Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
Friends, the above is the good news, the gospel as the sure mercies of David, the promise that when we sit in darkness the LORD shall come as our light. As we’ve often discussed, the sure mercies are the LORD’s promise to David that He would build him a house (a family). The builder would be his seed, and if he sinned the LORD would correct him, and His mercy wouldn’t depart from Him as it did from Saul.
2 Samuel 7
8 Now therefore so shall you [Nathan] say unto my servant David, Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:
9 And I was with you whithersoever you went, and have cut off all your enemies out of your sight, and have made you a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as beforetime,
11 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that he will make you a house.
12 And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you: your throne shall be established forever.
The words “sure mercies of David,” meaning they are sure because God promised, only appear once in the Old Testament, Isaiah 55:3, which is later quoted by Paul in Acts 13:34.
Acts 13
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
33 God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he says also in another psalm, You shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
41 Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
Isaiah 55 ends saying the result of this correct is that instead of thorns and briers shall come fir trees and myrtle trees, meaning instead of leaders who are corrupt by neglect there shall be the upright. It’s a simple and perfect plan: there is none righteous, no not one, God has determined all in unbelief, so He can show His mercy upon all. Get into the water with us.
Isaiah 55
1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees [the upright] of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off [as is promised in 2 Samuel 7:16 above, a house, kingdom, and throne that lasts forever].
Here is the perfect plan as Paul describes it in Romans:
Romans 3
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that what things so-ever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped [those who have faith in the LORD’s correct leading have stopped their mouths, their corrupting words of their own ideas and ways – those still speaking are under their law], and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe [He is risen, speaking, correcting, and leading in the flesh]: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God [none have believed it is the LORD’s presence];
24 Being justified freely by his grace [His continuing to be the LORD, saving us even while we were in unbelief] through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God has set forth [protithemai – raised first to show His purpose] to be a propitiation [hilasterion – to be the seat of His mercy] through faith in his blood [His sacrifice to bring us God’s mercy], to declare his righteousness [His correct and rightly ordered understanding] for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also [Is He only the God of those who know Him? He is God of those who know Him and also of the Ignorant]:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision [those who know Him] by [our] faith [in Him], and uncircumcision through [our] faith [in Him, the One we know].
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law [His word, which is only rightly understood by faith in His leading].
Friends, do you understand this is what we are witnessing, experiencing, the proof of?
Romans 9
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.
29 And as Isaiah said before, Except the LORD of Sabaoth [Hosts] had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed [shall reach the expected end].
Romans 11
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who has known the mind of the LORD? or who has been his counselor?
35 Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.
The title is Micah 7:8, this and the chapter before telling the LORD’s mercy, His bringing us out from under the oppression of those who have upset the foundation of the earth. These are those who, in their misleading and apostasy, cursed God’s people. The LORD has appeared in their way, urging them to alter their path and join us, partaking in His mercy and correction. My hope and desire are they all would, while knowing the reality is that many will not and in their rejection will perish with their works in the fires they’ve created.
Micah 7:19 tells of this as the LORD’s compassion, when He subdues our iniquity and casts our sin into the depth of the sea. The following verse says it is when He performs His truth is Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, meaning to those who by faith receive the promise the LORD made to our fathers in days of old.
John, in Revelation 18:21, tells of a stone like a great millstone that is cast into the sea as when Babylon is cast down and found no more. It’s describing the perdition of all the false prophets and false teachers who have made merchandise of God’s people.
The word “millstone” is the four times used Greek word mulos, from words meaning difficulty and hardship. It is used twice here in Revelation 18, and then twice by the LORD in giving us its meaning as these misleader’s works. “6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
Revelation 18
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in you; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in you; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in you;
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you: for your merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries were all nations deceived.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
Revelation 19
1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the LORD our God:
2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he has judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
3 And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up forever and ever.
As we know, the LORD twice, in Matthew 9:13 & 12:7, refers to Hosea 6:6 in telling of the ignorance of the meaning of His saying “I will have [desire] mercy, and not sacrifice.” This comes after saying it’s the sick who need the physician, which is referring again to Hosea, Hosea 5:13 telling of Ephraim’s sickness and Judah’s wound. After the quote, the LORD says, “for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He is speaking of what is written in Romans 3:10 & 11 about none being righteous and there being no understanding among the unfaithful. These men are ignorant of their own condition, which is why in the second (Matthew 12:7) quoting of Hosea 6:6 he says of their ignorance, “But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.”
As we know, the other unquoted part of Hosea 6:6 says the LORD also desires, “the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
Hosea 5
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian [to communism], and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
Hosea 6
1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain [understanding from the clouds] unto the earth.
4 O Ephraim [God’s people at large, in this latter generation], what shall I do unto you? O Judah [God’s elect, the children God has given me], what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away [as understanding you hear and then forget, not doing as the LORD commands].
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light [understand continually given] that goes forth.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
8 Gilead [the mountain of this testimony] is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood [by men adding their opinions and interfering with it, keeping it from bringing life to those needing to hear it].
9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness [“Unstable as water, you shall not excel {remain}; because you went up to your father’s bed; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch.” Genesis 49:4, speaking of Reuben as the pattern of the son of perdition].
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim [following these sons of perdition, who’ve put themselves in God’s place], Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah [God’s elect remnant, his first ripe figs, the first fruits], he has set a harvest for you, when I returned the captivity of my people.
The sin of Saul that caused the LORD to take away mercy was that he was told to “go and smite Amalek [the descendants of Esau], and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” Instead, he spared the Kenites who were among them, spared the Amalekite king (Agag – flame, as in strange fire), and kept the animals alive, which he sacrificed to the LORD.
1 Samuel 15
18 And the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but did fly upon the spoil, and did evil in the sight of the LORD?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD your God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.
24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and your words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, I pray you, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
26 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with you: for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.
27 And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
28 And Samuel said unto him, The LORD has rent the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, that is better than you.
29 And also [He is] the Strength of Israel [who] will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
We see Saul hears the LORD and then does as he pleases, following his own voice (ideas and ways), as it is this day with those rejecting the LORD’s voice and are keeping their mouths open. Their way lacks the knowledge of God, and they act in ways that destroy His people.
The Amalekites are those who attacked God’s people at Rephidim (a resting place), the place where God’s people doubted He was among them and speaking through Moses. It is in the battle with Amelek that Aaron and Hur went up on the mountain with Moses. There Moses held up his rod and hands and when he tired Aaron and Hur stayed him. When Moses’ hands were up Israel prevailed, and when they were down Amelek prevailed. We are told Moses made an altar there and called it Jehovah-Nissi, meaning Jehovah in our Banner. We read of this in Exodus 17, which ends with the LORD telling of war with Amelek from generation to generation. Saul, if he would have followed the LORD’s order, could have ended this war. Amelek represents those who attack God’s people when they are resting (sleeping and complacent, when the banner, Moses’ arms, are down).
Isaiah 13
1 The burden of Babylon [confusion], which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift you up a banner [signal, the known sign in the clouds – understanding the thunder, the voice] upon the high mountain, exalt the voice [the oracles] unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones [those the LORD has separated to Himself for this purpose], I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle.
5They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation [za’am], to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel [‘akzariy] both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. [Church and civil institutions, and the people at large, are realized to be without understanding (light), and are instead the propagators of worldwide confusion.]
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Ecclesiastes 5
1 Keep your foot when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and you upon earth: therefore let your words be few.
3 For a dream comes through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
4 When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.
5 Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; neither say you before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear you God.
8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regards; and there be higher than they.
Micah 6
6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown\ you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
9 The LORD’s voice cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see your name: hear you the rod, and who has appointed it.
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; and your casting down shall be in the midst of you; and you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you delivers will I give up to the sword.
15 You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine.
16 For the statutes of Omri are kept [idol worship in God’s place], and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people.
Micah 7
1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first-ripe fruit.
2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.
3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asks, and the judge asks for a reward; and the great man, he utters his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of your watchmen and your visitation comes; now shall be their perplexity.
5 Trust you not in a friend, put you not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom.
6 For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD your God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
11 In the day that your walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
12 In that day also he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
14 Feed your people with your rod, the flock of your heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
15 According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things.
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of you.
18 Who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
Psalms 1
1 Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
