Day 196 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Psalm 66 (67)

1 For the end, a Psalm of David among the Hymns. 2 God be merciful to us, and bless us; [and] cause his face to shine upon us. Pause. 3 That [men] may know thy way on the earth, thy salvation among all nations. 4 Let the nations, O God, give thanks to thee; let all the nations give thanks to thee. 5 Let the nations rejoice and exult, for thou shalt judge the peoples in equity, and shalt guide the nations on the earth. Pause. 6 Let the peoples, O God, give thanks to thee; let all the peoples give thanks to thee. 7 The earth has yielded her fruit; let God, our God, bless us. 8 Let God bless us; and let all the ends of the earth fear him.

Psalm 67 (68)

1 For the end, a Psalm of a Song by David. 2 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; and let them that hate him flee from before him. 3 As smoke vanishes, let them vanish: as wax melts before the fire, so let the sinners perish from before God. 4 But let the righteous rejoice; let them exult before God: let them be delighted with joy. 5 Sing to God, sing praises to his name: make a way for him that rides upon the west (the Lord is his name) and exult before him. They shall be troubled before the face of him, 6 [who is] the father of the orphans, and judge of the widows: [such is] God in his holy place. 7 God settles the solitary in a house; leading forth prisoners mightily, also them that act provokingly, [even] them that dwell in tombs. 8 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou wentest through the wilderness; Pause: 9 the earth quaked, yea, the heavens dropped [water] at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel. 10 O God, thou wilt grant to thine inheritance a gracious rain; for it was weary, but thou didst refresh it. 11 Thy creatures dwell in it: thou hast in thy goodness prepared for the poor. 12 The Lord God will give a word to them that preach [it] in a great company. 13 The king of the forces of the beloved, of the beloved, [will] even [grant them] for the beauty of the house to divide the spoils. 14 Even if ye should lie among the lots, [ye shall have] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her breast with yellow gold. 15 When the heavenly One scatters kings upon it, they shall be made snow-white in Selmon. 16 The mountain of God is a rich mountain; a swelling mountain, a rich mountain. 17 Wherefore do ye conceive [evil], ye swelling mountains? [this is] the mountain which God has delighted to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell [in it] for ever. 18 The chariots of God are ten thousand fold, thousands of rejoicing ones: the Lord is among them, in Sina, in the holy place. 19 Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for man, yea, for [they were] rebellious, that thou mightest dwell among them. 20 Blessed be the Lord God, blessed be the Lord daily; and the God of our salvation shall prosper us. Pause. 21 Our God is the God of salvation; and to the Lord belong the issues from death. 22 But God shall crush the heads of his enemies; the hairy crown of them that go on in their trespasses. 23 The Lord said, I will bring again from Basan, I will bring [my people] again through the depths of the sea. 24 That thy foot may be dipped in blood, [and] the tongue of thy dogs [be stained] with that of [thine] enemies. 25 Thy goings, O God, have been seen; the goings of my God, the king, in the sanctuary. 26 The princes went first, next before the players on instruments, in the midst of damsels playing on timbrels. 27 Praise God in the congregations, the Lord from the fountains of Israel. 28 There is Benjamin the younger [one] in ecstasy, the princes of Juda their rulers, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali. 29 O God, command thou thy strength: strengthen, O God, this which thou hast wrought in us. 30 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents to thee. 31 Rebuke the wild beasts of the reed: let the crowd of bulls with the heifers of the nations [be rebuked], so that they who have been proved with silver may not be shut out: scatter thou the nations that wish for wars. 32 Ambassadors shall arrive out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall hasten [to stretch out] her hand readily to God. 33 Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth; sing psalms to the Lord. Pause. 34 Sing to God that rides on the heaven of heaven, eastward: lo, he will utter a mighty sound with his voice. 35 Give ye glory to God: his excellency is over Israel, and his power is in the clouds. 36 God is wonderful in his holy [places], the God of Israel: he will give power and strength to his people: blessed be God.

Psalm 68 (69)

1 For the end, [a Psalm] of David, for alternate [strains]. 2 Save me, O God; for the waters have come in to my soul. 3 I am stuck fast in deep mire, and there is no standing: I am come in to the depths of the sea, and a storm has overwhelmed me. 4 I am weary [of] crying, my throat has become hoarse; mine eyes have failed by my waiting on my God. 5 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: my enemies that persecute me unrighteously are strengthened: then I restored that which I took not away. 6 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my transgressions are not hidden from thee. 7 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord of hosts, be ashamed on my account: let not them that seek thee, be ashamed on my account, O God of Israel. 8 For I have suffered reproach for thy sake; shame has covered my face. 9 I became strange to my brethren, and a stranger to my mother's children. 10 For the zeal of thine house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. 11 And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach. 12 And I put on sackcloth for my covering; and I became a proverb to them. 13 They that sit in the gate talked against me, and they that drank wine sang against me. 14 But I [will cry] to thee, O Lord, in my prayer; O God, it is a propitious time: in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. 15 Save me from the mire, that I stick not [in it]: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and from the deep waters. 16 Let not the waterflood drown me, nor let the deep swallow me up; neither let the well shut its mouth upon me. 17 Hear me, O Lord; for thy mercy is good: according to the multitude of thy compassions look upon me. 18 And turn not away thy face from thy servant; for I am afflicted: hear me speedily. 19 Draw nigh to my soul and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. 20 For thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my confusion; all that afflict me are before thee. 21 My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none. 22 They gave [me] also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst. 23 Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a recompence, and for a stumbling-block. 24 Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually. 25 Pour out thy wrath upon them, and let the fury of thine anger take hold on them. 26 Let their habitation be made desolate; and let there be no inhabitant in their tents: 27 because they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds. 28 Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness. 29 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous. 30 I am poor and sorrowful; but the salvation of thy countenance has helped me. 31 I will praise the name of my God with a song, I will magnify him with praise; 32 and [this] shall please God more than a young calf having horns and hoofs. 33 Let the poor see and rejoice; seek the Lord diligently, and ye shall live. 34 For the Lord hears the poor, and does not set at nought his fettered ones. 35 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the sea, and all things moving in them. 36 For God will save Sion, and the cities of Judea shall be built; and [men] shall dwell there, and inherit it. 37 And the seed of his servants shall possess it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Romans 2

1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” 7 to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, 9 oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 10 But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified 14 (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ. 17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, 18 know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. 21 You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? 22 You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. 25 For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? 27 Won’t those who are physically uncircumcised, but fulfill the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.