March 29: Psalm 97; Psalms 99–100; Psalms 94–95; Genesis 49:29–50:14; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34; Mark 8:1–10 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 97(Listen)

TheLordReigns

97   The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice;
    let the many coastlands be glad!
2   Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3   Fire goes before him
    and burns up his adversaries all around.
4   His lightnings light up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
5   The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
6   The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all the peoples see his glory.
7   All worshipers of images are put to shame,
    who make their boast in worthless idols;
    worship him, all you gods!
8   Zion hears and is glad,
    and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
    because of your judgments, O LORD.
9   For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
    you are exalted far above all gods.
10   O you who love the LORD, hate evil!
    He preserves the lives of his saints;
    he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11   Light is sown¹for the righteous,
    and joy for the upright in heart.
12   Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
    and give thanks to his holy name!

(ESV)

Psalms 99–100(Listen)

TheLordOur God Is Holy

99   The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble!
    He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2   The LORD is great in Zion;
    he is exalted over all the peoples.
3   Let them praise your great and awesome name!
    Holy is he!
4   The King in his might loves justice.¹
    You have established equity;
  you have executed justice
    and righteousness in Jacob.
5   Exalt the LORD our God;
    worship at his footstool!
    Holy is he!
6   Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
    Samuel also was among those who called upon his name.
    They called to the LORD, and he answered them.
7   In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
    they kept his testimonies
    and the statute that he gave them.
8   O LORD our God, you answered them;
    you were a forgiving God to them,
    but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9   Exalt the LORD our God,
    and worship at his holy mountain;
    for the LORD our God is holy!

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

A Psalm for giving thanks.

100   Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2     Serve the LORD with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!
3   Know that the LORD, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;²
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4   Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5   For the LORD is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

(ESV)

Psalms 94–95(Listen)

TheLordWill Not Forsake His People

94   O LORD, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2   Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!
3   O LORD, how long shall the wicked,
    how long shall the wicked exult?
4   They pour out their arrogant words;
    all the evildoers boast.
5   They crush your people, O LORD,
    and afflict your heritage.
6   They kill the widow and the sojourner,
    and murder the fatherless;
7   and they say, “The LORD does not see;
    the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8   Understand, O dullest of the people!
    Fools, when will you be wise?
9   He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
  He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10   He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
  He who teaches man knowledge—
11     the LORD—knows the thoughts of man,
    that they are but a breath.¹
12   Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
13   to give him rest from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14   For the LORD will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
15   for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16   Who rises up for me against the wicked?
    Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17   If the LORD had not been my help,
    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18   When I thought, “My foot slips,”
    your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19   When the cares of my heart are many,
    your consolations cheer my soul.
20   Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
    those who frame²injustice by statute?
21   They band together against the life of the righteous
    and condemn the innocent to death.³
22   But the LORD has become my stronghold,
    and my God the rock of my refuge.
23   He will bring back on them their iniquity
    and wipe them out for their wickedness;
    the LORD our God will wipe them out.

Let Us Sing Songs of Praise

95   Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2   Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3   For the LORD is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
4   In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
5   The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
6   Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7   For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
  Today, if you hear his voice,
8     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9   when your fathers put me to the test
    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10   For forty years I loathed that generation
    and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
    and they have not known my ways.”
11   Therefore I swore in my wrath,
    “They shall not enter my rest.”

(ESV)

Genesis 49:29–50:14(Listen)

29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.”33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

50 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’”6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim;¹it is beyond the Jordan.12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them,13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 11:17–34(Listen)

The Lord’s Supper

17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,¹19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,“This is my body, which is for²you. Do this in remembrance of me.”³25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying,“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.⁴31 But if we judged⁵ourselves truly, we would not be judged.32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined⁶so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

33 So then, my brothers,⁷when you come together to eat, wait for⁸one another—34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

(ESV)

Mark 8:1–10(Listen)

Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”5 And he asked them,“How many loaves do you have?”They said, “Seven.”6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them.8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.¹

(ESV)