December 9: Psalm 129; Job 15; Isaiah 38; 3 John - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 129(Listen)

They Have Afflicted Me from My Youth

A Song of Ascents.

129   “Greatly¹have they afflicted me from my youth”—
    let Israel now say—
2   “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
    yet they have not prevailed against me.
3   The plowers plowed upon my back;
    they made long their furrows.”
4   The LORD is righteous;
    he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5   May all who hate Zion
    be put to shame and turned backward!
6   Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
    which withers before it grows up,
7   with which the reaper does not fill his hand
    nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8   nor do those who pass by say,
    “The blessing of the LORD be upon you!
    We bless you in the name of the LORD!”

(ESV)

Job 15(Listen)

Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2   “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
    and fill his belly with the east wind?
3   Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
    or in words with which he can do no good?
4   But you are doing away with the fear of God¹
    and hindering meditation before God.
5   For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6   Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
    your own lips testify against you.
7   “Are you the first man who was born?
    Or were you brought forth before the hills?
8   Have you listened in the council of God?
    And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9   What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10   Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
    older than your father.
11   Are the comforts of God too small for you,
    or the word that deals gently with you?
12   Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,
13   that you turn your spirit against God
    and bring such words out of your mouth?
14   What is man, that he can be pure?
    Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
15   Behold, God²puts no trust in his holy ones,
    and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
16   how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
    a man who drinks injustice like water!
17   “I will show you; hear me,
    and what I have seen I will declare
18   (what wise men have told,
    without hiding it from their fathers,
19   to whom alone the land was given,
    and no stranger passed among them).
20   The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
    through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21   Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
    in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
22   He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
    and he is marked for the sword.
23   He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
24   distress and anguish terrify him;
    they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25   Because he has stretched out his hand against God
    and defies the Almighty,
26   running stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
27   because he has covered his face with his fat
    and gathered fat upon his waist
28   and has lived in desolate cities,
    in houses that none should inhabit,
    which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
29   he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
    nor will his possessions spread over the earth;³
30   he will not depart from darkness;
    the flame will dry up his shoots,
    and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
31   Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
    for emptiness will be his payment.
32   It will be paid in full before his time,
    and his branch will not be green.
33   He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
    and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
34   For the company of the godless is barren,
    and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35   They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
    and their womb prepares deceit.”

(ESV)

Isaiah 38(Listen)

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”¹2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,3 and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.²6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

7 “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.³

9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10   I said, In the middle⁴of my days
    I must depart;
  I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
    for the rest of my years.
11   I said, I shall not see the LORD,
    the LORD in the land of the living;
  I shall look on man no more
    among the inhabitants of the world.
12   My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    like a shepherd’s tent;
  like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
    he cuts me off from the loom;
  from day to night you bring me to an end;
13     I calmed myself⁵until morning;
  like a lion he breaks all my bones;
    from day to night you bring me to an end.
14   Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
    I moan like a dove.
  My eyes are weary with looking upward.
    O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
15   What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
    and he himself has done it.
  I walk slowly all my years
    because of the bitterness of my soul.
16   O Lord, by these things men live,
    and in all these is the life of my spirit.
    Oh restore me to health and make me live!
17   Behold, it was for my welfare
    that I had great bitterness;
  but in love you have delivered my life
    from the pit of destruction,
  for you have cast all my sins
    behind your back.
18   For Sheol does not thank you;
    death does not praise you;
  those who go down to the pit do not hope
    for your faithfulness.
19   The living, the living, he thanks you,
    as I do this day;
  the father makes known to the children
    your faithfulness.
20   The LORD will save me,
    and we will play my music on stringed instruments
  all the days of our lives,
    at the house of the LORD.

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

(ESV)

3 John(Listen)

Greeting

1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers¹came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Support and Opposition

5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are,6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink.14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

(ESV)