09/30/2026
ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ᴘʀᴀʏᴇʀ
Psalm 78
1
Hear my teaching, O my people; *
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable; *
I will utter dark sayings of old,
3
Which we have heard and known, *
and such as our forefathers have told us;
4
That we should not hide them from the children of the generations to come, *
but show the honor of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works that he has done.
5
He made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law, *
which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children;
6
That their posterity might know it, *
and the children which were yet unborn;
7
With the intent that when they came up *
they might show it to their children,
8
That they might put their trust in God, *
and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
9
And not be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation, *
a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit did not cleave steadfastly to God;
10
Like the children of Ephraim, archers carrying bows, *
who turned back in the day of battle.
11
They did not keep the covenant of God, *
and would not walk in his law;
12
But forgot what he had done, *
and the wonderful works that he had shown them.
13
Marvelous things he did in the sight of our forefathers, *
in the land of Egypt, even in the field of Zoan.
14
He divided the sea and let them go through; *
he made the waters to stand in a heap.
15
In the daytime he led them with a cloud, *
and all the night through with a light of fire.
16
He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *
and gave them drink in abundance, as out of the great deep.
17
He brought waters out of the stony rock, *
so that it gushed out like the rivers.
18
Yet for all this they sinned more against him, *
and provoked the Most High in the wilderness
2 Chronicles 16Asa's Last Years
In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 2 Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, 3 “There is a covenant[a] between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” 4 And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. 5 And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease. 6 Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. 8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. 9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless[b] toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” 10 Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.
11 The acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. 13 And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. 14 They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art, and they made a very great fire in his honor.
James 4
Warning Against Worldliness
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[d] The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
