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Psalm 46

1  God is our refuge and strength, ♦︎
   a very present help in trouble;
2  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, ♦︎
   and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea;
3  Though the waters rage and swell, ♦︎
   and though the mountains quake at the towering seas.
4  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, ♦︎
   the holy place of the dwelling of the Most High.
5  God is in the midst of her;
      therefore shall she not be removed; ♦︎
   God shall help her at the break of day.
6  The nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken, ♦︎
   but God utters his voice and the earth shall melt away.
7  The Lord of hosts is with us; ♦︎
   the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
8  Come and behold the works of the Lord, ♦︎
   what destruction he has wrought upon the earth.
9  He makes wars to cease in all the world; ♦︎
   he shatters the bow and snaps the spear
      and burns the chariots in the fire.
10  ‘Be still, and know that I am God; ♦︎
   I will be exalted among the nations;
      I will be exalted in the earth.’
11  The Lord of hosts is with us; ♦︎
   the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

11Open your doors, O Lebanon,
   so that fire may devour your cedars!
² Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
   for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
   for the thick forest has been felled!
³ Listen, the wail of the shepherds,
   for their glory is despoiled!
Listen, the roar of the lions,
   for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!

Two Kinds of Shepherds

4 Thus said the Lord my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. ⁵Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich’; and their own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbour, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.

7 So, on behalf of the sheep dealers, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favour, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. ⁸In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹So I said, ‘I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!’ ¹⁰I took my staff Favour and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep dealers, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²I then said to them, ‘If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. ¹³Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it into the treasury’^*—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury^* in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,^* or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy,^* but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
¹⁷ Oh, my worthless shepherd,
   who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
   and his right eye!
Let his arm be completely withered,
   his right eye utterly blinded!

A Living Hope

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice,^* even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, ⁷so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Although you have not seen^* him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.