Psalm 84

By the Descendants of Korah

How lovely are your tabernacles,
O Jehovah, Master of armies.
My soul craves, even faints with pining
For the courts of Master Jehovah.
My body and my soul cries out
With yearning to the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home
And the swallow a nest for herself
In which she may nurture her young
Near your altars; O Jehovah,
Master of armies, my king, my god,
Blessed are they who dwell in your house,
For they may praise you constantly.

Happy are those whose strength is from you,
Whose hearts are set on a pilgrimage.
They pass through the valley of weeping,
And it becomes a place of fountains,
Covered by pools from the autumn rain.
They grow in strength till each of them
Appears before God in Zion.

Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, God of armies.
And lend me your ear, O God of Jacob.

Behold, O God, our defender,
Show favor to your anointed king.
Better to be one day in your courts
Than to spent a thousand days elsewhere.
I’d rather linger at the threshold,
Abject in the house of my god
Than dwell in mansions of the wicked.

For the God Jehovah is our sun and shield.
It is Jehovah who grants grace and glory,
Favor and honor; indeed no good thing
Does he withhold from those who live righteously.

O Jehovah, commander of armies,
Blessed is he who puts his faith in you.

Psalm 83

By Asaph

O God, do not remain in silence;
Do not be still and quiet, O God.
Hear you not your enemies’ uproar;
See you not how those who hate you
Are raising themselves to oppose you?
Against your people they intrigue
And plot against those you cherish.
“Come,” they bid, “let us destroy them,
And wipe them out as a nation
So that the name of Israel
Will no longer be remembered."

Conspiring together with a single mind,
They are forming  an alliance against you.
The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
The people of Moab and the Hagarites,
Gebal, Ammon, and the Amalekites,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre;
Even Assyria has joined with them
To lend support to the descendants of Lot.

Deal with them as you delt with Midian,
As you delt with Sisera and Jabin
At the Kishon River, like those who perished
At Endor and became dung for the earth.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and
All their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
Who said, “Let us occupy God’s pastures.”
Make them like the swirling dust in the breeze,
O my God, make them like chaff before the wind,
As a conflagration burns down a forest,
As a flame sets ablaze the mountainsides,
Chase them down with the gales of your windstorm 
And so terrorize them with your tempest.
Cover their faces with shame, O Jehovah,
That they may forced to acknowledge your name.
May they be ashamed and discomfited
Forever, and perish in their disgrace.
Let them know that you, whose name is Jehovah,
Are alone most high over all the earth.

Psalm 82

By Asaph

God presides over the heavenly assembly
And among the divine beings renders judgment.

“How long will you judge unjustly
And show favor to the wicked? —
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
Uphold the rights of the destitute,
The afflicted and the oppressed.
Rescue the poor and the needy;
Save them from the hands of the wicked.”

They know nothing, nor do they understand;
 Ever do they wander about in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

I told them, “All of you are gods,
Sons of the Most High, all of you.
But like mere mortals will you die
And fall like any other ruler.

Arise, O God, judge of the earth,
For you possess all the nations!

Psalm 81

By Asaph

Sing out to the god who is our strength
Sing out to the god of Jacob.
Sing a song, bring the tambourine,
The sweet-sounding harp and psaltery.
Blow the ram’s horn at the new moon,
And again when the moon is full,
Upon the day of our festival.
This is a statute for Israel,
An ordinance of Jacob’s god,
A decree he ordained for Joseph
When he went out against Egypt.

I heard a language I did not know:
“I took the burden off your shoulders
And freed your hands from the brick baskets.
In your troubles you called to me.
I answered and delivered you
From a thundercloud; I tested you
At the waters of Meribah.”

“Hear, O people, my admonition;
Heed my warning, O Israel.
If only you will listen to me!
There shall be no new god among you,
Nor shall you worship a foreign god,
For I am Jehovah, your god,
Who ushered you out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth; I will fill it.”

“But my people would not listen to me,
And Israel would not consent to me.
So I left them to their obstinate hearts,
To  conduct their lives by their own counsel.
If only my people would listen to me,
If only Israel would follow my ways,
How quickly would I thwart their enemies
And deploy my power against their foes.
Those who hate Jehovah cower before him
But their punishment will last forever.
You, though, I would feed with the finest wheat
And honey from the rock, till you be full.”

Psalm 80

By Asaph

Listen to us, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who led Joseph’s people like a flock,
You who is enthroned between the Cherubim,
To Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh
Shine forth, summon your power, come, rescue us.
Revive us, O God and let your face beam
Upon us with favor and we will be saved.
O Jehovah, God of armies, how long
Will you seethe at the prayers of your people?
You have fed them with tears instead of food
And made them drink their full measure of tears.
To our neighbors we are a source of strife
And our enemies view us with derision.
Revive us, O God of armies.  Let your face
Shine upon us so that we may be saved.

You dug up and brought a vine out of Egypt;
You expelled foreign peoples and planted it.
You cleared the ground, it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered by its shadow
And its boughs were like the cedars of God.
Its branches reached the sea, its shoots, the river.
Why then have you broken down its walls,
So that all who pass by may pluck its grapes?
The boar from the forest tramples it down,
And the wild beasts of the field feed on it.
Come back, O God of armies, we beseech you.
Look down from Heaven. See! Watch over this vine,
The root you planted with your own right hand,
The shoot you nourished and made strong for yourself.
Enemies have cut down and burned the vine.
Let them perish at your censorious glance.

Support with your power your chosen people,
And their sons whom you have reared to be strong.
Then we will not turn away from you again.
Revive us, and we will call upon your name.
Restore us, O Jehovah, God of armies.
Smile down upon us and we will be saved.

Psalm 79

By Asaph

O God, foreign nations have invaded
The country that is your inheritance;
They have desecrated your holy temple;
They have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have left the corpses of your servants
As carrion for scavengers from the sky,
The flesh of your people, food for wild beasts.
Around Jerusalem blood flowed like water
And there was none left to bury the dead.
We are an object of scorn to our neighbors,
A mockery to those who live around us.

How long, O Jehovah, will you remain angry?
Forever?  Will your jealousy burn like a fire?
Vent your ire on nations that do not recognize you,
On the kingdoms that do not call upon your name,
For it they who have consumed Jacob’s people
And have made his homeland a scene of desolation.
Do not hold against us the sins of our forefathers.
Let your mercy quickly aid us, for we are laid low.
Help us, God, our savior, for the glory of your name;
Deliver us and forgive our sins in your name’s sake.

Why should foreign nations scoff, “Where is their god?”
Let the nations know and before our eyes
Avenge yourself on those who shed your servants’ blood.
May the groans of prisoners reach your ears.
With your great power save those condemned to die.

Pay back our neighbors sevenfold
For their taunts of you, Jehovah.
Then we, the sheep of your pasture,
Your people, will thank you forever
And praise you through the generations.

Psalm 78

By Asaph

O people, hear my instructions,
Listen to the words of my mouth.
I will speak in a parable,
And reveal ancient mysteries,
Stories we have heard and long known,
Passed down to us by our forebears.
From their children we will not hide them,
But to the coming generation,
Sing the praises of Jehovah,
The great deeds he has accomplished
And the miracles he has performed.

He issued decrees to Jacob
And established laws in Israel,
Commanding that our ancestors
Should explain them to their children,
So that the next generation
Even children unborn, should know them
And then teach them to their children,
So they will put their trust in God,
Not forget his wondrous deeds,
But always obey his commandments.
Then they will be not like their fathers,
A  generation rebellious
And stubborn: their hearts wavered
In loyalty, nor were their spirits
Steadfast in their devotion to God.

Ephraim’s army, pulling the bow,
Slackened on the day of battle.
They did not keep God’s covenant
And refused to live by his laws.
They had forgotten what he had done,
The miracles he had shown them,
The marvelous things he performed
In the sight of their ancestors
In Egypt, on the plain of Zoan.
He split the sea and let them pass;
He made the waters stand like a heap.
He led them in a cloud by day,
And with a fiery light by night.
In the desert he split the rocks
And gave them drink, as of from the depths.
From a stone he produced a stream
And made it to flow like a river.
Still did they sin against the Most High
And in the desert defied him.
In their minds they put God to the test
By demanding the food they craved.
They even spoke against God and asked
“Can God serve a meal in the desert?
He struck a rock and water gushed out
And it flowed like a torrent, sure,
But can he give us bread as well
And give his people meat to eat?”
Jehovah was full of anger
When he heard this. His wrath was kindled
Against the descendants of Jacob,
And indeed he vented his ire
Upon the nation of Israel,
For they had no belief in God
And had no faith in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above
And opened the doors of heaven.
He rained down manna for them to eat
And gave them the food of Heaven,
So that mortal man might consume
The sustenance of the Mighty Ones.
(He sent them all the food they needed).
He stirred up an easterly wind
And with his power over the sky
Caused breezes from the south to blow.
He rained meat down on them like dust,
Fowls like the sands of the seashore.
He made them fall inside their camp,
All around their tabernacles.
They ate until they gorged themselves.
He had given them what they craved.
But before they had sated themselves,
While the food was still in their mouths,
The wrath of God was upon them:
He slew the hardiest among them
And cut down Israel’s young men.
Despite this, they keep on sinning
And did not believe his wondrous works.
And so he brought to an end their days,
Futile, their years full of terror.

Whenever God slew them, they sought him.
Eagerly would they turn back to him.
They remembered God was their rock,
The God Most High, their deliverer.
But with their mouths they flattered him,
And with their tongues they lied to him.
Disloyal were their hearts to him,
Unfaithful, they, to his covenant.
But he, being full of mercy,
Forgave their sins and destroyed them not.
Often did he quell his anger
And did not vent all his fury.
He remembered they were but flesh,
A wind that blows but does not return.
How often did they provoke him
And distress him in the desert.
Again and again they tested God,
Vexing Israel’s Holy One.
They did not remember his power,
The day he saved them from their foe,
When he worked his wonders in Egypt,
His marvels on the plain of Zoan.
He turned their rivers into blood,
So they could not drink from their streams.
He sent flies to prey upon them
And frogs to wreak havoc on them.
He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
And their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their grapevines with hail
And their sycamore trees with downpours.
He left their cattle to the hail
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
He loosed upon them his fury,
The fiery rage of his wrath,
His indignation and rancor,
And dispatched against them a band,
The emissaries of destruction.
He gave full vent to his anger;
He did not spare their bodies from death,
But delivered their lives to the plague.
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
The first issue of their manhood,
In the tabernacles of Ham.
He freed his people from bondage,
He led them like sheep, and like a flock
He guided them through the desert.
With safety he conducted them
So that they would not be afraid,
But the sea engulfed their enemies.
To the border of his holy land
He brought them, to the hill country
That by his might he had secured.
He expelled nations before them
And by lot apportioned their lands
As an inheritance, settling
The tribes of Israel in their homes.
Yet the people disputed with him,
Rebelling against the God Most High.
Nor would they obey his commandments.
They turned away with treachery
And proved as faithless as their fathers,
Like arrows shot from a crooked bow.
They made him angry with their shrines
And made him jealous with their idols.
God heard and he was furious,
Utterly rejecting Israel.
The tabernacle of Shiloh,
His sanctuary where he lived
Among mortal men, he forsook.
The sacred symbols of his power
He sent into captivity,
His glory, into the hands of the foe.
He gave up his people to the sword,
Despising his inheritance.
The young men were consumed by fire;
The young women heard no wedding songs.
The priests had fallen by the sword
And their widows could not mourn them.
Jehovah awakened from his sleep,
Like a warrior who shouts out
When aroused from a drunken stupor.
Then he put his enemies to rout
And made them a disgrace forever.

He rejected the clan of Joseph
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
Instead he chose the tribe of Judah
And the Mount of Zion, which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary,
Sky high and solid as the earth
That he established forever.
He chose as his servant David,
Taking him out of the sheep pens.
From tending lambs and nursing ewes
He brought him in to be the shepherd
Of his people, the sons of Jacob,
His inheritance, Israel.
And David ruled them faithfully
And with his skillful hands he led them.