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Psalm 4

To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

    ²O you sons of men, how long will you turn my honor and glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and futility and seek after lies? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

    ³But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself [and given distinction to] him who is godly [the man of loving-kindness]. The Lord listens and heeds when I call to Him.

    ⁴Be angry [or stand in awe] and sin not; commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be silent (sorry for the things you say in your hearts). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(A)

    ⁵Offer just and right sacrifices; trust (lean on and be confident) in the Lord.

    ⁶Many say, Oh, that we might see some good! Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord.

    ⁷You have put more joy and rejoicing in my heart than [they know] when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly.

    ⁸In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust.

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Psalm 42

BOOK TWO

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

    ²My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?^(A)

    ³My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?

    ⁴These things I [earnestly] remember and pour myself out within me: how I went slowly before the throng and led them in procession to the house of God [like a bandmaster before his band, timing the steps to the sound of music and the chant of song], with the voice of shouting and praise, a throng keeping festival.

    ⁵Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.

    ⁶O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You from the land of the Jordan [River] and the [summits of Mount] Hermon, from the little mountain Mizar.

    ⁷[Roaring] deep calls to [roaring] deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your rolling waves have gone over me.

    ⁸Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

    ⁹I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

    ¹⁰As with a sword [crushing] in my bones, my enemies taunt and reproach me, while they say continually to me, Where is your God?

    ¹¹Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

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Luke 11

    ²And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.

    ³Give us daily our bread [^[a]food for the morrow].

    ⁴And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.

    ⁵And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread],

    ⁶For a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I have nothing to put before him;

    ⁷And he from within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you [with anything]?

    ⁸I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

    ⁹So I say to you, Ask and ^[b]keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and^[c]keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and ^[d]keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.

    ¹⁰For everyone who asks and ^[e]keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and ^[f]keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and ^[g]keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.

    ¹¹What father among you, if his son asks for ^[h]a loaf of bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

    ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

    ¹³If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts ^[i]that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and ^[j]continue to ask Him!

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John 17

    ²[Just as] You have granted Him power and authority over all flesh (all humankind), [now glorify Him] so that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.

    ³And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

    ⁴I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do.

    ⁵And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.

    ⁶I have manifested Your Name [I have revealed Your very Self, Your real Self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have obeyed and kept Your word.

    ⁷Now [at last] they know and understand that all You have given Me belongs to You [is really and truly Yours].

    ⁸For the [uttered] words that You gave Me I have given them; and they have received and accepted [them] and have come to know positively and in reality [to believe with absolute assurance] that I came forth from Your presence, and they have believed and are convinced that You did send Me.

    ⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying (requesting) for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they belong to You.

    ¹⁰All [things that are] Mine are Yours, and all [things that are] Yours belong to Me; and I am glorified in (through) them. [They have done Me honor; in them My glory is achieved.]

    ¹¹And [now] I am no more in the world, but these are [still] in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep in Your Name [^[a]in the knowledge of Yourself] those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We [are one].

    ¹²While I was with them, I kept and preserved them in Your Name [^[b]in the knowledge and worship of You]. Those You have given Me I guarded and protected, and not one of them has perished or is lost except the son of perdition [Judas Iscariot--the one who is now doomed to destruction, destined to be lost], that the Scripture might be fulfilled.^(A)

    ¹³And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts].

    ¹⁴I have given and delivered to them Your word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [do not belong to the world], just as I am not of the world.

    ¹⁵I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one.

    ¹⁶They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.

    ¹⁷Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.

    ¹⁸Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

    ¹⁹And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth.

    ²⁰Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching,

    ²¹That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

    ²²I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:

    ²³I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.

    ²⁴Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

    ²⁵O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me.

    ²⁶I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very ^[c]Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them.

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¹⁴And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.

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¹⁵And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.