Answer Me When I Call
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
1 cAnswer me when I call, O God of dmy righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men,1 how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and fput your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
gLift up the hlight of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both ilie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Lead Me in Your Righteousness
To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
jmy King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
3 O Lord, kin the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you3 and watch.
4 For you are lnot a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But I, through the mabundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down ntoward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
8 oLead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
pmake your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
qtheir throat is an ropen grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you srejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may texult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you ucover him with favor as with a shield.
O Lord, Deliver My Life
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith.4 A Psalm of David.
1 vO Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
wheal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, xdeliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol ywho will give you praise?
6 zI am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 aMy eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
8 bDepart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 cAll my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
Paul in Athens
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching yJesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this znew teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
Paul Addresses the Areopagus
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the aunknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in btemples made by man,1 25 nor is he served by human hands, cas though he needed anything, since he himself dgives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made efrom one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having fdetermined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 gthat they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually hnot far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;2
as even some of iyour own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’3
29 Being then jGod’s offspring, we ought knot to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an limage formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The mtimes of ignorance God noverlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to orepent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness pby a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the qresurrection of the dead, some rmocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
