The Lord is my Rock, my fortress, my place of safety. He is my God, the Rock I run to for protection. He is my shield; by his power I am saved. He is my hiding place high in the hills.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give praise, honor, and glory to the King of Heaven. Everything he does is right. He is always fair, and he is able to make proud people humble!
Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same.
Surely you would not destroy the city. You would not destroy fifty good people to kill those who are evil. If that happened, those who are good would be the same as those who are evil—both would be punished. As the judge of the whole world, surely you would do the right thing!”
But if someone wants to brag, then let them brag about this: Let them brag that they learned to know me. Let them brag that they understand that I am the Lord, that I am kind and fair, and that I do good things on earth. I love this kind of bragging.” This message is from the Lord.
When we do wrong, that shows more clearly that God is right. So can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (That’s the way some people think.)
The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his divine greatness—the greatness that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace and truth.
Lord, you are my God. I honor you and praise your name, because you did amazing things. The words you said long ago are completely true; everything happened exactly as you said it would.
The Scriptures say, “Look, I have chosen a cornerstone of great value, and I put that stone in Zion. Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.” Isaiah 28:16
Your eyes are too good to look at evil. You cannot stand to see people doing wrong. So why do you permit such evil? How can you watch while the wicked destroy people who are so much better?
Because of these things, the Lord GOD says, “I will put a rock—a cornerstone—in the ground in Zion. This will be a very precious stone. Everything will be built on this very important rock. Anyone who trusts in that rock will not be disappointed.
“But Jeshurun became fat and kicked like a bull. (Yes, you people were fed well and became full and fat.) They left the God who made them! They ran away from the Rock who saved them.
But you are so stubborn! You refuse to change. So you are making your own punishment greater and greater. You will be punished on the day when God will show his anger. On that day everyone will see how right God is to judge people.
They know God’s law says that anyone who lives like that should die. But they not only continue to do these things themselves, but they also encourage others who do them.
But the Lord is the only true God. He is the only God who is alive. He is the King who rules forever. The earth shakes when he is angry. The people of the nations cannot stop his anger.
If this would happen, the king would be like a shelter to hide from the wind and rain, like streams of water in a dry land, and like the cool shadow of a large rock in a hot land.
So the Lord is waiting to show his mercy to you. He wants to rise and comfort you. The Lord is the God who does the right thing, so he will bless everyone who waits for his help.
I learned that anything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to the work of God, and they cannot take anything away from it. God did this so that people would respect him.
So, Job, God will not listen to you when you say that you don’t see him. You say you are waiting for your chance to meet with him and prove that you are innocent.
“So remember that the Lord your God is the only God, and you can trust him! He keeps his agreement. He shows his love and kindness to all people who love him and obey his commands. He continues to show his love and kindness through a thousand generations,
That is, the Lord passed in front of Moses and said, “YAHWEH, the Lord, is a kind and merciful God. He is slow to become angry. He is full of great love. He can be trusted.
You must fear the Lord. Protect justice and do what is right because the Lord our God is fair. He does not treat some people as if they are more important than others, and he does not accept bribes to change his judgments.”
This will happen because you have forgotten the God who saves you. You have not remembered that God is your place of safety. You brought some very good grapevines from faraway places. You might plant those grapevines, but they will not grow.
Lord, you are the one who lives forever! You are my holy God who never dies! Lord, you created the Babylonians to do what must be done. Our Rock, you created them to punish people.
But the Lord is still in that city, and he continues to be good. He does not do anything wrong. He continues to help his people. Morning after morning he makes good decisions for them. Not a day passes without his justice. He never gives a decision that is crooked or is something to be ashamed of.
You saw he was true and loyal to you, and you made an agreement with him. You promised to give him the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. But you promised to give that land to Abraham’s descendants. And you kept your promise because you are good.
Then at the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up toward heaven, and I was in my right mind again. Then I gave praise to God Most High. I gave honor and glory to him who lives forever. God rules forever! His kingdom continues for all generations.