Psalms 66; Psalms 67; Romans 7

1 Everything on earth, shout with joy to God!

2 Sing about his glory! Make his praise glorious!

3 Say to God, "Your works are amazing! Because your power is great, your enemies fall before you.

4 All the earth worships you and sings praises to you. They sing praises to your name."Selah

5 Come and see what God has done, the amazing things he has done for people.

6 He turned the sea into dry land. The people crossed the river on foot. So let us rejoice because of what he did.

7 He rules forever with his power. He keeps his eye on the nations, so people should not turn against him.Selah

8 You people, praise our God; loudly sing his praise.

9 He protects our lives and does not let us be defeated.

10 God, you have tested us; you have purified us like silver.

11 You let us be trapped and put a heavy load on us.

12 You let our enemies walk on our heads. We went through fire and flood, but you brought us to a place with good things.

13 I will come to your Temple with burnt offerings. I will give you what I promised,

14 things I promised when I was in trouble.

15 I will bring you offerings of fat animals, and I will offer sheep, bulls, and goats.Selah

16 All of you who fear God, come and listen, and I will tell you what he has done for me.

17 I cried out to him with my mouth and praised him with my tongue.

18 If I had known of any sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened to me.

19 But God has listened; he has heard my prayer.

20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or hold back his love from me.

1 God, have mercy on us and bless us and show us your kindnessSelah

2 so the world will learn your ways, and all nations will learn that you can save.

3 God, the people should praise you; all people should praise you.

4 The nations should be glad and sing because you judge people fairly. You guide all the nations on earth.Selah

5 God, the people should praise you; all people should praise you.

6 The land has given its crops. God, our God, blesses us.

7 God blesses us so people all over the earth will fear him.

1 Brothers and sisters, all of you understand the law of Moses. So surely you know that the law rules over people only while they are alive.

2 For example, a woman must stay married to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law of marriage.

3 But if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, the law says she is guilty of adultery. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law of marriage. Then if she marries another man, she is not guilty of adultery.

4 In the same way, my brothers and sisters, your old selves died, and you became free from the law through the body of Christ. This happened so that you might belong to someone else -- the One who was raised from the dead -- and so that we might be used in service to God.

5 In the past, we were ruled by our sinful selves. The law made us want to do sinful things that controlled our bodies, so the things we did were bringing us death.

6 In the past, the law held us like prisoners, but our old selves died, and we were made free from the law. So now we serve God in a new way with the Spirit, and not in the old way with written rules.

7 You might think I am saying that sin and the law are the same thing. That is not true. But the law was the only way I could learn what sin meant. I would never have known what it means to want to take something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "You must not want to take your neighbor's things."

8 And sin found a way to use that command and cause me to want all kinds of things I should not want. But without the law, sin has no power.

9 I was alive before I knew the law. But when the law's command came to me, then sin began to live,

10 and I died. The command was meant to bring life, but for me it brought death.

11 Sin found a way to fool me by using the command to make me die.

12 So the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good.

13 Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No! Sin used something that is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is really like; the command was used to show that sin is very evil.

14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not spiritual since sin rules me as if I were its slave.

15 I do not understand the things I do. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate.

16 And if I do not want to do the hated things I do, that means I agree that the law is good.

17 But I am not really the one who is doing these hated things; it is sin living in me that does them.

18 Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me -- I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do the things that are good, but I do not do them.

19 I do not do the good things I want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do.

20 So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in me that does those things.

21 So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.

22 In my mind, I am happy with God's law.

23 But I see another law working in my body, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner.

24 What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?

25 I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.