His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
1 Oh tgive thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 uLet Israel say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
5 vOut of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me free.
6 wThe Lord is xon my side; yI will not fear.
What can man do to me?
7 The Lord is on my side as my helper;
I shall zlook in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
athan to trust in princes.
10 All nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
12 They surrounded me blike bees;
they went out like a fire among thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13 I was pushed hard,1 so that I was falling,
but the Lord helped me.
14 cThe Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
15 Glad songs of salvation
are in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
16 the right hand of the Lord exalts,
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
17 dI shall not die, but I shall live,
and erecount the deeds of the Lord.
18 The Lord has fdisciplined me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and ggive thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
21 hI thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 iThe stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.2
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 jSave us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 kBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God,
and he has lmade his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and mI will give thanks to you;
nyou are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
1 The aoracle that bHabakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 c“Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For dI am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the eChaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their fhorses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an geagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not hfrom everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O iRock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
jwhy do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
Greeting
1 aJames, a bservant1 of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the cDispersion:
Greetings.
Testing of Your Faith
2 dCount it all joy, my brothers,2 when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you eknow that the ftesting of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be gperfect and hcomplete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks iwisdom, let him jask God, who gives generously to all kwithout reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, lwith no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and mtossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a ndouble-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 oLet the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the prich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass3 he will pass away. 11 For the qsun rises with its scorching heat and withers the rgrass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 sBlessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the tcrown of life, which God has promised to those who ulove him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being vtempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed wby his own xdesire. 15 Then desire ywhen it has conceived gives birth to sin, and zsin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
16 aDo not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 bEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is cno variation or shadow due to change.4 18 Of his own will he dbrought us forth eby the fword of truth, that we should be a kind of gfirstfruits of his creatures.
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be hquick to hear, islow to speak, jslow to anger; 20 kfor the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the limplanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be mdoers of the word, and nnot hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the olaw of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be pblessed in his doing.
26 qIf anyone thinks he is religious and does not rbridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit sorphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
