291 Give to the Lord, you sons of the gods, give to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Give to the Lord the full glory of his name; give him worship in holy robes. 3 The voice of the Lord is on the waters: the God of glory is thundering, the Lord is on the great waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is full of power; the voice of the Lord has a noble sound. 5 By the voice of the Lord are the cedar-trees broken, even the cedars of Lebanon are broken by the Lord. 6 He makes them go jumping about like a young ox; Lebanon and Sirion like a young mountain ox. 7 At the voice of the Lord flames of fire are seen. 8 At the voice of the Lord there is a shaking in the waste land, even a shaking in the waste land of Kadesh. 9 At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory. 10 The Lord had his seat as king when the waters came on the earth; the Lord is seated as king for ever. 11 The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace.
301 I will give you praise and honour, O Lord, because through you I have been lifted up; you have not given my haters cause to be glad over me. 2 O Lord my God, I sent up my cry to you, and you have made me well. 3 O Lord, you have made my soul come again from the underworld: you have given me life and kept me from going down among the dead. 4 Make songs to the Lord, O you saints of his, and give praise to his holy name. 5 For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
6 When things went well for me I said, I will never be moved. 7 Lord, by your grace you have kept my mountain strong: when your face was turned from me I was troubled. 8 My voice went up to you, O Lord; I made my prayer to the Lord. 9 What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the underworld? will the dust give you praise, or be a witness to your help? 10 Give ear to me, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be my helper. 11 By you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy; 12 So that my glory may make songs of praise to you and not be quiet. O Lord my God, I will give you praise for ever.
231 And Paul, looking fixedly at the Sanhedrin, said, My brothers, my life has been upright before God till this day. 2 And the high priest, Ananias, gave orders to those who were near him to give him a blow on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, God will give blows to you, you whitewashed wall: are you here to be my judge by law, and by your orders am I given blows against the law? 4 And those who were near said, Do you say such words against God's high priest? 5 And Paul said, Brother, I had no idea that he was the high priest: for it has been said, You may not say evil about the ruler of your people.
6 But when Paul saw that half of them were Sadducees and the rest Pharisees, he said in the Sanhedrin, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees: I am here to be judged on the question of the hope of the coming back from the dead. 7 And when he had said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and a division in the meeting. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no coming back from the dead, and no angels or spirits: but the Pharisees have belief in all these. 9 And there was a great outcry: and some of the scribes on the side of the Pharisees got up and took part in the discussion, saying, We see no evil in this man: what if he has had a revelation from an angel or a spirit? 10 And when the argument became very violent, the chief captain, fearing that Paul would be pulled in two by them, gave orders to the armed men to take him by force from among them, and take him into the army building. 11 And the night after, the Lord came to his side and said, Be of good heart, for as you have been witnessing for me in Jerusalem, so will you be my witness in Rome.
12 And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death. 13 And more than forty of them took this oath. 14 And they came to the chief priests and the rulers and said, We have taken a great oath to take no food till we have put Paul to death 15 So now, will you and the Sanhedrin make a request to the military authorities to have him sent down to you, as if you were desiring to go into the business in greater detail; and we, before ever he gets to you, will be waiting to put him to death.
(Read Acts 23:1-5)
See here the character of an honest man. He sets God before him, and lives as in his sight. He makes conscience of what he says and does, and, according to the best of his knowledge, he keeps from whatever is evil, and cleaves to what is good. He is conscientious in all his words and conduct. Those who thus live before God, may, like Paul, have confidence both toward God and man. Though the answer of Paul contained a just rebuke and prediction, he seems to have been too angry at the treatment he received in uttering them. Great men may be told of their faults, and public complaints may be made in a proper manner; but the law of God requires respect for those in authority.
(Read Acts 23:6-11)
The Pharisees were correct in the faith of the Jewish church. The Sadducees were no friends to the Scripture or Divine revelation; they denied a future state; they had neither hope of eternal happiness, nor dread of eternal misery. When called in question for his being a Christian, Paul might truly say he was called in question for the hope of the resurrection of the dead. It was justifiable in him, by this profession of his opinion on that disputed point, to draw off the Pharisees from persecuting him, and to lead them to protect him from this unlawful violence. How easily can God defend his own cause! Though the Jews seemed to be perfectly agreed in their conspiracy against religion, yet they were influenced by very different motives. There is no true friendship among the wicked, and in a moment, and with the utmost ease, God can turn their union into open enmity. Divine consolations stood Paul in the most stead; the chief captain rescued him out of the hands of cruel men, but the event he could not tell. Whoever is against us, we need not fear, if the Lord stand by us. It is the will of Christ, that his servants who are faithful, should be always cheerful. He might think he should never see Rome; but God tells him, even in that he should be gratified, since he desired to go there only for the honour of Christ, and to do good.
(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.
