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.
The Lord Will Not Forsake His People
1 O Lord, God of pvengeance,
O God of vengeance, qshine forth!
2 rRise up, O sjudge of the earth;
repay to the tproud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, uhow long shall the wicked,
how long shall vthe wicked exult?
4 They pour out their warrogant words;
all xthe evildoers boast.
5 They ycrush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill zthe widow and the sojourner,
and murder zthe fatherless;
7 aand they say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 bUnderstand, O dullest of the people!
Fools, when will you be wise?
9 cHe who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who ddisciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
He who eteaches man knowledge—
11 fthe Lord—knows the thoughts of man,
12 hBlessed is the man whom you idiscipline, O Lord,
and whom you teach out of your law,
13 to give him jrest from kdays of trouble,
until la pit is dug for the wicked.
14 mFor the Lord will not forsake his npeople;
he will not abandon his nheritage;
15 for ojustice will return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will pfollow it.
16 qWho rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 rIf the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of ssilence.
18 When I thought, t“My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, uheld me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wwicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame2 injustice by xstatute?
21 They yband together against the life of the righteous
and condemn zthe innocent to death.3
22 But the Lord has become my astronghold,
and my God bthe rock of my crefuge.
23 He will bring back on them dtheir iniquity
and ewipe them out for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will wipe them out.
Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us fmake a joyful noise to gthe rock of our salvation!
2 Let us hcome into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us fmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is ia great God,
and a great King jabove all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for khe made it,
and his hands formed kthe dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us lkneel before the Lord, our mMaker!
7 For he is our nGod,
and we are the people of his opasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
pToday, if you qhear his voice,
8 rdo not harden your hearts, as at sMeribah,
as on the day at tMassah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the utest
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my vwork.
10 wFor forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known xmy ways.”
11 Therefore I yswore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter zmy rest.”
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;4
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.
Paul and the False Apostles
1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since nI betrothed you to one husband, oto present you pas a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that qas the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts rwill be led astray from a ssincere and tpure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and uproclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept va different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 Indeed, I consider that wI am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 xEven if I am unskilled in speaking, yI am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way zwe have made this plain to you in all things.
7 Or adid I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because bI preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and was cin need, dI did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia esupplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain ffrom burdening you in any way. 10 gAs the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine hwill not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 And why? iBecause I do not love you? jGod knows I do!
12 And what I am doing I will continue to do, kin order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 13 For such men are lfalse apostles, mdeceitful workmen, ndisguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as oan angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as pservants of righteousness. qTheir end will correspond to their deeds.
Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle
16 I repeat, rlet no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. 17 What I am saying swith this boastful confidence, tI say not as the Lord would1 but as a fool. 18 Since umany boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. 19 For you gladly bear with fools, vbeing wise yourselves! 20 For you bear it if someone wmakes slaves of you, or xdevours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or ystrikes you in the face. 21 To my shame, I must say, zwe were too weak for that!
But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. 22 Are they Hebrews? aSo am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they bservants of Christ? cI am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, dfar more imprisonments, ewith countless beatings, and foften near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the gforty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was hbeaten with rods. iOnce I was stoned. Three times I jwas shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, kdanger from my own people, ldanger from Gentiles, mdanger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 nin toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, oin hunger and thirst, often without food,2 in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for pall the churches. 29 qWho is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
30 rIf I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 sThe God and Father of the Lord Jesus, the who is blessed forever, uknows that I am not lying. 32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas vwas guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 wbut I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.