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Psalm 10

1  Why stand so far off, O Lord? ♦︎
   Why hide yourself in time of trouble?
2  The wicked in their pride persecute the poor; ♦︎
   let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.
3  The wicked boast of their heart’s desire; ♦︎
   the covetous curse and revile the Lord.
4  The wicked in their arrogance say, ‘God will not avenge it’; ♦︎
   in all their scheming God counts for nothing.
5  They are stubborn in all their ways,
      for your judgements are far above out of their sight; ♦︎
   they scoff at all their adversaries.
6  They say in their heart, ‘I shall not be shaken; ♦︎
   no harm shall ever happen to me.’
7  Their mouth is full of cursing, deceit and fraud; ♦︎
   under their tongue lie mischief and wrong.
8  They lurk in the outskirts
      and in dark alleys they murder the innocent; ♦︎
   their eyes are ever watching for the helpless.
9  They lie in wait, like a lion in his den;
      they lie in wait to seize the poor; ♦︎
   they seize the poor when they get them into their net.
10  The innocent are broken and humbled before them; ♦︎
   the helpless fall before their power.
11  They say in their heart, ‘God has forgotten; ♦︎
   he hides his face away; he will never see it.’
12  Arise, O Lord God, and lift up your hand; ♦︎
   forget not the poor.
13  Why should the wicked be scornful of God? ♦︎
   Why should they say in their hearts, ‘You will not avenge it’?
14  Surely, you behold trouble and misery; ♦︎
   you see it and take it into your own hand.
15  The helpless commit themselves to you, ♦︎
   for you are the helper of the orphan.
16  Break the power of the wicked and malicious; ♦︎
   search out their wickedness until you find none.
17  The Lord shall reign for ever and ever; ♦︎
   the nations shall perish from his land.
18  Lord, you will hear the desire of the poor; ♦︎
   you will incline your ear to the fullness of their heart,
19  To give justice to the orphan and oppressed, ♦︎
   so that people are no longer driven in terror from the land.

The People’s Disobedience

16 As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. ¹⁷Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. ¹⁹Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own hurt? ²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ²²For on the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices. ²³But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backwards rather than forwards. ²⁵From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; ²⁶yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

The Message to Philadelphia

7 ‘And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of the holy one, the true one,
   who has the key of David,
   who opens and no one will shut,
     who shuts and no one opens:

8 ‘I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. ¹⁰Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. ¹¹I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. ¹²If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. ¹³Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.