God's Covenant with David

891 My song will be of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make his faith clear to all generations. 2 For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens. 3 I have made an agreement with the man of my selection, I have made an oath to David my servant; 4 I will make your seed go on for ever, your kingdom will be strong through all generations. (Selah.)

5 In heaven let them give praise for your wonders, O Lord; and your unchanging faith among the saints. 6 For who is there in the heavens in comparison with the Lord? who is like the Lord among the sons of the gods? 7 God is greatly to be feared among the saints, and to be honoured over all those who are about him. 8 O Lord God of armies, who is strong like you, O Jah? and your unchanging faith is round about you. 9 You have rule over the sea in storm; when its waves are troubled, you make them calm. 10 Rahab was crushed by you like one wounded to death; with your strong arm you put to flight all your haters. 11 Yours are the heavens, and the earth is yours; you have made the world, and everything which is in it. 12 You have made the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon are sounding with joy at your name. 13 Yours is an arm of power; strong is your hand and high your right hand. 14 The seat of your kingdom is resting on righteousness and right judging: mercy and good faith come before your face.

15 Happy are the people who have knowledge of the holy cry: the light of your face, O Lord, will be shining on their way. 16 In your name will they have joy all the day: in your righteousness will they be lifted up. 17 For you are the glory of their strength; in your pleasure will our horn be lifted up. 18 For our breastplate is the Lord; and our king is the Holy One of Israel's.

19 Then your voice came to your holy one in a vision, saying, I have put the crown on a strong one, lifting up one taken from among the people. 20 I have made discovery of David my servant; I have put my holy oil on his head. 21 My hand will be his support; my arm will give him strength. 22 The deceit of those who are against him will not overcome him; he will not be troubled by the sons of evil. 23 I will have those who are against him broken before his face, and his haters will be crushed under my blows. 24 But my faith and my mercy will be with him; and in my name will his horn be lifted up. 25 I will put his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. 26 He will say to me, You are my father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. 27 And I will make him the first of my sons, most high over the kings of the earth. 28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever; my agreement with him will not be changed. 29 His seed will keep their place for ever; his kingdom will be eternal, like the heavens. 30 If his children give up my law, and are not ruled by my decisions; 31 If my rules are broken, and my orders are not kept; 32 Then I will send punishment on them for their sin; my rod will be the reward of their evil-doing. 33 But I will not take away my mercy from him, and will not be false to my faith. 34 I will be true to my agreement; the things which have gone out of my lips will not be changed. 35 I have made an oath once by my holy name, that I will not be false to David. 36 His seed will not come to an end for ever; the seat of his kingdom will be like the sun before me. 37 It will be fixed for ever like the moon; and the witness in heaven is true. (Selah.)

38 But you have put him away in disgust; you have been angry with the king of your selection. 39 You have made your agreement with your servant of no effect: you have had no respect for his crown, it has come down even to the earth. 40 All his walls are broken down; you have given his strong towers to destruction. 41 All those who come by take away his goods; he is laughed at by his neighbours. 42 You have given power to the right hand of his haters; you have made glad all those who are against him. 43 His sword is turned back; you have not been his support in the fight. 44 You have put an end to his glory: the seat of his kingdom has been levelled to the earth. 45 You have made him old before his time; he is covered with shame. (Selah.) 46 How long, O Lord, will you Keep yourself for ever from our eyes? how long will your wrath be burning like fire? 47 See how short my time is; why have you made all men for no purpose? 48 What man now living will not see death? will he be able to keep back his soul from the underworld? (Selah.) 49 Lord, where are your earlier mercies? where is the oath which you made to David in unchanging faith? 50 Keep in mind, O Lord, the shame of your servants, and how the bitter words of all the people have come into my heart; 51 The bitter words of your haters, O Lord, shaming the footsteps of your king. 52 Let the Lord be praised for ever. So be it, So be it.

God's Eternity and Man's Transitoriness

901 Lord, you have been our resting-place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were made, before you had given birth to the earth and the world, before time was, and for ever, you are God. 3 You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men. 4 For to you a thousand years are no more than yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. 5 ... 6 In the morning it is green; in the evening it is cut down, and becomes dry.

7 We are burned up by the heat of your passion, and troubled by your wrath. 8 You have put our evil doings before you, our secret sins in the light of your face. 9 For all our days have gone by in your wrath; our years come to an end like a breath. 10 The measure of our life is seventy years; and if through strength it may be eighty years, its pride is only trouble and sorrow, for it comes to an end and we are quickly gone. 11 Who has knowledge of the power of your wrath, or who takes note of the weight of your passion?

12 So give us knowledge of the number of our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Come back, O Lord; how long? let your purpose for your servants be changed. 14 In the morning give us your mercy in full measure; so that we may have joy and delight all our days. 15 Make us glad in reward for the days of our sorrow, and for the years in which we have seen evil. 16 Make your work clear to your servants, and your glory to their children. 17 Let the pleasure of the Lord our God be on us: O Lord, give strength to the work of our hands.

Those Weak in Faith

141 Do not put on one side him who is feeble in faith, and do not put him in doubt by your reasonings. 2 One man has faith to take all things as food: another who is feeble in faith takes only green food. 3 Let not him who takes food have a low opinion of him who does not: and let not him who does not take food be a judge of him who does; for he has God's approval. 4 Who are you to make yourself a judge of another man's servant? it is to his master that he is responsible for good or bad. Yes, his place will be safe, because the Lord is able to keep him from falling. 5 This man puts one day before another: to that man they are the same. Let every man be certain in his mind. 6 He who keeps the day, keeps it to the Lord; and he who takes food, takes it as to the Lord, for he gives praise to God; and he who does not take food, to the Lord he takes it not, and gives praise to God. 7 For every man's life and every man's death has a relation to others as well as to himself. 8 As long as we have life we are living to the Lord; or if we give up our life it is to the Lord; so if we are living, or if our life comes to an end, we are the Lord's. 9 And for this purpose Christ went into death and came back again, that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living. 10 But you, why do you make yourself your brother's judge? or again, why have you no respect for your brother? because we will all have to take our place before God as our judge. 11 For it is said in the holy Writings, By my life, says the Lord, to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give worship to God. 12 So every one of us will have to give an account of himself to God. 13 Then let us not be judges of one another any longer: but keep this in mind, that no man is to make it hard for his brother, or give him cause for doubting. 14 I am conscious of this, and am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself; but for the man in whose opinion it is unclean, for him it is unclean. 15 And if because of food your brother is troubled, then you are no longer going on in the way of love. Do not let your food be destruction to him for whom Christ went into death. 16 Let it not be possible for men to say evil about your good: 17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 And he who in these things is Christ's servant, is pleasing to God and has the approval of men. 19 So then, let us go after the things which make peace, and the things by which we may be a help to one another. 20 Do not let the work of God come to nothing on account of food. All things are certainly clean; but it is evil for that man who by taking food makes it hard for another. 21 It is better not to take meat or wine or to do anything which might be a cause of trouble to your brother. 22 The faith which you have, have it to yourself before God. Happy is the man who is not judged by that to which he gives approval. 23 But he who is in doubt is judged if he takes food, because he does it not in faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.