Bible in a Year – read today’s “Bible in a Year” excerpt

This page updates daily, based on the Whole Bible Canonically in a Year Bible reading plan.

reading plan entry for June 24

Psalm 78 ()

A contemplation by Asaph.

[1] Hear my teaching, my people.
Turn 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 our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,
his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
[5] For he established a covenant in Jacob,
and appointed a teaching in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children;
[6] that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;
who should arise and tell their children,
[7] that they might set their hope in God,
and not forget God’s deeds,
but keep his commandments,
[8] and might not be as their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,
whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
[9] The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
[10] They didn’t keep God’s covenant,
and refused to walk in his law.
[11] They forgot his doings,
his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
[12] He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
[13] He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.
He made the waters stand as a heap.
[14] In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,
and all night with a light of fire.
[15] He split rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
[16] He brought streams also out of the rock,
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
[17] Yet they still went on to sin against him,
to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
[18] They tempted God in their heart
by asking food according to their desire.
[19] Yes, they spoke against God.
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
[20] Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,
and streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
[21] Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
anger also went up against Israel,
[22] because they didn’t believe in God,
and didn’t trust in his salvation.
[23] Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven.
[24] He rained down manna on them to eat,
and gave them food from the sky.
[25] Man ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food to the full.
[26] He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.
By his power he guided the south wind.
[27] He also rained meat on them as the dust,
winged birds as the sand of the seas.
[28] He let them fall in the middle of their camp,
around their habitations.
[29] So they ate, and were well filled.
He gave them their own desire.
[30] They didn’t turn from their cravings.
Their food was yet in their mouths,
[31] when the anger of God went up against them,
killed some of their strongest,
and struck down the young men of Israel.
[32] For all this they still sinned,
and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
[33] Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,
and their years in terror.
[34] When he killed them, then they inquired after him.
They returned and sought God earnestly.
[35] They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their redeemer.
[36] But they flattered him with their mouth,
and lied to him with their tongue.
[37] For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they faithful in his covenant.
[38] But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
[39] He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
[40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,
and grieved him in the desert!
[41] They turned again and tempted God,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
[42] They didn’t remember his hand,
nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
[43] how he set his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the field of Zoan,
[44] he turned their rivers into blood,
and their streams, so that they could not drink.
[45] He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
[46] He also gave their increase to the caterpillar,
and their labor to the locust.
[47] He destroyed their vines with hail,
their sycamore fig trees with frost.
[48] He also gave over their livestock to the hail,
and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
[49] He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,
wrath, indignation, and trouble,
and a band of angels of evil.
[50] He made a path for his anger.
He didn’t spare their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence,
[51] and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
[52] But he led out his own people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
[53] He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
[54] He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
[55] He also drove out the nations before them,
allotted them for an inheritance by line,
and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
[56] Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
and didn’t keep his testimonies,
[57] but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.
They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
[58] For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
[59] When God heard this, he was angry,
and greatly abhorred Israel,
[60] so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh,
the tent which he placed among men,
[61] and delivered his strength into captivity,
his glory into the adversary’s hand.
[62] He also gave his people over to the sword,
and was angry with his inheritance.
[63] Fire devoured their young men.
Their virgins had no wedding song.
[64] Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows couldn’t weep.
[65] Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,
like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
[66] He struck his adversaries backward.
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
[67] Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
[68] But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
[69] He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth which he has established forever.
[70] He also chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
[71] from following the ewes that have their young,
he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
and Israel, his inheritance.
[72] So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

Psalm 79 ()

A Psalm by Asaph.

[1] God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
They have defiled your holy temple.
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
[2] They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
[3] They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem.
There was no one to bury them.
[4] We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
[5] How long, Yahweh?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
[6] Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
[7] for they have devoured Jacob,
and destroyed his homeland.
[8] Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
[9] Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
[10] Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
[11] Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
[12] Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
[13] So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will praise you forever, to all generations.

Psalm 80 ()

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph.

[1] Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock,
you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.
[2] Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might!
Come to save us!
[3] Turn us again, God.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved.

[4] Yahweh God of Armies,
how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
[5] You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in large measure.
[6] You make us a source of contention to our neighbors.
Our enemies laugh among themselves.
[7] Turn us again, God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved.

[8] You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and planted it.
[9] You cleared the ground for it.
It took deep root, and filled the land.
[10] The mountains were covered with its shadow.
Its boughs were like God’s cedars.
[11] It sent out its branches to the sea,
its shoots to the River.
[12] Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?
[13] The boar out of the wood ravages it.
The wild animals of the field feed on it.
[14] Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies.
Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
[15] the stock which your right hand planted,
the branch that you made strong for yourself.
[16] It’s burned with fire.
It’s cut down.
They perish at your rebuke.
[17] Let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
[18] So we will not turn away from you.
Revive us, and we will call on your name.
[19] Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

Psalm 81 ()

For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. By Asaph.

[1] Sing aloud to God, our strength!
Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!
[2] Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine,
the pleasant lyre with the harp.
[3] Blow the trumpet at the New Moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
[4] For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
[5] He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant,
when he went out over the land of Egypt,
I heard a language that I didn’t know.
[6] “I removed his shoulder from the burden.
His hands were freed from the basket.
[7] You called in trouble, and I delivered you.
I answered you in the secret place of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.”
Selah.

[8] “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you,
Israel, if you would listen to me!
[9] There shall be no strange god in you,
neither shall you worship any foreign god.
[10] I am Yahweh, your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
[11] But my people didn’t listen to my voice.
Israel desired none of me.
[12] So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts,
that they might walk in their own counsels.
[13] Oh that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
[14] I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their adversaries.
[15] The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
[16] But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat.
I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”

Psalm 82 ()

A Psalm by Asaph.

[1] God presides in the great assembly.
He judges among the gods.
[2] “How long will you judge unjustly,
and show partiality to the wicked?”
Selah.

[3] “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless.
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
[4] Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
[5] They don’t know, neither do they understand.
They walk back and forth in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
[6] I said, “You are gods,
all of you are sons of the Most High.
[7] Nevertheless you shall die like men,
and fall like one of the rulers.”
[8] Arise, God, judge the earth,
for you inherit all of the nations.