The Lectio Room

Psalm 74

1 O God, why have you utterly cast us off?*
why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?

2 Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago,*
the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance,
and Mount Zion where you dwell.

3 Turn your steps toward the endless ruins;*
the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.

4 Your adversaries roared in your holy place;*
they set up their banners as tokens of victory.

5 They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees;*
they broke down all your carved work with hatchets and hammers.

6 They set fire to your holy place;*
they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name
and razed it to the ground.

7 They said to themselves, “Let us destroy them altogether.”*
They burned down all the meeting-places of God in the land.

8 There are no signs for us to see;
there is no prophet left;*
there is not one among us who knows how long.

9 How long, O God, will the adversary scoff?*
will the enemy blaspheme your Name for ever?

10 Why do you draw back your hand?*
why is your right hand hidden in your bosom?

11 Yet God is my King from ancient times,*
victorious in the midst of the earth.

12 You divided the sea by your might*
and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;

13 You crushed the heads of Leviathan*
and gave him to the people of the desert for food.

14 You split open spring and torrent;*
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.

15 Yours is the day, yours also the night;*
you established the moon and the sun.

16 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth;*
you made both summer and winter.

17 Remember, O LORD, how the enemy scoffed,*
how a foolish people despised your Name.

18 Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;*
never forget the lives of your poor.

19 Look upon your covenant;*
the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.

20 Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed;*
let the poor and needy praise your Name.

21 Arise, O God, maintain your cause;*
remember how fools revile you all day long.

22 Forget not the clamor of your adversaries,*
the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.

Psalm 94

1 O LORD God of vengeance,*
O God of vengeance, show yourself.

2 Rise up, O Judge of the world;*
give the arrogant their just deserts.

3 How long shall the wicked, O LORD,*
how long shall the wicked triumph?

4 They bluster in their insolence;*
all evildoers are full of boasting.

5 They crush your people, O LORD,*
and afflict your chosen nation.

6 They murder the widow and the stranger*
and put the orphans to death.

7 Yet they say, “The LORD does not see,*
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

8 Consider well, you dullards among the people;*
when will you fools understand?

9 He that planted the ear, does he not hear?*
he that formed the eye, does he not see?

10 He who admonishes the nations, will he not punish?*
he who teaches all the world, has he no knowledge?

11 The LORD knows our human thoughts;*
how like a puff of wind they are.

12 Happy are they whom you instruct, O Lord!*
whom you teach out of your law;

13 To give them rest in evil days,*
until a pit is dug for the wicked.

14 For the LORD will not abandon his people,*
nor will he forsake his own.

15 For judgment will again be just,*
and all the true of heart will follow it.

16 Who rose up for me against the wicked?*
who took my part against the evildoers?

17 If the LORD had not come to my help,*
I should soon have dwelt in the land of silence.

18 As often as I said, “My foot has slipped,”*
your love, O LORD, upheld me.

19 When many cares fill my mind,*
your consolations cheer my soul.

20 Can a corrupt tribunal have any part with you,*
one which frames evil into law?

21 They conspire against the life of the just*
and condemn the innocent to death.

22 But the LORD has become my stronghold,*
and my God the rock of my trust.

23 He will turn their wickedness back upon them
and destroy them in their own malice;*
the LORD our God will destroy them.

Psalm 69

1 Save me, O God,*
for the waters have risen up to my neck.

2 I am sinking in deep mire,*
and there is no firm ground for my feet.

3 I have come into deep waters,*
and the torrent washes over me.

4 I have grown weary with my crying;
my throat is inflamed;*
my eyes have failed from looking for my God.

5 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;
my lying foes who would destroy me are mighty.*
Must I then give back what I never stole?

6 O God, you know my foolishness,*
and my faults are not hidden from you.

7 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord GOD of hosts;*
let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel.

8 Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach,*
and shame has covered my face.

9 I have become a stranger to my own kindred,*
an alien to my mother’s children.

10 Zeal for your house has eaten me up;*
the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.

11 I humbled myself with fasting,*
but that was turned to my reproach.

12 I put on sack-cloth also,*
and became a byword among them.

13 Those who sit at the gate murmur against me,*
and the drunkards make songs about me.

14 But as for me, this is my prayer to you,*
at the time you have set, O LORD:

15 “In your great mercy, O God,*
answer me with your unfailing help.

16 Save me from the mire; do not let me sink;*
let me be rescued from those who hate me
and out of the deep waters.

17 Let not the torrent of waters wash over me,
neither let the deep swallow me up;*
do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me.

18 Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind;*
in your great compassion, turn to me.”

19 “Hide not your face from your servant;*
be swift and answer me, for I am in distress.

20 Draw near to me and redeem me;*
because of my enemies deliver me.

21 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;*
my adversaries are all in your sight.”

22 Reproach has broken my heart, and it cannot be healed;*
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I could find no one.

23 They gave me gall to eat,*
and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 103

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,*
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,*
and forget not all his benefits.

3 He forgives all your sins*
and heals all your infirmities;

4 He redeems your life from the grave*
and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;

5 He satisfies you with good things,*
and your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.

6 The LORD executes righteousness*
and judgment for all who are oppressed.

7 He made his ways known to Moses*
and his works to the children of Israel.

8 The LORD is full of compassion and mercy,*
slow to anger and of great kindness.

9 He will not always accuse us,*
nor will he keep his anger for ever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,*
nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,*
so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,*
so far has he removed our sins from us.

13 As a father cares for his children,*
so does the LORD care for those who fear him.

14 For he himself knows whereof we are made;*
he remembers that we are but dust.

15 Our days are like the grass;*
we flourish like a flower of the field;

16 When the wind goes over it, it is gone,*
and its place shall know it no more.

17 But the merciful goodness of the LORD endures for ever on those who fear him,*
and his righteousness on children’s children;

18 On those who keep his covenant*
and remember his commandments and do them.

19 The LORD has set his throne in heaven,*
and his kingship has dominion over all.

20 Bless the LORD, you angels of his,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,*
and hearken to the voice of his word.

21 Bless the LORD, all you his hosts,*
you ministers of his who do his will.

22 Bless the LORD, all you works of his,
in all places of his dominion;*
bless the LORD, O my soul.

Psalm 42

1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks,*
so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;*
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,*
while all day long they say to me,
“Where now is your God?”

4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things;*
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,

5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving,*
among those who keep holy-day.

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?*
and why are you so disquieted within me?

7 Put your trust in God;*
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

8 My soul is heavy within me;*
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.

9 One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts;*
all your rapids and floods have gone over me.

10 The LORD grants his loving-kindness in the daytime;*
in the night season his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

11 I will say to the God of my strength,
“Why have you forgotten me?*
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?”

12 While my bones are being broken,*
my enemies mock me to my face;

13 All day long they mock me*
and say to me, “Where now is your God?”

14 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?*
and why are you so disquieted within me?

15 Put your trust in God;*
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.