Book Order Plan

¹A of Asaph. [1] My people, hear my instruction; listen to the words from my mouth.

²I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past  —

³things we have heard and known and that our fathers have passed down to us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children

⁶so that a future generation — children yet to be born — might know. They were to rise and tell their children

⁷so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands.

⁸Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

¹¹They forgot what he had done, the wondrous works he had shown them.

¹²He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams out of the stone and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁸They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, “Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?

²⁰Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out; torrents overflowed. But can he also provide bread or furnish meat for his people?”

²¹Therefore, the LORD heard and became furious; then fire broke out against Jacob, and anger flared up against Israel

²²because they did not believe God or rely on his salvation.

²³He gave a command to the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained manna for them to eat; he gave them grain from heaven.

²⁵People ate the bread of angels. He sent them an abundant supply of food.

²⁶He made the east wind blow in the skies and drove the south wind by his might.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

²⁸He made them fall in the camp, all around the tents.

²⁹The people ate and were completely satisfied, for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰Before they had turned from what they craved, while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger flared up against them, and he killed some of their best men. He struck down Israel’s fit young men.

³²Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe his wondrous works.

³³He made their days end in futility, their years in sudden disaster.

³⁴When he killed some of them, the rest began to seek him; they repented and searched for God.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues,

³⁷their hearts were insincere toward him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was compassionate; he atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often turned his anger aside and did not unleash all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were only flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.

⁴¹They constantly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power shown on the day he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood, and they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which fed on them, and frogs, which devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

⁴⁸He handed over their livestock to hail and their cattle to lightning bolts.

⁴⁹He sent his burning anger against them: fury, indignation, and calamity — a band of deadly messengers.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first progeny of the tents of Ham.

⁵²He led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵³He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain his right hand acquired.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them. He apportioned their inheritance by lot and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶But they rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep his decrees.

⁵⁷They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.

⁵⁸They enraged him with their high places and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.

⁵⁹God heard and became furious; he completely rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he resided among mankind.

⁶¹He gave up his strength to captivity and his splendor to the hand of a foe.

⁶²He surrendered his people to the sword because he was enraged with his heritage.

⁶³Fire consumed his chosen young men, and his young women had no wedding songs.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, and the widows could not lament.

⁶⁵The Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior from the effects of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back his foes; he gave them lasting disgrace.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

⁷¹he brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over his people Jacob — over Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.

¹A psalm of Asaph. [1] God, the nations have invaded your inheritance, desecrated your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins.

²They gave the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky for food, the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.

³They poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

⁴We have become an object of reproach to our neighbors, a source of mockery and ridicule to those around us.

⁵How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy keep burning like fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,

⁷for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.

⁸Do not hold past iniquities against us; let your compassion come to us quickly, for we have become very weak.

⁹God of our salvation, help us  — for the glory of your name. Rescue us and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake.

¹⁰Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, let vengeance for the shed blood of your servants be known among the nations.

¹¹Let the groans of the prisoners reach you; according to your great power, preserve those condemned to die.

¹²Pay back sevenfold to our neighbors the reproach they have hurled at you, Lord.

¹³Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever; we will declare your praise to generation after generation.

¹For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” A testimony of Asaph. A psalm. [1] Listen, Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine

²on Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Rally your power and come to save us.

³Restore us, God; make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.

⁴LORD God of Armies, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

⁵You fed them the bread of tears and gave them a full measure of tears to drink.

⁶You put us at odds with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.

⁷Restore us, God of Armies; make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.

⁸You dug up a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

⁹You cleared a place for it; it took root and filled the land.

¹⁰The mountains were covered by its shade, and the mighty cedars with its branches.

¹¹It sent out sprouts toward the Sea and shoots toward the River.

¹²Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its fruit?

¹³Boars from the forest tear at it and creatures of the field feed on it.

¹⁴Return, God of Armies. Look down from heaven and see; take care of this vine,

¹⁵the root your right hand planted, the son that you made strong for yourself.

¹⁶It was cut down and burned; they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

¹⁷Let your hand be with the man at your right hand, with the son of man you have made strong for yourself.

¹⁸Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.

¹⁹Restore us, LORD, God of Armies; make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.