Book of Common Prayer

^2 (1) Listen, God, to my prayer!
Don’t hide yourself from my plea!
^3 (2) Pay attention to me, and answer me!

I am panic-stricken as I make my complaint,
I shudder ^4 (3) at how the enemy shouts,
at how the wicked oppress;
for they keep heaping trouble on me
and angrily tormenting me.
^5 (4) My heart within me is pounding in anguish,
the terrors of death press down on me,
^6 (5) fear and trembling overwhelm me,
horror covers me.

^7 (6) I said, “I wish I had wings like a dove!
Then I could fly away and be at rest.
^8 (7) Yes, I would flee to a place far off,
I would stay in the desert. (Selah)
^9 (8) I would quickly find me a shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”

^10 (9) Confuse, Adonai, confound their speech!
For I see violence and fighting in the city.
^11 (10) Day and night they go about its walls;
within are malice and mischief.
^12 (11) Ruin is rife within it,
oppression and fraud never leave its streets.

^13 (12) For it was not an enemy who insulted me;
if it had been, I could have borne it.
It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn;
if it had been, I could have hidden myself.
^14 (13) But it was you, a man of my own kind,
my companion, whom I knew well.

^15 (14) We used to share our hearts with each other;
in the house of God we walked with the crowd.

^16 (15) May he put death on them;
let them go down alive to Sh’ol;
for evil is in their homes
and also in their hearts.

^17 (16) But I will call on God,
and Adonai will save me.
^18 (17) Evening, morning and noon I complain
and moan; but he hears my voice.
^19 (18) He redeems me and gives me peace,
so that no one can come near me.
For there were many who fought me.
^20 (19) God will hear and will humble them,
yes, he who has sat on his throne from the start. (Selah)
For they never change,
and they don’t fear God.

^21 (20) [My companion] attacked those
who were at peace with him;
he broke his solemn word.
^22 (21) What he said sounded smoother than butter,
but his heart was at war.
His words seemed more soothing than oil,
but in fact they were sharp swords.

^23 (22) Unload your burden on Adonai,
and he will sustain you.
He will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

^24 (23) But you will bring them down, God,
into the deepest pit.
Those men, so bloodthirsty and treacherous,
will not live out half their days.

But for my part, [Adonai,]
I put my trust in you.

74 ⁽⁰⁾ A maskil of Asaf:

⁽¹⁾ Why have you rejected us forever, God,
with your anger smoking against the sheep you once pastured?
² Remember your community, which you acquired long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your very own.
Remember Mount Tziyon, where you came to live.
³ Hurry your steps to these endless ruins,
to the sanctuary devastated by the enemy.

⁴ The roar of your foes filled your meeting-place;
they raised their own banners as a sign of their conquest.
⁵ The place seemed like a thicket of trees
when lumbermen hack away with their axes.
⁶ With hatchet and hammer they banged away,
smashing all the carved woodwork.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire,
tore down and profaned the abode of your name.
⁸ They said to themselves, “We will oppress them completely.”
They have burned down all God’s meeting-places in the land.

⁹ We see no signs, there is no prophet any more;
none of us knows how long it will last.
¹⁰ How much longer, God, will the foe jeer at us?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand?
Draw your right hand from your coat, and finish them off!

¹² God has been my king from earliest times,
acting to save throughout all the earth.
¹³ By your strength you split the sea in two,
in the water you smashed sea monsters’ heads,
¹⁴ you crushed the heads of Livyatan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ You cut channels for springs and streams,
you dried up rivers that had never failed.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and the night is yours;
it was you who established light and sun.
¹⁷ It was you who fixed all the limits of the earth,
you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy scoffs at Adonai,
how a brutish people insults your name.
¹⁹ Don’t hand over the soul of your dove to wild beasts,
don’t forget forever the life of your poor.

²⁰ Look to the covenant, for the land’s dark places
are full of the haunts of violence.
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed retreat in confusion;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, God, and defend your cause;
remember how brutish men insult you all day.
²³ Don’t forget what your foes are saying,
the ever-rising uproar of your adversaries.

“A curse on the person who trusts in humans,
who relies on merely human strength,
whose heart turns away from Adonai.
⁶ He will be like a tamarisk in the ‘Aravah —
when relief comes, it is unaffected;
for it lives in the sun-baked desert,
in salty, uninhabited land.
⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in Adonai;
Adonai will be his security.
⁸ He will be like a tree planted near water;
it spreads out its roots by the river;
it does not notice when heat comes;
and its foliage is luxuriant;
it is not anxious in a year of drought
but keeps on yielding fruit.

⁹ “The heart is more deceitful than anything else
and mortally sick. Who can fathom it?
¹⁰ I, Adonai, search the heart;
I test inner motivations;
in order to give to everyone
what his actions and conduct deserve.”

¹⁵ They keep asking me,
“Where is the word of Adonai?
Let it come now.”
¹⁶ As for me, I have not run away
from being a shepherd who follows you;
you know I didn’t want this fatal day;
what came from my lips has been clear to you.
¹⁷ So do not be my ruin,
you, my refuge on the day of disaster.