Psalms 113–115

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise, O you servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord.

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord

from this time forth and for evermore.

3 From the rising of the sun to its going down,

the Lord’s name is to be praised.

4 The Lord is high above all nations,

and His glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like the Lord our God,

who dwells on high,

6 who looks down on the things

that are in heaven and on the earth?

7 He raises up the poor out of the dust

and lifts the needy out of the ash heap,

8 to make them sit with princes,

even with the princes of His people.

9 He gives the barren woman a dwelling,

making her the joyful mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 114

1 When Israel went out of Egypt,

the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

2 Judah was His sanctuary,

and Israel His dominion.

3 The sea saw it and fled;

the Jordan was driven back;

4 the mountains skipped like rams

and the hills like lambs.

5 What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled,

O Jordan, that you turned back,

6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams,

O hills, like lambs?

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,

at the presence of the God of Jacob

8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,

the hard stone into a spring of waters.

Psalm 115

1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,

but unto Your name give glory,

for the sake of Your mercy, and for the sake of Your truth.

2 Why should the nations say,

“Where now is their God?”

3 But our God is in the heavens;

He does whatever He pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,

the work of men’s hands.

5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;

eyes, but they cannot see;

6 they have ears, but they cannot hear;

noses, but they cannot smell;

7 they have hands, but they cannot feel;

feet, but they cannot walk;

neither can they speak with their throat.

8 Those who make them are like them;

so is everyone who trusts in them.

9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;

He is their help and their shield.

10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord;

He is their help and their shield.

11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;

He is their help and their shield.

12 The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us;

He will bless the house of Israel;

He will bless the house of Aaron.

13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,

both the small and great ones.

14 The Lord shall increase you more and more,

you and your children.

15 You are blessed of the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

16 The heavens belong to the Lord,

but the earth He has given to the children of men.

17 The dead do not praise the Lord,

nor do any who go down into silence.

18 But we will bless the Lord

from this time and for evermore.

Praise the Lord!

1 Corinthians 6

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have judgments dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint as judges those who are least esteemed in the church? 5 I speak to your shame. Is it true that there is not even one wise man among you who shall be able to judge between his brothers? 6 But brother goes to the law against brother, and before unbelievers, at that.

7 Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and do this to your brothers. 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God.

12 “All things are lawful to me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. 13 “Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food,” but God will destroy both of them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 God has raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His own power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are the parts of Christ? Shall I then take the parts of Christ and make them the parts of a harlot? God forbid! 16 What? Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

18 Escape from sexual immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body. But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own? 20 You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.