Tag Archives: Bill Cloud

¹ How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
² I long, yes, I faint with longing
    to enter the courts of the Lord.
With my whole being, body and soul,
    I will shout joyfully to the living God.
³ Even the sparrow finds a home,
    and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young
at a place near your altar,
    O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!
⁴ What joy for those who can live in your house,
    always singing your praises. Interlude

⁵ What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,
    who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
⁶ When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,^[b]
    it will become a place of refreshing springs.
    The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
⁷ They will continue to grow stronger,
    and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.^[c]

⁸ O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.
    Listen, O God of Jacob. Interlude

⁹ O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield!
    Show favor to the one you have anointed.

¹⁰ A single day in your courts
    is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
    than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
¹¹ For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.
    He gives us grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing
    from those who do what is right.
¹² O Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    what joy for those who trust in you.

¹ O God, do not be silent!
    Do not be deaf.
    Do not be quiet, O God.
² Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies?
    Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up?
³ They devise crafty schemes against your people;
    they conspire against your precious ones.
⁴ “Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation.
    We will destroy the very memory of its existence.”
⁵ Yes, this was their unanimous decision.
    They signed a treaty as allies against you—
⁶ these Edomites and Ishmaelites;
    Moabites and Hagrites;
⁷ Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites;
    and people from Philistia and Tyre.
⁸ Assyria has joined them, too,
    and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Interlude

⁹ Do to them as you did to the Midianites
    and as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.
¹⁰ They were destroyed at Endor,
    and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil.
¹¹ Let their mighty nobles die as Oreb and Zeeb did.
    Let all their princes die like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² for they said, “Let us seize for our own use
    these pasturelands of God!”
¹³ O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed,
    like chaff before the wind!
¹⁴ As a fire burns a forest
    and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
¹⁵ chase them with your fierce storm;
    terrify them with your tempest.
¹⁶ Utterly disgrace them
    until they submit to your name, O Lord.
¹⁷ Let them be ashamed and terrified forever.
    Let them die in disgrace.
¹⁸ Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord,
    that you alone are the Most High,
    supreme over all the earth.

¹ God presides over heaven’s court;
    he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings:
² “How long will you hand down unjust decisions
    by favoring the wicked? Interlude

³ “Give justice to the poor and the orphan;
    uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.
⁴ Rescue the poor and helpless;
    deliver them from the grasp of evil people.
⁵ But these oppressors know nothing;
    they are so ignorant!
Th2ey wander about in darkness,
    while the whole world is shaken to the core.
⁶ I say, ‘You are gods;
    you are all children of the Most High.
⁷ But you will die like mere mortals
    and fall like every other ruler.’”

⁸ Rise up, O God, and judge the earth,
    for all the nations belong to you.

¹ Sing praises to God, our strength.
    Sing to the God of Jacob.
² Sing! Beat the tambourine.
    Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
³ Blow the ram’s horn at new moon,
    and again at full moon to call a festival!
⁴ For this is required by the decrees of Israel;
    it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it a law for Israel^[b]
    when he attacked Egypt to set us free.

I heard an unknown voice say,
⁶ “Now I will take the load from your shoulders;
    I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
⁷ You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
    I answered out of the thundercloud
    and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude

⁸ “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
    O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
⁹ You must never have a foreign god;
    you must not bow down before a false god.
¹⁰ For it was I, the Lord your God,
    who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

¹¹ “But no, my people wouldn’t listen.
    Israel did not want me around.
¹² So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,
    living according to their own ideas.
¹³ Oh, that my people would listen to me!
    Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
¹⁴ How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
    How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him;
    they would be doomed forever.
¹⁶ But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”

¹ Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock.
O God, enthroned above the cherubim,
    display your radiant glory
²     to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Show us your mighty power.
    Come to rescue us!

³ Turn us again to yourself, O God.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.
⁴ O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,
    how long will you be angry with our prayers?
⁵ You have fed us with sorrow
    and made us drink tears by the bucketful.
⁶ You have made us the scorn^[a] of neighboring nations.
    Our enemies treat us as a joke.

⁷ Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.
⁸ You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine;
    you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.
⁹ You cleared the ground for us,
    and we took root and filled the land.
¹⁰ Our shade covered the mountains;
    our branches covered the mighty cedars.
¹¹ We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea;
    our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.^[b]
12 But now, why have you broken down our walls
    so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?
¹³ The wild boar from the forest devours it,
    and the wild animals feed on it.

¹⁴ Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Look down from heaven and see our plight.
Take care of this grapevine
¹⁵     that you yourself have planted,
    this son you have raised for yourself.
¹⁶ For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.
    May they perish at the sight of your frown.
¹⁷ Strengthen the man you love,
    the son of your choice.
¹⁸ Then we will never abandon you again.
    Revive us so we can call on your name once more.

¹⁹ Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.

⁵ How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever?
    How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations
    that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
    that do not call on your name;
⁷ for they have devoured Jacob
    and devastated his homeland.

⁸ Do not hold against us the sins of past generations;
    may your mercy come quickly to meet us,
    for we are in desperate need.
⁹ Help us, God our Savior,
    for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins
    for your name’s sake.
¹⁰ Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”

Before our eyes, make known among the nations
    that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
¹¹ May the groans of the prisoners come before you;
    with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.
¹² Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times
    the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord.
¹³ Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will praise you forever;
from generation to generation
    we will proclaim your praise.

¹ O my people, listen to my instructions.
    Open your ears to what I am saying,
²     for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
³     stories we have heard and known,
    stories our ancestors handed down to us.
⁴ We will not hide these truths from our children;
    we will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the Lord,
    about his power and his mighty wonders.
⁵ For he issued his laws to Jacob;
    he gave his instructions to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
    to teach them to their children,
⁶ so the next generation might know them—
    even the children not yet born—
    and they in turn will teach their own children.
⁷ So each generation should set its hope anew on God,
    not forgetting his glorious miracles
    and obeying his commands.
⁸ Then they will not be like their ancestors—
    stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
    refusing to give their hearts to God.

⁹ The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
    turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant
    and refused to live by his instructions.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done—
    the great wonders he had shown them,
¹² the miracles he did for their ancestors
    on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
¹³ For he divided the sea and led them through,
    making the water stand up like walls!
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them by a cloud,
    and all night by a pillar of fire.
¹⁵ He split open the rocks in the wilderness
    to give them water, as from a gushing spring.
¹⁶ He made streams pour from the rock,
    making the waters flow down like a river!

¹⁷ Yet they kept on sinning against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They stubbornly tested God in their hearts,
    demanding the foods they craved.
¹⁹ They even spoke against God himself, saying,
    “God can’t give us food in the wilderness.
²⁰ Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out,
    but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”
²¹ When the Lord heard them, he was furious.
    The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.
    Yes, his anger rose against Israel,
²² for they did not believe God
    or trust him to care for them.
²³ But he commanded the skies to open;
    he opened the doors of heaven.
²⁴ He rained down manna for them to eat;
    he gave them bread from heaven.
²⁵ They ate the food of angels!
    God gave them all they could hold.
²⁶ He released the east wind in the heavens
    and guided the south wind by his mighty power.
²⁷ He rained down meat as thick as dust—
    birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!
²⁸ He caused the birds to fall within their camp
    and all around their tents.
²⁹ The people ate their fill.
    He gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they satisfied their craving,
    while the meat was yet in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them,
    and he killed their strongest men.
    He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.

³² But in spite of this, the people kept sinning.
    Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.
³³ So he ended their lives in failure,
    their years in terror.
³⁴ When God began killing them,
    they finally sought him.
    They repented and took God seriously.
³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their rock,
    that God Most High^[b] was their redeemer.
³⁶ But all they gave him was lip service;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their hearts were not loyal to him.
    They did not keep his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins
    and did not destroy them all.
Many times he held back his anger
    and did not unleash his fury!
³⁹ For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
    gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

⁴⁰ Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
⁴¹ Again and again they tested God’s patience
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power
    and how he rescued them from their enemies.
⁴³ They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt,
    his wonders on the plain of Zoan.
⁴⁴ For he turned their rivers into blood,
    so no one could drink from the streams.
⁴⁵ He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them
    and hordes of frogs to ruin them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to caterpillars;
    their harvest was consumed by locusts.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their grapevines with hail
    and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.
⁴⁸ He abandoned their cattle to the hail,
    their livestock to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹ He loosed on them his fierce anger—
    all his fury, rage, and hostility.
He dispatched against them
    a band of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He turned his anger against them;
    he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives
    but ravaged them with the plague.
⁵¹ He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family,
    the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.^[c]
52 But he led his own people like a flock of sheep,
    guiding them safely through the wilderness.
⁵³ He kept them safe so they were not afraid;
    but the sea covered their enemies.
⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of his holy land,
    to this land of hills he had won for them.
⁵⁵ He drove out the nations before them;
    he gave them their inheritance by lot.
    He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

⁵⁶ But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High.
    They did not obey his laws.
⁵⁷ They turned back and were as faithless as their parents.
    They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
⁵⁸ They angered God by building shrines to other gods;
    they made him jealous with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard them, he was very angry,
    and he completely rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.
⁶¹ He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured;
    he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.
⁶² He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword,
    because he was so angry with his own people—his special possession.
⁶³ Their young men were killed by fire;
    their young women died before singing their wedding songs.
⁶⁴ Their priests were slaughtered,
    and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,
    like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.
⁶⁶ He routed his enemies
    and sent them to eternal shame.
⁶⁷ But he rejected Joseph’s descendants;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
    and Mount Zion, which he loved.
⁶⁹ There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens,
    as solid and enduring as the earth.
⁷⁰ He chose his servant David,
    calling him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He took David from tending the ewes and lambs
    and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants—
    God’s own people, Israel.
⁷² He cared for them with a true heart
    and led them with skillful hands.