One Year Bible.

Make a Joyful Noise

¹For the choirmaster. A song. A Psalm.

Make a joyful noise to God,

all the earth!

²Sing the glory of His name;

make His praise glorious.

³Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds!

So great is Your power

that Your enemies cower before You.

⁴All the earth bows down to You;

they sing praise to You;

they sing praise to Your name.”

Selah

⁵Come and see the works of God;

how awesome are His deeds toward mankind.

⁶He turned the sea into dry land;

they passed through the waters on foot;

there we rejoiced in Him.

⁷He rules forever by His power;

His eyes watch the nations.

Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.

Selah

⁸Bless our God, O peoples;

let the sound of His praise be heard.

⁹He preserves our lives

and keeps our feet from slipping.

¹⁰For You , O God, have tested us;

You have refined us like silver.

¹¹You led us into the net;

You laid burdens on our backs.

¹²You let men ride over our heads;

we went through fire and water,

but You brought us into abundance.

¹³I will enter Your house with burnt offerings;

I will fulfill my vows to You —

¹⁴the vows that my lips promised

and my mouth spoke in my distress.

¹⁵I will offer You fatlings as burnt offerings,

with the fragrant smoke of rams;

I will offer bulls and goats.

Selah

¹⁶Come and listen, all you who fear God,

and I will declare what He has done for me.

¹⁷I cried out to Him with my mouth

and praised Him with my tongue.

¹⁸If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened.

¹⁹But God has surely heard;

He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

²⁰Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld from me His loving devotion!

Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians

¹Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. ³I do not say this to condemn you. I have said before that you so occupy our hearts that we live and die together with you. ⁴Great is my confidence in you; great is my pride in you; I am filled with encouragement; in all our troubles my joy overflows.

⁵For when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were pressed from every direction — conflicts on the outside, fears within. ⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus, ⁷and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.

⁸Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Although I did regret it— for I see that my letter caused you sorrow, but only for a short time— ⁹yet now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. ¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

¹¹Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. ¹²So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong or the one who was harmed, but rather that your earnestness on our behalf would be made clear to you in the sight of God. ¹³On account of this, we are encouraged.

In addition to our own encouragement, we were even more delighted by the joy of Titus. For his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. ¹⁴Indeed, I was not embarrassed by anything I had boasted to him about you. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved to be true as well. ¹⁵And his affection for you is even greater when he remembers that you were all obedient as you welcomed him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶I rejoice that I can have complete confidence in you.

The LORD’s Love for Israel

¹This is the burden of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi:

²“I have loved you,” says the LORD.

But you ask, “How have You loved us?”

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved, ³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

⁴Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever. ⁵You will see this with your own eyes, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great — even beyond the borders of Israel.’”

The Polluted Offerings

⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

⁷By presenting defiled food on My altar.

But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’

By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.

⁸When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

⁹“But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁰“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

¹¹For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts. ¹²“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’

¹³You also say: ‘Oh, what a nuisance!’ And you turn up your nose at it,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“You bring offerings that are stolen, lame, or sick! Should I accept these from your hands?” asks the LORD.

¹⁴“But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and My name is to be feared among the nations.[’’]

A Warning to the Priests

¹“And now this decree is for you, O priests:

²If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

³Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

⁴Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts. ⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. ⁷For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

⁸But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts. ⁹“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

Judah’s Unfaithfulness

¹⁰Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

¹¹Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. ¹²As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware — even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.

¹³And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?”

It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹⁵Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

¹⁶“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

¹⁷You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?”

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”