Psalms 140; Psalms 141; Psalms 142; 1 Corinthians 14:1-20

1 Rescue me from evil people, LORD! Guard me from violent people

2 who plot evil things in their hearts, who pick fights every single day!

3 They sharpen their tongues like a snake's; spider poison is on their lips. Selah

4 Protect me from the power of the wicked, LORD! Guard me from violent people who plot to trip me up!

5 Arrogant people have laid a trap for me with ropes. They've spread out a net alongside the road. They've set snares for me. Selah

6 I tell the LORD, "You are my God! Listen to my request for mercy, LORD!"

7 My LORD God, my strong saving help— you've protected my head on the day of battle.

8 LORD, don't give the wicked what they want! Don't allow their plans to succeed, or they'll exalt themselves even more! Selah

9 Let the heads of the people surrounding me be covered with the trouble their own lips caused!

10 Let burning coals fall on them! Let them fall into deep pits and never get out again!

11 Let no slanderer be safe in the land. Let calamity hunt down violent people—and quickly!

12 I know that the LORD will take up the case of the poor and will do what is right for the needy.

13 Yes, the righteous will give thanks to your name, and those who do right will live in your presence.

1 I cry out to you, LORD: Come to me—quickly! Listen to my voice when I cry out to you!

2 Let my prayer stand before you like incense; let my uplifted hands be like the evening offering.

3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep close watch over the door that is my lips.

4 Don't let my heart turn aside to evil things so that I don't do wicked things with evildoers, so I don't taste their delicacies.

5 Instead, let the righteous discipline me; let the faithful correct me! Let my head never reject that kind of fine oil, because my prayers are always against the deeds of the wicked.

6 Their leaders will fall from jagged cliffs, but my words will be heard because they are pleasing.

7 Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave, just like when the ground is broken up and plowed.

8 But my eyes are on you, my LORD God. I take refuge in you; don't let me die!

9 Protect me from the trap they've set for me; protect me from the snares of the evildoers.

10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets—all together!— but let me make it through safely.

1 I cry out loud for help from the LORD. I beg out loud for mercy from the LORD.

2 I pour out my concerns before God; I announce my distress to him.

3 When my spirit is weak inside me, you still know my way. But they've hidden a trap for me in the path I'm taking.

4 Look right beside me: See? No one pays attention to me. There's no escape for me. No one cares about my life.

5 I cry to you, LORD, for help. "You are my refuge," I say. "You are all I have in the land of the living."

6 Pay close attention to my shouting, because I've been brought down so low! Deliver me from my oppressors because they're stronger than me.

7 Get me out of this prison so I can give thanks to your name. Then the righteous will gather all around me because of your good deeds to me.

1 Pursue love, and use your ambition to try to get spiritual gifts but especially so that you might prophesy.

2 This is because those who speak in a tongue don't speak to people but to God; no one understands it—they speak mysteries by the Spirit.

3 Those who prophesy speak to people, building them up, and giving them encouragement and comfort.

4 People who speak in a tongue build up themselves; those who prophesy build up the church.

5 I wish that all of you spoke in tongues, but I'd rather you could prophesy. Those who prophesy are more important than those who speak in tongues, unless they are able to interpret them so that the church might be built up.

6 After all, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I help you unless I speak to you with a revelation, some knowledge, a prophecy, or a teaching?

7 Likewise, things that aren't alive like a harp or a lyre can make a sound, but if there aren't different notes in the sounds they make, how will the tune from the harp or the lyre be recognized?

8 And if a trumpet call is unrecognizable, then who will prepare for battle?

9 It's the same way with you: If you don't use language that is easy to understand when you speak in a tongue, then how will anyone understand what is said?

10 It will be as if you are speaking into the air! There are probably many language families in the world, and none of them are without meaning.

11 So if I don't know the meaning of the language, then I will be like a foreigner to those who speak it, and they will be like foreigners to me.

12 The same holds true for you: since you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, use your ambition to try to work toward being the best at building up the church.

13 Therefore, those who speak in a tongue should pray to be able to interpret.

14 If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind isn't productive.

15 What should I do? I'll pray in the Spirit, but I'll pray with my mind too; I'll sing a psalm in the Spirit, but I'll sing the psalm with my mind too.

16 After all, if you praise God in the Spirit, how will the people who aren't trained in that language say "Amen!" to your thanksgiving, when they don't know what you are saying?

17 You may offer a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving, but the other person is not being built up.

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

19 But in the church I'd rather speak five words in my right mind than speak thousands of words in a tongue so that I can teach others.

20 Brothers and sisters, don't be like children in the way you think. Well, be babies when it comes to evil, but be adults in your thinking.