JULY 4
PSALMS: 4, 34, 64, 94, 124
PROVERBS: 4
OLD TESTAMENT: ISAIAH 41:17 - 43:13
NEW TESTAMENT: EPHESIANS 2:1 - 22
PSALMS: 4
1 For the leader.
With stringed instruments.
A psalm of David:
O God, my vindicator!
Answer me when I call!
When I was distressed, you set me free;
now have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
2 Men of rank, how long will you shame my honor,
love what is vain, chase after lies?
(Selah)
3 Understand that ADONAI sets apart the godly person for himself;
ADONAI will hear when I call to him.
4 You can be angry, but do not sin!
Think about this as you lie in bed, and calm down.
(Selah)
5 Offer sacrifices rightly,
and put your trust in ADONAI.
6 Many ask, "Who can show us some good?"
ADONAI, lift the light of your face over us!
7 You have filled my heart with more joy
than all their grain and new wine.
8 I will lie down and sleep in peace;
for, ADONAI, you alone make me live securely.
PSALMS: 34
1 By David,
when he pretended to be insane before Avimelekh,
who then drove him away;
so he left:
I will bless ADONAI at all times;
his praise will always be in my mouth.
2 When I boast, it will be about ADONAI;
the humble will hear of it and be glad.
3 Proclaim with me the greatness of ADONAI;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought ADONAI, and he answered me;
he rescued me from everything I feared.
5 They looked to him and grew radiant;
their faces will never blush for shame.
6 This poor man cried;
ADONAI heard and saved him from all his troubles.
7 The angel of ADONAI,
who encamps around those who fear him, delivers them.
8 Taste, and see that ADONAI is good.
How blessed are those who take refuge in him!
9 Fear ADONAI, you holy ones of his,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 Young lions can be needy, they can go hungry,
but those who seek ADONAI lack nothing good.
11 Come, children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of ADONAI.
12 Which of you takes pleasure in living?
Who wants a long life to see good things?
13 [If you do,] keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from deceiving talk;
14 turn from evil, and do good;
seek peace, go after it!
15 The eyes of ADONAI watch over the righteous,
and his ears are open to their cry.
16 But the face of ADONAI opposes those who do evil,
to cut off all memory of them from the earth.
17 [The righteous] cried out, and ADONAI heard,
and he saved them from all their troubles.
18 ADONAI is near those with broken hearts;
he saves those whose spirit is crushed.
19 The righteous person suffers many evils,
but ADONAI rescues him out of them all.
20 He protects all his bones;
not one of them gets broken.
21 Evil will kill the wicked, and those who
hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 But ADONAI redeems his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
PSALMS: 64
1 For the leader.
A psalm of David:
Hear my voice, God, as I plead:
preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret intrigues of the wicked
and the open insurrection of evildoers.
3 They sharpen their tongues like a sword;
they aim their arrows, poisoned words,
4 in order to shoot from cover at the innocent,
shooting suddenly and fearing nothing.
5 They support each other's evil plans;
they talk of hiding snares and ask, "Who would see them?"
6 They search for ways to commit crimes,
bringing their diligent search to completion when each
of them has thought it through in the depth of his heart.
7 Suddenly God shoots them down with an arrow,
leaving them with wounds;
8 their own tongues make them stumble.
All who see them shake their heads.
9 Everyone is awestruck they acknowledge that it is God at work,
they understand what he has done.
10 The righteous will rejoice in ADONAI;
they will take refuge in him;
all the upright in heart will exult.
PSALMS: 94
1 God of vengeance, ADONAI!
God of vengeance, appear!
2 Assert yourself as judge of the earth!
Pay back the proud as they deserve!
3 How long are the wicked, ADONAI,
how long are the wicked to triumph?
4 They pour out insolent words,
they go on bragging, all these evildoers.
5 They crush your people, ADONAI,
they oppress your heritage.
6 They kill widows and strangers
and murder the fatherless.
7 They say, "Yah isn't looking;
the God of Ya'akov won't notice."
8 Take notice, yourselves, you boors among the people!
You fools, when will you understand?
9 Will the one who planted the ear not hear?
Will the one who formed the eye not see?
10 Will the one who disciplines nations not correct them?
Will the teacher of humanity not know?
11 ADONAI understands that people's thoughts
are merely a puff of wind.
12 How happy the man whom you correct, Yah,
whom you teach from your Torah,
13 giving him respite from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked!
14 For ADONAI will not desert his people,
he will not abandon his heritage.
15 Justice will once again become righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who will champion my cause against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
17 If ADONAI hadn't helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
18 When I said, "My foot is slipping!"
your grace, ADONAI, supported me.
19 When my cares within me are many,
your comforts cheer me up.
20 Can unjust judges be allied with you,
those producing wrong in the name of law?
21 They band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But ADONAI has become my stronghold,
my God is my rock of refuge.
23 But he repays them as their guilt deserves;
he will cut them off with their own evil;
ADONAI our God will cut them off.
PSALMS: 124
1 A song of ascents.
By David:
If ADONAI hadn't been for us -let Isra'el repeat it -
2 If ADONAI hadn't been for us
when people rose to attack us,
3 then, when their anger blazed against us,
they would have swallowed us alive!
4 Then the water would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us.
5 Yes, the raging water would have swept right over us.
6 Blessed be ADONAI,
who did not leave us to be a prey for their teeth!
7 We escaped like a bird from the hunter's trap;
the trap is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of ADONAI,
the maker of heaven and earth.
PROVERBS: 4
1 Listen, children, to a father's instruction;
pay attention, in order to gain insight;
2 for I am giving you good advice;
so don't abandon my teaching.
3 For I too was once a child to my father;
and my mother, too, thought of me as her special darling.
4 He too taught me; he said to me,
"Let your heart treasure my words;
keep my commands, and live;
5 gain wisdom, gain insight;
don't forget or turn from the words I am saying.
6 Don't abandon [wisdom];
then she will preserve you;
love her, and she will protect you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom!
And along with all your getting, get insight!
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
embrace her, and she will bring you honor;
9 she will give your head a garland of grace,
bestow on you a crown of glory."
10 Listen, my son, receive what I say,
and the years of your life will be many.
11 I'm directing you on the way of wisdom,
guiding you in paths of uprightness;
12 when you walk, your step won't be hindered;
and if you run, you won't stumble.
13 Hold fast to discipline, don't let it go;
guard it, for it is your life.
14 Don't follow the path of the wicked
or walk on the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it, don't go on it,
turn away from it, and pass on.
16 For they can't sleep if they haven't done evil,
they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining ever brighter until full daylight.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
they don't even know what makes them stumble.
20 My son, pay attention to what I am saying;
incline your ear to my words.
21 Don't let them out of your sight,
keep them deep in your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to their whole being.
23 Above everything else, guard your heart;
for it is the source of life's consequences.
24 Keep crooked speech out of your mouth,
banish deceit from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze on what lies in front of you.
26 Level the path for your feet,
let all your ways be properly prepared;
27 then deviate neither right nor left;
and keep your foot far from evil.
OLD TESTAMENT: ISAIAH 41:17 - 43:13
41:17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them, I, the God of Yisra'el, will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the shittim, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together: 20 that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Yisra'el has created it. 21 Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Ya`akov. 22 Let them bring forth, and declare to us what shall happen: declare you the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you. 25 I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun one who calls on my name: and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 26 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, [He is] right? yes, there is none who declares, yes, there is none who shows, yes, there is none who hears your words. 27 [I am the] first [who says] to Tziyon, Behold, behold them; and I will give to Yerushalayim one who brings good news. 28 When I look, there is no man: even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 29 Behold, all of them, their works are vanity [and] nothing; their molten images are wind and confusion.
42:1 Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring forth justice to the Goyim. 2 He will not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth. 4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he have set justice in the eretz; and the isles shall wait for his law. 5 Thus says God the LORD, he who created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he who spread abroad the eretz and that which comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk therein: 6 I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Goyim; 7 to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house. 8 I am the LORD, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to engraved images. 9 Behold, the former things have happened, and new things do I declare. Before they spring forth I tell you of them. 10 Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the eretz; you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants of it. 11 Let the wilderness and the cities of it lift up [their voice], the villages that Kedar does inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. 12 Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands. 13 The LORD will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up [his] zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yes, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies. 14 I have long time held my shalom; I have been still, and refrained myself: [now] will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know; in paths that they don't know will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, You are our gods. 18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is at shalom, and blind as the LORD's servant? 20 You see many things, but don't observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't hear. 21 It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable. 22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore. 23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come? 24 Who gave Ya`akov for a spoil, and Yisra'el to the robbers? Didn't the LORD? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient to his law. 25 Therefore he poured on him the fierceness of his anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he didn't know; and it burned him, yet he didn't lay it to heart.
43:1 But now thus says the LORD who created you, Ya`akov, and he who formed you, Yisra'el: Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you. 3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Yisra'el, your Savior; I have given Mitzrayim as your ransom, Kush and Seva in your place. 4 Since you have been precious in my sight, [and] honorable, and I have loved you; therefore will I give men in your place, and peoples instead of your life. 5 Don't be afraid; for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west; 6 I will tell the north, Give up; and to the south, Don't keep back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the eretz; 7 everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made. 8 Bring forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD; and besides me there is no savior. 12 I have declared, and I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange [god] among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says the LORD, and I am God. 13 Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it?
NEW TESTAMENT: EPHESIANS 2:1 - 22
2:1 You were made alive when you were dead through trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience;
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace have you been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua,
7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua;
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that once you, the Goyim in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by that which is called "circumcision," (in the flesh, made by hands);
12 that you were at that time separate from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Yisra'el, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Messiah.
14 For he is our shalom, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,
15 having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of mitzvot contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making shalom;
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.
17 He came and preached shalom to you who were far off and to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones, and of the household of God,
20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
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