He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague.
He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
. . .
“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God:
You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.
. . .
But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”
But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, declares the LORD, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.
For the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the LORD, who sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.
If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,
I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.
. . .
A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat—for He gives sleep to His beloved.
Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. He will not be put to shame when he confronts the enemies at the gate.
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
. . .
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
“If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.
If a thief is caught breaking in and is beaten to death, no one shall be guilty of bloodshed.
But if it happens after sunrise, there is guilt for his bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he himself shall be sold for his theft.
If what was stolen is actually found alive in his possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double.
If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and allows them to stray so that they graze in someone else’s field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard.
. . .
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.
The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
And David sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
He said: “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation. My stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, You save me from violence.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
. . .
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The work of righteousness will be peace; the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.
Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure places of rest.
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
. . .
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
. . .
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them.
Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
. . .
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age—
and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
For the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the LORD, who sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
The cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
. . .
A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. O LORD, how my foes have increased! How many rise up against me!
Many say of me, “God will not deliver him.” Selah
But You, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.
To the LORD I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy mountain. Selah
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
. . .
Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel, and later receive me in glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”
The kinsman-redeemer replied, “I cannot redeem it myself, or I would jeopardize my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I cannot redeem it.”
Now in former times in Israel, concerning the redemption or exchange of property, to make any matter legally binding a man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party, and this was a confirmation in Israel.
So the kinsman-redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.”
At this, Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon.
. . .
Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
And each of the builders worked with his sword strapped at his side. But the trumpeter stayed beside me.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Ahaz over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria nine years.
And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.
But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.
Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.
. . .
For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.
And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.
Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently.
No longer will a fool be called noble, nor a scoundrel be respected.
. . .
Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and filled with indignation. He ridiculed the Jews
before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”
Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn back upon their own heads, and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity.
Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.
. . .
The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.
Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”
After Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley, where they entered a garden.
Now Judas His betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples.
So Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, “Whom are you seeking?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. Jesus said, “I am He.” And Judas His betrayer was standing there with them.
. . .
As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’