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!
Warning Against Worldliness
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions1 are yat war within you?2 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask zwrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 aYou adulterous people!3 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? bTherefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit cthat he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But dhe gives more grace. Therefore it says, e“God opposes the proud but dgives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. fResist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 gDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. hCleanse your hands, you sinners, and ipurify your hearts, jyou double-minded. 9 kBe wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 lHumble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 mDo not speak evil against one another, brothers.4 The one who speaks against a brother or njudges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only oone lawgiver and pjudge, he who is able to save and qto destroy. But rwho are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, s“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For tyou are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, u“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. vAll such boasting is evil. 17 wSo whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
