Psalms 10; Psalms 11; Psalms 12; Acts 19:1-20

1 Lord, why do You stand so far away? Why do You hide in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked relentlessly pursue the afflicted; let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.

3 For the wicked one boasts about his own cravings; the one who is greedy curses and despises the Lord.

4 In all his scheming, the wicked arrogantly thinks: "There is no accountability, [since] God does not exist."

5 His ways are always secure; Your lofty judgments are beyond his sight; he scoffs at all his adversaries.

6 He says to himself, "I will never be moved- from generation to generation without calamity."

7 Cursing, deceit, and violence fill his mouth; trouble and malice are under his tongue.

8 He waits in ambush near the villages; he kills the innocent in secret places; his eyes are on the lookout for the helpless.

9 He lurks in secret like a lion in a thicket. He lurks in order to seize the afflicted. He seizes the afflicted and drags him in his net.

10 He crouches and bends down; the helpless fall because of his strength.

11 He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He hides His face and will never see."

12 Rise up, Lord God! Lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted.

13 Why has the wicked despised God? He says to himself, "You will not demand an account."

14 But You Yourself have seen trouble and grief, observing it in order to take the matter into Your hands. The helpless entrusts himself to You; You are a helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil person; call his wickedness into account until nothing remains of it.

16 The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations will perish from His land.

17 Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will listen carefully,

18 doing justice for the fatherless and the oppressed, so that men of the earth may terrify [them] no more.

1 I have taken refuge in the Lord. How can you say to me, "Escape to the mountain like a bird!

2 For look, the wicked string the bow; they put the arrow on the bowstring to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.

3 When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

4 The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes watch; He examines everyone.

5 The Lord examines the righteous and the wicked. He hates the lover of violence.

6 He will rain burning coals and sulfur on the wicked; a scorching wind will be their portion.

7 For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds. The upright will see His face.

1 Help, Lord, for no faithful one remains; the loyal have disappeared from the human race.

2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and deceptive hearts.

3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks boastfully.

4 They say, "Through our tongues we have power; our lips are our own-who can be our master?"

5 "Because of the oppression of the afflicted and the groaning of the poor, I will now rise up," says the Lord. "I will put in a safe place the one who longs for it."

6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times.

7 You, Lord, will guard us; You will protect us from this generation forever.

8 The wicked wander everywhere, and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.

1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples

2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" "No," they told him, "we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

3 "Then with what [baptism] were you baptized?" he asked them. "With John's baptism," they replied.

4 Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One who would come after him, that is, in Jesus."

5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak with [other] languages and to prophesy.

7 Now there were about 12 men in all.

8 Then he entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, engaging in discussion and trying to persuade them about the things related to the kingdom of God.

9 But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them and met separately with the disciples, conducting discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

10 And this went on for two years, so that all the inhabitants of the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hands,

12 so that even facecloths or work aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I command you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

15 The evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize-but who are you?"

16 Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

17 This became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Then fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,

19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value, and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver.

20 In this way the Lord's message flourished and prevailed.