Psalm 76

²³For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN God. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

¹King Nebuchadnezzar, To the people of every nation and language who dwell in all the earth: May your prosperity be multiplied.

²I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

²⁹Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”

¹⁰Then David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly and said: “May You be blessed, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.

¹¹Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.

¹⁷Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;

²The Lord has proclaimed His salvation and revealed His righteousness to the nations.

³He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—

⁶Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

¹³For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:

¹⁴“This is My resting place forever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

⁶He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His place of meeting. The Lord has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has despised both king and priest.

⁵For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.

⁹He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire.

³⁵‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

⁹Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out, kindle fires, and burn up the weapons—the bucklers and shields, the bows and arrows, the clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel.

¹⁰They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.

³Then I will strike the bow from your left hand and dash down the arrows from your right hand.

⁴On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast.

²⁵Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to carry off the plunder, and they found on the bodies an abundance of goods and valuables—more than they could carry away. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.

¹²So the Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled.

¹³Then Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell and could not recover, for they were crushed before the Lord and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great amount of plunder

¹“As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel

²and say: ‘What was your mother? A lioness among the lions! She lay down among the young lions; she reared her cubs.

¹⁷‘These four great beasts are four kings who will arise from the earth.

¹⁸But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever—yes, forever and ever.’

⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.

⁶He prowled among the lions, and became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

⁴The first beast was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and given the mind of a man.

⁵Suddenly another beast appeared, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. So it was told, ‘Get up and gorge yourself on flesh!’

¹²in order to seize the spoil and carry off the plunder, to turn a hand against the desolate places now inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and possessions and who live at the center of the land.’

¹³Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’

¹⁸O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.

³Consider me and respond, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,

³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the Lord.

¹²Listen to Me, you stubborn people, far removed from righteousness:

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.

¹Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

¹⁶Your vine has been cut down and burned; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.

²¹And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

²⁰And at My table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, of mighty men and warriors of every kind,’ declares the Lord God.

²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state. As the Egyptians were retreating, the Lord swept them into the sea.

²⁸The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

¹²Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in your rebellion, when His wrath ignites in an instant. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

⁷In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.

⁷And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹⁷For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

²⁹And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰Then Jehoshaphat’s kingdom was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

²⁰But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

¹³Be silent before the Lord, all people, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.”

²⁰From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²⁰The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that crawls upon the ground, and all mankind on the face of the earth will tremble at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.

²¹And I will summon a sword against Gog on all My mountains, declares the Lord God, and every man’s sword will be against his brother.

¹⁰“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”

⁵Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

³Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.

⁷But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment.

⁸He judges the world with justice; He governs the people with equity.

⁴but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

²“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

³Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

⁴May he vindicate the afflicted among the people; may he save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

²²If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

¹⁹At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual,

²⁰and he commanded some mighty men of valor in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing fiery furnace.

²⁶The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.’

²⁷In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed.

⁹The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

²⁰As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

⁴When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow.

⁵It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

²⁹Because of Your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring You gifts.

²If a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.

⁷In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.

⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

⁶“I have cut off the nations; their corner towers are destroyed. I have made their streets deserted with no one to pass through. Their cities are laid waste, with no man, no inhabitant.

⁶Wail, for the Day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

¹²“Kings and their armies flee in haste; she who waits at home divides the plunder.

²¹In that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.

⁵Then He rebukes them in His anger, and terrifies them in His fury:

²¹and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated every mighty man of valor and every leader and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword.