The Lord Reigns
1 cThe Lord reigns; he is drobed in majesty;
the Lord is erobed; he has fput on strength as his belt.
gYes, the world is established; hit shall never be moved.
2 iYour throne is established from of old;
jyou are from everlasting.
3 kThe floods have lifted up, O Lord,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their roaring.
4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters,
mightier than the waves of the sea,
5 Your ndecrees are very trustworthy;
oholiness befits your house,
O Lord, forevermore.
Worship in the Splendor of Holiness
1 aOh sing to the Lord ba new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
ctell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
4 For dgreat is the Lord, and egreatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above fall gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord gmade the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
hstrength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, O ifamilies of the peoples,
jascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the Lord kthe glory due his name;
bring lan offering, and mcome into his courts!
9 Worship the Lord in nthe splendor of holiness;1
otremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say among the nations, p“The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will qjudge the peoples with equity.”
11 Let rthe heavens be glad, and let sthe earth rejoice;
let tthe sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let uthe field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all vthe trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes wto judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
The Lord’s Call to Israel
12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; rI am the first,
and I am the last.
13 My hand slaid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand sspread out the heavens;
twhen I call to them,
they stand forth together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
uWho among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
vhe shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against wthe Chaldeans.
15 xI, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 yDraw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now zthe Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.
17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 aOh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
bThen your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19 cyour offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”
20 dGo out from Babylon, flee from eChaldea,
declare this fwith a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
say, g“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 hThey did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
ihe made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.
Paul’s Defense Before Agrippa
1 So lAgrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:
2 “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today magainst all the accusations of the Jews, 3 especially because you are familiar with all the ncustoms and ocontroversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4 p“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among qmy own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that raccording to the strictest sparty of our treligion I have lived as ua Pharisee. 6 And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in vthe promise made by God to our fathers, 7 wto which xour twelve tribes hope to yattain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope zI am accused by Jews, O king! 8 Why is it thought aincredible by any of you that God raises the dead?
9 b“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of cJesus of Nazareth. 10 dAnd I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority efrom the chief priests, but fwhen they were put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And gI punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them hblaspheme, and iin raging fury against them I jpersecuted them even to foreign cities.
Paul Tells of His Conversion
12 “In this connection kI journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. 14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me lin the Hebrew language,1 ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and mstand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, nto appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 odelivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—pto whom I qam sending you 18 rto open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from sthe power of Satan to God, that they may receive tforgiveness of sins and ua place among those who are sanctified vby faith in me.’
19 “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to wthe heavenly vision, 20 but declared first xto those in Damascus, ythen in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also zto the Gentiles, that they should arepent and bturn to God, performing deeds cin keeping with their repentance. 21 For this reason dthe Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. 22 eTo this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so fI stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what gthe prophets and Moses said would come to pass: 23 hthat the Christ imust suffer and that, jby being the first kto rise from the dead, lhe would proclaim mlight both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
