Day 261 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 146

¹Hallelujah! Praise the LORD, O my soul. ²I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. ³Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save. ⁴When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish. ⁵Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, ⁶the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He remains faithful forever. ⁷He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free, ⁸the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous. ⁹The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates. ¹⁰The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Hallelujah!

New Testament·2 Corinthians 2

¹So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. ²For if I grieve you, who is left to cheer me but those whom I have grieved? ³I wrote as I did so that on my arrival I would not be saddened by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would share my joy. ⁴For through many tears I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart, not to grieve you but to let you know how much I love you. ⁵Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it. ⁶The punishment imposed on him by the majority is sufficient for him. ⁷So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹My purpose in writing you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. ¹⁰If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake, ¹¹in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. ¹²Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and a door stood open for me in the Lord, ¹³I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. ¹⁴But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. ¹⁵For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ¹⁶To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task? ¹⁷For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

Old Testament·Ecclesiastes 8–10

¹Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed. ²Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God. ³Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. ⁴For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” ⁵Whoever keeps his command will come to no harm, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. ⁶For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. ⁷Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come? ⁸As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. ⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment. ¹⁰Then too, I saw the burial of the wicked who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they had done so. This too is futile. ¹¹When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil. ¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence. ¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. ¹⁴There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile. ¹⁵So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun. ¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth—though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night— ¹⁷I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.

9So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate. ²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow. ³This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead. ⁴There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten. ⁶Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun. ⁷Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works: ⁸Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head. ⁹Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. ¹¹I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all. ¹²For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them. ¹³I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me: ¹⁴There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it. ¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.” ¹⁷The calm words of the wise are heeded over the shouts of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

10As dead flies bring a stench to the perfumer’s oil, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. ²A wise man’s heart inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left. ³Even as the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking, and he shows everyone that he is a fool. ⁴If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest. ⁵There is an evil I have seen under the sun— an error that proceeds from the ruler: ⁶Folly is appointed to great heights, but the rich sit in lowly positions. ⁷I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves. ⁸He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake. ⁹The one who quarries stones may be injured by them, and he who splits logs endangers himself. ¹⁰If the axe is dull and the blade unsharpened, more strength must be exerted, but skill produces success. ¹¹If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer. ¹²The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool consume him. ¹³The beginning of his talk is folly, and the end of his speech is evil madness. ¹⁴Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming, and who can tell him what will come after him? ¹⁵The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. ¹⁶Woe to you, O land whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning. ¹⁷Blessed are you, O land whose king is a son of nobles, and whose princes feast at the proper time— for strength and not for drunkenness. ¹⁸Through laziness the roof caves in, and in the hands of the idle, the house leaks. ¹⁹A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. ²⁰Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air may carry your words, and a winged creature may report your speech.