November 3: Psalms 70–71; Psalm 74; Ecclesiasticus 44:1-15; Revelation 16:12–21; Luke 13:18–30

Proper 26

First Psalm:

Psalms 70–71

Psalms 70–71 (Listen)
O Lord, Do Not Delay
To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering.

70   Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
    O LORD, make haste to help me!
2   Let them be put to shame and confusion
    who seek my life!
  Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
3   Let them turn back because of their shame
    who say, “Aha, Aha!”

4   May all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you!
  May those who love your salvation
    say evermore, “God is great!”
5   But I am poor and needy;
    hasten to me, O God!
  You are my help and my deliverer;
    O LORD, do not delay!

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

71   In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame!
2   In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
    incline your ear to me, and save me!
3   Be to me a rock of refuge,
    to which I may continually come;
  you have given the command to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.

4   Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5   For you, O Lord, are my hope,
    my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6   Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
    you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
  My praise is continually of you.

7   I have been as a portent to many,
    but you are my strong refuge.
8   My mouth is filled with your praise,
    and with your glory all the day.
9   Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
    forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10   For my enemies speak concerning me;
    those who watch for my life consult together
11   and say, “God has forsaken him;
    pursue and seize him,
    for there is none to deliver him.”

12   O God, be not far from me;
    O my God, make haste to help me!
13   May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
    with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
    who seek my hurt.
14   But I will hope continually
    and will praise you yet more and more.
15   My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
    of your deeds of salvation all the day,
    for their number is past my knowledge.
16   With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;
    I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

17   O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18   So even to old age and gray hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
  until I proclaim your might to another generation,
    your power to all those to come.
19   Your righteousness, O God,
    reaches the high heavens.
  You who have done great things,
    O God, who is like you?
20   You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
    will revive me again;
  from the depths of the earth
    you will bring me up again.
21   You will increase my greatness
    and comfort me again.

22   I will also praise you with the harp
    for your faithfulness, O my God;
  I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
    O Holy One of Israel.
23   My lips will shout for joy,
    when I sing praises to you;
    my soul also, which you have redeemed.
24   And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
  for they have been put to shame and disappointed
    who sought to do me hurt.

(ESV)

Second Psalm:

Psalm 74

Psalm 74 (Listen)
Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
A Maskil1 of Asaph.

74   O God, why do you cast us off forever?
    Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2   Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,
    which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!
    Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3   Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
    the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4   Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
    they set up their own signs for signs.
5   They were like those who swing axes
    in a forest of trees.2
6   And all its carved wood
    they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7   They set your sanctuary on fire;
    they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it down to the ground.
8   They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9   We do not see our signs;
    there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is none among us who knows how long.
10   How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11   Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
    Take it from the fold of your garment3 and destroy them!

12   Yet God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13   You divided the sea by your might;
    you broke the heads of the sea monsters4 on the waters.
14   You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
    you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15   You split open springs and brooks;
    you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16   Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17   You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
    you have made summer and winter.

18   Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
    and a foolish people reviles your name.
19   Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
    do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20   Have regard for the covenant,
    for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21   Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
    let the poor and needy praise your name.

22   Arise, O God, defend your cause;
    remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23   Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

Footnotes

[1] 74:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term


[2] 74:5 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain


[3] 74:11 Hebrew from your bosom


[4] 74:13 Or the great sea creatures

(ESV)

Old Testament:

Ecclesiasticus 44:1-15

New Testament:

Revelation 16:12–21

Revelation 16:12–21 (Listen)

12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The Seventh Bowl

17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings,1 peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds2 each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

Footnotes

[1] 16:18 Or voices, or sounds


[2] 16:21 Greek a talent in weight

(ESV)

Gospel:

Luke 13:18–30

Luke 13:18–30 (Listen)
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven

18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

The Narrow Door

22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

(ESV)