Psalms 94; Psalms 95; Psalms 96; Romans 15:14-33

1 Lord, you are a God who punishes; reveal your anger!

2 You are the judge of us all; rise and give the proud what they deserve!

3 How much longer will the wicked be glad? How much longer, Lord?

4 How much longer will criminals be proud and boast about their crimes?

5 They crush your people, Lord; they oppress those who belong to you.

6 They kill widows and orphans, and murder the strangers who live in our land.

7 They say, "The Lord does not see us; the God of Israel does not notice."

8 My people, how can you be such stupid fools? When will you ever learn?

9 God made our ears - can't he hear? He made our eyes - can't he see?

10 He scolds the nations - won't he punish them? He is the teacher of us all - hasn't he any knowledge?

11 The Lord knows what we think; he knows how senseless our reasoning is.

12 Lord, how happy are those you instruct, the ones to whom you teach your law!

13 You give them rest from days of trouble until a pit is dug to trap the wicked.

14 The Lord will not abandon his people; he will not desert those who belong to him.

15 Justice will again be found in the courts, and all righteous people will support it.

16 Who stood up for me against the wicked? Who took my side against the evildoers?

17 If the Lord had not helped me, I would have gone quickly to the land of silence.

18 I said, "I am falling"; but your constant love, O Lord, held me up.

19 Whenever I am anxious and worried, you comfort me and make me glad.

20 You have nothing to do with corrupt judges, who make injustice legal,

21 who plot against good people and sentence the innocent to death.

22 But the Lord defends me; my God protects me.

23 He will punish them for their wickedness and destroy them for their sins; the Lord our God will destroy them.

1 Come, let us praise the Lord! Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us!

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise.

3 For the Lord is a mighty God, a mighty king over all the gods.

4 He rules over the whole earth, from the deepest caves to the highest hills.

5 He rules over the sea, which he made; the land also, which he himself formed.

6 Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

7 He is our God; we are the people he cares for, the flock for which he provides. Listen today to what he says:

8 "Don't be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah, as they were that day in the desert at Massah.

9 There they put me to the test and tried me, although they had seen what I did for them.

10 For forty years I was disgusted with those people. I said, "How disloyal they are! They refuse to obey my commands.'

11 I was angry and made a solemn promise: "You will never enter the land where I would have given you rest.' "

1 Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, all the world!

2 Sing to the Lord, and praise him! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.

3 Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.

4 The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; he is to be honored more than all the gods.

5 The gods of all other nations are only idols, but the Lord created the heavens.

6 Glory and majesty surround him; power and beauty fill his Temple.

7 Praise the Lord, all people on earth; praise his glory and might.

8 Praise the Lord's glorious name; bring an offering and come into his Temple.

9 Bow down before the Holy One when he appears; tremble before him, all the earth!

10 Say to all the nations, "The Lord is king! The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with justice."

11 Be glad, earth and sky! Roar, sea, and every creature in you;

12 be glad, fields, and everything in you! The trees in the woods will shout for joy

13 when the Lord comes to rule the earth. He will rule the peoples of the world with justice and fairness.

14 My friends: I myself feel sure that you are full of goodness, that you have all knowledge, and that you are able to teach one another.

15 But in this letter I have been quite bold about certain subjects of which I have reminded you. I have been bold because of the privilege God has given me

16 of being a servant of Christ Jesus to work for the Gentiles. I serve like a priest in preaching the Good News from God, in order that the Gentiles may be an offering acceptable to God, dedicated to him by the Holy Spirit.

17 In union with Christ Jesus, then, I can be proud of my service for God.

18 I will be bold and speak only about what Christ has done through me to lead the Gentiles to obey God. He has done this by means of words and deeds,

19 by the power of miracles and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. And so, in traveling all the way from Jerusalem to Illyricum, I have proclaimed fully the Good News about Christ.

20 My ambition has always been to proclaim the Good News in places where Christ has not been heard of, so as not to build on a foundation laid by someone else.

21 As the scripture says, "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."

22 And so I have been prevented many times from coming to you.

23 But now that I have finished my work in these regions and since I have been wanting for so many years to come to see you,

24 I hope to do so now. I would like to see you on my way to Spain, and be helped by you to go there, after I have enjoyed visiting you for a while.

25 Right now, however, I am going to Jerusalem in the service of God's people there.

26 For the churches in Macedonia and Achaia have freely decided to give an offering to help the poor among God's people in Jerusalem.

27 That decision was their own; but, as a matter of fact, they have an obligation to help them. Since the Jews shared their spiritual blessings with the Gentiles, the Gentiles ought to use their material blessings to help the Jews.

28 When I have finished this task and have turned over to them all the money that has been raised for them, I shall leave for Spain and visit you on my way there.

29 When I come to you, I know that I shall come with a full measure of the blessing of Christ.

30 I urge you, friends, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit gives: join me in praying fervently to God for me.

31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to God's people there.

32 And so I will come to you full of joy, if it is God's will, and enjoy a refreshing visit with you.

33 May God, our source of peace, be with all of you. Amen.