December 14: Psalm 134; Job 21; Isaiah 43–44:5; Revelation 4 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 134 (Listen)

Come, Bless the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

134   Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,
    who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
2   Lift up your hands to the holy place
    and bless the LORD!


3   May the LORD bless you from Zion,
    he who made heaven and earth!

(ESV)

Job 21 (Listen)

Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper

21 Then Job answered and said:

2   “Keep listening to my words,
    and let this be your comfort.
3   Bear with me, and I will speak,
    and after I have spoken, mock on.
4   As for me, is my complaint against man?
    Why should I not be impatient?
5   Look at me and be appalled,
    and lay your hand over your mouth.
6   When I remember, I am dismayed,
    and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7   Why do the wicked live,
    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8   Their offspring are established in their presence,
    and their descendants before their eyes.
9   Their houses are safe from fear,
    and no rod of God is upon them.
10   Their bull breeds without fail;
    their cow calves and does not miscarry.
11   They send out their little boys like a flock,
    and their children dance.
12   They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
    and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
13   They spend their days in prosperity,
    and in peace they go down to Sheol.
14   They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
    We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15   What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
16   Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
    The counsel of the wicked is far from me.


17   “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
    That their calamity comes upon them?
    That God¹ distributes pains in his anger?
18   That they are like straw before the wind,
    and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19   You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
    Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
20   Let their own eyes see their destruction,
    and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21   For what do they care for their houses after them,
    when the number of their months is cut off?
22   Will any teach God knowledge,
    seeing that he judges those who are on high?
23   One dies in his full vigor,
    being wholly at ease and secure,
24   his pails² full of milk
    and the marrow of his bones moist.
25   Another dies in bitterness of soul,
    never having tasted of prosperity.
26   They lie down alike in the dust,
    and the worms cover them.


27   “Behold, I know your thoughts
    and your schemes to wrong me.
28   For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
    Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29   Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
    and do you not accept their testimony
30   that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
    that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31   Who declares his way to his face,
    and who repays him for what he has done?
32   When he is carried to the grave,
    watch is kept over his tomb.
33   The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
    all mankind follows after him,
    and those who go before him are innumerable.
34   How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
    There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

(ESV)

Isaiah 43–44:5 (Listen)

Israel’s Only Savior

43   But now thus says the LORD,
  he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
2   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
  when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
3   For I am the LORD your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
  I give Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4   Because you are precious in my eyes,
    and honored, and I love you,
  I give men in return for you,
    peoples in exchange for your life.
5   Fear not, for I am with you;
    I will bring your offspring from the east,
    and from the west I will gather you.
6   I will say to the north, Give up,
    and to the south, Do not withhold;
  bring my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7   everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.”


8   Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
    who are deaf, yet have ears!
9   All the nations gather together,
    and the peoples assemble.
  Who among them can declare this,
    and show us the former things?
  Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,
    and let them hear and say, It is true.
10   “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD,
    “and my servant whom I have chosen,
  that you may know and believe me
    and understand that I am he.
  Before me no god was formed,
    nor shall there be any after me.
11   I, I am the LORD,
    and besides me there is no savior.
12   I declared and saved and proclaimed,
    when there was no strange god among you;
    and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.
13   Also henceforth I am he;
    there is none who can deliver from my hand;
    I work, and who can turn it back?”


14   Thus says the LORD,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
  “For your sake I send to Babylon
    and bring them all down as fugitives,
    even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
15   I am the LORD, your Holy One,
    the Creator of Israel, your King.”


16   Thus says the LORD,
    who makes a way in the sea,
    a path in the mighty waters,
17   who brings forth chariot and horse,
    army and warrior;
  they lie down, they cannot rise,
    they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18   “Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
19   Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
  I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.
20   The wild beasts will honor me,
    the jackals and the ostriches,
  for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
  to give drink to my chosen people,
21     the people whom I formed for myself
  that they might declare my praise.


22   “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
    but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
23   You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,
    or honored me with your sacrifices.
  I have not burdened you with offerings,
    or wearied you with frankincense.
24   You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
    or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
  But you have burdened me with your sins;
    you have wearied me with your iniquities.


25   “I, I am he
    who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
    and I will not remember your sins.
26   Put me in remembrance; let us argue together;
    set forth your case, that you may be proved right.
27   Your first father sinned,
    and your mediators transgressed against me.
28   Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary,
    and deliver Jacob to utter destruction
    and Israel to reviling.

Israel the Lord’s Chosen

44   “But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
    Israel whom I have chosen!
2   Thus says the LORD who made you,
    who formed you from the womb and will help you:
  Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
    Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3   For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
  I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
4   They shall spring up among the grass
    like willows by flowing streams.
5   This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s,’
    another will call on the name of Jacob,
  and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’
    and name himself by the name of Israel.”

(ESV)

Revelation 4 (Listen)

The Throne in Heaven

4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings¹ and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

  “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11   “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
  for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

(ESV)