Tuesday, September 15 — Psalm 145:1–5 · 1 Corinthians 15:34–58 · Job 42; Ecclesiastes 1–2
Three short readings a day — a Psalm or Proverb, the New Testament, and the Old Testament — about 15 minutes. Day by day, you’ll read every book.
1I will exalt You, my God and King; I will bless Your name forever and ever. 2Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. 3Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable. 4One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts— 5the glorious splendor of Your majesty. And I will meditate on Your wondrous works.
34Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame. 35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. 38But God gives it a body as He has designed, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body. 39Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. 40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another. 41The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. 42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man. 50Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55“Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1Then Job replied to the LORD: 2“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted. 3You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’ 5My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You. 6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.” 7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. 8So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.” 9So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s request. 10After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions. 11All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came and dined with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him over all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. And each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. 15No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers. 16After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17And so Job died, old and full of years.
1These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!” 3What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? 4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. 6The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. 7All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow. 8All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. 9What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us. 11There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after. 12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them! 14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. 15What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” 17So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind. 18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.
2I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile. 2I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” 3I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. 4I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees. 6I built reservoirs to water my groves of flourishing trees. 7I acquired menservants and maidservants, and servants were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me, 8and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—many concubines. 9So I became great and surpassed all in Jerusalem who had preceded me; and my wisdom remained with me. 10Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 11Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun. 12Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished? 13And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness: 14The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both. 15So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile. 16For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool! 17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind. 18I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. 19And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile. 20So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun. 21When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil. 22For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun? 23Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile. 24Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God. 25For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment? 26To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
What fear does today’s reading speak to?
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain.