March 24: Psalms 42–43; Psalm 83; Psalms 85–86; Genesis 46:1–7; Genesis 46:28–34; 1 Corinthians 9:1–15; Mark 6:30–46 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalms 42–43(Listen)

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil¹of the Sons of Korah.

42   As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
2   My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
  When shall I come and appear before God?²
3   My tears have been my food
    day and night,
  while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4   These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
  how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
  with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.
5   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation³6 and my God.
  My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
  from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7   Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
  all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
8   By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9   I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
  Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10   As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
  while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
11   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

43   Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people,
  from the deceitful and unjust man
    deliver me!
2   For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you rejected me?
  Why do I go about mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?
3   Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
  let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
4   Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
  and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.
5   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

(ESV)

Psalm 83(Listen)

O God, Do Not Keep Silence

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

83   O God, do not keep silence;
    do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2   For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
    those who hate you have raised their heads.
3   They lay crafty plans against your people;
    they consult together against your treasured ones.
4   They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5   For they conspire with one accord;
    against you they make a covenant—
6   the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,
7   Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8   Asshur also has joined them;
    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.Selah
9   Do to them as you did to Midian,
    as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10   who were destroyed at En-dor,
    who became dung for the ground.
11   Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12   who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves
    of the pastures of God.”
13   O my God, make them like whirling dust,¹
    like chaff before the wind.
14   As fire consumes the forest,
    as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15   so may you pursue them with your tempest
    and terrify them with your hurricane!
16   Fill their faces with shame,
    that they may seek your name, O LORD.
17   Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
    let them perish in disgrace,
18   that they may know that you alone,
    whose name is the LORD,
    are the Most High over all the earth.

(ESV)

Psalms 85–86(Listen)

Revive Us Again

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

85   LORD, you were favorable to your land;
    you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2   You forgave the iniquity of your people;
    you covered all their sin.Selah
3   You withdrew all your wrath;
    you turned from your hot anger.
4   Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
    and put away your indignation toward us!
5   Will you be angry with us forever?
    Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6   Will you not revive us again,
    that your people may rejoice in you?
7   Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,
    and grant us your salvation.
8   Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
    for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
    but let them not turn back to folly.
9   Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
    that glory may dwell in our land.
10   Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11   Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
    and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12   Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
    and our land will yield its increase.
13   Righteousness will go before him
    and make his footsteps a way.

Great Is Your Steadfast Love

A Prayer of David.

86   Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
    for I am poor and needy.
2   Preserve my life, for I am godly;
    save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
3   Be gracious to me, O Lord,
    for to you do I cry all the day.
4   Gladden the soul of your servant,
    for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5   For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
    abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
6   Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
    listen to my plea for grace.
7   In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
    for you answer me.
8   There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
    nor are there any works like yours.
9   All the nations you have made shall come
    and worship before you, O Lord,
    and shall glorify your name.
10   For you are great and do wondrous things;
    you alone are God.
11   Teach me your way, O LORD,
    that I may walk in your truth;
    unite my heart to fear your name.
12   I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
    and I will glorify your name forever.
13   For great is your steadfast love toward me;
    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
14   O God, insolent men have risen up against me;
    a band of ruthless men seeks my life,
    and they do not set you before them.
15   But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16   Turn to me and be gracious to me;
    give your strength to your servant,
    and save the son of your maidservant.
17   Show me a sign of your favor,
    that those who hate me may see and be put to shame
    because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

(ESV)

Genesis 46:1–7(Listen)

Joseph Brings His Family to Egypt

46 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

5 Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.6 They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

(ESV)

Genesis 46:28–34(Listen)

Jacob and Joseph Reunited

28 He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.29 Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”31 Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.32 And the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’33 When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 9:1–15(Listen)

Paul Surrenders His Rights

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 This is my defense to those who would examine me.4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink?5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife,¹as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

(ESV)

Mark 6:30–46(Listen)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.31 And he said to them,“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”37 But he answered them,“You give them something to eat.”And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii¹worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”38 And he said to them,“How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.42 And they all ate and were satisfied.43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Jesus Walks on the Water

45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

(ESV)