Psalms 116; Psalms 117; Psalms 118; 1 Corinthians 7:1-19

1 I love the Lord, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers.

2 He listens to me every time I call to him.

3 The danger of death was all around me; the horrors of the grave closed in on me; I was filled with fear and anxiety.

4 Then I called to the Lord, "I beg you, Lord, save me!"

5 The Lord is merciful and good; our God is compassionate.

6 The Lord protects the helpless; when I was in danger, he saved me.

7 Be confident, my heart, because the Lord has been good to me.

8 The Lord saved me from death; he stopped my tears and kept me from defeat.

9 And so I walk in the presence of the Lord in the world of the living.

10 I kept on believing, even when I said, "I am completely crushed,"

11 even when I was afraid and said, "No one can be trusted."

12 What can I offer the Lord for all his goodness to me?

13 I will bring a wine offering to the Lord, to thank him for saving me.

14 In the assembly of all his people I will give him what I have promised.

15 How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!

16 I am your servant, Lord; I serve you just as my mother did. You have saved me from death.

17 I will give you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and offer my prayer to you.

18 In the assembly of all your people, in the sanctuary of your Temple in Jerusalem, I will give you what I have promised. Praise the Lord!

1 Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise him, all peoples!

2 His love for us is strong, and his faithfulness is eternal. Praise the Lord!

1 Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good, and his love is eternal.

2 Let the people of Israel say, "His love is eternal."

3 Let the priests of God say, "His love is eternal."

4 Let all who worship him say, "His love is eternal."

5 In my distress I called to the Lord; he answered me and set me free.

6 The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid; what can anyone do to me?

7 It is the Lord who helps me, and I will see my enemies defeated.

8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on people.

9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on human leaders.

10 Many enemies were around me; but I destroyed them by the power of the Lord!

11 They were around me on every side; but I destroyed them by the power of the Lord!

12 They swarmed around me like bees, but they burned out as quickly as a brush fire; by the power of the Lord I destroyed them.

13 I was fiercely attacked and was being defeated, but the Lord helped me.

14 The Lord makes me powerful and strong; he has saved me.

15 Listen to the glad shouts of victory in the tents of God's people: "The Lord's mighty power has done it!

16 His power has brought us victory - his mighty power in battle!"

17 I will not die; instead, I will live and proclaim what the Lord has done.

18 He has punished me severely, but he has not let me die.

19 Open to me the gates of the Temple; I will go in and give thanks to the Lord!

20 This is the gate of the Lord; only the righteous can come in.

21 I praise you, Lord, because you heard me, because you have given me victory.

22 The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.

23 This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!

24 This is the day of the Lord's victory; let us be happy, let us celebrate!

25 Save us, Lord, save us! Give us success, O Lord!

26 May God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! From the Temple of the Lord we bless you.

27 The Lord is God; he has been good to us. With branches in your hands, start the festival and march around the altar.

28 You are my God, and I give you thanks; I will proclaim your greatness.

29 Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good, and his love is eternal.

1 Now, to deal with the matters you wrote about. A man does well not to marry.

2 But because there is so much immorality, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.

3 A man should fulfill his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfill her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other's needs.

4 A wife is not the master of her own body, but her husband is; in the same way a husband is not the master of his own body, but his wife is.

5 Do not deny yourselves to each other, unless you first agree to do so for a while in order to spend your time in prayer; but then resume normal marital relations. In this way you will be kept from giving in to Satan's temptation because of your lack of self-control.

6 I tell you this not as an order, but simply as a permission.

7 Actually I would prefer that all of you were as I am; but each one has a special gift from God, one person this gift, another one that gift.

8 Now, to the unmarried and to the widows I say that it would be better for you to continue to live alone as I do.

9 But if you cannot restrain your desires, go ahead and marry - it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 For married people I have a command which is not my own but the Lord's: a wife must not leave her husband;

11 but if she does, she must remain single or else be reconciled to her husband; and a husband must not divorce his wife.

12 To the others I say (I, myself, not the Lord): if a Christian man has a wife who is an unbeliever and she agrees to go on living with him, he must not divorce her.

13 And if a Christian woman is married to a man who is an unbeliever and he agrees to go on living with her, she must not divorce him.

14 For the unbelieving husband is made acceptable to God by being united to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made acceptable to God by being united to her Christian husband. If this were not so, their children would be like pagan children; but as it is, they are acceptable to God.

15 However, if the one who is not a believer wishes to leave the Christian partner, let it be so. In such cases the Christian partner, whether husband or wife, is free to act. God has called you to live in peace.

16 How can you be sure, Christian wife, that you will not save your husband? Or how can you be sure, Christian husband, that you will not save your wife?

17 Each of you should go on living according to the Lord's gift to you, and as you were when God called you. This is the rule I teach in all the churches.

18 If a circumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not try to remove the marks of circumcision; if an uncircumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not get circumcised.

19 For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.