311 In you, O Lord, have I put my hope; let me never be shamed; keep me safe in your righteousness. 2 Let your ear be turned to me; take me quickly out of danger; be my strong Rock, my place of strength where I may be safe. 3 For you are my Rock and my strong tower; go in front of me and be my guide, because of your name. 4 Take me out of the net which they have put ready for me secretly; for you are my strength. 5 Into your hands I give my spirit; you are my saviour, O Lord God for ever true. 6 I am full of hate for those who go after false gods; but my hope is in the Lord. 7 I will be glad and have delight in your mercy; because you have seen my trouble; you have had pity on my soul in its sorrows; 8 And you have not given me into the hand of my hater; you have put my feet in a wide place.
9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eyes are wasted with grief, I am wasted in soul and body. 10 My life goes on in sorrow, and my years in weeping; my strength is almost gone because of my sin, and my bones are wasted away. 11 Because of all those who are against me, I have become a word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went in flight from me. 12 I have gone from men's minds and memory like a dead man; I am like a broken vessel. 13 False statements against me have come to my ears; fear was on every side: they were talking together against me, designing to take away my life. 14 But I had faith in you, O Lord; I said, You are my God. 15 The chances of my life are in your hand; take me out of the hands of my haters, and of those who go after me. 16 Let your servant see the light of your face; in your mercy be my saviour. 17 Let me not be shamed, O Lord, for I have made my prayer to you; let the sinners be shamed, and let their mouths be shut in the underworld. 18 Let the false lips be shut, which say evil against the upright, looking down on him in their pride.
19 O how great is your grace, which you have put in store for your worshippers, and which you have made clear to those who had faith in you, before the sons of men! 20 You will keep them safe in your house from the designs of man; in the secret of your tent will you keep them from angry tongues. 21 May the Lord be praised, because he has made clear to me the wonder of his grace in a strong town. 22 And as for me, I said in my fear, I am cut off from before your eyes; but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when my cry went up to you. 23 O have love for the Lord, all you his saints; for the Lord keeps safe from danger all those who are true to him, and gives the workers of pride their right reward. 24 Put away fear and let your heart be strong, all you whose hope is in the Lord.
321 Happy is he who has forgiveness for his wrongdoing, and whose sin is covered. 2 Happy is the man in whom the Lord sees no evil, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted, because of my crying all through the day. 4 For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my body became dry like the earth in summer. (Selah.) 5 I made my wrongdoing clear to you, and did not keep back my sin. I said, I will put it all before the Lord; and you took away my wrongdoing and my sin. (Selah.) 6 For this cause let every saint make his prayer to you at a time when you are near: then the overflowing of the great waters will not overtake him.
7 You are my safe and secret place; you will keep me from trouble; you will put songs of salvation on the lips of those who are round me. (Selah.) 8 I will give you knowledge, teaching you the way to go; my eye will be your guide. 9 Do not be like the horse or the ass, without sense; ... 10 The sinner will be full of trouble; but mercy will be round the man who has faith in the Lord. 11 Be glad in the Lord with joy, you upright men; give cries of joy, all you whose hearts are true.
16 But Paul's sister's son had word of their design, and he came into the army building and gave news of it to Paul. 17 And Paul sent for a captain and said, Take this young man to your chief, for he has news for him. 18 So he took him to the chief captain and said, Paul, the prisoner, made a request to me to take this young man to you, for he has something to say to you. 19 And the chief took him by the hand and, going on one side, said to him privately, What is it you have to say to me? 20 And he said, The Jews are in agreement together to make a request to you for Paul to be taken, on the day after this, into the Sanhedrin, to be questioned in greater detail. 21 But do not give way to them, for more than forty of them are waiting for him, having taken an oath not to take food or drink till they have put him to death: and now they are ready, waiting for your order. 22 So the chief captain let the young man go, saying to him, Do not say to anyone that you have given me word of these things.
23 And he sent for two captains and said, Make ready two hundred men, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, to go to Caesarea, at the third hour of the night: 24 And get beasts so that they may put Paul on them, and take him safely to Felix, the ruler. 25 And he sent a letter in these words: 26 Claudius Lysias, to the most noble ruler, Felix, peace be with you. 27 This man was taken by the Jews, and was about to be put to death by them, when I came on them with the army and took him out of danger, having knowledge that he was a Roman. 28 And, desiring to get at the reason for their attack on him, I took him down to their Sanhedrin: 29 Then it became clear to me that it was a question of their law, and that nothing was said against him which might be a reason for prison or death. 30 And when news was given to me that a secret design was being made against the man, I sent him straight away to you, giving orders to those who are against him to make their statements before you. 31 So the armed men, as they were ordered, took Paul and came by night to Antipatris. 32 But on the day after, they sent the horsemen on with him, and went back to their place: 33 And they, when they came to Caesarea, gave the letter to the ruler, and took Paul before him. 34 And after reading it, he said, What part of the country do you come from? And, hearing that he was from Cilicia, 35 I will give hearing to your cause, he said, when those who are against you have come. And he gave orders for him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium.
(Read Acts 23:12-24)
False religious principles, adopted by carnal men, urge on to such wickedness, as human nature would hardly be supposed capable of. Yet the Lord readily disappoints the best concerted schemes of iniquity. Paul knew that the Divine providence acts by reasonable and prudent means; and that, if he neglected to use the means in his power, he could not expect God's providence to work on his behalf. He who will not help himself according to his means and power, has neither reason nor revelation to assure him that he shall receive help from God. Believing in the Lord, we and ours shall be kept from every evil work, and kept to his kingdom. Heavenly Father, give us by thy Holy Spirit, for Christ's sake, this precious faith.
(Read Acts 23:25-35)
God has instruments for every work. The natural abilities and moral virtues of the heathens often have been employed to protect his persecuted servants. Even the men of the world can discern between the conscientious conduct of upright believers, and the zeal of false professors, though they disregard or understand not their doctrinal principles. All hearts are in God's hand, and those are blessed who put their trust in him, and commit their ways unto him.
