Psalm 144

Of David.

  ¹ Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
   who trains my hands for war,
   my fingers for battle.
  ² He is my loving God and my fortress,
   my stronghold and my deliverer,
  my shield, in whom I take refuge,
   who subdues peoples under me.

  ³ Lord, what are human beings that you care for them,
   mere mortals that you think of them?
  ⁴ They are like a breath;
   their days are like a fleeting shadow.

  ⁵ Part your heavens, Lord, and come down;
   touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
  ⁶ Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
   shoot your arrows and rout them.
  ⁷ Reach down your hand from on high;
   deliver me and rescue me
  from the mighty waters,
   from the hands of foreigners
  ⁸ whose mouths are full of lies,
   whose right hands are deceitful.

144,000 Sealed

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. ² Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ³ “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” ⁴ Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

  ⁵ From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,

  from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,

  from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

  ⁶ from the tribe of Asher 12,000,

  from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,

  from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,

  ⁷ from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,

  from the tribe of Levi 12,000,

  from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,

  ⁸ from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,

  from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,

  from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

The Great Multitude in White Robes

⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

    “Salvation belongs to our God,
    who sits on the throne,
    and to the Lamb.”

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:

    “Amen!
    Praise and glory
    and wisdom and thanks and honour
    and power and strength
    be to our God for ever and ever.
    Amen!”

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes —who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore,

  “they are before the throne of God
   and serve him day and night in his temple;
  and he who sits on the throne
   will shelter them with his presence.
  ¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger;
   never again will they thirst.
  The sun will not beat down on them,’
   nor any scorching heat.
  ¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne
   will be their shepherd;
  ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
   ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Breaking Covenant Through Injustice

¹⁷ You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice? ”

3 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

² But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, ⁴ and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.

⁵ “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

⁶ “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse —your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, ” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God

¹³ “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.

“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’

¹⁴ “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? ¹⁵ But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”

The Faithful Remnant

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name.

¹⁷ “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. ¹⁸ And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Judgment and Covenant Renewal

4 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, ” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. ³ Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

⁴ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”