Psalms 105; Psalms 106; 1 Corinthians 3

Psalms 105

1 Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples.

2 Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell about all His wonderful works!

3 Honor His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

4 Search for the Lord and for His strength; seek His face always.

5 Remember the wonderful works He has done, His wonders, and the judgments He has pronounced,

6 you offspring of Abraham His servant, Jacob's descendants -His chosen ones.

7 He is the Lord our God; His judgments [govern] the whole earth.

8 He forever remembers His covenant, the promise He ordained for a thousand generations-

9 [the covenant] He made with Abraham, swore to Isaac,

10 and confirmed to Jacob as a decree and to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

11 "I will give the land of Canaan to you as your inherited portion."

12 When they were few in number, very few indeed, and temporary residents in Canaan,

13 wandering from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another,

14 He allowed no one to oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf:

15 "Do not touch My anointed ones, or harm My prophets."

16 He called down famine against the land and destroyed the entire food supply.

17 He had sent a man ahead of them- Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

18 They hurt his feet with shackles; his neck was put in an iron collar.

19 Until the time his prediction came true, the word of the Lord tested him.

20 The king sent [for him] and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free.

21 He made him master of his household, ruler over all his possessions-

22 binding his officials at will and instructing his elders.

23 Then Israel went to Egypt; Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham.

24 The Lord made His people very fruitful; He made them more numerous than their foes,

25 whose hearts He turned to hate His people and to deal deceptively with His servants.

26 He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

27 They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

28 He sent darkness, and it became dark- for did they not defy His commands?

29 He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.

30 Their land was overrun with frogs, even in their kings' chambers.

31 He spoke, and insects came- gnats throughout their country.

32 He gave them hail for rain, and lightning throughout their land.

33 He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their territory.

34 He spoke and locusts came- young locusts without number.

35 They devoured all the vegetation in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.

36 He struck all the firstborn in their land, all their first progeny.

37 Then He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and no one among His tribes stumbled.

38 Egypt was glad when they left, for dread of Israel had fallen on them.

39 He spread a cloud as a covering and [gave] a fire to light up the night.

40 They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with bread from heaven.

41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a stream in the desert.

42 For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant.

43 He brought His people out with rejoicing, His chosen ones with shouts of joy.

44 He gave them the lands of the nations, and they inherited what other peoples had worked for.

45 [All this happened] so that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

Psalms 106

1 Hallelujah! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever.

2 Who can declare the Lord's mighty acts or proclaim all the praise due Him?

3 How happy are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

4 Remember me, Lord, when You show favor to Your people. Come to me with Your salvation

5 so that I may enjoy the prosperity of Your chosen ones, rejoice in the joy of Your nation, and boast about Your heritage.

6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have gone astray and have acted wickedly.

7 Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp [the significance of] Your wonderful works or remember Your many acts of faithful love; instead, they rebelled by the sea-the Red Sea.

8 Yet He saved them because of His name, to make His power known.

9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

10 He saved them from the hand of the adversary; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

11 Water covered their foes; not one of them remained.

12 Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.

13 They soon forgot His works and would not wait for His counsel.

14 They were seized with craving in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

15 He gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.

16 In the camp they were envious of Moses and of Aaron, the Lord's holy one.

17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

18 Fire blazed throughout their assembly; flames consumed the wicked.

19 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped the cast metal image.

20 They exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

21 They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

22 wonderful works in the land of Ham, awe-inspiring deeds at the Red Sea.

23 So He said He would have destroyed them- if Moses His chosen one had not stood before Him in the breach to turn His wrath away from destroying [them].

24 They despised the pleasant land and did not believe His promise.

25 They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the Lord's voice.

26 So He raised His hand against them [with an oath] that He would make them fall in the desert

27 and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them throughout the lands.

28 They aligned themselves with Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

29 They provoked the Lord with their deeds, and a plague broke out against them.

30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stopped.

31 It was credited to him as righteousness throughout all generations to come.

32 They angered [the Lord] at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered because of them;

33 for they embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.

34 They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,

35 but mingled with the nations and adopted their ways.

36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them.

37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.

38 They shed innocent blood- the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood.

39 They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

40 Therefore the Lord's anger burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

41 He handed them over to the nations; those who hated them ruled them.

42 Their enemies oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power.

43 He rescued them many times, but they continued to rebel deliberately and were beaten down by their sin.

44 When He heard their cry, He took note of their distress,

45 remembered His covenant with them, and relented according to the abundance of His faithful love.

46 He caused them to be pitied before all their captors.

47 Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, so that we may give thanks to Your holy name and rejoice in Your praise.

48 May the Lord, the God of Israel, be praised from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, "Amen!" Hallelujah! BOOK V (Psalms 107-150)

1 Corinthians 3

1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.

2 I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able,

3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like ordinary people?

4 For whenever someone says, "I'm with Paul," and another, "I'm with Apollos," are you not [typical] men?

5 So, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

8 Now the one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

9 For we are God's co-workers. You are God's field, God's building.

10 According to God's grace that was given to me, as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it,

11 because no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid-that is, Jesus Christ.

12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13 each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work.

14 If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

16 Don't you know that you are God's sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

17 If anyone ruins God's sanctuary, God will ruin him; for God's sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

18 No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness -

20 and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are futile.

21 So no one should boast in men, for all things are yours:

22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come-all are yours,

23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God.