Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹We thank you, O God! We give thanks because you are near. People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.

²God says, “At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked.

³When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the one who keeps its foundations firm. Interlude

⁴“I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’ I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists!

⁵Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’”

⁶For no one on earth — from east or west, or even from the wilderness — should raise a defiant fist.

⁷It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.

⁸For the LORD holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs.

⁹But as for me, I will always proclaim what God has done; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰For God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly.”

¹God is honored in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

²Jerusalem is where he lives; Mount Zion is his home.

³There he has broken the fiery arrows of the enemy, the shields and swords and weapons of war. Interlude

⁴You are glorious and more majestic than the everlasting mountains.

⁵Our boldest enemies have been plundered. They lie before us in the sleep of death. No warrior could lift a hand against us.

⁶At the blast of your breath, O God of Jacob, their horses and chariots lay still.

⁷No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before you when your anger explodes?

⁸From heaven you sentenced your enemies; the earth trembled and stood silent before you.

⁹You stand up to judge those who do evil, O God, and to rescue the oppressed of the earth. Interlude

¹⁰Human defiance only enhances your glory, for you use it as a weapon.

¹¹Make vows to the LORD your God, and keep them. Let everyone bring tribute to the Awesome One.

¹²For he breaks the pride of princes, and the kings of the earth fear him.

¹I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me!

²When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted.

³I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude

⁴You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray!

⁵I think of the good old days, long since ended,

⁶when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and ponder the difference now.

⁷Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me?

⁸Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed?

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion? Interlude

¹⁰And I said, “This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me.”

¹¹But then I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

¹²They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

¹³O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you?

¹⁴You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

¹⁵By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude

¹⁶When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths.

¹⁷The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed.

¹⁸Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters — a pathway no one knew was there!

²⁰You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

¹O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,

²for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past —

³stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.

⁴We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.

⁵For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,

⁶so the next generation might know them — even the children not yet born — and they in turn will teach their own children.

⁷So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

⁸Then they will not be like their ancestors — stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

⁹The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his instructions.

¹¹They forgot what he had done — the great wonders he had shown them,

¹²the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

¹³For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!

¹⁴In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire.

¹⁵He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.

¹⁶He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!

¹⁷Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.

¹⁹They even spoke against God himself, saying, “God can’t give us food in the wilderness.

²⁰Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”

²¹When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,

²²for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.

²³But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven.

²⁵They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.

²⁶He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power.

²⁷He rained down meat as thick as dust — birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!

²⁸He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.

²⁹The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.

³²But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.

³³So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.

³⁴When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.

³⁵Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.

³⁶But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!

³⁹For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

⁴⁰Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.

⁴¹Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.

⁴³They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.

⁴⁴For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.

⁴⁵He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.

⁴⁷He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He loosed on them his fierce anger — all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives but ravaged them with the plague.

⁵¹He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.

⁵²But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.

⁵³He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them.

⁵⁵He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

⁵⁶But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws.

⁵⁷They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.

⁵⁸They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.

⁶⁰Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.

⁶¹He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.

⁶²He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people — his special possession.

⁶³Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.

⁶⁴Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

⁶⁵Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.

⁶⁶He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.

⁶⁷But he rejected Joseph’s descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.

⁷⁰He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.

⁷¹He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants — God’s own people, Israel.

⁷²He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

¹O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. They have defiled your holy Temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.

²They have left the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven. The flesh of your godly ones has become food for the wild animals.

³Blood has flowed like water all around Jerusalem; no one is left to bury the dead.

⁴We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

⁵O LORD, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you — on kingdoms that do not call upon your name.

⁷For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness.

⁸Do not hold us guilty for the sins of our ancestors! Let your compassion quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair.

⁹Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.

¹⁰Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, “Where is their God?” Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants.

¹¹Listen to the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die.

¹²O Lord, pay back our neighbors seven times for the scorn they have hurled at you.

¹³Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation.

¹Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock. O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory

²to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Show us your mighty power. Come to rescue us!

³Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

⁴O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?

⁵You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful.

⁶You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations. Our enemies treat us as a joke.

⁷Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

⁸You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine; you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.

⁹You cleared the ground for us, and we took root and filled the land.

¹⁰Our shade covered the mountains; our branches covered the mighty cedars.

¹¹We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea; our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.

¹²But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?

¹³The wild boar from the forest devours it, and the wild animals feed on it.

¹⁴Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Look down from heaven and see our plight. Take care of this grapevine

¹⁵that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.

¹⁶For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies. May they perish at the sight of your frown.

¹⁷Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.

¹⁸Then we will never abandon you again. Revive us so we can call on your name once more.

¹⁹Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

¹Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob.

²Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp.

³Blow the ram’s horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival!

⁴For this is required by the decrees of Israel; it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.

⁵He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free. I heard an unknown voice say,

⁶“Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.

⁷You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude

⁸“Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me!

⁹You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.

¹⁰For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

¹¹“But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.

¹²So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.

¹³Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!

¹⁴How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes!

¹⁵Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever.

¹⁶But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”

¹God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings:

²“How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Interlude

³“Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.

⁴Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people.

⁵But these oppressors know nothing; they are so ignorant! They wander about in darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core.

⁶I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High.

⁷But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’”

⁸Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.

¹O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God.

²Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up?

³They devise crafty schemes against your people; they conspire against your precious ones.

⁴“Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.”

⁵Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you —

⁶these Edomites and Ishmaelites; Moabites and Hagrites;

⁷Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites; and people from Philistia and Tyre.

⁸Assyria has joined them, too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Interlude

⁹Do to them as you did to the Midianites and as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

¹⁰They were destroyed at Endor, and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil.

¹¹Let their mighty nobles die as Oreb and Zeeb did. Let all their princes die like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²for they said, “Let us seize for our own use these pasturelands of God!”

¹³O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!

¹⁴As a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,

¹⁵chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest.

¹⁶Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O LORD.

¹⁷Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace.

¹⁸Then they will learn that you alone are called the LORD, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth.

¹How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

²I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.

³Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!

⁴What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. Interlude

⁵What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

⁶When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.

⁷They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.

⁸O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. Interlude

⁹O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield! Show favor to the one you have anointed.

¹⁰A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.

¹¹For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.

¹²O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.

¹LORD, you poured out blessings on your land! You restored the fortunes of Israel.

²You forgave the guilt of your people — yes, you covered all their sins. Interlude

³You held back your fury. You kept back your blazing anger.

⁴Now restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put aside your anger against us once more.

⁵Will you be angry with us always? Will you prolong your wrath to all generations?

⁶Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you?

⁷Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.

⁸I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways.

⁹Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so our land will be filled with his glory.

¹⁰Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!

¹¹Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven.

¹²Yes, the LORD pours down his blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.

¹³Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps.

¹Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.

²Protect me, for I am devoted to you. Save me, for I serve you and trust you. You are my God.

³Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly.

⁴Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.

⁵O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.

⁶Listen closely to my prayer, O LORD; hear my urgent cry.

⁷I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble, and you will answer me.

⁸No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do!

⁹All the nations you made will come and bow before you, Lord; they will praise your holy name.

¹⁰For you are great and perform wonderful deeds. You alone are God.

¹¹Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.

¹²With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God. I will give glory to your name forever,

¹³for your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from the depths of death.

¹⁴O God, insolent people rise up against me; a violent gang is trying to kill me. You mean nothing to them.

¹⁵But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

¹⁶Look down and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant; save me, the son of your servant.

¹⁷Send me a sign of your favor. Then those who hate me will be put to shame, for you, O LORD, help and comfort me.

¹On the holy mountain stands the city founded by the LORD.

²He loves the city of Jerusalem more than any other city in Israel.

³O city of God, what glorious things are said of you! Interlude

⁴I will count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me — also Philistia and Tyre, and even distant Ethiopia. They have all become citizens of Jerusalem!

⁵Regarding Jerusalem it will be said, “Everyone enjoys the rights of citizenship there.” And the Most High will personally bless this city.

⁶When the LORD registers the nations, he will say, “They have all become citizens of Jerusalem.” Interlude

⁷The people will play flutes and sing, “The source of my life springs from Jerusalem!”