Psalms 17:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him?

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;

Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.

Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now I have seen with joy your people, who are present here, offer willingly to you.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.

To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don’t know.’

They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”

For you have maintained my just cause. You sit on the throne judging righteously.

Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.

Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn.

Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.

The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.

He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.

Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

“For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?

May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you.

that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.

Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cup bearer to the king.

For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.

Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

Hear my cry, God. Listen to my prayer.

Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.

before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.

You are near, Yahweh. All your commandments are truth.

Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.

for Yahweh will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.

My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves.

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”,

And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,

holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also.

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.

For, “He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.”

then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

“Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.

I cried to you, Yahweh. I made supplication to the Lord:

Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defense to save me.

But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.

Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed.

Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.

The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

Give ear to my words, Yahweh. Consider my meditation.

Hear, Yahweh, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.

Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer that is made in this place.

Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.

Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for I pray to you.

Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.

As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me. The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.

Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.

But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.

Hear, Yahweh, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.

Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions.

I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy.

I cry with my voice to Yahweh. With my voice, I ask Yahweh for mercy.

Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.

‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.

Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God;