The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

To Your Name Give Glory

25 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 ^bI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will ^csoon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will ^dscatter you among the peoples, and you will be left ^efew in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And ^fthere you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there ^gyou will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will ^hreturn to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a ⁱmerciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 ^jDid any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; ^kthere is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven ^lhe let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great ^mfire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he ⁿloved your fathers and chose their offspring after them¹ and brought you out of Egypt ^owith his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations ^pgreater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, ^qthat it may go well with you and with your children after you, and ^rthat you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

The Thousand Years

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand ^pthe key to the bottomless pit¹ and a great chain. 2 And he seized ^qthe dragon, ^rthat ancient serpent, who is the ^sdevil and ^tSatan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not ^udeceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

4 Then I saw ^vthrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw ^wthe souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their ^xforeheads or their hands. They came to life and ^yreigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such ^zthe second death has no power, but they will be ^apriests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

The Defeat of Satan

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, ^bGog and Magog, to ^cgather them for battle; ^dtheir number is like the sand of the sea. 9 ^eAnd they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but ^ffire came down from heaven² and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them ^gwas thrown into the ^hlake of ⁱfire and sulfur where the beast and ^jthe false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Judgment Before the Great White Throne

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky ^kfled away, and ^lno place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and ^mbooks were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the ⁿbook of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, ^oDeath and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 ^pThen Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.