13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” 14So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the Lord over there.” 16Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17He came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” 18Then he took up his discourse and said,
“Arise, O Balak, and hear;
Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!
19God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
20Behold, I have received a command to bless;
When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.
21He has not observed misfortune in Jacob;
Nor has He seen trouble in Israel;
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a king is among them.
22God brings them out of Egypt,
He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
23For there is no omen against Jacob,
Nor is there any divination against Israel;
At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob
And to Israel, what God has done!
24Behold, a people rises like a lioness,
And as a lion it lifts itself;
It will not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”
25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” 26But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”
27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there.” 28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland. 29Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
28My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever,
And My covenant shall be confirmed to him.
29So I will establish his descendants forever
And his throne as the days of heaven.
30“If his sons forsake My law
And do not walk in My judgments,
31If they violate My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,
32Then I will punish their transgression with the rod
And their iniquity with stripes.
33But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him,
Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.
34My covenant I will not violate,
Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.
35Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36His descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me.
37It shall be established forever like the moon,
And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah.
38But You have cast off and rejected,
You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.
39You have spurned the covenant of Your servant;
You have profaned his crown in the dust.
40You have broken down all his walls;
You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
41All who pass along the way plunder him;
He has become a reproach to his neighbors.
42You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries;
You have made all his enemies rejoice.
43You also turn back the edge of his sword
And have not made him stand in battle.
44You have made his splendor to cease
And cast his throne to the ground.
45You have shortened the days of his youth;
You have covered him with shame. Selah.
Salutation
1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,
4To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
1) How does יהוה’s truth contrast human frailty?
2) Why is His unchanging nature the foundation of faith?
3) How does promise anchor endurance?
BOOK 2
PSALM 42
Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.
For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
6O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
8The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.
9I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.
Duties of the Older and Younger
1But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. 2Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.
3Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
6Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.
9Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
15These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.