Bible in a Year - Day 166

I¹ will love thee, O LORD, my strength. ² The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. ³ I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. ⁴ The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. ⁵ The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. ⁶ In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. ⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. ⁸ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. ⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. ¹⁰ And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. ¹² At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. ¹³ The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. ¹⁴ Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. ¹⁵ Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. ¹⁶ He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. ¹⁸ They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay. ¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. ²⁰ The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. ²² For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. ²³ I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. ²⁴ Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. ²⁵ With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; ²⁶ With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. ²⁷ For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. ²⁸ For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. ²⁹ For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. ³⁰ As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. ³¹ For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God? ³² It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. ³³ He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places. ³⁴ He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. ³⁵ Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. ³⁶ Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. ³⁷ I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. ³⁸ I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. ³⁹ For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. ⁴⁰ Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. ⁴¹ They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but he answered them not. ⁴² Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. ⁴³ Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. ⁴⁴ As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. ⁴⁵ The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places. ⁴⁶ The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. ⁴⁷ It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. ⁴⁸ He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. ⁴⁹ Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. ⁵⁰ Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

¹ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; ² But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. ³ Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: ⁴ But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, ⁵ To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. ⁶ And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ⁷ Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. ⁸ Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. ⁹ But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰ Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ¹¹ I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. ¹² Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. ¹³ Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. ¹⁴ And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. ¹⁶ Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? ¹⁷ They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. ¹⁸ But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹ My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, ²⁰ I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. ²¹ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? ²² For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. ²⁴ Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. ²⁵ For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. ²⁶ But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. ²⁸ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. ²⁹ But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.