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
1 I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock,
and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death surrounded me.
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
5 The cords of She'ol were round about me;
The snares of death came on me.
6 In my distress I called on the LORD,
And cried to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple,
My cry before him came into his ears.
7 Then the eretz shook and trembled.
The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken,
Because he was angry.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
Fire out of his mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a Keruv, and flew.
Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion around him,
Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the sky,
The Elyon uttered his voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
Yes, lightnings manifold, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of waters appeared,
The foundations of the world were laid bare,
At your rebuke, LORD,
At the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high.
He took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They came on me in the day of my calamity,
But the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place.
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me.
I didn't put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless with him.
I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore has the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
25 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.
With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.
26 With the pure, you will show yourself pure.
With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
27 For you will save the afflicted people,
But the haughty eyes you will bring down.
28 For you will light my lamp.
The LORD, my God, will light up my darkness.
29 For by you, I advance through a troop.
By my God, I leap over a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect.
The word of the LORD is tried.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God, except the LORD?
Who is a rock, besides our God,
32 The God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
33 He makes my feet like hinds' feet,
And sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to war;
So that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have also given me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand sustains me.
Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You have enlarged my steps under me,
My feet have not slipped.
37 I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them.
Neither will I turn again until they are consumed.
38 I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise.
They shall fall under my feet.
39 For you have girded me with strength to the battle.
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
That I might cut off those who hate me.
41 They cried, but there was none to save;
Even to the LORD, but he didn't answer them.
42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind.
I cast them out as the mire of the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people.
You have made me the head of the nations.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44 As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me.
The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.
45 The foreigners shall fade away,
And shall come trembling out of their close places.
46 The LORD lives;
and blessed be my rock.
Exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 Even the God who executes vengeance for me,
And subdues peoples under me.
48 He rescues me from my enemies.
Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.
You deliver me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you, LORD, among the nations,
And will sing praises to your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to his king,
And shows loving kindness to his anointed,
To David and to his seed, forevermore.
PSALMS: 48
1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, in his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole eretz,
Is Mount Tziyon, on the north sides,
The city of the great King.
3 God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.
4 For, behold, the kings assembled themselves,
They passed by together.
5 They saw it, then were they amazed.
They were dismayed,
They hurried away.
6 Trembling took hold of them there,
Pain, as of a woman in travail.
7 With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen,
In the city of the LORD of Hosts, in the city of our God.
God will establish it forever.
Selah.
9 We have thought about your loving kindness,
God, In the midst of your temple.
10 As is your name, God,
So is your praise to the ends of the eretz.
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 Let Mount Tziyon be glad!
Let the daughters of Yehudah rejoice,
Because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Tziyon, and go around her.
Number the towers of it;
13 Mark well her bulwarks.
Consider her palaces, ‘
That you may tell it to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will be our guide even to death.
PSALMS: 78
1 Hear my law, my people.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
Our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
His strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
5 For he established a testimony in Ya`akov,
And appointed a law in Yisra'el,
Which he commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
6 That the generation to come might know,
even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,
7 That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep his mitzvot,
8 And might not be as their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that didn't make their hearts loyal,
Whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 The children of Efrayim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of battle.
10 They didn't keep the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in his law.
11 They forgot his doings,
His wondrous works that he had shown them.
12 Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
In the land of Mitzrayim, in the field of Tzo`an.
13 He split the sea, and caused them to pass through;
He made the waters stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,
All the night with a light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Yet they still went on to sin against him,
To rebel against Ha`Elyon in the desert.
18 They tempted God in their heart
By asking food according to their desire.
19 Yes, they spoke against God.
They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,
Streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide flesh for his people?"
21 Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry.
A fire was kindled against Ya`akov,
Anger also went up against Yisra'el,
22 Because they didn't believe in God,
And didn't trust in his yeshu`ah.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down manna on them to eat,
And gave them food from the sky.
25 Man ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food to the full.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.
By his power he guided the south wind.
27 He rained also flesh on them as the dust;
Winged birds as the sand of the seas.
28 He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Around their habitations.
29 So they ate, and were well filled.
He gave them their own desire.
30 They didn't turn from their cravings.
Their food was yet in their mouths,
31 When the anger of God went up against them,
And killed some of the fattest of them,
And struck down the young men of Yisra'el.
32 For all this they still sinned,
And didn't believe in his wondrous works.
33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,
And their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him.
They returned and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock, ‘
The El `Elyon their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied to him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not right with him,
Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity,
and didn't destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
And didn't stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.
40 How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness,
And grieve him in the desert!
41 They turned again and tempted God,
And provoked the Holy One of Yisra'el.
42 They didn't remember his hand,
Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
43 How he set his signs in Mitzrayim,
His wonders in the field of Tzo`an,
44 Turned their rivers into blood,
Their streams, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
Frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He
gave also their increase to the caterpillar,
Their labor to
the arbeh.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, indignation, and trouble,
And a band of angels of evil.
50 He made a path for his anger.
He didn't spare their soul from death,
But gave their life over to the pestilence,
51 And struck all the firstborn in Mitzrayim,
The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But he led forth his own people like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid,
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
55 He also drove out the nations before them,
Allotted them for an inheritance by line,
And made the tribes of Yisra'el to dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against
Ha`Elyon God, And didn't keep his testimonies;
57 But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
59 When God heard this, he was angry,
And greatly abhorred Yisra'el;
60 So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh,
The tent which he placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity,
His glory into the adversary's hand.
62 He also gave his people over to the sword,
And was angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire devoured their young men;
Their virgins had no wedding song.
64 Their Kohanim fell by the sword;
Their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
66 He struck his adversaries backward.
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Yosef,
And didn't choose the tribe of Efrayim,
68 But chose the tribe of Yehudah,
Mount Tziyon which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the eretz which he has established forever.
70 He also chose David his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71 From following the ewes that have their young he brought him
To be the shepherd of Ya`akov, his people, and Yisra'el, his inheritance.
72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
PSALMS: 108
1 My heart is steadfast, God.
I will sing and I will make music with my soul.
2 Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.
3 I will give thanks to you, LORD, among the nations.
I will sing praises to you among the peoples.
4 For your loving kindness is great above the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
5 Be exalted, God, above the heavens,
Let your glory be over all the eretz.
6 That your beloved may be delivered,
Save with your right hand, and answer us.
7 God has spoken from his sanctuary:
"In triumph, I will divide Shekhem, and measure out the valley of Sukkot.
8 Gil`ad is mine.
Menashsheh is mine.
Efrayim also is my helmet.
Yehudah is my scepter.
9 Mo'av is my wash pot.
I will toss my sandal on Edom.
I will shout over Peleshet."
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who has led me to Edom?
11 Haven't you rejected us, God?
‘You don't go forth, God, with our armies.
12 Give us help against the enemy,
For the help of man is vain.
13 Through God, we will do valiantly.
For it is he who will tread down our enemies.
PROVERBS: 18
1 An unfriendly man pursues selfishness,
And defies all sound judgment.
2 A fool has no delight in understanding,
But only in broadcasting his own opinion.
3 When wickedness comes, contempt also comes,
And with shame comes disgrace.
4 The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters.
The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
5 To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good,
Nor to deprive the innocent of justice.
6 A fool's lips come into strife,
And his mouth invites beatings.
7 A fool's mouth is his destruction,
And his lips are a snare to his soul.
8 The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels:
They go down into a person's innermost parts.
9 One who is slack in his work
Is brother to him who is a master of destruction.
10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower:
The righteous run to him, and are safe.
11 The rich man's wealth is his strong city,
Like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.
12 Before destruction the heart of man is proud,
But before honor is humility.
13 He who gives answer before he hears,
That is folly and shame to him.
14 A man's spirit will sustain him in sickness,
But a crushed spirit who can bear?
15 The heart of the discerning gets knowledge.
The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
16 A man's gift makes room for him,
And brings him before great men.
17 He who pleads his cause first seems right;
Until another comes and questions him.
18 The lot settles disputes,
And keeps strong ones apart.
19 A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city;
And disputes are like the bars of a castle.
20 A man's stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth.
With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue;
Those who love it will eat its fruit.
22 Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing,
And obtains favor of the LORD.
23 The poor pleads for mercy,
But the rich answers harshly.
24 A man of many companions may be ruined,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
OLD TESTAMENT: EZRA 4:24 - 6:22
4 24 Then work stopped on God’s house which is at Jerusalem. It stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
5 1 Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied to them in the name of the God of Israel. 2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Yeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build God’s house which is at Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.
3 At the same time Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, came to them, with Shetharbozenai and their companions, and asked them, “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?” 4 They also asked for the names of the men were who were making this building. 5 But the eye of their God was on the Jewish elders, and they didn’t make them cease until the matter should come to Darius, and an answer should be returned by letter concerning it.
6 The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king follows. 7 They sent a letter to him, in which was written:
To Darius the king, all peace.
8 Be it known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with great stones and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on with diligence and prospers in their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders, and said to them thus, “Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?” 10 We asked them their names also, to inform you that we might write the names of the men who were at their head. 11 Thus they returned us answer, saying, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are building the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. 12 But after our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Kasdian, who destroyed this house and carried the people away into Babylon. 13 But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree to build this house of God. 14 The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. 15 He said to him, ‘Take these vessels, go, put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let God’s house be built in its place.’ 16 Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem. Since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed.
17 Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was made by Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.”
6 1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. 2 A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record:
3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits* and its width sixty cubits; 4 with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house. 5 Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.
6 Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, you must stay far from there. 7 Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders build this house of God in its place. 8 Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these Jewish elders for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, expenses must be given with all diligence to these men, that they not be hindered. 9 That which they have need of, including young bulls, rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail, 10 that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. 11 I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. 12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with all diligence.
13 Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the king had sent a decree.
14 The Jewish elders built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
16 The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy. 17 They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
19 The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 20 Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves. 21 The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel, ate, 22 and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; because the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God, the God of Israel’s house.
NEW TESTAMENT: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:5 - 23
3 5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him? 6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah. 12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. 14 If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
16 Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”✡ 20 And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”✡ 21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Kefa, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, 23 and you are Messiah’s, and Messiah is God’s.
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