December 11: Psalm 25; Psalm 9; Psalm 15; Amos 7:1–9; Revelation 1:1–8; Matthew 22:23–33 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 25(Listen)

Teach Me Your Paths

¹Of David.

25   To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2   O my God, in you I trust;
    let me not be put to shame;
    let not my enemies exult over me.
3   Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
    they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4   Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
    teach me your paths.
5   Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long.
6   Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old.
7   Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
8   Good and upright is the LORD;
    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9   He leads the humble in what is right,
    and teaches the humble his way.
10   All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
11   For your name’s sake, O LORD,
    pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12   Who is the man who fears the LORD?
    Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
13   His soul shall abide in well-being,
    and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14   The friendship²of the LORD is for those who fear him,
    and he makes known to them his covenant.
15   My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
    for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
16   Turn to me and be gracious to me,
    for I am lonely and afflicted.
17   The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
    bring me out of my distresses.
18   Consider my affliction and my trouble,
    and forgive all my sins.
19   Consider how many are my foes,
    and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20   Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
    Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21   May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
    for I wait for you.
22   Redeem Israel, O God,
    out of all his troubles.

(ESV)

Psalm 9(Listen)

I Will Recount Your Wonderful Deeds

¹To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben.²A Psalm of David.

9   I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
    I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2   I will be glad and exult in you;
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3   When my enemies turn back,
    they stumble and perish before³your presence.
4   For you have maintained my just cause;
    you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5   You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
    you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6   The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
    their cities you rooted out;
    the very memory of them has perished.
7   But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
    he has established his throne for justice,
8   and he judges the world with righteousness;
    he judges the peoples with uprightness.
9   The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.
10   And those who know your name put their trust in you,
    for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
11   Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
    Tell among the peoples his deeds!
12   For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
    he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13   Be gracious to me, O LORD!
    See my affliction from those who hate me,
    O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
14   that I may recount all your praises,
    that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
    I may rejoice in your salvation.
15   The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
    in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16   The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
    the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.Higgaion.⁴Selah
17   The wicked shall return to Sheol,
    all the nations that forget God.
18   For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
19   Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
    let the nations be judged before you!
20   Put them in fear, O LORD!
    Let the nations know that they are but men!Selah

(ESV)

Psalm 15(Listen)

Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill?

A Psalm of David.

15   O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
    Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
2   He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
    and speaks truth in his heart;
3   who does not slander with his tongue
    and does no evil to his neighbor,
    nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4   in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
    but who honors those who fear the LORD;
  who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5   who does not put out his money at interest
    and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
  He who does these things shall never be moved.

(ESV)

Amos 7:1–9(Listen)

Warning Visions

7 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

  “O Lord GOD, please forgive!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
3   The LORD relented concerning this:
    “It shall not be,” said the LORD.

4 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.5 Then I said,

  “O Lord GOD, please cease!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
6   The LORD relented concerning this:
    “This also shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.

7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

  “Behold, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them;
9   the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

(ESV)

Revelation 1:1–8(Listen)

Prologue

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants¹the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail²on account of him. Even so. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

(ESV)

Matthew 22:23–33(Listen)

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh.27 After them all, the woman died.28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them,“You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

(ESV)