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Psalm 40

1  I waited patiently for the Lord; ♦︎
   he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2  He brought me out of the roaring pit,
      out of the mire and clay; ♦︎
   he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure.
3  He has put a new song in my mouth,
      a song of praise to our God; ♦︎
   many shall see and fear
      and put their trust in the Lord.
4  Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, ♦︎
   who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie.
5  Great are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God.
      How great your designs for us! ♦︎
   There is none that can be compared with you.
6  If I were to proclaim them and tell of them ♦︎
   they would be more than I am able to express.
7  Sacrifice and offering you do not desire ♦︎
   but my ears you have opened;
8  Burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required; ♦︎
   then said I: ‘Lo, I come.
9  ‘In the scroll of the book it is written of me
      that I should do your will, O my God; ♦︎
   I delight to do it: your law is within my heart.’
10  I have declared your righteousness in the great congregation; ♦︎
   behold, I did not restrain my lips,
      and that, O Lord, you know.
11  Your righteousness I have not hidden in my heart;
      I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; ♦︎
   I have not concealed your loving-kindness and truth
      from the great congregation.
12  Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord; ♦︎
   let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me,
13  For innumerable troubles have come about me;
      my sins have overtaken me so that I cannot look up; ♦︎
   they are more in number than the hairs of my head,
      and my heart fails me.
14  Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; ♦︎
   O Lord, make haste to help me.
15  Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed
      who seek after my life to destroy it; ♦︎
   let them be driven back and put to shame
      who wish me evil.
16  Let those who heap insults upon me ♦︎
   be desolate because of their shame.
17  Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad; ♦︎
   let those who love your salvation say always,
      ‘The Lord is great.’
18  Though I am poor and needy, ♦︎
   the Lord cares for me.
19  You are my helper and my deliverer; ♦︎
   O my God, make no delay.

The Seventh Plague: Thunder and Hail

13 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ¹⁴For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself, and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. ¹⁵For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. ¹⁶But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth. ¹⁷You are still exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go. ¹⁸Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place; every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.” ’ ²⁰Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place. ²¹Those who did not regard the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the open field.

22 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt.’ ²³Then Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; ²⁴there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. ²⁵The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field, and shattered every tree in the field. ²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail.

27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. ²⁸Pray to the Lord! Enough of God’s thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.’ ²⁹Moses said to him, ‘As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. ³⁰But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.’ ³¹(Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. ³²But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late in coming up.) ³³So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the Lord; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth. ³⁴But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials. ³⁵So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace

14 Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled. ¹⁶See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent,^* even though he sought the blessing^* with tears.

18 You have not come to something^* that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, ¹⁹and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. ²⁰(For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.’ ²¹Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’) ²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³and to the assembly^* of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ ²⁷This phrase ‘Yet once more’ indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; ²⁹for indeed our God is a consuming fire.