NOVEMBER 17, 2025 PORTALS OF PRAYER READINGS

 

Deuteronomy 32:1-10

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
    and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
² May my teaching drop as the rain,
    my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
    and like showers upon the herb.
³ For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
    ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴ “The Rock, his work is perfect,
    for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is he.
⁵ They have dealt corruptly with him;
    they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
    they are a crooked and twisted generation.
⁶ Do you thus repay the Lord,
    you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
    who made you and established you?
⁷ Remember the days of old;
    consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
    your elders, and they will tell you.
⁸ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders^[a] of the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of God.^[b]
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted heritage.

¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Footnotes

1. Deuteronomy 32:8 Or territories
2. Deuteronomy 32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text sons of Israel

Psalm 16

You Will Not Abandon My Soul

A Miktam^[a] of David.

16 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
² I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”

³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.^[b]

⁴ The sorrows of those who run after^[c] another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.

⁵ The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.^[d]
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being^[e] rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.^[f]

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 16:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
2. Psalm 16:3 Or To the saints in the land, the excellent in whom is all my delight, I say:
3. Psalm 16:4 Or who acquire
4. Psalm 16:7 Hebrew my kidneys instruct me
5. Psalm 16:9 Hebrew my glory
6. Psalm 16:10 Or see the pit

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