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Psalm 60

1  O God, you have cast us off and broken us; ♦︎
   you have been angry; restore us to yourself again.
2  You have shaken the earth and torn it apart; ♦︎
   heal its wounds, for it trembles.
3  You have made your people drink bitter things; ♦︎
   we reel from the deadly wine you have given us.
4  You have made those who fear you to flee, ♦︎
   to escape from the range of the bow.
5  That your beloved may be delivered, ♦︎
   save us by your right hand and answer us.
6  God has spoken in his holiness: ♦︎
   ‘I will triumph and divide Shechem,
      and share out the valley of Succoth.
7  ‘Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine; ♦︎
   Ephraim is my helmet and Judah my sceptre.
8  ‘Moab shall be my washpot;
      over Edom will I cast my sandal; ♦︎
   across Philistia will I shout in triumph.’
9  Who will lead me into the strong city? ♦︎
   Who will bring me into Edom?
10  Have you not cast us off, O God? ♦︎
   Will you no longer go forth with our troops?
11  Grant us your help against the enemy, ♦︎
   for earthly help is in vain.
12  Through God will we do great acts, ♦︎
   for it is he that shall tread down our enemies.

Psalm 61

1  Hear my crying, O God, ♦︎
   and listen to my prayer.
2  From the end of the earth I call to you with fainting heart; ♦︎
   O set me on the rock that is higher than I.
3  For you are my refuge, ♦︎
   a strong tower against the enemy.
4  Let me dwell in your tent for ever ♦︎
   and take refuge under the cover of your wings.
5  For you, O God, will hear my vows; ♦︎
   you will grant the request of those who fear your name.
6  You will add length of days to the life of the king, ♦︎
   that his years may endure throughout all generations.
7  May he sit enthroned before God for ever; ♦︎
   may steadfast love and truth watch over him.
8  So will I always sing praise to your name, ♦︎
   and day by day fulfil my vows.

Friendship, False and True

⁵ Pleasant speech multiplies friends,
   and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies.
⁶ Let those who are friendly with you be many,
   but let your advisers be one in a thousand.
⁷ When you gain friends, gain them through testing,
   and do not trust them hastily.
⁸ For there are friends who are such when it suits them,
   but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.
⁹ And there are friends who change into enemies,
   and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace.
¹⁰ And there are friends who sit at your table,
   but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.
¹¹ When you are prosperous, they become your second self,
   and lord it over your servants;
¹² but if you are brought low, they turn against you,
   and hide themselves from you.
¹³ Keep away from your enemies,
   and be on guard with your friends.

¹⁴ Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter:
   whoever finds one has found a treasure.
¹⁵ Faithful friends are beyond price;
   no amount can balance their worth.
¹⁶ Faithful friends are life-saving medicine;
   and those who fear the Lord will find them.
¹⁷ Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright,
   for as they are, so are their neighbours also.

⁹ Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
   and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
   and pervert all equity,
¹⁰ who build Zion with blood
   and Jerusalem with wrong!
¹¹ Its rulers give judgement for a bribe,
   its priests teach for a price,
   its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
   ‘Surely the Lord is with us!
   No harm shall come upon us.’
¹² Therefore because of you
   Zion shall be ploughed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
   and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Peace and Security through Obedience

4In days to come
   the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
   and shall be raised up above the hills.
Peoples shall stream to it,
²   and many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
   and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
   and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³ He shall judge between many peoples,
   and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
   and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
   neither shall they learn war any more;
⁴ but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
   and no one shall make them afraid;
   for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

⁵ For all the peoples walk,
   each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
   for ever and ever.

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.’