March 10: Psalm 69; Exodus 15:1–21; Ezra 5; Romans 6 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 69(Listen)

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

69   Save me, O God!
    For the waters have come up to my neck.¹
2   I sink in deep mire,
    where there is no foothold;
  I have come into deep waters,
    and the flood sweeps over me.
3   I am weary with my crying out;
    my throat is parched.
  My eyes grow dim
    with waiting for my God.
4   More in number than the hairs of my head
    are those who hate me without cause;
  mighty are those who would destroy me,
    those who attack me with lies.
  What I did not steal
    must I now restore?
5   O God, you know my folly;
    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
6   Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
    O Lord GOD of hosts;
  let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
    O God of Israel.
7   For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that dishonor has covered my face.
8   I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother’s sons.
9   For zeal for your house has consumed me,
    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10   When I wept and humbled²my soul with fasting,
    it became my reproach.
11   When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
12   I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make songs about me.
13   But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
    At an acceptable time, O God,
    in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
14   Deliver me
    from sinking in the mire;
  let me be delivered from my enemies
    and from the deep waters.
15   Let not the flood sweep over me,
    or the deep swallow me up,
    or the pit close its mouth over me.
16   Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good;
    according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17   Hide not your face from your servant,
    for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
18   Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
    ransom me because of my enemies!
19   You know my reproach,
    and my shame and my dishonor;
    my foes are all known to you.
20   Reproaches have broken my heart,
    so that I am in despair.
  I looked for pity, but there was none,
    and for comforters, but I found none.
21   They gave me poison for food,
    and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
22   Let their own table before them become a snare;
    and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.³
23   Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
    and make their loins tremble continually.
24   Pour out your indignation upon them,
    and let your burning anger overtake them.
25   May their camp be a desolation;
    let no one dwell in their tents.
26   For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
    and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.
27   Add to them punishment upon punishment;
    may they have no acquittal from you.⁴
28   Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
    let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
29   But I am afflicted and in pain;
    let your salvation, O God, set me on high!
30   I will praise the name of God with a song;
    I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31   This will please the LORD more than an ox
    or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32   When the humble see it they will be glad;
    you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33   For the LORD hears the needy
    and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
34   Let heaven and earth praise him,
    the seas and everything that moves in them.
35   For God will save Zion
    and build up the cities of Judah,
  and people shall dwell there and possess it;
36     the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
    and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

(ESV)

Exodus 15:1–21(Listen)

The Song of Moses

15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,

  “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
    the horse and his rider¹he has thrown into the sea.
2   The LORD is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation;
  this is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3   The LORD is a man of war;
    the LORD is his name.
4   “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
    and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5   The floods covered them;
    they went down into the depths like a stone.
6   Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power,
    your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.
7   In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;
    you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8   At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
    the floods stood up in a heap;
    the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9   The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,
    I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.
    I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10   You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
    they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11   “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12   You stretched out your right hand;
    the earth swallowed them.
13   “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;
    you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14   The peoples have heard; they tremble;
    pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15   Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
    trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
    all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16   Terror and dread fall upon them;
    because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,
  till your people, O LORD, pass by,
    till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17   You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
    the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,
    the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18   The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.21 And Miriam sang to them:

  “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
  the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

(ESV)

Ezra 5(Listen)

Rebuilding Begins Anew

5 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”4 They also asked them this:¹“What are the names of the men who are building this building?”5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.

Tattenai’s Letter to King Darius

6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his associates, the governors who were in the province Beyond the River, sent to Darius the king.7 They sent him a report, in which was written as follows: “To Darius the king, all peace.8 Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands.9 Then we asked those elders and spoke to them thus: ‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’10 We also asked them their names, for your information, that we might write down the names of their leaders.²11 And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.12 But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia.13 However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt.14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;15 and he said to him, “Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.”16 Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.’17 Therefore, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.”

(ESV)

Romans 6(Listen)

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.6 We know that our old self¹was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.7 For one who has died has been set free²from sin.8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,³you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(ESV)