Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 123

The Eyes of a Servant

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A song of the ascents.

The Eyes of a Servant

¹⁶ Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges,^[a] who saved them from the hand of those who plundered them, ¹⁷ but they did not listen even to the judges! Instead, they prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way in which their fathers, who had obeyed the commands of the Lord, had once walked. This generation did not act the same way their fathers had acted.

¹⁸ Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, the Lord was with that judge and saved them from their enemies during all the days of that judge, because the Lord had compassion when he heard their groaning under their tormenters and oppressors.

¹⁹ But then, after the death of the judge, Israel would turn back and become more corrupt than their fathers by going after other gods, by serving them, and by worshipping them. They refused to let go of their practices and their shameless ways.

²⁰ So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. He said, “Because this nation has violated my covenant, which I commanded to their fathers, and because they did not obey my voice, ²¹ I will no longer drive out from among them a single one of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. ²² I will do this in order to test Israel by means of them. Will Israel keep the way of the Lord and walk upon it as their fathers kept it, or not?” ²³ So the Lord gave those nations a reprieve, and he did not drive them out quickly. He did not hand them over to Joshua.

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to burn people with fire. ⁹ People were scorched by the fierce heat. Then they blasphemed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, but they did not repent and give him praise.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. The beast’s kingdom was darkened. People gnawed their tongues in their torment. ¹¹ They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their torments and their sores. But they did not repent of their deeds.

The Sixth Bowl: The Battle of Armageddon

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings coming from the east. ¹³ I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, which came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ They are, in fact, miracle-working, demonic spirits, which go out to the kings of the whole earth^[a] to bring them together for the battle on the great day of the Almighty God.

¹⁵ “Look: I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he does not walk around naked and his shame is not seen.”

¹⁶ Then they brought them together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The Seventh Bowl: The End of the World

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl on the air. And a loud voice came out of the temple^[b] from the throne, saying, “It is done.” ¹⁸ There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and crashes of thunder. There was also a great earthquake of a kind that has not occurred since mankind has been^[c] on the earth.

¹⁹ And the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Babylon the Great was remembered by God, and he gave her the wine cup filled with his fierce wrath. ²⁰ Every island vanished, and the mountains could no longer be found. ²¹ Massive hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell on people from the sky. And the people blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, because the plague was so severe.