Week 2, Thursday

Psalm 10

Psalm 10, from the Scottish Psalter.

Wherefore is it, that thou, O Lord,
dost stand from us afar?
And wherefore hidest thou thyself,
when times so troublous are?
The wicked in his loftiness
doth persecute the poor:
In these devices they have fram’d
let them be taken sure.

The wicked of his hearts desire
doth talk with boasting great;
He blesseth him that’s covetous,
whom yet the Lord doth hate.
The wicked, through his pride of face,
on God he doth not call:
And in the counsels of his heart
the Lord is not at all.

His ways they always grievous are:
thy judgements from his sight
Removed are: at all his foes
he puffeth with despite.
Within his heart he thus hath said.
I shall not moved be:
And no adversity at all
shall ever come to me.

His mouth with cursing, fraud, deceit,
is fill’d abundantly:
And underneath his tongue, there is
mischief and vanity.
He closely sits in villages:
he slayes the innocent:
Against the poor that pass him by
his cruel eyes are bent.

He Lion-like lurks in his den:
he waits the poor to take:
And when he draws him in his net,
his prey he doth him make.
Himself he humbleth very low,
he croucheth down withal,
That so a multitude of poor
may by his strong ones fall.

He this hath said within his heart,
the Lord hath quite forgot:
He hides his countenance, and he
forever sees it not.
O Lord, do thou arise; O God,
lift up thine hand on high:
But not the meek afflicted ones
out of thy memory.

Why is it that the wicked man
thus doth the Lord despise?
Because, that God will it require,
he in his heart denies.
Thou hast it seen, for their mischief
and spite thou wilt repay:
The poor commits himself to thee,
thou art the orphans stay.

The arm break of the wicked man,
and of the evil one:
Do thou seek out his wickedness
untill thou findest none.
The Lord is King through ages all,
ev’n to eternity:
The heathen people from their land
are perisht utterly.

O Lord, of those that humble are
thou the desire didst hear:
Thou wilt prepare their heart, and thou
to hear wilt bend thine ear:
To judge the fatherless, and those
that are oppressed sore,
That man, that is but sprung of earth,
may them oppress no more.

Nehemiah 1

Nehemiah, chapter 1.

¹ The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. In the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in the palace of Shushan,

² Came Hanani, one of my brethren, he and the men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that were delivered, which were of the residue of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

³ And they said unto me, The residue that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire.

⁴ And when I heard these words, I sate down and wept, and mourned certain days, and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

⁵ And said, O Yahweh God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments,

⁶ I pray thee, let thine ears be attent, and thine eyes open, to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee daily, day and night for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my fathers house have sinned:

⁷ We have grievously sinned against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

⁸ I beseech thee, remember the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, Ye will transgress, and I will scatter you abroad among the people.

⁹ But if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them, though your scattering were to the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather you from thence, and will bring you unto the place that I have chosen to place my Name there.

¹⁰ Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy mighty hand.

¹¹ O Lord, I beseech thee, let thine ear now hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy Name, and I pray thee, cause thy servant to prosper this day, and give him favor in the presence of this man: for I was the Kings butler.

Acts 11

Acts, chapter 11.

¹ Now the Apostles and the brethren that were in Judea, heard, that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

² And when Peter was come up to Hierusalem, they of the circumcision contended against him,

³ Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and hast eaten with them.

⁴ Then Peter began, and expounded the thing in order to them, saying,

⁵ I was in the city of Joppa, praying, and in a trance I saw this vision, A certain vessel coming down as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by the four corners, and it came to me.

⁶ Toward the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the heaven.

⁷ Also I heard a voice, saying unto me, Arise, Peter: slay and eat.

⁸ And I said, God forbid, Lord: for nothing polluted or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.

⁹ But the voice answered me the second time from heaven, The things that God hath purified, pollute thou not.

¹⁰ And this was done three times, and all were taken up again into heaven.

¹¹ Then behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Cesarea unto me.

¹² And the Spirit said unto me, that I should go with them, without doubting: moreover these six brethren came with me, and we entered into the mans house.

¹³ And he showed us, how he had seen an Angel in his house, which stood and said to him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter.

¹⁴ He shall speak words unto thee, whereby both thou and thine house shall be saved.

¹⁵ And as I began to speak, the holy Ghost fell on them, even as upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶ Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the holy Ghost.

¹⁷ For as much then as God gave them a like gift, as he did unto us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could let God?

¹⁸ When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

¹⁹ And they which were scattered abroad because of the affliction that arose about Steven, went throughout till they came unto Phenice and Cyprus, and Antiochia, preaching the word to no man, but unto the Jews only.

²⁰ Now some of them were men of Cyprus and of Cyrene, which when they were come into Antiochia, spake unto the Grecians, and preached the Lord Jesus.

²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, so that a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.

²² Then tidings of those things came unto the ears of the Church, which was in Hierusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go unto Antiochia.

²³ Who when he was come and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted all, that with purpose of heart they would continue in the Lord.

²⁴ For he was a good man, and full of the holy Ghost, and faith, and much people joined themselves unto the Lord.

²⁵ Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus to seek Saul:

²⁶ And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antiochia: and it came to pass that a whole year they were conversant with the Church, and taught much people, in so much that the disciples were first called Christians in Antiochia.

²⁷ In those days also came Prophets from Hierusalem unto Antiochia.

²⁸ And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit, that there should be great famine throughout all the world, which also came to pass under Claudius Cesar.

²⁹ Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, purposed to send succor unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea.

³⁰ Which thing they also did, and sent it to the Elders, by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

The Heidelberg Catechism

The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 2.

Question 3. How do you know your misery?

Out of the Law of God.

Question 4. What does the Law of God require of us?

This Christ teaches us in sum, Matt. 22: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.—On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Question 5. Can you keep all this perfectly?

No; for I am by nature prone to hate God and my neighbor.

A Christian Directory

From Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory, 1673.

1. Let it be done rather by the Master of the family himself than any other, if he be competently able, though others be more able: But if he be utterly unfit, let it rather be done by another than not at all. And by such a one as is most acceptable to the rest, and like to do most good.

2. Let prayer be suited to the case of those that join in it, and to the condition of the family: And not a few general words spoken by rote, that serve all times and persons alike.

3. Let it neither be so short as to end before their hearts can be warm and their wants expressed, (as if you had an unwilling task to slubber over, and would fain have done); nor yet so tedious as to make it an ungrateful burden to the family.

4. Let not the coldness and dulness of the speaker rock the family sleep: But keep waken your own heart, that you may keep the rest awake, and force them to attention.

5. Pray at such hours as the family may be least distracted, sleepy, tired, or out of the way.

6. Let other duties concur as oft as may be to assist in prayer: as Reading and Singing Psalms.

7. Do all with the greatest reverence of God that possibly you can: Not seeming Reverence, but Real: that so more of God than of Man may appear in every word you speak.

8. The more the hearers are concerned in it, the more regard you must have to the fitness of your expressions: For before others, words must be regarded, lest they be scandalized, and God and Prayer be dishonored. And if you cannot do it competently without, use a well composed form.

9. Let not family Prayer be used at the time of public prayer in the Church, nor preferred before it; but prefer public prayer, though the manner were more imperfect than your own.

10. Teach your Children and Servants how to pray themselves, that they may not be prayerless when they come among those that cannot pray. John and Christ taught their Disciples to pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray. A prayer of John Calvin.

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou continuest daily to exhort us, and though thou seest us often turning aside from the right course, thou yet ceasest not to stretch forth thy hand to us, and also to rouse us by reproofs, that we may repent,—O grant, that we may not be permitted to reject thy word with such perverseness as thou condemnest here in thine ancient people by the mouth of thy Prophet; but rule us by thy Spirit, that we may meekly and obediently submit to thee, and with such teachableness, that if we have not hitherto been willing to become wise, we may not at least be incurable, but suffer thee to heal our diseases, so that we may truly repent, and be so wholly given to obey thee, as never to attempt anything beyond the rule of thy word, and without that wisdom which thou hast revealed to us, not only by Moses and thy Prophets, but also by thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Tonight at your table

Tonight at your table, read Genesis 12 and Matthew 11 with your household.

This week’s question for your table. How do you know your misery?