Psalm 94New International Version (NIV)
Psalm 94
1
The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
2
Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3
How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?
4
They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
5
They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
6
They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
7
They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”
8
Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?
9
Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?
10
Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
11
The Lord knows all human plans;
he knows that they are futile.
12
Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord,
the one you teach from your law;
13
you grant them relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
14
For the Lord will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
15
Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Genesis 19:18-29
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,[b] please! 19 Your[c] servant has found favor in your[d] eyes, and you[e] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.[f])
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.