December 20: Psalm 140; Job 29; Isaiah 51–52:12; Revelation 11 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 140 (Listen)

Deliver Me, O Lord, from Evil Men

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

140   Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men;
    preserve me from violent men,
2   who plan evil things in their heart
    and stir up wars continually.
3   They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s,
    and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah


4   Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
    preserve me from violent men,
    who have planned to trip up my feet.
5   The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,
    and with cords they have spread a net;¹
    beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah


6   I say to the LORD, You are my God;
    give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD!
7   O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation,
    you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8   Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;
    do not further their² evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah


9   As for the head of those who surround me,
    let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
10   Let burning coals fall upon them!
    Let them be cast into fire,
    into miry pits, no more to rise!
11   Let not the slanderer be established in the land;
    let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!


12   I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
    and will execute justice for the needy.
13   Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;
    the upright shall dwell in your presence.

(ESV)

Job 29 (Listen)

Job’s Summary Defense

29 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

2   “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
    as in the days when God watched over me,
3   when his lamp shone upon my head,
    and by his light I walked through darkness,
4   as I was in my prime,¹
    when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5   when the Almighty was yet with me,
    when my children were all around me,
6   when my steps were washed with butter,
    and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7   When I went out to the gate of the city,
    when I prepared my seat in the square,
8   the young men saw me and withdrew,
    and the aged rose and stood;
9   the princes refrained from talking
    and laid their hand on their mouth;
10   the voice of the nobles was hushed,
    and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11   When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
    and when the eye saw, it approved,
12   because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
    and the fatherless who had none to help him.
13   The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
    and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14   I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
    my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15   I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
16   I was a father to the needy,
    and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17   I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
    and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18   Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
    and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
19   my roots spread out to the waters,
    with the dew all night on my branches,
20   my glory fresh with me,
    and my bow ever new in my hand.’


21   “Men listened to me and waited
    and kept silence for my counsel.
22   After I spoke they did not speak again,
    and my word dropped upon them.
23   They waited for me as for the rain,
    and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
24   I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
    and the light of my face they did not cast down.
25   I chose their way and sat as chief,
    and I lived like a king among his troops,
    like one who comforts mourners.

(ESV)

Isaiah 51–52:12 (Listen)

The Lord’s Comfort for Zion

51   “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
    you who seek the LORD:
  look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2   Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
  for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
3   For the LORD comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
  and makes her wilderness like Eden,
    her desert like the garden of the LORD;
  joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.


4   “Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
  for a law¹ will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
5   My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
  the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.
6   Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
  for the heavens vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;²
  but my salvation will be forever,
    and my righteousness will never be dismayed.


7   “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
    the people in whose heart is my law;
  fear not the reproach of man,
    nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8   For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
    and the worm will eat them like wool,
  but my righteousness will be forever,
    and my salvation to all generations.”


9   Awake, awake, put on strength,
    O arm of the LORD;
  awake, as in days of old,
    the generations of long ago.
  Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
    who pierced the dragon?
10   Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
  who made the depths of the sea a way
    for the redeemed to pass over?
11   And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
  everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


12   “I, I am he who comforts you;
    who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
    of the son of man who is made like grass,
13   and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth,
  and you fear continually all the day
    because of the wrath of the oppressor,
  when he sets himself to destroy?
    And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
14   He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
    he shall not die and go down to the pit,
    neither shall his bread be lacking.
15   I am the LORD your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the LORD of hosts is his name.
16   And I have put my words in your mouth
    and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
  establishing³ the heavens
    and laying the foundations of the earth,
    and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”


17   Wake yourself, wake yourself,
    stand up, O Jerusalem,
  you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD
    the cup of his wrath,
  who have drunk to the dregs
    the bowl, the cup of staggering.
18   There is none to guide her
    among all the sons she has borne;
  there is none to take her by the hand
    among all the sons she has brought up.
19   These two things have happened to you—
    who will console you?—
  devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
    who will comfort you?⁴
20   Your sons have fainted;
    they lie at the head of every street
    like an antelope in a net;
  they are full of the wrath of the LORD,
    the rebuke of your God.


21   Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
    who are drunk, but not with wine:
22   Thus says your Lord, the LORD,
    your God who pleads the cause of his people:
  “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
  the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23   and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
    who have said to you,
    ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;
  and you have made your back like the ground
    and like the street for them to pass over.”

The Lord’s Coming Salvation

52   Awake, awake,
    put on your strength, O Zion;
  put on your beautiful garments,
    O Jerusalem, the holy city;
  for there shall no more come into you
    the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2   Shake yourself from the dust and arise;
    be seated, O Jerusalem;
  loose the bonds from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion.

3 For thus says the LORD: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing.⁵ 5 Now therefore what have I here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the LORD, “and continually all the day my name is despised. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

7   How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of him who brings good news,
  who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
    who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
8   The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
    together they sing for joy;
  for eye to eye they see
    the return of the LORD to Zion.
9   Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem,
  for the LORD has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10   The LORD has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations,
  and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God.


11   Depart, depart, go out from there;
    touch no unclean thing;
  go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
    you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
12   For you shall not go out in haste,
    and you shall not go in flight,
  for the LORD will go before you,
    and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

(ESV)

Revelation 11 (Listen)

The Two Witnesses

11 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit¹ will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically² is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

The Seventh Trumpet

15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying,

  “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
    who is and who was,
  for you have taken your great power
    and begun to reign.
18   The nations raged,
    but your wrath came,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
  and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
    and those who fear your name,
    both small and great,
  and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings,³ peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

(ESV)