Psalm 149

¹Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
²Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
³Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
⁴For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.
⁵Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
⁶Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
⁷to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
⁸to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
⁹to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord!

Old Testament Reading Isaiah 32

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
²Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
⁴The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
⁵The fool will no more be called noble,
nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
⁶For the fool speaks folly,
and his heart is busy with iniquity,
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;
he plans wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lying words,
even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸But he who is noble plans noble things,
and on noble things he stands.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease,
shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
and tie sackcloth around your waist.
¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine,
¹³for the soil of my people
growing up in thorns and briers,
yes, for all the joyous houses
in the exultant city.
¹⁴For the palace is forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens forever,
a joy of wild donkeys,
a pasture of flocks;
¹⁵until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹And it will hail when the forest falls down,
and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰Happy are you who sow beside all waters,
who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

New Testament Reading Revelation 4

¹After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. ³And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”