PSALM 99

Praise to the Lord for His Fidelity to Israel.

1The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble;

He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!

2The Lord is great in Zion,

And He is exalted above all the peoples.

3Let them praise Your great and awesome name;

Holy is He.

4The strength of the King loves justice;

You have established equity;

You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

5Exalt the Lord our God

And worship at His footstool;

Holy is He.

6Moses and Aaron were among His priests,

And Samuel was among those who called on His name;

They called upon the Lord and He answered them.

7He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;

They kept His testimonies

And the statute that He gave them.

8O Lord our God, You answered them;

You were a forgiving God to them,

And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.

9Exalt the Lord our God

And worship at His holy hill,

For holy is the Lord our God.

5For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

1) What distinguishes reverent leadership from ambition?

2) How does intercession uphold יהוה’s order?

3) What characterizes a holy nation under His rule?

David’s Psalm of Deliverance

1And David spoke the words of this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2He said,

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

3My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge;

My savior, You save me from violence.

4I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

And I am saved from my enemies.

5For the waves of death encompassed me;

The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me;

6The cords of Sheol surrounded me;

The snares of death confronted me.

7In my distress I called upon the Lord,

Yes, I cried to my God;

And from His temple He heard my voice,

And my cry for help came into His ears.

8Then the earth shook and quaked,

The foundations of heaven were trembling

And were shaken, because He was angry.

9Smoke went up out of His nostrils,

Fire from His mouth devoured;

Coals were kindled by it.

10He bowed the heavens also, and came down

With thick darkness under His feet.

11And He rode on a cherub and flew;

And He appeared on the wings of the wind.

12And He made darkness canopies around Him,

A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.

13From the brightness before Him

Coals of fire were kindled.

14The Lord thundered from heaven,

And the Most High uttered His voice.

15And He sent out arrows, and scattered them,

Lightning, and routed them.

16Then the channels of the sea appeared,

The foundations of the world were laid bare

By the rebuke of the Lord,

At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

17He sent from on high, He took me;

He drew me out of many waters.

18He delivered me from my strong enemy,

From those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.

19They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

But the Lord was my support.

20He also brought me forth into a broad place;

He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

21The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

22For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

And have not acted wickedly against my God.

23For all His ordinances were before me,

And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.

24I was also blameless toward Him,

And I kept myself from my iniquity.

25Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,

According to my cleanness before His eyes.

26With the kind You show Yourself kind,

With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

27With the pure You show Yourself pure,

And with the perverted You show Yourself astute.

28And You save an afflicted people;

But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase.

29For You are my lamp, O Lord;

And the Lord illumines my darkness.

30For by You I can run upon a troop;

By my God I can leap over a wall.

31As for God, His way is blameless;

The word of the Lord is tested;

He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

32For who is God, besides the Lord?

And who is a rock, besides our God?

33God is my strong fortress;

And He sets the blameless in His way.

34He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,

And sets me on my high places.

35He trains my hands for battle,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

36You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,

And Your help makes me great.

37You enlarge my steps under me,

And my feet have not slipped.

38I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,

And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

39And I have devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise;

And they fell under my feet.

40For You have girded me with strength for battle;

You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

41You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,

And I destroyed those who hated me.

42They looked, but there was none to save;

Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.

43Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth;

I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets.

44You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people;

You have kept me as head of the nations;

A people whom I have not known serve me.

PSALM 64

Prayer for Deliverance from Secret Enemies.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

1Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;

Preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

2Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers,

From the tumult of those who do iniquity,

3Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword.

They aimed bitter speech as their arrow,

4To shoot from concealment at the blameless;

Suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear.

5They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose;

They talk of laying snares secretly;

They say, “Who can see them?”

6They devise injustices, saying,

“We are ready with a well-conceived plot”;

For the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep.

7But God will shoot at them with an arrow;

Suddenly they will be wounded.

8So they will make him stumble;

Their own tongue is against them;

All who see them will shake the head.

9Then all men will fear,

And they will declare the work of God,

And will consider what He has done.

10The righteous man will be glad in the Lord and will take refuge in Him;

And all the upright in heart will glory.

7For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

8Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Women Instructed

9Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, 10but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. 11A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.