O God, Do Not Keep Silence
A Song. A Psalm of gAsaph.
1 O God, do not keep silence;
hdo not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 For behold, your enemies imake an uproar;
those who hate you have jraised their heads.
3 They lay kcrafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your ltreasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, mlet us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5 For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of nEdom and othe Ishmaelites,
7 rGebal and pAmmon and sAmalek,
tPhilistia with the inhabitants of uTyre;
8 vAsshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of wthe children of Lot. Selah
9 Do to them as you did to xMidian,
as to ySisera and Jabin at zthe river Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at aEn-dor,
who became bdung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like cOreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like dZebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, e“Let us take possession for ourselves
of the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like fwhirling dust,1
like gchaff before the wind.
14 As hfire consumes the forest,
as the flame isets the mountains ablaze,
15 so may you pursue them jwith your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane!
16 kFill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be lput to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace,
18 that they may mknow that you alone,
nwhose name is the Lord,
are othe Most High over all the earth.
1 Since we have these promises, beloved, jlet us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body1 and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Paul’s Joy
2 kMake room in your hearts2 for us. lWe have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that myou are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with ngreat boldness toward you; oI have great pride in you; pI am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.
5 For even qwhen we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—rfighting without and fear within. 6 But sGod, who comforts the downcast, tcomforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. 8 For ueven if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though vI did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but wbecause you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For xgodly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas yworldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, zwhat zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one awho did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore bwe are comforted.
And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit chas been refreshed by you all. 14 For dwhatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you ewas true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. 15 And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers fthe obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice, because I have complete gconfidence in you.
