571 Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me,
for my soul takes refuge in you.
Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge,
until disaster has passed. 2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who accomplishes my requests for me. 3 He will send from heaven, and save me,
he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah.
God will send out his loving kindness and his truth. 4 My soul is among lions.
I lie among those who are set on fire,
even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
and their tongue a sharp sword. 5 Be exalted, God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be above all the earth! 6 They have prepared a net for my steps.
My soul is bowed down.
They dig a pit before me.
They fall into its midst themselves. Selah.
7 My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast.
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises. 8 Wake up, my glory! Wake up, psaltery and harp!
I will wake up the dawn. 9 I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens,
and your truth to the skies. 11 Be exalted, God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
581 Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones?
Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men? 2 No, in your heart you plot injustice.
You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth. 3 The wicked go astray from the womb.
They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake;
like a deaf cobra that stops its ear, 5 which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers,
no matter how skillful the charmer may be.
6 Break their teeth, God, in their mouth.
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh. 7 Let them vanish as water that flows away.
When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt. 8 Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away,
like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns,
he will sweep away the green and the burning alike. 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance.
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked; 11 so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous.
Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”
591 Deliver me from my enemies, my God.
Set me on high from those who rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity.
Save me from the bloodthirsty men. 3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul.
The mighty gather themselves together against me,
not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh. 4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me.
Rise up, behold, and help me! 5 You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel,
rouse yourself to punish the nations.
Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah. 6 They return at evening, howling like dogs,
and prowl around the city. 7 Behold, they spew with their mouth.
Swords are in their lips,
“For,” they say, “who hears us?”
8 But you, Yahweh, laugh at them.
You scoff at all the nations. 9 Oh, my Strength, I watch for you,
for God is my high tower. 10 My God will go before me with his loving kindness.
God will let me look at my enemies in triumph. 11 Don’t kill them, or my people may forget.
Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield. 12 For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips,
let them be caught in their pride,
for the curses and lies which they utter. 13 Consume them in wrath.
Consume them, and they will be no more.
Let them know that God rules in Jacob,
to the ends of the earth. Selah. 14 At evening let them return.
Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city. 15 They shall wander up and down for food,
and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied. 16 But I will sing of your strength.
Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning.
For you have been my high tower,
a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 To you, my strength, I will sing praises.
For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.
41 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” [1] 4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt. 5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 6 Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, 7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.” [2]
9 Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. 12 The father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
13 For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15 For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” [3] This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 18 Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your seed be.” [4] 19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it also was “reckoned to him for righteousness.” [5]
23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
