Psalms 43; Psalms 44; Psalms 45; Acts 27:27-44

1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!

2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!

4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

1 O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:

2 you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;

3 for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.

4 You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!

5 Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.

6 For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

7 But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us.

8 In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies.

10 You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil.

11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations.

12 You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.

13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.

14 You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

15 All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face

16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way;

19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

21 would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!

24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.

26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

1 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

2 You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.

3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty!

4 In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!

5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you.

6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;

7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;

8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;

9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

10 Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father's house,

11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.

12 The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.

13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.

14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her.

15 With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.

16 In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.

17 I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.

28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.

29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow,

31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved."

32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.

34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you."

35 And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat.

36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.

37 (We were in all 276persons in the ship.)

38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

39 Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore.

40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach.

41 But striking a reef,they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

42 The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.

43 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land,

44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.