Psalms 129; Psalms 130; Psalms 131; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

1 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young" - this is how Israel tells it -

2 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down.

3 Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back;

4 Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds."

5 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation;

6 Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest,

7 Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop,

8 Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, "Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"

1 Help, God - the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!

2 Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.

3 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?

4 As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.

5 I pray to God - my life a prayer - and wait for what he'll say and do.

6 My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.

7 O Israel, wait and watch for God - with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption.

8 No doubt about it - he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

1 God, I'm not trying to rule the roost, I don't want to be king of the mountain. I haven't meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.

2 I've kept my feet on the ground, I've cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother's arms, my soul is a baby content.

3 Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

1 It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ.

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3 In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God.

4 Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ.

5 In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband.

6 Worse, she dishonors herself - an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts,

7 men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their "heads" to the Head: God.

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10 Don't, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women.

11 Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God - that is true. But the head on a woman's body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her "head," her husband.

12 The first woman came from man, true - but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let's quit going through these "who's first" routines.

13 Don't you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism - a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission?

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16 I hope you're not going to be argumentative about this. All God's churches see it this way; I don't want you standing out as an exception.