Psalm 56

⁴But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with Achish and told him, “Send that man back and let him return to the place you assigned him. He must not go down with us into battle only to become our adversary during the war. What better way for him to regain the favor of his master than with the heads of our men?

¹A Miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.

⁹Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me.

¹³But my prayer to You, O Lord, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation.

¹⁴Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.

¹¹But the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing about him in their dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”

¹²Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

¹¹They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

³He reaches down from heaven and saves me; He rebukes those who trample me. Selah God sends forth His loving devotion and His truth.

¹Of David. Contend with my opponents, O Lord; fight against those who fight against me.

¹⁸As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness, glory and honor.

⁴Above the roar of many waters—the mighty breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is majestic.

²⁵You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

²⁶The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.’

⁴I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.

⁶And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

⁵For when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were pressed from every direction—conflicts on the outside, fears within.

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

⁴My heart pounds within me, and the terrors of death assail me.

⁵Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

⁸We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

⁹Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

¹For the choirmaster. Of David. In the Lord I take refuge. How then can you say to me: “Flee like a bird to your mountain!

⁶So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

⁶The Lord is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

⁴I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.

⁵But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after you have been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.

⁵⁴waiting to catch Him in something He might say.

⁷All who hate me whisper against me; they imagine the worst for me:

²⁰For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—

²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

¹⁶He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

²¹“I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”

³See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O Lord.

¹⁰For my enemies speak against me, and those who lie in wait for my life conspire,

²who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long.

¹²When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³More than forty of them were involved in this plot.

²⁰So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor.

¹⁶For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

²⁵Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.

²⁰Can a corrupt throne be Your ally—one devising mischief by decree?

²¹They band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

¹⁹Attend to me, O Lord. Hear what my accusers are saying!

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

¹²There the evildoers lie fallen, thrown down and unable to rise.

⁸As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

⁵“Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will surely heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the house of the Lord.

¹⁶At that time those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the Lord and honored His name.

¹²Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

⁵Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.

⁶He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

⁶The Lord is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹¹The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

¹¹They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

¹²They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

²Do not hide Your face from me in my day of distress. Incline Your ear to me; answer me quickly when I call.

⁹Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

⁴In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.

¹⁸Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

⁶God has spoken from His sanctuary: “I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem and apportion the Valley of Succoth.

⁴Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

¹²“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?

¹³But you have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in terror all day long because of the fury of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor?

⁷Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you people with My law in your hearts: Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults.

⁸For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”

⁷He does not fear bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

⁸His heart is assured; he does not fear, until he looks in triumph on his foes.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will recount all Your wonders.

²I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

²⁴Once she had weaned him, Hannah took the boy with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. Though the boy was still young, she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.

²⁵And when they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli.

⁴When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow.

⁵It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.

²If a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.

³And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge,

¹⁰⁶I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.

⁸For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

⁹I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

³⁰to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

²⁴By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory.

¹⁴The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

¹⁵But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah

¹⁰and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.