Psalms 66–67

For the Music Director. A Song. A Psalm.

1 Shout joyfully to God, all you lands!

2 Sing out the glory of His name;

make His praise glorious.

3 Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!

Through the greatness of Your power

Your enemies cringe before You.

4 All the earth will worship You

and will sing to You;

they will sing to Your name.” Selah

5 Come and see the works of God;

He is awesome in His doings toward mankind.

6 He turned the sea into dry land;

they crossed the river on foot;

there we rejoiced in Him.

7 He rules by His power forever;

His eyes keep watch on the nations;

do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

8 Oh, bless our God, you people,

and make the voice of His praise to be heard,

9 who keeps our soul among the living,

and does not allow our feet to slip.

10 For You, O God, have proved us;

You have refined us, as silver is refined.

11 You brought us into the net;

You placed distress on our backs.

12 You have allowed people to ride over our heads;

we went through fire and through water;

but You brought us out into a well-watered place.

13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;

I will fulfill my vows to You,

14 which my lips have uttered,

and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.

15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,

with the incense of rams;

I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,

and I will declare what He has done for my soul.

17 I cried to Him with my mouth,

and He was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,

the Lord will not hear me;

19 but certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,

who has not turned away my prayer,

nor His mercy from me.

Psalm 67

For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

1 May God be gracious to us, and bless us,

and cause His face to shine on us; Selah

2 that Your way may be known on earth,

Your salvation among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;

let all the peoples praise You.

4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy;

for You will judge the people uprightly,

and lead the nations on earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise You, O God;

let all the peoples praise You.

6 Then will the earth yield its produce,

and God, our God, will bless us.

7 God will bless us,

and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

Romans 7

1 Do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding her husband. 3 So then, she will be called an adulteress if she marries another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she would not be an adulteress if she marries another man.

4 So, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may be married to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit for God. 5 When we were in the flesh, the passions of sin, through the law, worked in our members to bear fruit leading to death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, having died to things in which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter of the law.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! But I did not know sin, except through the law. I would not have known coveting if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was intended for life, proved to be death in me. 11 For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and killed me through it. 12 So then, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good.

13 Therefore has that which is good become death unto me? God forbid! Rather, sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was working death in me through that which is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I do not practice what I will to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 But if I practice what I do not will to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing, for the will to do what is right is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who does it, but sin that lives in me.

21 I find then a law that when I desire to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, 23 but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, with my mind, I serve the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.