The Berean Pursuit
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
salvation is established as its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates so a righteous nation may enter-
one that remains faithful.
You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind,
because he trusts in You.
Trust in the LORD forever,
because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.
For He has humbled those who dwell on high;
He lays the lofty city low.
He brings it down to the ground;
He casts it into the dust.
Feet trample it down-
the feet of the oppressed,
the steps of the poor.
The path of the righteous is level;
You clear a straight path for the upright.
Yes, we wait for You, O LORD;
we walk in the path of Your judgments.
Your name and renown
are the desire of our souls.
My soul longs for You in the night;
indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn.
For when Your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.
Though grace is shown to the wicked man,
he does not learn righteousness.
In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly
and fails to see the majesty of the LORD.
O LORD, Your hand is upraised,
but they do not see it.
They will see Your zeal for Your people
and be put to shame.
The fire set for Your enemies
will consume them!
O LORD, You will establish peace for us.
For all that we have accomplished,
You have done for us.
O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had dominion,
but Your name alone do we confess.
The dead will not live;
the departed spirits will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them;
You have wiped out all memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
You have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for Yourself;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
O LORD, they sought You in their distress;
when You disciplined them, they poured out a quiet prayer.
As a woman with child about to give birth
writhes and cries out in pain,
so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
We were with child; we writhed in pain;
but we gave birth to wind.
We have given no salvation to the earth,
nor brought any life into the world.
Your dead will live; their bodies will rise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust!
For your dew is like the dew of the morning,
and the earth will bring forth her dead.
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut your doors behind you.
Hide yourselves a little while
until the wrath has passed.
For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth will reveal her bloodshed
and will no longer conceal her slain.
In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent-Leviathan the coiling serpent-and He will slay the dragon of the sea. In that day:
"Sing about a fruitful vineyard.
I, the LORD, am its keeper;
I water it continually.
I guard it night and day
so no one can disturb it;
I am not angry.
If only thorns and briers confronted Me,
I would march and trample them,
I would burn them to the ground.
Or let them lay claim to My protection;
let them make peace with Me-
yes, let them make peace with Me."
In the days to come, Jacob will take root.
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill the whole world with fruit.
Has the LORD struck Israel as He struck her oppressors?
Was she killed like those who slayed her?
By warfare and exile You contended with her
and removed her with a fierce wind,
as on the day the east wind blows.
Therefore Jacob's guilt will be atoned for,
and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this:
When he makes all the altar stones
like crushed bits of chalk,
no Asherah poles or incense altars
will remain standing.
For the fortified city lies deserted-
a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken.
There the calves graze, and there they lie down;
they strip its branches bare.
When its limbs are dry,
they are broken off.
Women come and use them for kindling;
for this is a people without understanding.
Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator shows them no favor.
In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one. And in that day a great ram's horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim's drunkards,
to the fading flower of his glorious splendor,
set on the summit above the fertile valley,
the pride of those overcome by wine.
Behold, the Lord has one
who is strong and mighty.
Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest,
like a driving rain or flooding downpour,
he will smash that crown to the ground.
The majestic crown of Ephraim's drunkards
will be trampled underfoot.
The fading flower of his beautiful splendor,
set on the summit above the fertile valley,
will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest:
Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
On that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory,
a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people,
a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.
These also stagger from wine
and stumble from strong drink:
Priests and prophets reel from strong drink
and are befuddled by wine.
They stumble because of strong drink,
muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
For all their tables are covered with vomit;
there is not a place without filth.
Whom is He trying to teach?
To whom is He explaining His message?
To infants just weaned from milk?
To babies removed from the breast?
For they hear:
"Order on order, order on order,
line on line, line on line;
a little here, a little there."
Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues,
He will speak to this people to whom He has said:
"This is the place of rest, let the weary rest;
this is the place of repose."
But they would not listen.
Then the word of the LORD to them will become:
"Order on order, order on order,
line on line, line on line;
a little here, a little there,"
so that they will go stumbling backward
and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
For you said, "We have made a covenant with death;
we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol.
When the overwhelming scourge passes through
it will not touch us,
because we have made lies our refuge
and falsehood our hiding place."
So this is what the Lord GOD says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will never be shaken.
I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the level.
Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies,
and water will flood your hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be dissolved,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.
When the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be trampled by it.
As often as it passes through,
it will carry you away;
it will sweep through morning after morning,
by day and by night."
The understanding of this message
will bring sheer terror.
Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on,
and the blanket too small to wrap around you.
For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim.
He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon,
to do His work, His strange work,
and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
So now, do not mock,
or your shackles will become heavier.
Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts
a decree of destruction against the whole land.
Listen and hear my voice.
Pay attention and hear what I say.
Does the plowman plow for planting every day?
Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?
When he has leveled its surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?
He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,
and rye within its border.
For his God instructs
and teaches him properly.
Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin.
But caraway is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
Grain for bread must be ground,
but it is not endlessly threshed.
Though the wheels of the cart roll over it,
the horses do not crush it.
This also comes from the LORD of Hosts,
who is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
Woe to you, O Ariel,
the city of Ariel where David camped!
Year upon year
let your festivals recur.
And I will constrain Ariel,
and there will be mourning and lamentation;
she will be like an altar hearth before Me.
I will camp in a circle around you;
I will besiege you with towers
and set up siege works against you.
You will be brought low,
you will speak from the ground,
and out of the dust
your words will be muffled.
Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground;
your speech will whisper out of the dust.
But your many foes will be like fine dust,
the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,
you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts
with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,
with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.
All the many nations
going out to battle against Ariel-
even all who war against her,
laying siege and attacking her-
will be like a dream,
like a vision in the night,
as when a hungry man dreams he is eating,
then awakens still hungry;
as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking,
then awakens faint and parched.
So will it be for all the many nations
who go to battle against Mount Zion.
Stop and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not from strong drink.
For the LORD has poured out on you
a spirit of deep sleep.
He has shut your eyes, O prophets;
He has covered your heads, O seers.
And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, "I cannot, because it is sealed." Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, "I cannot read."
Therefore the Lord said:
"These people draw near to Me with their mouths
and honor Me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from Me.
Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
Therefore I will again confound these people
with wonder upon wonder.
The wisdom of the wise will vanish,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden."
Woe to those who dig deep
to hide their plans from the LORD.
In darkness they do their works and say,
"Who sees us, and who will know?"
You have turned things upside down,
as if the potter were regarded as clay.
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pottery say of the potter,
"He has no understanding"?
In a very short time,
will not Lebanon become an orchard,
and the orchard seem like a forest?
On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
The humble will increase their joy in the LORD,
and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who look for evil
will be cut down-
those who indict a man with a word,
who ensnare the mediator at the gate,
and who with false charges
deprive the innocent of justice.
Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob:
"No longer will Jacob be ashamed
and no more will his face grow pale.
For when he sees his children around him,
the work of My hands,
they will honor My name,
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and they will stand in awe
of the God of Israel.
Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction."
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song.
Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion;
to You our vows will be fulfilled.
O You who listen to prayer,
all people will come to You.
When iniquities prevail against me,
You atone for our transgressions.
Blessed is the one You choose
and bring near to dwell in Your courts!
We are filled with the goodness of Your house,
the holiness of Your temple.
With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
You formed the mountains by Your power,
having girded Yourself with might.
You stilled the roaring of the seas,
the pounding of their waves,
and the tumult of the nations.
Those who live far away fear Your wonders;
You make the dawn and sunset shout for joy.
You attend to the earth and water it;
with abundance You enrich it.
The streams of God are full of water,
for You prepare our grain
by providing for the earth.
You soak its furrows and level its ridges;
You soften it with showers and bless its growth.
You crown the year with Your bounty,
and Your paths overflow with plenty.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are robed with joy.
The pastures are clothed with flocks,
and the valleys are decked with grain.
They shout in triumph;
indeed, they sing.