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Psalm 70

1  O God, make speed to save me; ♦︎
   O Lord, make haste to help me.
2  Let those who seek my life
      be put to shame and confusion; ♦︎
   let them be turned back and disgraced
      who wish me evil.
3  Let those who mock and deride me ♦︎
   turn back because of their shame.
4  But let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; ♦︎
   let those who love your salvation say always, ‘Great is the Lord!’
5  As for me, I am poor and needy; ♦︎
   come to me quickly, O God.
6  You are my help and my deliverer; ♦︎
   O Lord, do not delay.

Psalm 71

1  In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; ♦︎
   let me never be put to shame.
2  In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; ♦︎
   incline your ear to me and save me.
3  Be for me a stronghold to which I may ever resort; ♦︎
   send out to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4  Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, ♦︎
   from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5  For you are my hope, O Lord God, ♦︎
   my confidence, even from my youth.
6  Upon you have I leaned from my birth,
      when you drew me from my mother’s womb; ♦︎
   my praise shall be always of you.
7  I have become a portent to many, ♦︎
   but you are my refuge and my strength.
8  Let my mouth be full of your praise ♦︎
   and your glory all the day long.
9  Do not cast me away in the time of old age; ♦︎
   forsake me not when my strength fails.
10  For my enemies are talking against me, ♦︎
   and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.
11  They say, ‘God has forsaken him;
      pursue him and take him, ♦︎
   because there is none to deliver him.’
12  O God, be not far from me; ♦︎
   come quickly to help me, O my God.
13  Let those who are against me
      be put to shame and disgrace; ♦︎
   let those who seek to do me evil
      be covered with scorn and reproach.
14  But as for me I will hope continually ♦︎
   and will praise you more and more.
15  My mouth shall tell of your righteousness
      and salvation all the day long, ♦︎
   for I know no end of the telling.
16  I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God; ♦︎
   I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.
17  O God, you have taught me since I was young, ♦︎
   and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.
18  Forsake me not, O God,
      when I am old and grey-headed, ♦︎
   till I make known your deeds to the next generation
      and your power to all that are to come.
19  Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens; ♦︎
   in the great things you have done, who is like you, O God?
20  What troubles and adversities you have shown me, ♦︎
   and yet you will turn and refresh me
      and bring me from the deep of the earth again.
21  Increase my honour; ♦︎
   turn again and comfort me.
22  Therefore will I praise you upon the harp
      for your faithfulness, O my God; ♦︎
   I will sing to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23  My lips will sing out as I play to you, ♦︎
   and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24  My tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long, ♦︎
   for they shall be shamed and disgraced
      who sought to do me evil.

10A wise magistrate educates his people,
   and the rule of an intelligent person is well ordered.
² As the people’s judge is, so are his officials;
   as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants.
³ An undisciplined king ruins his people,
   but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.
⁴ The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord,
   and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time.
⁵ Human success is in the hand of the Lord,
   and it is he who confers honour upon the lawgiver.^*

The Sin of Pride

⁶ Do not get angry with your neighbour for every injury,
   and do not resort to acts of insolence.
⁷ Arrogance is hateful to the Lord and to mortals,
   and injustice is outrageous to both.
⁸ Sovereignty passes from nation to nation
   on account of injustice and insolence and wealth.^*
9 How can dust and ashes be proud?
   Even in life the human body decays.^*
10 A long illness baffles the physician;^*
   the king of today will die tomorrow.
¹¹ For when one is dead
   he inherits maggots and vermin^* and worms.
¹² The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord;
   the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.
¹³ For the beginning of pride is sin,
   and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.
Therefore the Lord brings upon them unheard-of calamities,
   and destroys them completely.
¹⁴ The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers,
   and enthrones the lowly in their place.
¹⁵ The Lord plucks up the roots of the nations,^*
   and plants the humble in their place.
¹⁶ The Lord lays waste the lands of the nations,
   and destroys them to the foundations of the earth.
¹⁷ He removes some of them and destroys them,
   and erases the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁸ Pride was not created for human beings,
   or violent anger for those born of women.

The Total Corruption of the People

7Woe is me! For I have become like one who,
   after the summer fruit has been gathered,
   after the vintage has been gleaned,
finds no cluster to eat;
   there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.
² The faithful have disappeared from the land,
   and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
   and they hunt each other with nets.
³ Their hands are skilled to do evil;
   the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
   thus they pervert justice.^*
4 The best of them is like a brier,
   the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their^* sentinels, of their^* punishment, has come;
   now their confusion is at hand.
⁵ Put no trust in a friend,
   have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
   from her who lies in your embrace;
⁶ for the son treats the father with contempt,
   the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
   your enemies are members of your own household.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
   I will wait for the God of my salvation;
   my God will hear me.

9And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit; ²he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ³Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth. ⁴They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7 In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, ⁸their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; ⁹they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. ¹⁰They have tails like scorpions, with stings, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. ¹¹They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,^* and in Greek he is called Apollyon.^*

12 The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.