Praise to the LORD

25 LORD, you are my God;
    I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
    you have done wonderful things,
    things planned long ago.
²You have made the city a heap of rubble,
    the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.
³Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
    cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
⁴You have been a refuge for the poor,
    a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
    and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
    is like a storm driving against a wall
⁵    and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
    as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
    so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸    he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

⁹In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

¹⁰The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain;
    but Moab will be trampled in their land
    as straw is trampled down in the manure.
¹¹They will stretch out their hands in it,
    as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
    despite the cleverness of their hands.
¹²He will bring down your high fortified walls
    and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
    to the very dust.

A Song of Praise

26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
    God makes salvation
    its walls and ramparts.
²Open the gates
    that the righteous nation may enter,
    the nation that keeps faith.
³You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.
⁴Trust in the LORD forever,
    for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.
⁵He humbles those who dwell on high,
    he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
    and casts it down to the dust.
⁶Feet trample it down—
    the feet of the oppressed,
    the footsteps of the poor.

⁷The path of the righteous is level;
    you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
⁸Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
    we wait for you;
your name and renown
    are the desire of our hearts.
⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;
    in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
    the people of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰But when grace is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
    and do not regard the majesty of the LORD.
¹¹LORD, your hand is lifted high,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
    let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹²LORD, you establish peace for us;
    all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
¹³LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name alone do we honor.
¹⁴They are now dead, they live no more;
    their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
    you wiped out all memory of them.
¹⁵You have enlarged the nation, LORD;
    you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
    you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶LORD, they came to you in their distress;
    when you disciplined them,
    they could barely whisper a prayer.
¹⁷As a pregnant woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, LORD.
¹⁸We were with child, we writhed in labor,
    but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.

¹⁹But your dead will live, LORD;
    their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
    wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms
    and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until his wrath has passed by.
²¹See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
    to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;
    the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

Deliverance of Israel

27 In that day,

the LORD will punish with his sword—
    his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
    Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea.

²In that day—

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
³    I, the LORD, watch over it;
    I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
    so that no one may harm it.
⁴    I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
    I would march against them in battle;
    I would set them all on fire.
⁵Or else let them come to me for refuge;
    let them make peace with me,
    yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶In days to come Jacob will take root,
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill all the world with fruit.

⁷Has the LORD struck her
    as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
⁸By warfare and exile you contend with her—
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind blows.
⁹By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles or incense altars
    will be left standing.
¹⁰The fortified city stands desolate,
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
    there they lie down;
    they strip its branches bare.
¹¹When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
    and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
    so their Maker has no compassion on them,
    and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹²In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one.¹³And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

28 Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,
    to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley—
    to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!
²See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong.
    Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind,
like a driving rain and a flooding downpour,
    he will throw it forcefully to the ground.
³That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,
    will be trampled underfoot.
⁴That fading flower, his glorious beauty,
    set on the head of a fertile valley,
will be like figs ripe before harvest—
    as soon as people see them and take them in hand,
    they swallow them.

⁵In that day the LORD Almighty
    will be a glorious crown,
a beautiful wreath
    for the remnant of his people.
⁶He will be a spirit of justice
    to the one who sits in judgment,
a source of strength
    to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷And these also stagger from wine
    and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
⁸All the tables are covered with vomit
    and there is not a spot without filth.

⁹“Who is it he is trying to teach?
    To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
    to those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there.”

¹¹Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
    God will speak to this people,
¹²to whom he said,
    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
    but they would not listen.
¹³So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁰For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”¹¹Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”¹²The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

The Law and the Promise

¹⁵Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.¹⁷What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.²⁰A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.²²But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Psalm 61

61 Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer.

²From the ends of the earth I call to you,
    I call as my heart grows faint;
    lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
³For you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the foe.

⁴I long to dwell in your tent forever
    and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
⁵For you, God, have heard my vows;
    you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

⁶Increase the days of the king’s life,
    his years for many generations.
⁷May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever;
    appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

⁸Then I will ever sing in praise of your name
    and fulfill my vows day after day.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
¹⁸There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.