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Psalm 95

1  O come, let us sing to the Lord; ♦︎
   let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation.
2  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving ♦︎
   and be glad in him with psalms.
3  For the Lord is a great God ♦︎
   and a great king above all gods.
4  In his hand are the depths of the earth ♦︎
   and the heights of the mountains are his also.
5  The sea is his, for he made it, ♦︎
   and his hands have moulded the dry land.
6  Come, let us worship and bow down ♦︎
   and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7  For he is our God; ♦︎
   we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
8  O that today you would listen to his voice: ♦︎
   ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
      on that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9  ‘When your forebears tested me, and put me to the proof, ♦︎
   though they had seen my works.
10  ‘Forty years long I detested that generation and said, ♦︎
   “This people are wayward in their hearts;
      they do not know my ways.”
11  ‘So I swore in my wrath, ♦︎
   “They shall not enter into my rest.” ’

Psalm 96

1  Sing to the Lord a new song; ♦︎
   sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2  Sing to the Lord and bless his name; ♦︎
   tell out his salvation from day to day.
3  Declare his glory among the nations ♦︎
   and his wonders among all peoples.
4  For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; ♦︎
   he is more to be feared than all gods.
5  For all the gods of the nations are but idols; ♦︎
   it is the Lord who made the heavens.
6  Honour and majesty are before him; ♦︎
   power and splendour are in his sanctuary.
7  Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples; ♦︎
   ascribe to the Lord honour and strength.
8  Ascribe to the Lord the honour due to his name; ♦︎
   bring offerings and come into his courts.
9  O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; ♦︎
   let the whole earth tremble before him.
10  Tell it out among the nations that the Lord is king. ♦︎
   He has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved;
      he will judge the peoples with equity.
11  Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad; ♦︎
   let the sea thunder and all that is in it;
12  Let the fields be joyful and all that is in them; ♦︎
   let all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord.
13  For he comes, he comes to judge the earth; ♦︎
   with righteousness he will judge the world
      and the peoples with his truth.

Psalm 97

1  The Lord is king: let the earth rejoice; ♦︎
   let the multitude of the isles be glad.
2  Clouds and darkness are round about him; ♦︎
   righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3  Fire goes before him ♦︎
   and burns up his enemies on every side.
4  His lightnings lit up the world; ♦︎
   the earth saw it and trembled.
5  The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, ♦︎
   at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6  The heavens declared his righteousness, ♦︎
   and all the peoples have seen his glory.
7  Confounded be all who worship carved images
      and delight in mere idols. ♦︎
   Bow down before him, all you gods.
8  Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced, ♦︎
   because of your judgements, O Lord.
9  For you, Lord, are most high over all the earth; ♦︎
   you are exalted far above all gods.
10  The Lord loves those who hate evil; ♦︎
   he preserves the lives of his faithful
      and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11  Light has sprung up for the righteous ♦︎
   and joy for the true of heart.
12  Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, ♦︎
   and give thanks to his holy name.

Trades and Crafts

²⁴ The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;
   only the one who has little business can become wise.
²⁵ How can one become wise who handles the plough,
   and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
   and whose talk is about bulls?
²⁶ He sets his heart on ploughing furrows,
   and he is careful about fodder for the heifers.
²⁷ So it is with every artisan and master artisan
   who labours by night as well as by day;
those who cut the signets of seals,
   each is diligent in making a great variety;
they set their heart on painting a lifelike image,
   and they are careful to finish their work.
²⁸ So it is with the smith, sitting by the anvil,
   intent on his ironwork;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
   and he struggles with the heat of the furnace;
the sound of the hammer deafens his ears,^*
   and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
   and he is careful to complete its decoration.
²⁹ So it is with is the potter sitting at his work
   and turning the wheel with his feet;
he is always deeply concerned over his products,
   and he produces them in quantity.
³⁰ He moulds the clay with his arm
   and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart on finishing the glazing,
   and he takes care in firing^* the kiln.

³¹ All these rely on their hands,
   and all are skilful in their own work.
³² Without them no city can be inhabited,
   and wherever they live, they will not go hungry.^*
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,^*
33   nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge’s seat,
   nor do they understand the decisions of the courts;
they cannot expound discipline or judgement,
   and they are not found among the rulers.^*
34 But they maintain the fabric of the world,
   and their concern is for^* the exercise of their trade.

The Activity of the Scribe

How different the one who devotes himself
   to the study of the law of the Most High!

God’s Covenant with David

17Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, ‘I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.’ ²Nathan said to David, ‘Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.’

3 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: ⁴Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in. ⁵For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.^{* 6}Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? ⁷Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel; ⁸and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, ¹⁰from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies.

Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹²He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne for ever. ¹³I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom for ever, and his throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁵In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

The Lamb and the 144,000

14Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. ²And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, ³and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. ⁴It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, ⁵and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.

The Messages of the Three Angels

6 Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live^* on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. ⁷He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgement has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’

8 Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’

9 Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, ‘Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, ¹⁰they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.’

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of^* Jesus.

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them.’