2 Samuel 22

• 1. David sang this song to the LORD after the LORD had rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul.
• 2. These are the words he sang: "The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
• 3. my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold, my high tower, my savior, the one who saves me from violence.
• 4. I will call on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, for he saves me from my enemies.
• 5. "The waves of death surrounded me; the floods of destruction swept over me.
• 6. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death itself stared me in the face.
• 7. But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I called to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears.
• 8. "Then the earth quaked and trembled; the foundations of the heavens shook; they quaked because of his anger.
• 9. Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.
• 10. He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.
• 11. Mounted on a mighty angel, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.
• 12. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dense rain clouds.
• 13. A great brightness shone before him, and bolts of lightning blazed forth.
• 14. The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High gave a mighty shout.
• 15. He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; his lightning flashed, and they were confused.
• 16. Then at the command of the LORD, at the blast of his breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.
• 17. "He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters.
• 18. He delivered me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
• 19. They attacked me at a moment when I was weakest, but the LORD upheld me.
• 20. He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.
• 21. The LORD rewarded me for doing right; he compensated me because of my innocence.
• 22. For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not turned from my God to follow evil.
• 23. For all his laws are constantly before me; I have never abandoned his principles.
• 24. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin.
• 25. The LORD rewarded me for doing right, because of my innocence in his sight.
• 26. "To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity.
• 27. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the wicked you show yourself hostile.
• 28. You rescue those who are humble, but your eyes are on the proud to humiliate them.
• 29. O LORD, you are my light; yes, LORD, you light up my darkness.
• 30. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
• 31. "As for God, his way is perfect. All the LORD's promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
• 32. For who is God except the LORD? Who but our God is a solid rock?
• 33. God is my strong fortress; he has made my way safe.
• 34. He makes me as surefooted as a deer, leading me safely along the mountain heights.
• 35. He prepares me for battle; he strengthens me to draw a bow of bronze.
• 36. You have given me the shield of your salvation; your help has made me great.
• 37. You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping.
• 38. "I chased my enemies and destroyed them; I did not stop until they were conquered.
• 39. I consumed them; I struck them down so they could not get up; they fell beneath my feet.
• 40. You have armed me with strength for the battle; you have subdued my enemies under my feet.
• 41. You made them turn and run; I have destroyed all who hated me.
• 42. They called for help, but no one came to rescue them. They cried to the LORD, but he refused to answer them.
• 43. I ground them as fine as the dust of the earth; I swept them into the gutter like dirt.
• 44. "You gave me victory over my accusers. You preserved me as the ruler over nations; people I don't even know now serve me.
• 45. Foreigners cringe before me; as soon as they hear of me, they submit.
• 46. They all lose their courage and come trembling from their strongholds.
• 47. "The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock! May God, the rock of my salvation, be exalted!
• 48. He is the God who pays back those who harm me; he subdues the nations under me
• 49. and rescues me from my enemies. You hold me safe beyond the reach of my enemies; you save me from violent opponents.
• 50. For this, O LORD, I will praise you among the nations; I will sing joyfully to your name.
• 51. You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever."

Galatians 2

• 1. Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.
• 2. I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I talked privately with the leaders of the church. I wanted them to understand what I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure they did not disagree, or my ministry would have been useless.
• 3. And they did agree. They did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
• 4. Even that question wouldn't have come up except for some so-called Christians there--false ones, really--who came to spy on us and see our freedom in Christ Jesus. They wanted to force us, like slaves, to follow their Jewish regulations.
• 5. But we refused to listen to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the Good News for you.
• 6. And the leaders of the church who were there had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)
• 7. They saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the Good News to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.
• 8. For the same God who worked through Peter for the benefit of the Jews worked through me for the benefit of the Gentiles.
• 9. In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.
• 10. The only thing they suggested was that we remember to help the poor, and I have certainly been eager to do that.
• 11. But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong.
• 12. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who don't bother with circumcision. But afterward, when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say.
• 13. Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.
• 14. When I saw that they were not following the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter in front of all the others, "Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you trying to make these Gentiles obey the Jewish laws you abandoned?
• 15. You and I are Jews by birth, not 'sinners' like the Gentiles.
• 16. And yet we Jewish Christians know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be accepted by God because of our faith in Christ--and not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be saved by obeying the law."
• 17. But what if we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then find out that we are still sinners? Has Christ led us into sin? Of course not!
• 18. Rather, I make myself guilty if I rebuild the old system I already tore down.
• 19. For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God's approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.
• 20. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• 21. I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Ezekiel 29

• 1. On January 7, during the tenth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, this message came to me from the LORD:
• 2. "Son of man, turn toward Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh the king and all the people of Egypt.
• 3. Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: I am your enemy, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt--you great monster, lurking in the streams of the Nile. For you have said, `The Nile River is mine; I made it for myself!'
• 4. I will put hooks in your jaws and drag you out on the land with fish sticking to your scales.
• 5. I will leave you and all your fish stranded in the desert to die. You will lie unburied on the open ground, for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.
• 6. "All the people of Egypt will discover that I am the LORD, for you collapsed like a reed when Israel looked to you for help.
• 7. Israel leaned on you, but like a cracked staff, you splintered and stabbed her in the armpit. When she put her weight on you, you gave way, and her back was thrown out of joint.
• 8. So now the Sovereign LORD says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both people and animals.
• 9. The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD. "Because you said, `The Nile River is mine; I made it,'
• 10. I am now the enemy of both you and your river. I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Aswan, as far south as the border of Ethiopia.
• 11. For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither people nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited.
• 12. I will make Egypt desolate, and it will be surrounded by other desolate nations. Its cities will be empty and desolate for forty years, surrounded by other desolate cities. I will scatter the Egyptians to distant lands.
• 13. "But the Sovereign LORD also says: At the end of the forty years I will bring the Egyptians home again from the nations to which they have been scattered.
• 14. I will restore the prosperity of Egypt and bring its people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt from which they came. But Egypt will remain an unimportant, minor kingdom.
• 15. It will be the lowliest of all the nations, never again great enough to rise above its neighbors.
• 16. "Then Israel will no longer be tempted to trust in Egypt for help. Egypt's shattered condition will remind Israel of how sinful she was to trust Egypt in earlier days. Then Israel will know that I alone am the Sovereign LORD."
• 17. On April 26, during the twenty-seventh year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, this message came to me from the LORD:
• 18. "Son of man, the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought so hard against Tyre that the warriors' heads were rubbed bare and their shoulders were raw and blistered. Yet Nebuchadnezzar and his army won no plunder to compensate them for all their work.
• 19. Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He will carry off their wealth, plundering everything they have to pay his army.
• 20. Yes, I have given him the land of Egypt as a reward for his work, says the Sovereign LORD, because he was working for me when he destroyed Tyre.
• 21. "And the day will come when I will cause the ancient glory of Israel to revive, and then at last your words will be respected. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

New Living Translation: 269 of 365 days.