1 Chronicles 16

They brought the ark of God and placed it inside the tent David had pitched for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in God’s presence.
2 When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. 3 Then he distributed to each and every Israelite, both men and women, a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake.

4 David appointed some of the Levites to be ministers before the ark of the Lord, to celebrate the Lord God of Israel, and to give thanks and praise to him. 5 Asaph was the chief and Zechariah was second to him. Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel played the harps and lyres, while Asaph sounded the cymbals 6 and the priests Benaiah and Jahaziel blew the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.

DAVID’S PSALM OF THANKSGIVING
7 On that day David decreed for the first time that thanks be given to the Lord by Asaph and his relatives:

8 Give thanks to the Lord; call on his name;
proclaim his deeds among the peoples.
9 Sing to him; sing praise to him;
tell about all his wondrous works!
10 Boast in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
11 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
12 Remember the wondrous works he has done,
his wonders, and the judgments he has pronounced,
13 you offspring of Israel his servant,
Jacob’s descendants ​— ​his chosen ones.
14 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments govern the whole earth.
15 Remember his covenant forever —
the promise he ordained for a thousand generations,
16 the covenant he made with Abraham,
swore to Isaac,
17 and confirmed to Jacob as a decree,
and to Israel as a permanent covenant:
18 “I will give the land of Canaan to you
as your inherited portion.”
19 When they were few in number,
very few indeed, and resident aliens in Canaan
20 wandering from nation to nation
and from one kingdom to another,
21 he allowed no one to oppress them;
he rebuked kings on their behalf:
22 “Do not touch my anointed ones
or harm my prophets.”
23 Let the whole earth sing to the Lord.
Proclaim his salvation from day to day.
24 Declare his glory among the nations,
his wondrous works among all peoples.
25 For the Lord is great and highly praised;
he is feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
27 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.
28 Ascribe to the Lord, families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
bring an offering and come before him.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
30 let the whole earth tremble before him.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
31 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! ”
32 Let the sea and all that fills it resound;
let the fields and everything in them exult.
33 Then the trees of the forest will shout for joy before the Lord,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his faithful love endures forever.
35 And say, “Save us, God of our salvation;
gather us and rescue us from the nations
so that we may give thanks to your holy name
and rejoice in your praise.
36 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting.”
Then all the people said, “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.”

37 So David left Asaph and his relatives there before the ark of the Lord’s covenant to minister regularly before the ark according to the daily requirements. 38 He assigned Obed-edom and his sixty-eight relatives. Obed-edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah were to be gatekeepers. 39 David left the priest Zadok and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place in Gibeon 40 to offer burnt offerings regularly, morning and evening, to the Lord on the altar of burnt offerings and to do everything that was written in the law of the Lord, which he had commanded Israel to keep. 41 With them were Heman, Jeduthun, and the rest who were chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord ​— ​for his faithful love endures forever. 42 Heman and Jeduthun had with them trumpets and cymbals to play and musical instruments of God. Jeduthun’s sons were at the city gate.

43 Then all the people went home, and David returned home to bless his household.

James 3

CONTROLLING THE TONGUE
Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.
2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. 3 Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. 4 And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. 11 Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

THE WISDOM FROM ABOVE
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

Obadiah 1

The vision of Obadiah.

EDOM’S CERTAIN JUDGMENT
This is what the Lord God has said about Edom:

We have heard a message from the Lord;
an envoy has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up, and let’s go to war against her.”
2 Look, I will make you insignificant
among the nations;
you will be deeply despised.
3 Your arrogant heart has deceived you,
you who live in clefts of the rock
in your home on the heights,
who say to yourself,
“Who can bring me down to the ground? ”
4 Though you seem to soar like an eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
even from there I will bring you down.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
5 If thieves came to you,
if marauders by night —
how ravaged you would be! —
wouldn’t they steal only what they wanted?
If grape harvesters came to you,
wouldn’t they leave a few grapes?
6 How Esau will be pillaged,
his hidden treasures searched out!
7 Everyone who has a treaty with you
will drive you to the border;
everyone at peace with you
will deceive and conquer you.
Those who eat your bread
will set a trap for you.
He will be unaware of it.
8 In that day —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
will I not eliminate the wise ones of Edom
and those who understand
from the hill country of Esau?
9 Teman, your warriors will be terrified
so that everyone from the hill country of Esau
will be destroyed by slaughter.
EDOM’S SINS AGAINST JUDAH
10 You will be covered with shame
and destroyed forever
because of violence done to your brother Jacob.
11 On the day you stood aloof,
on the day strangers captured his wealth,
while foreigners entered his city gate
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were just like one of them.
12 Do not gloat over your brother
in the day of his calamity;
do not rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction;
do not boastfully mock
in the day of distress.
13 Do not enter my people’s city gate
in the day of their disaster.
Yes, you ​— ​do not gloat over their misery
in the day of their disaster,
and do not appropriate their possessions
in the day of their disaster.
14 Do not stand at the crossroads
to cut off their fugitives,
and do not hand over their survivors
in the day of distress.
JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS
15 For the day of the Lord is near,
against all the nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
what you deserve will return on your own head.
16 As you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so all the nations will drink continually.
They will drink and gulp down
and be as though they had never been.
17 But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion,
and it will be holy;
the house of Jacob will dispossess
those who dispossessed them.
18 Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire,
and the house of Joseph, a burning flame,
but the house of Esau will be stubble;
Jacob will set them on fire and consume Edom.
Therefore no survivor will remain
of the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
FUTURE BLESSING FOR ISRAEL
19 People from the Negev will possess
the hill country of Esau;
those from the Judean foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines.
They will possess
the territories of Ephraim and Samaria,
while Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah
and who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath
as well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the cities of the Negev.
21 Saviors will ascend Mount Zion
to rule over the hill country of Esau,
and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

Psalm 92

GOD’S LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
2 to declare your faithful love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 with a ten-stringed harp
and the music of a lyre.
4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord,
by what you have done;
I will shout for joy
because of the works of your hands.
5 How magnificent are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
6 A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:
7 though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed.
8 But you, Lord, are exalted forever.
9 For indeed, Lord, your enemies —
indeed, your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.
10 You have lifted up my horn
like that of a wild ox;
I have been anointed with the finest oil.
11 My eyes look at my enemies;
when evildoers rise against me,
my ears hear them.
12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree
and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the house of the Lord,
they thrive in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green,
15 to declare, “The Lord is just;
he is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

Psalm 93

GOD’S ETERNAL REIGN
The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty;
the Lord is robed, enveloped in strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
2 Your throne has been established
from the beginning;
you are from eternity.
3 The floods have lifted up, Lord,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their pounding waves.
4 Greater than the roar of a huge torrent —
the mighty breakers of the sea —
the Lord on high is majestic.
5 Lord, your testimonies are completely reliable;
holiness adorns your house
for all the days to come.

— 1 Chronicles 16, James 3, Obadiah 1, Psalm 92-93 (CSB)