Seven Ways You Please the Lord

Psalm 113

¹ Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, you his servants;
   praise the name of the Lord.
² Let the name of the Lord be praised,
   both now and forevermore.
³ From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
   the name of the Lord is to be praised.

⁴ The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
   his glory above the heavens.
⁵ Who is like the Lord our God,
   the One who sits enthroned on high,
⁶ who stoops down to look
   on the heavens and the earth?

⁷ He raises the poor from the dust
   and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
⁸ he seats them with princes,
   with the princes of his people.
⁹ He settles the childless woman in her home
   as a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
   rise from the dead,
   and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live —not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instructions for Christian Households

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷ “See, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
   in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
   and its people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
   and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
   will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ “Never again will there be in it
   an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
   the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
   the one who fails to reach a hundred
   will be considered accursed.
²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
   they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
   or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
   so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
   the work of their hands.
²³ They will not labour in vain,
   nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
   they and their descendants with them.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
   while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
   and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
   and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
   on all my holy mountain,”
   says the Lord.

Judgment and Hope

66 This is what the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
   Where will my resting place be?
² Has not my hand made all these things,
   and so they came into being?”
   declares the Lord.

“These are the ones I look on with favour:
   those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
and who tremble at my word.
³ But whoever sacrifices a bull
   is like one who kills a person,
and whoever offers a lamb
   is like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
whoever makes a grain offering
   is like one who presents pig’s blood,
and whoever burns memorial incense
   is like one who worships an idol.
They have chosen their own ways,
   and they delight in their abominations;
⁴ so I also will choose harsh treatment for them
   and will bring on them what they dread.
For when I called, no one answered,
   when I spoke, no one listened.
They did evil in my sight
   and chose what displeases me.”

⁵ Hear the word of the Lord,
   you who tremble at his word:
“Your own people who hate you,
   and exclude you because of my name, have said,
‘Let the Lord be glorified,
   that we may see your joy!’
   Yet they will be put to shame.
⁶ Hear that uproar from the city,
   hear that noise from the temple!
It is the sound of the Lord
   repaying his enemies all they deserve.

⁷ “Before she goes into labour,
   she gives birth;
before the pains come upon her,
   she delivers a son.
⁸ Who has ever heard of such things?
   Who has ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day
   or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labour
   than she gives birth to her children.
⁹ Do I bring to the moment of birth
   and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Do I close up the womb
   when I bring to delivery?” says your God.
¹⁰ “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
   all you who mourn over her.
¹¹ For you will feed and be satisfied
   at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
   and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

¹² For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
   and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will feed and be carried on her arm
   and dandled on her knees.
¹³ As a mother comforts her child,
   so will I comfort you;
   and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

¹⁴ When you see this, your heart will rejoice
   and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants,
   but his fury will be shown to his foes.
¹⁵ See, the Lord is coming with fire,
   and his chariots are like a whirlwind;
he will bring down his anger with fury,
   and his rebuke with flames of fire.
¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword
   the Lord will execute judgment on all people,
   and many will be those slain by the Lord.

¹⁷ “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the Lord.

¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

¹⁹ “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

²² “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. ²³ From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. ²⁴ “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”