Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 89, Isaiah 34, Revelation 4

Deuteronomy 6,

1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
 
2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
 
3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
 
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
 
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
 
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
 
7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
 
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
 
9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
 
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you-a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
 
11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant-then when you eat and are satisfied,
 
12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 
13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
 
14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
 
15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
 
16 Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.
 
17 Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.
 
18 Do what is right and good in the LORD's sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers,
 
19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said.
 
20 In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?"
 
21 tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
 
22 Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders-great and terrible-upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.
 
23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers.
 
24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.
 
25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."

Psalm 89,

1 I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
 
2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
 
3 You said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant,
 
4 'I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.' " Selah
 
5 The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
 
6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
 
7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.
 
8 O LORD God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you.
 
9 You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.
 
10 You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.
 
11 The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.
 
12 You created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.
 
13 Your arm is endued with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.
 
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
 
15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.
 
16 They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness.
 
17 For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.
 
18 Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
 
19 Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: "I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have exalted a young man from among the people.
 
20 I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
 
21 My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him.
 
22 No enemy will subject him to tribute; no wicked man will oppress him.
 
23 I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries.
 
24 My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted.
 
25 I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.
 
26 He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.'
 
27 I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
 
28 I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.
 
29 I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.
 
30 "If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes,
 
31 if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands,
 
32 I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging;
 
33 but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.
 
34 I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.
 
35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness-and I will not lie to David-
 
36 that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun;
 
37 it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." Selah
 
38 But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one.
 
39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust.
 
40 You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
 
41 All who pass by have plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
 
42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice.
 
43 You have turned back the edge of his sword and have not supported him in battle.
 
44 You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.
 
45 You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame. Selah
 
46 How long, O LORD ? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
 
47 Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all men!
 
48 What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave? Selah
 
49 O Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
 
50 Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
 
51 the taunts with which your enemies have mocked, O LORD, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.
 
52 Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.

Isaiah 34,

1 Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!
 
2 The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.
 
3 Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
 
4 All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
 
5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.
 
6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat-the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.
 
7 And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.
 
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause.
 
9 Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!
 
10 It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.
 
11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.
 
12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.
 
13 Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.
 
14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.
 
15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.
 
16 Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.
 
17 He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.

Revelation 4

1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first 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 there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.
 
3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.
 
4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.
 
5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.
 
6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.
 
7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
 
8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
 
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever,
 
10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
 
11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."