Psalm 40

Thanksgiving for Deliverance and Prayer for Help

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

Psalm 54

Prayer for Vindication

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “David is in hiding among us.”

Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before.^{(A) 2} So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.^{(B) 3} I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”^{(C) 4} Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.^{(D) 5} Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.” ⁶ The king said to me (the queen also was sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a date.^{(E) 7} Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah,^{(F) 8} and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me.^(G)

⁹ Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and cavalry with me.^{(H) 10} When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official^[a] heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites.^(I)

Nehemiah’s Inspection of the Walls

¹¹ So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. ¹² Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. ¹³ I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.^{(J) 14} Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue.^{(K) 15} So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate and so returned. ¹⁶ The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.

Decision to Restore the Walls

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.”^{(L) 18} I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good.^{(M) 19} But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official^[b] and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”^{(N) 20} Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building, but you have no share or claim or memorial in Jerusalem.”^(O)

¹² When he broke the sixth seal, I looked, and there was a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,^{(A) 13} and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.^{(B) 14} The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.^{(C) 15} Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,^{(D) 16} calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,^{(E) 17} for the great day of their^[a] wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”^(F)

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.^{(G) 2} I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, ³ saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”^(H)

⁴ And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:^(I)

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

²⁴ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field,^{(A) 25} but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷ And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”^(B)

The Destiny of the Righteous

The Rejoicing in Heaven

19 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying,

⁵ And from the throne came a voice saying,

⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out,

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.^(E)

⁹ And the angel said^[c] to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”^{(F) 10} Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus.^[d] Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus^[e] is the spirit of prophecy.”^(G)