Day 18 of 31

¹God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Lord. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Do not let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Do not forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

¹We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works.

²When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly.

³The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.

⁴I said to the arrogant, "Do not boast!" I said to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn.

⁵Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with a stiff neck."

⁶For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

⁷But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

⁸For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

⁹But I will declare this forever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

¹In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel.

²His tabernacle is also in Salem; His dwelling place in Zion.

³There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.

⁴Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game.

⁵Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.

⁶At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep.

⁷You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?

⁸You pronounced judgment from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent,

⁹when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.

¹⁰Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.

¹¹Make vows to the Lord your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.

¹²He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.

¹My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me.

²In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and did not get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

³I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

⁴You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can't speak.

⁵I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

⁶I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires:

⁷"Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

⁸Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?" Selah.

¹⁰Then I thought, "I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High."

¹¹I will remember Yah's deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old.

¹²I will also meditate on all your work, and consider your doings.

¹³Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God?

¹⁴You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples.

¹⁵You have redeemed your people with your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

¹⁶The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.

¹⁷The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.

¹⁸The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.

²⁰You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

¹Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant, and refused to walk by his Law.

¹¹They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹²He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²²because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them bread from heaven.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰They did not turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they still sinned, and did not believe in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

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

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

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

⁴¹They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

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

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

⁷⁰He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

¹An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.

²A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, and with shame comes disgrace.

⁴The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

⁵To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good, nor to deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶A fool's lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings.

⁷A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

⁸The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: they go down into a person's innermost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.

¹⁰The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.

¹¹The rich man's wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.

¹²Before destruction the heart of man is proud, but before honor is humility.

¹³He who gives answer before he hears, that is folly and shame to him.

¹⁴A man's spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

¹⁷He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.

¹⁸The lot settles disputes, and keeps strong ones apart.

¹⁹A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city; and disputes are like the bars of a castle.

²⁰A man's stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth. With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord.

²³The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

²⁴A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.