Psalm 149 (Listen)

Sing to the Lord a New Song

149   Praise the LORD!
  Sing to the LORD a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2   Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
    let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3   Let them praise his name with dancing,
    making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
4   For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.
5   Let the godly exult in glory;
    let them sing for joy on their beds.
6   Let the high praises of God be in their throats
    and two-edged swords in their hands,
7   to execute vengeance on the nations
    and punishments on the peoples,
8   to bind their kings with chains
    and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9   to execute on them the judgment written!
    This is honor for all his godly ones.
  Praise the LORD!

(ESV)

Job 39–40:5 (Listen)

39   “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you observe the calving of the does?
2   Can you number the months that they fulfill,
    and do you know the time when they give birth,
3   when they crouch, bring forth their offspring,
    and are delivered of their young?
4   Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;
    they go out and do not return to them.
5   “Who has let the wild donkey go free?
    Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
6   to whom I have given the arid plain for his home
    and the salt land for his dwelling place?
7   He scorns the tumult of the city;
    he hears not the shouts of the driver.
8   He ranges the mountains as his pasture,
    and he searches after every green thing.
9   “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
    Will he spend the night at your manger?
10   Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,
    or will he harrow the valleys after you?
11   Will you depend on him because his strength is great,
    and will you leave to him your labor?
12   Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain
    and gather it to your threshing floor?
13   “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
    but are they the pinions and plumage of love?¹
14   For she leaves her eggs to the earth
    and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15   forgetting that a foot may crush them
    and that the wild beast may trample them.
16   She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;
    though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
17   because God has made her forget wisdom
    and given her no share in understanding.
18   When she rouses herself to flee,²
    she laughs at the horse and his rider.
19   “Do you give the horse his might?
    Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
20   Do you make him leap like the locust?
    His majestic snorting is terrifying.
21   He paws³ in the valley and exults in his strength;
    he goes out to meet the weapons.
22   He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
    he does not turn back from the sword.
23   Upon him rattle the quiver,
    the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24   With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;
    he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
25   When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’
    He smells the battle from afar,
    the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26   “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars
    and spreads his wings toward the south?
27   Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
    and makes his nest on high?
28   On the rock he dwells and makes his home,
    on the rocky crag and stronghold.
29   From there he spies out the prey;
    his eyes behold it from far away.
30   His young ones suck up blood,
    and where the slain are, there is he.”

40 And the LORD said to Job:

2   “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
    He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

Job Promises Silence

3 Then Job answered the LORD and said:

4   “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
    I lay my hand on my mouth.
5   I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
    twice, but I will proceed no further.”

(ESV)

Isaiah 63–64 (Listen)

The Lord’s Day of Vengeance

63   Who is this who comes from Edom,
    in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
  he who is splendid in his apparel,
    marching in the greatness of his strength?
  “It is I, speaking in righteousness,
    mighty to save.”
2   Why is your apparel red,
    and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
3   “I have trodden the winepress alone,
    and from the peoples no one was with me;
  I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
  their lifeblood¹ spattered on my garments,
    and stained all my apparel.
4   For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
    and my year of redemption² had come.
5   I looked, but there was no one to help;
    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
  so my own arm brought me salvation,
    and my wrath upheld me.
6   I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
    I made them drunk in my wrath,
    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The Lord’s Mercy Remembered

7   I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD,
    the praises of the LORD,
  according to all that the LORD has granted us,
    and the great goodness to the house of Israel
  that he has granted them according to his compassion,
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
8   For he said, “Surely they are my people,
    children who will not deal falsely.”
    And he became their Savior.
9   In all their affliction he was afflicted,³
    and the angel of his presence saved them;
  in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
10   But they rebelled
    and grieved his Holy Spirit;
  therefore he turned to be their enemy,
    and himself fought against them.
11   Then he remembered the days of old,
    of Moses and his people.⁴
  Where is he who brought them up out of the sea
    with the shepherds of his flock?
  Where is he who put in the midst of them
    his Holy Spirit,
12   who caused his glorious arm
    to go at the right hand of Moses,
  who divided the waters before them
    to make for himself an everlasting name,
13     who led them through the depths?
  Like a horse in the desert,
    they did not stumble.
14   Like livestock that go down into the valley,
    the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.
  So you led your people,
    to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

15   Look down from heaven and see,
    from your holy and beautiful⁵ habitation.
  Where are your zeal and your might?
    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
    are held back from me.
16   For you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
  you, O LORD, are our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17   O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways
    and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
  Return for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes of your heritage.
18   Your holy people held possession for a little while;⁶
    our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
19   We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
    like those who are not called by your name.
64   Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2   ⁷ as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
  to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3   When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4   From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
  no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
5   You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
  Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?⁸
6   We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
  We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7   There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
  for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in⁹ the hand of our iniquities.
8   But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
9   Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
    and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.
10   Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
11   Our holy and beautiful¹⁰ house,
    where our fathers praised you,
  has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12   Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD?
    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

(ESV)

Revelation 20 (Listen)

The Thousand Years

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit¹ and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

The Defeat of Satan

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven² and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Judgment Before the Great White Throne

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

(ESV)