1Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble. 2The LORD will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to surrender him to the will of his foes. 3The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness. 4I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.” 5My enemies say with malice: “When will he die and be forgotten?” 6My visitor speaks falsehood; he gathers slander in his heart; he goes out and spreads it abroad. 7All who hate me whisper against me; they imagine the worst for me: 8“A vile disease has been poured into him; he will never get up from where he lies!”
New Testament·Mark 9:25–50
25When Jesus saw that a crowd had come running, He rebuked the unclean spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you to come out and never enter him again.” 26After shrieking and convulsing him violently, the spirit came out. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. 28After Jesus had gone into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 29Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.” 30Going on from there, they passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know, 31because He was teaching His disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.” 32But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. 33Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was in the house, He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. 35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” 36Then He had a little child stand among them. Taking the child in His arms, He said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me.” 38John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.” 39“Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me. 40For whoever is not against us is for us. 41Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward. 42But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. 45If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’ 49For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Old Testament·Leviticus 26
1“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God. 2You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD. 3If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments, 4I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land. 6And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land. 7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. 8Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. 9I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you. 10You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new. 11And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you. 12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. 13I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness. 14If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments, 15and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, 16then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you. 18And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, 20and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit. 21If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins. 22I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate. 23And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, 24then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied. 27But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, 28then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins. 29You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. 30I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you. 31I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices. 32And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled. 33But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste. 34Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it. 36As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them. 37They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies. 38You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you. 39Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers. 40But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me— 41and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity, 42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes. 44Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. 45But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.” 46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.
Reflect
What does today’s reading reveal about the human heart — and about yours?