Psalms 123; Psalms 124; Psalms 125; 1 Corinthians 10:1-18

Psalms 123

1 Lord, I look up to you, up to heaven, where you rule.

2 As a servant depends on his master, as a maid depends on her mistress, so we will keep looking to you, O Lord our God, until you have mercy on us.

3 Be merciful to us, Lord, be merciful; we have been treated with so much contempt.

4 We have been mocked too long by the rich and scorned by proud oppressors.

Psalms 124

1 What if the Lord had not been on our side? Answer, O Israel!

2 "If the Lord had not been on our side when our enemies attacked us,

3 then they would have swallowed us alive in their furious anger against us;

4 then the flood would have carried us away, the water would have covered us,

5 the raging torrent would have drowned us."

6 Let us thank the Lord, who has not let our enemies destroy us.

7 We have escaped like a bird from a hunter's trap; the trap is broken, and we are free!

8 Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalms 125

1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which can never be shaken, never be moved.

2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, now and forever.

3 The wicked will not always rule over the land of the righteous; if they did, the righteous themselves might do evil.

4 Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who obey your commands.

5 But when you punish the wicked, punish also those who abandon your ways. Peace be with Israel!

1 Corinthians 10:1-18

1 I want you to remember, my friends, what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the protection of the cloud, and all passed safely through the Red Sea.

2 In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptized as followers of Moses.

3 All ate the same spiritual bread

4 and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them; and that rock was Christ himself.

5 But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.

6 Now, all of this is an example for us, to warn us not to desire evil things, as they did,

7 nor to worship idols, as some of them did. As the scripture says, "The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex."

8 We must not be guilty of sexual immorality, as some of them were - and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell dead.

9 We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did - and they were killed by snakes.

10 We must not complain, as some of them did - and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death.

11 All these things happened to them as examples for others, and they were written down as a warning for us. For we live at a time when the end is about to come.

12 If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall.

13 Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

14 So then, my dear friends, keep away from the worship of idols.

15 I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

16 The cup we use in the Lord's Supper and for which we give thanks to God: when we drink from it, we are sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread we break: when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ.

17 Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, though many, are one body, for we all share the same loaf.

18 Consider the people of Israel; those who eat what is offered in sacrifice share in the altar's service to God.