April 26: Psalm 41; Psalm 52; Psalm 44; Wisdom 1:16-2:11, 21-24; Colossians 1:1–14; Luke 6:1–11 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 41 (Listen)

O Lord, Be Gracious to Me

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

41   Blessed is the one who considers the poor!¹
    In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;
2   the LORD protects him and keeps him alive;
    he is called blessed in the land;
    you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
3   The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
    in his illness you restore him to full health.²


4   As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me;
    heal me,³ for I have sinned against you!”
5   My enemies say of me in malice,
    “When will he die, and his name perish?”
6   And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
    while his heart gathers iniquity;
    when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7   All who hate me whisper together about me;
    they imagine the worst for me.⁴


8   They say, “A deadly thing is poured out⁵ on him;
    he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9   Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
    who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10   But you, O LORD, be gracious to me,
    and raise me up, that I may repay them!


11   By this I know that you delight in me:
    my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12   But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
    and set me in your presence forever.


13   Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting!
      Amen and Amen.

(ESV)

Psalm 52 (Listen)

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil¹ of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

52   Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
2   Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
3   You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
4   You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.


5   But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6   The righteous shall see and fear,
    and shall laugh at him, saying,
7   “See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
  but trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!”²


8   But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
  I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
9   I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
  I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly.

(ESV)

Psalm 44 (Listen)

Come to Our Help

To the choirmaster. A Maskil¹ of the Sons of Korah.

44   O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
  what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:
2   you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
  you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;
3   for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
  but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.


4   You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!
5   Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6   For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
7   But you have saved us from our foes
    and have put to shame those who hate us.
8   In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah


9   But you have rejected us and disgraced us
    and have not gone out with our armies.
10   You have made us turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11   You have made us like sheep for slaughter
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12   You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
13   You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
14   You have made us a byword among the nations,
    a laughingstock² among the peoples.
15   All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face
16   at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.


17   All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
18   Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
19   yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
20   If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21   would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22   Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.


23   Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24   Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25   For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
26   Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

(ESV)

Colossians 1:1–14 (Listen)

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers¹ in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.² He is a faithful minister of Christ on your³ behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks⁴ to the Father, who has qualified you⁵ to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(ESV)

Luke 6:1–11 (Listen)

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

6 On a Sabbath,¹ while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

(ESV)