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Showing posts from August, 2018

Psalm 147 - The Lord heals the brokenhearted

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1) Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 6 The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground. 7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre. 8 He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry. 10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner; 11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, ...

Psalm 3 - You, O Lord, are a shield

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A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. 1) O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2) many are saying to me, “There is no help for you in God.” Selah 3) But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 4) I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah 5) I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. 6) I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7) Rise up, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8) Deliverance belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people! Selah Psalm 3 (NRSV) A strong shield is a really good thing to have when you're being attacked, especially by many foes. The threat is sharpened when people preach dis-courage: God will ...

Psalm 127 - Unless the Lord builds

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A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved. Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Psalm 127 (NRSV) Proper 27, Year B, Sunday between November 6 and November 12 "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." This is one of the staples of faith. God-followers follow God. If God is against something, it will not stand. If God is in favor, a way will be made. (Readers of the New Testament may recall Rabbi...

Psalm 8 - A little lower than God

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O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8 (NRSV) Name of Jesus Trinity Sunday (the Sunday after Pentecost), Years A ...

Psalm 104 - Let sinners be consumed

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1) Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2) wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, 3) you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, 4) you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers. 5) You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. 6) You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7) At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight. 8) They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them. 9) You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. 24) O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures...

Psalm 90 - Turn, O Lord!

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1) Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2) Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3) You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” 4) For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. 5) You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; 6) in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7) For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 8) You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9) For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. 10) The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we f...

Psalm 119 א Aleph - Those who walk in the law

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1) Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. 2) Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, 3) who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. 4) You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. 5) O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! 6) Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. 7) I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous ordinances. 8) I will observe your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. Psalm 119 (NRSV) 6th Sunday after Epiphany, Year A, Proper 26, verses 1-8 Proper 26, Year B, Proper 26, verses 1-8, Sunday between October 30 and November 5 Psalm 119 is, by word count, the longest single chapter in the entire Bible. It is also constructed as an alphabetic acrostic. In each group of eight verses, each verse begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So verses 1-8 begin with...

Psalm 116 - I pray, save my life!

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Verses 1-2: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Verses 3-11: [The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.”] Verses 12-19: What shall I return to the Lord for all his bou...

Psalm 1 - Like trees

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1) Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; 2) but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. 3) They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. 4) The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5) Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6) for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1 (NRSV) 6th Sunday after Epiphany, Year C 7th Sunday of Easter, Year B Proper 18, year C, Sunday between September 4 and September 10 Proper 20, Year B, Sunday between September 18 and September 24 Proper 25, Year A, Sunday between October 23 and October 29...

Psalm 132 - Remember all the hardships he endured

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O Lord, remember in David’s favor all the hardships he endured; how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” We heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool.” Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your faithful shout for joy. For your servant David’s sake do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your thro...