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Psalm 39

1  I said, ‘I will keep watch over my ways, ♦︎
   so that I offend not with my tongue.
2  ‘I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, ♦︎
   while the wicked are in my sight.’
3  So I held my tongue and said nothing; ♦︎
   I kept silent but to no avail.
4  My distress increased, my heart grew hot within me; ♦︎
   while I mused, the fire was kindled
      and I spoke out with my tongue:
5  ‘Lord, let me know my end and the number of my days, ♦︎
   that I may know how short my time is.
6  ‘You have made my days but a handsbreadth,
      and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight; ♦︎
   truly, even those who stand upright are but a breath.
7  ‘We walk about like a shadow
      and in vain we are in turmoil; ♦︎
   we heap up riches and cannot tell who will gather them.
8  ‘And now, what is my hope? ♦︎
   Truly my hope is even in you.
9  ‘Deliver me from all my transgressions ♦︎
   and do not make me the taunt of the fool.’
10  I fell silent and did not open my mouth, ♦︎
   for surely it was your doing.
11  Take away your plague from me; ♦︎
   I am consumed by the blows of your hand.
12  With rebukes for sin you punish us;
      like a moth you consume our beauty; ♦︎
   truly, everyone is but a breath.
13  Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; ♦︎
   hold not your peace at my tears.
14  For I am but a stranger with you, ♦︎
   a wayfarer, as all my forebears were.
15  Turn your gaze from me, that I may be glad again, ♦︎
   before I go my way and am no more.

Job Replies: God’s Majesty Is Unsearchable

26Then Job answered:
² ‘How you have helped one who has no power!
   How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!
³ How you have counselled one who has no wisdom,
   and given much good advice!
⁴ With whose help have you uttered words,
   and whose spirit has come forth from you?
⁵ The shades below tremble,
   the waters and their inhabitants.
⁶ Sheol is naked before God,
   and Abaddon has no covering.
⁷ He stretches out Zaphon^* over the void,
   and hangs the earth upon nothing.
⁸ He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
   and the cloud is not torn open by them.
⁹ He covers the face of the full moon,
   and spreads over it his cloud.
¹⁰ He has described a circle on the face of the waters,
   at the boundary between light and darkness.
¹¹ The pillars of heaven tremble,
   and are astounded at his rebuke.
¹² By his power he stilled the Sea;
   by his understanding he struck down Rahab.
¹³ By his wind the heavens were made fair;
   his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
¹⁴ These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways;
   and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
   But the thunder of his power who can understand?’

The Multitude from Every Nation

9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
¹¹And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, ¹²singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ ¹⁴I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
¹⁵ For this reason they are before the throne of God,
   and worship him day and night within his temple,
   and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
¹⁶ They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
   the sun will not strike them,
   nor any scorching heat;
¹⁷ for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,
   and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’