201 May the Lord give ear to you in the day of trouble; may you be placed on high by the name of the God of Jacob; 2 May he send you help from the holy place, and give you strength from Zion; 3 May he keep all your offerings in mind, and be pleased with the fat of your burned offerings; (Selah.) 4 May he give you your heart's desire, and put all your purposes into effect. 5 We will be glad in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will put up our flags: may the Lord give you all your requests.
6 Now am I certain that the Lord gives salvation to his king; he will give him an answer from his holy heaven with the strength of salvation in his right hand. 7 Some put their faith in carriages and some in horses; but we will be strong in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They are bent down and made low; but we have been lifted up. 9 Come to our help, Lord: let the king give ear to our cry.
211 The king will be glad in your strength, O Lord; how great will be his delight in your salvation! 2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not kept back the request of his lips. (Selah.) 3 For you go before him with the blessings of good things: you put a crown of fair gold on his head. 4 He made request to you for life, and you gave it to him, long life for ever and ever. 5 His glory is great in your salvation: honour and authority have you put on him. 6 For you have made him a blessing for ever: you have given him joy in the light of your face.
7 For the king has faith in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he will not be moved. 8 Your hand will make a search for all your haters; your right hand will be hard on all those who are against you. 9 You will make them like a flaming oven before you; the Lord in his wrath will put an end to them, and they will be burned up in the fire. 10 Their fruit will be cut off from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. 11 For their thoughts were bitter against you: they had an evil design in their minds, which they were not able to put into effect. 12 Their backs will be turned when you make ready the cords of your bow against their faces. 13 Be lifted up, O Lord, in your strength; so will we make songs in praise of your power.
221 My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying? 2 O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no answer; and in the night, and have no rest. 3 But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers had faith in you: they had faith and you were their saviour. 5 They sent up their cry to you and were made free: they put their faith in you and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm and not a man; cursed by men, and looked down on by the people. 7 I am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their lips and shaking their heads they say, 8 He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in him. 9 But it was you who took care of me from the day of my birth: you gave me faith even from my mother's breasts. 10 I was in your hands even before my birth; you are my God from the time when I was in my mother's body.
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near; there is no one to give help. 12 A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan. 13 I saw their mouths wide open, like lions crying after food. 14 I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body. 15 My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips. 16 Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet. 17 I am able to see all my bones; their looks are fixed on me: 18 They make a division of my robes among them, by the decision of chance they take my clothing. 19 Do not be far from me, O Lord: O my strength, come quickly to my help. 20 Make my soul safe from the sword, my life from the power of the dog. 21 Be my saviour from the lion's mouth; let me go free from the horns of the cruel oxen.
22 I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers: I will give you praise among the people. 23 You who have fear of the Lord, give him praise; all you seed of Jacob, give him glory; go in fear of him, all you seed of Israel. 24 For he has not been unmoved by the pain of him who is troubled; or kept his face covered from him; but he has given an answer to his cry. 25 My praise will be of you in the great meeting: I will make my offerings before his worshippers. 26 The poor will have a feast of good things: those who make search for the Lord will give him praise: your heart will have life for ever. 27 All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give him worship. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord's; he is the ruler among the nations. 29 All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all those who go down to the dust will make themselves low before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his soul. 30 A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be made clear to the generation which comes after. 31 They will come and make his righteousness clear to a people of the future because he has done this.
211 And after parting from them, we put out to sea and came straight to Cos, and the day after to Rhodes, and from there to Patara: 2 And as there was a ship going to Phoenicia, we went in it. 3 And when we had come in view of Cyprus, going past it on our left, we went on to Syria, and came to land at Tyre: for there the goods which were in the ship had to be taken out. 4 And meeting the disciples we were there for seven days: and they gave Paul orders through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. 5 And when these days came to an end, we went on our journey; and they all, with their wives and children, came with us on our way till we were out of the town: and after going on our knees in prayer by the sea, 6 We said our last words to one another, and got into the ship, and they went back to their houses. 7 And journeying by ship from Tyre we came to Ptolemais; and there we had talk with the brothers and were with them for one day.
8 And on the day after, we went away and came to Caesarea, where we were guests in the house of Philip, the preacher, who was one of the seven. 9 And he had four daughters, virgins, who were prophets. 10 And while we were waiting there for some days, a certain prophet, named Agabus, came down from Judaea. 11 And he came to us, and took the band of Paul's clothing, and putting it round his feet and hands, said, The Holy Spirit says these words, So will the Jews do to the man who is the owner of this band, and they will give him up into the hands of the Gentiles. 12 And hearing these things, we and those who were living in that place made request to him not to go to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul said, What are you doing, weeping and wounding my heart? for I am ready, not only to be a prisoner, but to be put to death at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. 14 And as he might not be moved we did no more, saying, Let the purpose of God be done.
15 And after these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, taking a certain Mnason of Cyprus, one of the early disciples, in whose house we were to be living.
17 And when we came to Jerusalem, the brothers were pleased to see us.
(Read Acts 21:1-7)
Providence must be acknowledged when our affairs go on well. Wherever Paul came, he inquired what disciples were there, and found them out. Foreseeing his troubles, from love to him, and concern for the church, they wrongly thought it would be most for the glory of God that he should continue at liberty; but their earnestness to dissuade him from it, renders his pious resolution the more illustrious. He has taught us by example, as well as by rule, to pray always, to pray without ceasing. Their last farewell was sweetened with prayer.
(Read Acts 21:8-18)
Paul had express warning of his troubles, that when they came, they might be no surprise or terror to him. The general notice given us, that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God, should be of the same use to us. Their weeping began to weaken and slacken his resolution Has not our Master told us to take up our cross? It was a trouble to him, that they should so earnestly press him to do that in which he could not gratify them without wronging his conscience. When we see trouble coming, it becomes us to say, not only, The will of the Lord must be done, and there is no remedy; but, Let the will of the Lord be done; for his will is his wisdom, and he doeth all according to the counsel of it. When a trouble is come, this must allay our griefs, that the will of the Lord is done; when we see it coming, this must silence our fears, that the will of the Lord shall be done; and we ought to say, Amen, let it be done. It is honourable to be an old disciple of Jesus Christ, to have been enabled by the grace of God to continue long in a course of duty, stedfast in the faith, growing more and more experienced, to a good old age. And with these old disciples one would choose to lodge; for the multitude of their years shall teach wisdom. Many brethren at Jerusalem received Paul gladly. We think, perhaps, that if we had him among us, we should gladly receive him; but we should not, if, having his doctrine, we do not gladly receive that.
