Today's Reading

Psalms 71-75

Psalms Chapter 71
1 - In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
2 - Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 - Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 - Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 - For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.
6 - By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
7 - I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
8 - Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
9 - Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 - For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
11 - Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.
12 - O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.
13 - Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
14 - But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.
15 - My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
16 - I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
17 - O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 - Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
19 - Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!
20 - Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 - Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
22 - I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.
23 - My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 - My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.

Psalms Chapter 72
1 - Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
2 - He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
3 - The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
4 - He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
5 - They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
6 - He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
7 - In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
8 - He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
9 - They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
10 - The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11 - Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
12 - For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
13 - He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
14 - He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
15 - And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
16 - There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
17 - His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
18 - Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.
19 - And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.
20 - The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Psalms Chapter 73
1 - Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 - But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 - For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 - For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
5 - They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 - Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
7 - Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
8 - They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
9 - They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 - Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 - And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 - Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13 - Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
14 - For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 - If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
16 - When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
17 - Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
18 - Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
19 - How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 - As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
21 - Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
22 - So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
23 - Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
24 - Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 - Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 - My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 - For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
28 - But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Psalms Chapter 74
1 - O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 - Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 - Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 - Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.
5 - A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
6 - But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7 - They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
8 - They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 - We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 - O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 - Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
12 - For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 - Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 - Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 - Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 - The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 - Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.
18 - Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19 - O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
20 - Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 - O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 - Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
23 - Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.

Psalms Chapter 75
1 - Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
2 - When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.
3 - The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
4 - I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
5 - Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
6 - For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
7 - But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
8 - For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.
9 - But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 - All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.