Proclaiming Scripture

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. ⁵And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word. ¹⁰With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments. ¹¹I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. ¹²Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. ¹³With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth. ¹⁴I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches. ¹⁵I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. ¹⁶I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

¹⁰For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, ¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. ³The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ⁴But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. ⁶“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” ⁷Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” ¹¹Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.

⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. ¹¹It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, ¹³for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ¹⁶But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

¹⁶Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

¹Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. ²But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. ³He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

⁷The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. ⁹The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous. ¹⁰They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. ¹¹By them indeed Your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward. ¹²Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. ¹³Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression. ¹⁴May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

¹Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. ²My soul boasts in the LORD; let the oppressed hear and rejoice. ³Magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together.

⁹I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know. ¹⁰I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

¹⁵My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure. ¹⁶I will come in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim Your righteousness—Yours alone. ¹⁷O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. ²Sing to the LORD, bless His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. ³Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

¹Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the nations. ²Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders. ³Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. ⁴Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always. ⁵Remember the wonders He has done, His marvels, and the judgments He has pronounced,

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever. ²Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

⁹⁷Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation. ⁹⁸Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. ⁹⁹I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts. ¹⁰¹I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word. ¹⁰²I have not departed from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth! ¹⁰⁴I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

⁴One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts— ⁵the glorious splendor of Your majesty. And I will meditate on Your wondrous works. ⁶They will proclaim the power of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare Your greatness. ⁷They will extol the fame of Your abundant goodness and sing joyfully of Your righteousness.

¹⁶Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, ¹⁷the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ²⁰Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, ²¹and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

¹⁸Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. ²⁰For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

¹³And in keeping with what is written, “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak,

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world ¹⁶as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

¹⁴But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them. ¹⁵From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

²²Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. ²³For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.