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Psalm 94

1  Lord God to whom vengeance belongs, ♦︎
   O God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out in majesty.
2  Rise up, O Judge of the earth; ♦︎
   give the arrogant their just deserts.
3  Lord, how long shall the wicked, ♦︎
   how long shall the wicked triumph?
4  How long shall the evildoers boast ♦︎
   and pour out such impudent words?
5  They crush your people, O Lord, ♦︎
   and afflict your heritage.
6  They murder the widow and the stranger; ♦︎
   the orphans they put to death.
7  And yet they say, ‘The Lord will not see, ♦︎
   neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.’
8  Consider, most stupid of people; ♦︎
   you fools, when will you understand?
9  He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? ♦︎
   He that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10  He who corrects the nations, shall he not punish? ♦︎
   He who teaches the peoples, does he lack knowledge?
11  The Lord knows every human thought, ♦︎
   that they are but a breath.
12  Blessed are those whom you chasten, O Lord, ♦︎
   whom you instruct from your law;
13  That you may give them rest in days of adversity, ♦︎
   until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14  For the Lord will not fail his people, ♦︎
   neither will he forsake his inheritance.
15  For justice shall return to the righteous, ♦︎
   and all that are true of heart shall follow it.
16  Who will rise up for me against the wicked? ♦︎
   Who will take my part against the evildoers?
17  If the Lord had not helped me, ♦︎
   my soul would soon have been put to silence.
18  And when I said, ‘My foot has slipped’, ♦︎
   your loving mercy, O Lord, upheld me.
19  In the multitude of cares that troubled my heart, ♦︎
   your comforts have refreshed my soul.
20  Will you have anything to do with the throne of wickedness, ♦︎
   which fashions evil through its law?
21  They gather together against the life of the righteous ♦︎
   and condemn the innocent to death.
22  But the Lord has become my stronghold ♦︎
   and my God the rock of my trust.
23  He will turn against them their own wickedness
      and silence them through their own malice; ♦︎
   the Lord our God will put them to silence.

The Servant’s Mission

49Listen to me, O coastlands,
   pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
   while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
² He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
   in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
   in his quiver he hid me away.
³ And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
   Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
⁴ But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain,
   I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
   and my reward with my God.’

⁵ And now the Lord says,
   who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
   and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord,
   and my God has become my strength—
⁶ he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob
   and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’

⁷ Thus says the Lord,
   the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
   the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
   princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
   the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’

Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home

⁸ Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favour I have answered you,
   on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
   as a covenant to the people,^*
to establish the land,
   to apportion the desolate heritages;
⁹ saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
   to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They shall feed along the ways,
   on all the bare heights^* shall be their pasture;
¹⁰ they shall not hunger or thirst,
   neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
   and by springs of water will guide them.
¹¹ And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
   and my highways shall be raised up.
¹² Lo, these shall come from far away,
   and lo, these from the north and from the west,
   and these from the land of Syene.^*

¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
   break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
   and will have compassion on his suffering ones.

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,^* about those who have died,^* so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.^{* 15}For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^{* 16}For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.