One Year Bible.

In the Day of Trouble I Sought the Lord

¹For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

I cried out to God;

I cried aloud to God to hear me.

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord;

through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary;

my soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered You, O God, and I groaned;

I mused and my spirit grew faint.

Selah

⁴You have kept my eyes from closing;

I am too troubled to speak.

⁵I considered the days of old,

the years long in the past.

⁶At night I remembered my song;

in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:

⁷“Will the Lord spurn us forever

and never show His favor again?

⁸Is His loving devotion gone forever?

Has His promise failed for all time?

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has His anger shut off His compassion?”

Selah

¹⁰So I said, “I am grieved

that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

¹¹I will remember the works of the LORD;

yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.

¹²I will reflect on all You have done

and ponder Your mighty deeds.

¹³Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is so great as our God?

¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;

You display Your strength among the peoples.

¹⁵With power You redeemed Your people,

the sons of Jacob and Joseph.

Selah

¹⁶The waters saw You, O God;

the waters saw You and swirled;

even the depths were shaken.

¹⁷The clouds poured down water;

the skies resounded with thunder;

Your arrows flashed back and forth.

¹⁸Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind;

the lightning lit up the world;

the earth trembled and quaked.

¹⁹Your path led through the sea,

Your way through the mighty waters,

but Your footprints were not to be found.

²⁰You led Your people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Generosity Commended

¹Now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the churches of Macedonia. ²In the terrible ordeal they suffered, their abundant joy and deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity. ³For I testify that they gave according to their ability and even beyond it. Of their own accord, ⁴they earnestly pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. ⁵And not only did they do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, through the will of God.

⁶So we urged Titus to help complete your act of grace, just as he had started it. ⁷But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you — see that you also excel in this grace of giving. ⁸I am not giving a command, but I am testing the sincerity of your love through the earnestness of others.

⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. ¹⁰And this is my opinion about what is helpful for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give, but even to have such a desire. ¹¹Now finish the work, so that you may complete it with the same eager desire, according to your means. ¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

¹³It is not our intention that others may be relieved while you are burdened, but that there may be equality. ¹⁴At the present time, your surplus will meet their need, so that in turn their surplus will meet your need. This way there will be equality. ¹⁵As it is written:

“He who gathered much had no excess,

and he who gathered little had no shortfall.”

Titus Commended

¹⁶But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same devotion I have for you. ¹⁷For not only did he welcome our appeal, but he is eagerly coming to you of his own volition.

¹⁸Along with Titus we are sending the brother who is praised by all the churches for his work in the gospel. ¹⁹More than that, this brother was chosen by the churches to accompany us with the gracious offering we administer to honor the Lord Himself and to show our eagerness to help.

²⁰We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this generous gift. ²¹For we are taking great care to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.

²²And we are sending along with them our brother who has proven his earnestness to us many times and in many ways, and now even more so by his great confidence in you. ²³As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you. As for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. ²⁴In full view of the churches, then, show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our boasting about you.

I Will Send My Messenger

¹“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple — the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight — see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

²But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

³And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

⁴Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Robbing God

⁶“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed. ⁷Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

⁸Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!

But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’

In tithes and offerings. ⁹You are cursed with a curse, yet you— the whole nation— are still robbing Me. ¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure. ¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹²“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of Hosts.

The Book of Remembrance

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? ¹⁵So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

¹⁶At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

¹⁷“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

The Day of the LORD

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

²“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. ³Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁴“Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.

⁵Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. ⁶And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”