Genesis 8
The Flood Ceases
1 Then God remembered Noah, and whatever was with him in the ark: all the wild animals, all the cattle, all the birds, and all the creeping things. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.†
2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.
4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark he had made.
7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters dried up from the earth.
8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.
9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself in the ark.
10 Then he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.†
11 The dove returned to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew the waters had receded from the earth.
12 So he waited yet another seven days and again sent out the dove; however, she did not return to him any more.
13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed, the surface of the ground was dry.
14 Now in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
15 Then the Lord God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and their wives with you.
17 Also, bring out with you every living thing of all flesh: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth, so they may abound on the earth, and increase and multiply on the earth.”
18 So Noah went out, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.
19 Every animal, every bird, and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth, according to their kind, went out of the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to God, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered whole burnt offerings on the altar.†
21 So the Lord God smelled a sweet aroma. Then the Lord God thought it over and said, “I will never again curse the earth because of man’s works, although the mind of man is diligently involved with evil things from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring shall not cease by day or by night.”
Psalms 9
18 Let sinners be turned back into Hades, And all the nations who forget God.
19 For the poor man shall not be forgotten in the end; The patience of the poor shall not perish forever.
20 Arise, O Lord, and do not let man prevail; Let the nations be judged in Your presence.
21 Set a lawgiver over them, O Lord, And let the nations know that they are men. (Pause)
22 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You disregard me in times of affliction?
23 When the ungodly man behaves arrogantly, the poor are set afire; Let him be caught in the counsels he ponders.
24 For the sinner praises himself in the desires of his soul, And the unjust man blesses himself.
25 The sinner provokes the Lord; He will not seek Him out because of the fullness of His wrath; God is not before him.
26 His ways are defiled in every season; Your judgments are removed from his face; He shall rule over all his enemies,
27 For he said in his heart, “I will not be shaken; From generation to generation I will be without trouble.”
28 His mouth is full of cursing, bitterness and deceit; Suffering and pain are under his tongue.
29 He lies in ambush with the wealthy; He kills the innocent in hidden places; His eyes look intently at the poor;
30 He lies in ambush in a hiding place, like a lion in his den; He lies in wait to seize the poor man, To seize the poor man to drag him away;
31 He will humble him in his snare; But he will bend down and fall when he rules over the poor.
32 For he said in his heart, “God forgets; He turned His face so as never to see it.”
33 Arise, O Lord God, let Your hand be lifted high, And do not forget Your poor.
34 Why has the ungodly man provoked God? For he said in his heart, “You will never call me to account for this.”
35 But You do see, You do perceive the suffering and pain, That You might deliver them into Your hands; Therefore, the poor man will be left to You; You give help to the orphan.
36 Break the arm of the sinner and the evil man; His sin shall be sought, and because of it he will not be found;
37 The Lord will reign, But you, O nations, you will perish from His earth.
38 The Lord hears the desire of the poor; Your ear heeds the readiness of their heart,
39 To judge the orphan and the humble, That man may no longer increase his great boasting upon the earth.
Proverbs of Solomon 2
It Is Wise to Obey
1 My son, if you receive the words of my commandment And hide them within yourself,
2 Your ear will be obedient to wisdom, And you will incline your heart to understanding; You will entrust it to your son as an admonition.
3 For if he calls upon wisdom, And you utter your voice for understanding; If you seek perception with a strong voice,†
4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as treasure,
5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord And find the knowledge of God.
Matthew 6
Trusting God Wholly
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;†
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.†
23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.†
Trusting God for Basic Needs
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?†
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.†
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.†
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.