May 9: Psalm 128; Numbers 9:1–14; Isaiah 45; Colossians 1:1–20 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 128 (Listen)

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

128   Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
    who walks in his ways!
2   You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.


3   Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
  your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4   Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the LORD.


5   The LORD bless you from Zion!
    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
6   May you see your children’s children!
    Peace be upon Israel!

(ESV)

Numbers 9:1–14 (Listen)

The Passover Celebrated

9 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.” 4 So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did. 6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the LORD’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” 8 And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.”

9 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the LORD’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. 14 And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.”

(ESV)

Isaiah 45 (Listen)

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

45   Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whose right hand I have grasped,
  to subdue nations before him
    and to loose the belts of kings,
  to open doors before him
    that gates may not be closed:
2   “I will go before you
    and level the exalted places,¹
  I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
3   I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
  that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4   For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    and Israel my chosen,
  I call you by your name,
    I name you, though you do not know me.
5   I am the LORD, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
6   that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7   I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity;
    I am the LORD, who does all these things.


8   “Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
  let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
    let the earth cause them both to sprout;
    I the LORD have created it.


9   “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
    a pot among earthen pots!
  Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
    or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10   Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
    or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”


11   Thus says the LORD,
    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
  “Ask me of things to come;
    will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?²
12   I made the earth
    and created man on it;
  it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
    and I commanded all their host.
13   I have stirred him up in righteousness,
    and I will make all his ways level;
  he shall build my city
    and set my exiles free,
  not for price or reward,”
    says the LORD of hosts.

The Lord, the Only Savior

14   Thus says the LORD:
  “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
    and the Sabeans, men of stature,
  shall come over to you and be yours;
    they shall follow you;
    they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.
  They will plead with you, saying:
    ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other,
    no god besides him.’”


15   Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
    O God of Israel, the Savior.
16   All of them are put to shame and confounded;
    the makers of idols go in confusion together.
17   But Israel is saved by the LORD
    with everlasting salvation;
  you shall not be put to shame or confounded
    to all eternity.


18   For thus says the LORD,
  who created the heavens
    (he is God!),
  who formed the earth and made it
    (he established it;
  he did not create it empty,
    he formed it to be inhabited!):
  “I am the LORD, and there is no other.
19   I did not speak in secret,
    in a land of darkness;
  I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
    ‘Seek me in vain.’³
  I the LORD speak the truth;
    I declare what is right.


20   “Assemble yourselves and come;
    draw near together,
    you survivors of the nations!
  They have no knowledge
    who carry about their wooden idols,
  and keep on praying to a god
    that cannot save.
21   Declare and present your case;
    let them take counsel together!
  Who told this long ago?
    Who declared it of old?
  Was it not I, the LORD?
    And there is no other god besides me,
  a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none besides me.


22   “Turn to me and be saved,
    all the ends of the earth!
    For I am God, and there is no other.
23   By myself I have sworn;
    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
    a word that shall not return:
  ‘To me every knee shall bow,
    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’⁴


24   “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me,
    are righteousness and strength;
  to him shall come and be ashamed
    all who were incensed against him.
25   In the LORD all the offspring of Israel
    shall be justified and shall glory.”

(ESV)

Colossians 1:1–20 (Listen)

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers¹ in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.² He is a faithful minister of Christ on your³ behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks⁴ to the Father, who has qualified you⁵ to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by⁶ him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

(ESV)