1 “I love You, Lord, my strength.”
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my savior,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death encompassed me,
And the torrents of destruction terrified me.
5 The ropes of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried to my God for help;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
And the foundations of the mountains were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
And fire from His mouth was devouring;
Coals burned from it.
9 He also bowed the heavens down low, and came down
With thick darkness under His feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
And He sped on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him,
Darkness of waters, thick clouds.
12 From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them,
And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of water appeared,
And the foundations of the world were exposed
By Your rebuke, Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He saved me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
But the Lord was my support.
19 He also brought me out into an open place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
20 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not acted wickedly against my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless with Him,
And I kept myself from my wrongdoing.
24 Therefore the Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.
25 With the faithful You show Yourself faithful;
With the blameless You prove Yourself blameless;
26 With the pure You show Yourself pure,
And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
27 For You save an afflicted people,
But You humiliate haughty eyes.
28 For You light my lamp;
The Lord my God illumines my darkness.
29 For by You I can run at a troop of warriors;
And by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is blameless;
The word of the Lord is refined;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
31 For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God,
32 The God who encircles me with strength,
And makes my way blameless?
33 He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
And sets me up on my high places.
34 He trains my hands for battle,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds me;
And Your gentleness makes me great.
36 You enlarge my steps under me,
And my feet have not slipped.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.
38 I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise;
They fell under my feet.
39 For You have encircled me with strength for battle;
You have forced those who rose up against me to bow down under me.
40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
And I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save,
They cried to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them fine like the dust before the wind;
I emptied them out like the mud of the streets.
43 You have rescued me from the contentions of the people;
You have placed me as head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.
44 As soon as they hear, they obey me;
Foreigners pretend to obey me.
45 Foreigners lose heart,
And come trembling out of their fortresses.
46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock;
And exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 The God who executes vengeance for me,
And subdues peoples under me.
48 He rescues me from my enemies;
You indeed lift me above those who rise up against me;
You rescue me from a violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, Lord,
And I will sing praises to Your name.
50 He gives great salvation to His king,
And shows faithfulness to His anointed,
To David and his descendants forever.
1 On that day Jesus had gone out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He told them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and they sprang up immediately, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But after the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 But others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times as much. 9 The one who has ears, let him hear.”
10 And the disciples came up and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 And Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You shall keep on listening, but shall not understand;
And you shall keep on looking, but shall not perceive;
15 For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their heart, and return,
And I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
18 “Listen then to the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown with seed beside the road. 20 The one sown with seed on the rocky places, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 And the one sown with seed among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, and the anxiety of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 But the one sown with seed on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times as much.”
24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 And when the wheat sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also became evident. 27 And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves *said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he *said, ‘No; while you are gathering up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”