February 23: Psalm 45; Psalms 47–48; Deuteronomy 9:4–12; Hebrews 3:1–11; John 2:13–22 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 45 (Listen)

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil¹ of the Sons of Korah; a love song.

45   My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
    I address my verses to the king;
    my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.


2   You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
    grace is poured upon your lips;
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
3   Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
    in your splendor and majesty!


4   In your majesty ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
5   Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king’s enemies;
    the peoples fall under you.


6   Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
    The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7     you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
  Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
8     your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
  From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
9     daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
    at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.


10   Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
    forget your people and your father’s house,
11     and the king will desire your beauty.
  Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12     The people² of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
    the richest of the people.³


13   All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14     In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
    with her virgin companions following behind her.
15   With joy and gladness they are led along
    as they enter the palace of the king.


16   In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
    you will make them princes in all the earth.
17   I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
    therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

(ESV)

Psalms 47–48 (Listen)

God Is King over All the Earth

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

47   Clap your hands, all peoples!
    Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2   For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
    a great king over all the earth.
3   He subdued peoples under us,
    and nations under our feet.
4   He chose our heritage for us,
    the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah


5   God has gone up with a shout,
    the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
6   Sing praises to God, sing praises!
    Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7   For God is the King of all the earth;
    sing praises with a psalm!¹


8   God reigns over the nations;
    God sits on his holy throne.
9   The princes of the peoples gather
    as the people of the God of Abraham.
  For the shields of the earth belong to God;
    he is highly exalted!

Zion, the City of Our God

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

48   Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
    in the city of our God!
  His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation,
    is the joy of all the earth,
  Mount Zion, in the far north,
    the city of the great King.
3   Within her citadels God
    has made himself known as a fortress.


4   For behold, the kings assembled;
    they came on together.
5   As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
    they were in panic; they took to flight.
6   Trembling took hold of them there,
    anguish as of a woman in labor.
7   By the east wind you shattered
    the ships of Tarshish.
8   As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of the LORD of hosts,
  in the city of our God,
    which God will establish forever. Selah


9   We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
    in the midst of your temple.
10   As your name, O God,
    so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
  Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11     Let Mount Zion be glad!
  Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
    because of your judgments!


12   Walk about Zion, go around her,
    number her towers,
13   consider well her ramparts,
    go through her citadels,
  that you may tell the next generation
14     that this is God,
  our God forever and ever.
    He will guide us forever.²

(ESV)

Deuteronomy 9:4–12 (Listen)

4 “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

(ESV)

Hebrews 3:1–11 (Listen)

Jesus Greater Than Moses

3 Therefore, holy brothers,¹ you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s² house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.³

A Rest for the People of God

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

  “Today, if you hear his voice,
8   do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
    on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9   where your fathers put me to the test
    and saw my works for forty years.
10   Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
  and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
11   As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

(ESV)

John 2:13–22 (Listen)

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,¹ and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

(ESV)