Psalm 79-81

Common English Bible

Psalm 79

A psalm of Asaph.

79 The nations have come into your inheritance, God!
    They’ve defiled your holy temple.
    They’ve made Jerusalem a bunch of ruins.
²They’ve left your servants’ bodies
    as food for the birds;
    they’ve left the flesh of your faithful
    to the wild animals of the earth.
³They’ve poured out the blood of the faithful
    like water all around Jerusalem,
    and there’s no one left to bury them.
⁴We’ve become a joke to our neighbors,
    nothing but objects of ridicule
    and disapproval to those around us.

⁵How long will you rage, Lord? Forever?
    How long will your anger burn like fire?
⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations
        who don’t know you,
    on the kingdoms
        that haven’t called on your name.
⁷They’ve devoured Jacob
    and demolished his pasture.
⁸Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations;
    let your compassion hurry to meet us
    because we’ve been brought so low.
⁹God of our salvation, help us
    for the glory of your name!
Deliver us and cover our sins
    for the sake of your name!
¹⁰Why should the nations say,
    “Where’s their God now?”
Let vengeance for the spilled blood of your servants
    be known among the nations before our very eyes!
¹¹    Let the prisoners’ groaning reach you.
With your powerful arm
    spare those who are destined to die.
¹²Pay back our neighbors seven times over,
    right where it hurts,
    for the insults they used on you, Lord.
¹³We are, after all, your people
    and the sheep of your very own pasture.
We will give you thanks forever;
    we will proclaim your praises
    from one generation to the next.

Psalm 80

For the music leader. According to “Lotus Blossoms.” A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.

80 Shepherd of Israel, listen!
    You, the one who leads Joseph as if he were a sheep.
    You, who are enthroned upon the winged heavenly creatures.
Show yourself ²before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh!
    Wake up your power!
    Come to save us!
³Restore us, God!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

⁴Lord God of heavenly forces,
    how long will you fume against your people’s prayer?
⁵You’ve fed them bread made of tears;
    you’ve given them tears to drink three times over!
⁶You’ve put us at odds with our neighbors;
    our enemies make fun of us.
⁷Restore us, God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt.
    You drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹You cleared the ground for it;
    then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
¹⁰The mountains were covered by its shade;
    the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
¹¹It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
    its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.^[a]
¹²So why have you now torn down its walls
    so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
¹³    so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
    so that the bugs can feed on it?

¹⁴Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
    Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
¹⁵    this root that you planted with your strong hand,
    this son whom you secured as your very own.
¹⁶It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
    They die at the rebuke coming from you.
¹⁷Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
    with the one whom you secured as your own—
¹⁸    then we will not turn away from you!
Revive us so that we can call on your name.
¹⁹    Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

Psalm 81

For the music leader. According to the Gittith. Of Asaph.

81 Rejoice out loud to God, our strength!
    Shout for joy to Jacob’s God!
²Take up a song and strike the drum!
    Sweet lyre along with harp!
³Blow the horn on the new moon,
    at the full moon, for our day of celebration!
⁴Because this is the law for Israel;
    this is a rule of Jacob’s God.
⁵He made it a decree for Joseph
    when he went out against the land of Egypt,
    when I heard a language I did not yet know:

⁶“I lifted the burden off your shoulders;
    your hands are free of the brick basket!
⁷In distress you cried out, so I rescued you.
    I answered you in the secret of thunder.
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
⁸Listen, my people, I’m warning you!
    If only you would listen to me, Israel.
⁹There must be no foreign god among you.
    You must not bow down to any strange deity.
¹⁰I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
    Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up!

¹¹But my people wouldn’t listen to my voice.
    Israel simply wasn’t agreeable toward me.
¹²So I sent them off to follow their willful hearts;
    they followed their own advice.
¹³How I wish my people would listen to me!
    How I wish Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴Then I would subdue their enemies in a second;
    I would turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would grovel before me,
    and their doom would last forever!
¹⁶But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”