Psalms 82; Psalms 83; Psalms 84; Romans 8:19-39

Psalms 82

1 God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”:

2 “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?

3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’

7 But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.”

8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.

Psalms 83

1 O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.

2 See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads.

3 With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.

4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

5 With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you—

6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,

7 Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

8 Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

10 who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground.

11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

12 who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.

14 As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.

16 Cover their faces with shame, LORD, so that they will seek your name.

17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace.

18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD— that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Psalms 84

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

8 Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.

9 Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.

10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

12 LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

Romans 8:19-39

19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

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

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.