August 19 – Psalms 94 and 95 from the New Testament

Psalms 94 and 95 – Psalm 94

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor!

94:2 Rise up, O judge of the earth!

Pay back the proud!

94:3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,

how long will the wicked celebrate?

94:4 They spew out threats and speak defiantly;

all the evildoers boast.

94:5 O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you.

94:6 They kill the widow and the one residing outside his native land,

and they murder the fatherless.

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”

94:8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people!

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see?

94:10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

94:11 The Lord knows that

peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt.

94:12 How blessedis the one whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

94:13 in order to protect him from times of trouble,

until the wicked are destroyed.

94:14 Certainly the Lord does not forsake his people;

he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.

94:15 For justice will prevail,

and all the morally upright will be vindicated.

94:16 Who will rise up to defend me against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?

94:17 If the Lord had not helped me,

I would have laid down in the silence of death.

94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

94:19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me,

your soothing touch makes me happy.

94:20 Cruel rulers are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws.

94:21 They conspire against the blameless,

and condemn to death the innocent.

94:22 But the Lord will protect me,

and my God will shelter me.

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin.

He will destroy them because of their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Psalm 95

95:1 Come! Let’s sing for joy to the Lord!

Let’s shout out praises to our protector who delivers us!

95:2 Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving!

Let’s shout out to him in celebration!

95:3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to all gods.

95:4 The depths of the earth are in his hand,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

95:5 The sea is his, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land.

95:6 Come! Let’s bow down and worship!

Let’s kneel before the Lord, our creator!

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns.

Today, if only you would obey him!

95:8 He says, “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah,

like they were that day at Massah in the wilderness,

95:9 where your ancestors challenged my authority,

and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.

95:10 For forty years I was continually disgusted with that generation,

and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray;

they do not obey my commands.’

95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,

‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”