My Rock and My Fortress
Of David.
1 Blessed be the Lord, my grock,
hwho trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my isteadfast love and my jfortress,
my kstronghold and my deliverer,
my lshield and he in whom I take refuge,
3 O Lord, nwhat is man that you oregard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 pMan is like a breath;
5 sBow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
tTouch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 uFlash forth the lightning and scatter them;
usend out your arrows and rout them!
7 vStretch out your hand from on high;
wrescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand xof foreigners,
8 whose mouths speak ylies
and whose right hand is za right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing aa new song to you, O God;
upon aa ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 who gives victory to kings,
who brescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand xof foreigners,
whose mouths speak ylies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12 May our sons in their youth
be like cplants full grown,
our daughters like dcorner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
13 emay our granaries be full,
fproviding all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;2
may there be no gcry of distress in our streets!
15 hBlessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
iBlessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
A Final Plague Threatened
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Yet sone plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. tWhen he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. 2 Speak now in the hearing of the people, that uthey ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” 3 vAnd the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
4 So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: w‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is xbehind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 yThere shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl zagainst any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord amakes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ 8 And ball these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
Mystery and Victory
50 I tell you this, brothers: qflesh and blood rcannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. sWe shall not all sleep, tbut we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For uthe trumpet will sound, and vthe dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and wthis mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
x“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 y“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and zthe power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, awho gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 bTherefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in cthe work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord dyour labor is not in vain.
