Day 200 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 109:26–31

²⁶Help me, O LORD my God; save me according to Your loving devotion. ²⁷Let them know that this is Your hand, that You, O LORD, have done it. ²⁸Though they curse, You will bless. When they rise up, they will be put to shame, but Your servant will rejoice. ²⁹May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe. ³⁰With my mouth I will thank the LORD profusely; I will praise Him in the presence of many. ³¹For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.

New Testament·Acts 16:1–25

¹Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father. ²The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. ³Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, so he took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴As they went from town to town, they delivered the decisions handed down by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. ⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. ⁶After the Holy Spirit had prevented them from speaking the word in the province of Asia, they traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. ⁷And when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not permit them. ⁸So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. ⁹During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰As soon as Paul had seen the vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. ¹¹We sailed from Troas straight to Samothrace, and the following day on to Neapolis. ¹²From there we went to the Roman colony of Philippi, the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. ¹³On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river, where it was customary to find a place of prayer. After sitting down, we spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. ¹⁶One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling. ¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!” ¹⁸She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit left her at that very moment. ¹⁹When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace. ²⁰They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into turmoil ²¹by promoting customs that are unlawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.” ²²The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered that they be stripped and beaten with rods. ²³And after striking them with many blows, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to guard them securely. ²⁴On receiving this order, he placed them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. ²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Old Testament·1 Chronicles 14–15

¹Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, stonemasons, and carpenters, to build a palace for him. ²And David realized that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had highly exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel. ³And David took more wives in Jerusalem and became the father of more sons and daughters. ⁴These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, ⁶Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁷Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet. ⁸When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they all went in search of him; but David learned of this and went out to face them. ⁹Now the Philistines had come and raided the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁰So David inquired of God, “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” “Go,” replied the LORD, “for I will deliver them into your hand.” ¹¹So David and his men went up to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, God has burst out against my enemies by my hand.” So they called that place Baal-perazim. ¹²There the Philistines abandoned their gods, and David ordered that they be burned in the fire. ¹³Once again the Philistines raided the valley. ¹⁴So David again inquired of God, who answered him, “Do not march up after them, but circle around them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. ¹⁵As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move out to battle, because this will mean that God has marched out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” ¹⁶So David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. ¹⁷And David’s fame went out into every land, and the LORD caused all nations to fear him.

15David constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. ²Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister before Him forever.” ³And David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD to the place he had prepared for it. ⁴Then he gathered together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites: ⁵From the Kohathites, Uriel the chief and 120 of his relatives; ⁶from the Merarites, Asaiah the chief and 220 of his relatives; ⁷from the Gershomites, Joel the chief and 130 of his relatives; ⁸from the Elizaphanites, Shemaiah the chief and 200 of his relatives; ⁹from the Hebronites, Eliel the chief and 80 of his relatives; ¹⁰and from the Uzzielites, Amminadab the chief and 112 of his relatives. ¹¹David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹²And he said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.” ¹⁴So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁵And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD. ¹⁶David also told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers to lift up their voices with joy, accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals. ¹⁷So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his brothers, Asaph son of Berechiah; from their brothers the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah; ¹⁸and with them their brothers next in rank: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, and the gatekeepers Obed-edom and Jeiel. ¹⁹The musicians Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals. ²⁰Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play the harps according to Alamoth. ²¹And Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead the music with lyres according to Sheminith. ²²Chenaniah the head Levite was the director of the music because he was highly skilled. ²³Berechiah and Elkanah were to be guardians of the ark. ²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer—the priests—were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were also to be guardians of the ark. ²⁵So David, the elders of Israel, and the commanders of thousands went with rejoicing to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed-edom. ²⁶And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. ²⁷Now David was dressed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah, the director of music for the singers. David also wore a linen ephod. ²⁸So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and with cymbals and the music of harps and lyres. ²⁹As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.