January 27: Psalm 50; Psalms 59–60; Psalm 118; Genesis 16:15–17:14; Hebrews 10:1–10; John 5:30–47 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 50 (Listen)

God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

50   The Mighty One, God the LORD,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2   Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines forth.


3   Our God comes; he does not keep silence;¹
    before him is a devouring fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
4   He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5   “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6   The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for God himself is judge! Selah


7   “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    I am God, your God.
8   Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9   I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
10   For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
11   I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.


12   “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.
13   Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
14   Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,²
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
15   and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”


16   But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
17   For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
18   If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.


19   “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
20   You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother’s son.
21   These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I³ was one like yourself.
  But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.


22   “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
23   The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”

(ESV)

Psalms 59–60 (Listen)

Deliver Me from My Enemies

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam¹ of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.

59   Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
    protect me from those who rise up against me;
2   deliver me from those who work evil,
    and save me from bloodthirsty men.


3   For behold, they lie in wait for my life;
    fierce men stir up strife against me.
  For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD,
4     for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
  Awake, come to meet me, and see!
5     You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel.
  Rouse yourself to punish all the nations;
    spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah


6   Each evening they come back,
    howling like dogs
    and prowling about the city.
7   There they are, bellowing with their mouths
    with swords in their lips—
    for “Who,” they think,² “will hear us?”


8   But you, O LORD, laugh at them;
    you hold all the nations in derision.
9   O my Strength, I will watch for you,
    for you, O God, are my fortress.
10   My God in his steadfast love³ will meet me;
    God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.


11   Kill them not, lest my people forget;
    make them totter⁴ by your power and bring them down,
    O Lord, our shield!
12   For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
    let them be trapped in their pride.
  For the cursing and lies that they utter,
13     consume them in wrath;
    consume them till they are no more,
  that they may know that God rules over Jacob
    to the ends of the earth. Selah


14   Each evening they come back,
    howling like dogs
    and prowling about the city.
15   They wander about for food
    and growl if they do not get their fill.


16   But I will sing of your strength;
    I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
  For you have been to me a fortress
    and a refuge in the day of my distress.
17   O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
    for you, O God, are my fortress,
    the God who shows me steadfast love.

He Will Tread Down Our Foes

To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam⁵ of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.

60   O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses;
    you have been angry; oh, restore us.
2   You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open;
    repair its breaches, for it totters.
3   You have made your people see hard things;
    you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.


4   You have set up a banner for those who fear you,
    that they may flee to it from the bow.⁶ Selah
5   That your beloved ones may be delivered,
    give salvation by your right hand and answer us!


6   God has spoken in his holiness:⁷
    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
    and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
7   Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet;
    Judah is my scepter.
8   Moab is my washbasin;
    upon Edom I cast my shoe;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”⁸


9   Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
10   Have you not rejected us, O God?
    You do not go forth, O God, with our armies.
11   Oh, grant us help against the foe,
    for vain is the salvation of man!
12   With God we shall do valiantly;
    it is he who will tread down our foes.

(ESV)

Psalm 118 (Listen)

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

118   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!


2   Let Israel say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”
3   Let the house of Aaron say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”
4   Let those who fear the LORD say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”


5   Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
    the LORD answered me and set me free.
6   The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.
    What can man do to me?
7   The LORD is on my side as my helper;
    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.


8   It is better to take refuge in the LORD
    than to trust in man.
9   It is better to take refuge in the LORD
    than to trust in princes.


10   All nations surrounded me;
    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
11   They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
12   They surrounded me like bees;
    they went out like a fire among thorns;
    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
13   I was pushed hard,¹ so that I was falling,
    but the LORD helped me.


14   The LORD is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.
15   Glad songs of salvation
    are in the tents of the righteous:
  “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,
16     the right hand of the LORD exalts,
    the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”


17   I shall not die, but I shall live,
    and recount the deeds of the LORD.
18   The LORD has disciplined me severely,
    but he has not given me over to death.


19   Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the LORD.
20   This is the gate of the LORD;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
21   I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
22   The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.²
23   This is the LORD’s doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
24   This is the day that the LORD has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.


25   Save us, we pray, O LORD!
    O LORD, we pray, give us success!


26   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
    We bless you from the house of the LORD.
27   The LORD is God,
    and he has made his light to shine upon us.
  Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
    up to the horns of the altar!


28   You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
29   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

(ESV)

Genesis 16:15–17:14 (Listen)

15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;¹ walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram,² but your name shall be Abraham,³ for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

(ESV)

Hebrews 10:1–10 (Listen)

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Consequently, when Christ¹ came into the world, he said,

  “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
    but a body have you prepared for me;
6   in burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you have taken no pleasure.
7   Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
    as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

(ESV)

John 5:30–47 (Listen)

Witnesses to Jesus

30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

(ESV)