man that you care for him,

the son of man that you think of him?

⁴ Man is like a breath;

his days are like a fleeting shadow.

⁵ Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down;

touch the mountains, so that they smoke.

⁶ Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies;

shoot your arrows and rout them.

⁷ Reach down your hand from on high;

deliver me and rescue me

from the mighty waters,

from the hands of foreigners

⁸ whose mouths are full of lies,

whose right hands are deceitful.

⁹ I will sing a new song to you, O God;

on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,

¹⁰ to the One who gives victory to kings,

who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword. ⁷

¹¹ Deliver me and rescue me

from the hands of foreigners

whose mouths are full of lies,

whose right hands are deceitful.

¹² Then our sons in their youth

will be like well-nurtured plants,

and our daughters will be like pillars

carved to adorn a palace.

¹³ Our barns will be filled

with every kind of provision.

Our sheep will increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields;

¹⁴ our oxen will draw heavy loads. ^B

There will be no breaching of walls,

no going into captivity,

no cry of distress in our streets.

¹⁵ Blessed are the people of whom this is true;

blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. ⁸

PROVERBS: 24

24 ¹ Do not envy wicked men,

do not desire their company;

² for their hearts plot violence,

and their lips talk about making trouble.

³ By wisdom a house is built,

and through understanding it is established;

⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures.

⁵ A wise man has great power,

and a man of knowledge increases strength;

⁶ for waging war you need guidance,

and for victory many advisers.

⁷ Wisdom is too high for a fool;

in the assembly at the gate he has nothing to say.

⁸ He who plots evil

will be known as a schemer.

⁹ The schemes of folly are sin,

and men detest a mocker.

¹⁰ If you falter in times of trouble,

how small is your strength!

¹¹ Rescue those being led away to death;

hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

¹² If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"

does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who guards your life know it?

Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? ⁹

¹³ Eat honey, my son, for it is good;

honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

¹⁴ Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul;

if you find it, there is a future hope for you,

and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵ Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against a righteous man's house,

do not raid his dwelling place;

¹⁶ for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,

but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls;

when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,

¹⁸ or the LORD will see and disapprove

and turn his wrath away from him.

¹⁹ Do not fret because of evil men

or be envious of the wicked,

²⁰ for the evil man has no future hope,

and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

²¹ Fear the LORD and the king, my son,

and do not join with the rebellious,

²² for those two will send sudden destruction upon them,

and who knows what calamities they can bring?

²³ These also are sayings of the wise:

To show partiality in judging is not good:

²⁴ Whoever says to the guilty, "You are innocent"--

peoples will curse him and nations denounce him.

²⁵ But it will go well with those who convict the guilty,

and rich blessing will come upon them. ¹⁰

²⁶ An honest answer

is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷ Finish your outdoor work

and get your fields ready;

after that, build your house.

²⁸ Do not testify against your neighbor without cause,

or use your lips to deceive.

²⁹ Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me;

I'll pay that man back for what he did."

³⁰ I went past the field of the sluggard,

past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;

³¹ thorns had come up everywhere,

the ground was covered with weeds,

and the stone wall was in ruins.

³² I applied my heart to what I observed

and learned a lesson from what I saw:

³³ A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest--

³⁴ and poverty will come on you like a bandit

and scarcity like an armed man. ^{A 11}

OLD TESTAMENT: JEREMIAH 22:1 - 23:30

22 ¹ This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: ² `Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on David's throne--you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. ³ This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. ⁵ But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.'"

⁶ For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah:

"Though you are like Gilead to me,

like the summit of Lebanon,

I will surely make you like a desert,

like towns not inhabited.

⁷ I will send destroyers against you,

each man with his weapons,

and they will cut up your fine cedar beams

and throw them into the fire.

⁸ "People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, `Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?' <sup>9</sup> And the answer will be: `Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.'"

¹⁰ Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss;

rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled,

because he will never return

nor see his native land again.

¹¹ For this is what the LORD says about Shallum ^A son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: "He will never return. ¹² He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again." ¹²

¹³ "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,

his upper rooms by injustice,

making his countrymen work for nothing,

not paying them for their labor.

¹⁴ He says, `I will build myself a great palace

with spacious upper rooms.'

So he makes large windows in it,

panels it with cedar

and decorates it in red.

¹⁵ "Does it make you a king

to have more and more cedar?

Did not your father have food and drink?

He did what was right and just,

so all went well with him.

¹⁶ He defended the cause of the poor and needy,

and so all went well.

Is that not what it means to know me?"

declares the LORD.

¹⁷ "But your eyes and your heart

are set only on dishonest gain,

on shedding innocent blood

and on oppression and extortion."

¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

"They will not mourn for him: ¹³

`Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!'

They will not mourn for him:

`Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!'

¹⁹ He will have the burial of a donkey--

dragged away and thrown

outside the gates of Jerusalem."

²⁰ "Go up to Lebanon and cry out,

let your voice be heard in Bashan,

cry out from Abarim,

for all your allies are crushed.

²¹ I warned you when you felt secure,

but you said, `I will not listen!'

This has been your way from your youth;

you have not obeyed me.

²² The wind will drive all your shepherds away,

and your allies will go into exile.

Then you will be ashamed and disgraced

because of all your wickedness.

²³ You who live in `Lebanon, ^B'

who are nestled in cedar buildings,

how you will groan when pangs come upon you,

pain like that of a woman in labor!

²⁴ "As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "even if you, Jehoiachin ^C son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. ²⁵ I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear--to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians. ^{D 26} I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will ¹⁴ die.

²⁷ You will never come back to the land you long to return to."

²⁸ Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot,

an object no one wants?

Why will he and his children be hurled out,

cast into a land they do not know?

²⁹ O land, land, land,

hear the word of the LORD!

³⁰ This is what the LORD says:

"Record this man as if childless,

a man who will not prosper in his lifetime,

for none of his offspring will prosper,

none will sit on the throne of David

or rule anymore in Judah."

23 ¹ "Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD. ² Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done," declares the LORD. ³ "I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing," declares the LORD.

⁵ "The days are coming," declares the LORD,

"when I will raise up to David ^A a righteous Branch,

a King who will reign wisely ¹⁵ and do what is just and right in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah will be saved

and Israel will live in safety.

This is the name by which he will be called:

The LORD Our Righteousness.

⁷ "So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' <sup>8</sup> but they will say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."

⁹ Concerning the prophets:

My heart is broken within me;

all my bones tremble.

I am like a drunken man,

like a man overcome by wine,

because of the LORD

and his holy words.

¹⁰ The land is full of adulterers;

because of the curse ^B the land lies parched ^C

and the pastures in the desert are withered.

The prophets follow an evil course

and use their power unjustly.

¹¹ "Both prophet and priest are godless; ¹⁶

even in my temple I find their wickedness,"

declares the LORD.

¹² "Therefore their path will become slippery;

they will be banished to darkness

and there they will fall.

I will bring disaster on them

in the year they are punished,"

declares the LORD.

¹³ "Among the prophets of Samaria

I saw this repulsive thing:

They prophesied by Baal

and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem

I have seen something horrible:

They commit adultery and live a lie.

They strengthen the hands of evildoers,

so that no one turns from his wickedness.

They are all like Sodom to me;

the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:

"I will make them eat bitter food

and drink poisoned water,

because from the prophets of Jerusalem ¹⁷

ungodliness has spread throughout the land."

¹⁶ This is what the LORD Almighty says:

"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;

they fill you with false hopes.

They speak visions from their own minds,

not from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise me,

`The LORD says: You will have peace.'

And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts

they say, `No harm will come to you.'

¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD

to see or to hear his word?

Who has listened and heard his word?

¹⁹ See, the storm of the LORD

will burst out in wrath,

a whirlwind swirling down

on the heads of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back

until he fully accomplishes

the purposes of his heart.

In days to come

you will understand it clearly.

yet they have prophesied.

NEW TESTAMENT: 2 THESSALONIANS 1:1 - 12

1 ¹ Paul, Silas ^A and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

² Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.

⁴ Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

⁵ All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. ⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

¹¹ With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. ¹² We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. ^{B 18}

1 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

2 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

3 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

4 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

5 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

6 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

7 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

8 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

9 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

10 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

11 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

12 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

13 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

14 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

15 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

16 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

17 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

18 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever 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 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But 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