Tag Archives: Gospel

¹ Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
    answer me, for I need your help.
² Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
    Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
    You are my God.
³ Be merciful to me, O Lord,
    for I am calling on you constantly.
⁴ Give me happiness, O Lord,
    for I give myself to you.
⁵ O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
    so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
⁶ Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
    hear my urgent cry.
⁷ I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
    and you will answer me.

⁸ No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
    None can do what you do!
⁹ All the nations you made
    will come and bow before you, Lord;
    they will praise your holy name.
¹⁰ For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
    You alone are God.

¹¹ Teach me your ways, O Lord,
    that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
    so that I may honor you.
¹² With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
    I will give glory to your name forever,
¹³ for your love for me is very great.
    You have rescued me from the depths of death.^[a]

¹⁴ O God, insolent people rise up against me;
    a violent gang is trying to kill me.
    You mean nothing to them.
¹⁵ But you, O Lord,
    are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry
    and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
¹⁶ Look down and have mercy on me.
    Give your strength to your servant;
    save me, the son of your servant.
¹⁷ Send me a sign of your favor.
    Then those who hate me will be put to shame,
    for you, O Lord, help and comfort me.

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.

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 Give your love of justice to the king, O God,
    and righteousness to the king’s son.
² Help him judge your people in the right way;
    let the poor always be treated fairly.
³ May the mountains yield prosperity for all,
    and may the hills be fruitful.
⁴ Help him to defend the poor,
    to rescue the children of the needy,
    and to crush their oppressors.
⁵ May they fear you^[a] as long as the sun shines,
    as long as the moon remains in the sky.
    Yes, forever!

⁶ May the king’s rule be refreshing like spring rain on freshly cut grass,
    like the showers that water the earth.
⁷ May all the godly flourish during his reign.
    May there be abundant prosperity until the moon is no more.
⁸ May he reign from sea to sea,
    and from the Euphrates River^[b] to the ends of the earth.
⁹ Desert nomads will bow before him;
    his enemies will fall before him in the dust.
¹⁰ The western kings of Tarshish and other distant lands
    will bring him tribute.
The eastern kings of Sheba and Seba
    will bring him gifts.
¹¹ All kings will bow before him,
    and all nations will serve him.

¹² He will rescue the poor when they cry to him;
    he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.
¹³ He feels pity for the weak and the needy,
    and he will rescue them.
¹⁴ He will redeem them from oppression and violence,
    for their lives are precious to him.

¹⁵ Long live the king!
    May the gold of Sheba be given to him.
May the people always pray for him
    and bless him all day long.
¹⁶ May there be abundant grain throughout the land,
    flourishing even on the hilltops.
May the fruit trees flourish like the trees of Lebanon,
    and may the people thrive like grass in a field.
¹⁷ May the king’s name endure forever;
    may it continue as long as the sun shines.
May all nations be blessed through him
    and bring him praise.

¹⁸ Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel,
    who alone does such wonderful things.
¹⁹ Praise his glorious name forever!
    Let the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and amen!

²⁰ (This ends the prayers of David son of Jesse.)