Praying the Psalms

Jump to end of psalm A Psalm of David. 1) Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2) Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor. 3) The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters. 4) The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5) The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6) He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7) The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 8) The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9) The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!” 10) The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; th...

Jump to end of psalm A Psalm of David. 1) I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you. 2) Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. 3) Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. 4) Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies. 5) Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds. 6) When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant. 7) Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol. 8) Bu...

Jump to end of psalm Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King Of Solomon.. 1) Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. 2) May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 3) May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness. 4) May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. 5) May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. 6) May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. 7) In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. 8) May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 9) May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust. 10) May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, ma...

Jump to end of psalm To the leader. Of David. 1) In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, "Flee like a bird to the mountains; 2) for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. 3) If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" 4) The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind. 5) The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence. 6) On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. 7) For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. Psalm 11 Not included in the Revised Common Lectionary. When you are under threat, there are three basic survival reactions: fight, fl...

Jump to end of psalm Of the Korahites. A Psalm. A Song. 1) On the holy mount stands the city he founded; 2) the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3) Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah 4) Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia— "This one was born there," they say. 5) And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in it"; for the Most High himself will establish it. 6) The Lord records, as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." Selah 7) Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you." Psalm 87 Not included in the Revised Common Lectionary. Jerusalem, O Jerusalem. The city is justly fabled. People have invested heart and soul in it for millennia. Some talk about a particular q...

Jump to end of psalm A Psalm of Asaph. 1) O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2) They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. 3) They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. 4) We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us. 5) How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire? 6) Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name. 7) For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. 8) Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet u...

Jump to end of psalm A Maskil of Asaph. 1) O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? 2) Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell. 3) Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. 4) Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there. 5) At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes. 6) And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work. 7) They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground. 8) They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land. 9) We do not see o...

Jump to end of psalm A Song of Ascents. 1) Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! 2) Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. 3) May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. Psalm 134 (NRSV*) Not included in the Revised Common Lectionary. This shortest of psalms says a lot. There is an invitation to come, come and bless the Lord. It is directed to a certain class of faithful ones, those who keep watch at night in the house of the Lord. They are to lift up their hands to the holy place. The psalms were the hymn book of the Temple. As a "song of Ascents," Psalm 134 was sung by worshippers ascending the hill to the Temple. It seems that those "servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord" were the actual night shift in the Jerusalem Temple. But the psalms are reusable and can be re-purposed....

Jump to end of psalm 1) Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. 2) Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forevermore. 3) From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised. 4) The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. 5) Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6) who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7) He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8) to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9) He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord! Psalm 113 Proper 20, Sunday between September 18 and September 24, Year C Blessed be the name of the Lord from now until forever. That's a lot of blessing. Some will know this ps...

Jump to end of psalm A Song of Ascents. 1) "Often have they attacked me from my youth" —let Israel now say— 2) "often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. 3) The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long." 4) The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked. 5) May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward. 6) Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up, 7) with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms, 8) while those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!". Psalm 129 Not included in the Revised Common Lectionary. How troubling it is to continually be subject to attack? Imagine... a lifetime of assaults, indignities, and abuse, starting as e...

Jump to end of psalm 1) Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. 2) Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. 3) Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4) For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5) He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 6) By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 7) He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. 8) Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 9) For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10) The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. ...

Jump to end of psalm Of David. 1) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— 3) who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4) who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5) who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6) The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. 7) He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 8) The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9) He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10) He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11) For as the heavens are high above the earth, ...

Jump to end of psalm Of David. A psalm. 1) I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing. 2) I will study the way that is blameless. When shall I attain it? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; 3) I will not set before my eyes anything that is base. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. 4) Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil. 5) One who secretly slanders a neighbor I will destroy. A haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not tolerate. 6) I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so that they may live with me; whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. 7) No one who practices deceit shall remain in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue in my presence. 8) Morning by morning I will destroy ...

Jump to end of psalm A Song of Ascents. 1) In my distress I cry to the Lord, that he may answer me: 2) “Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.” 3) What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? 4) A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree! 5) Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar. [1] 6) Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. 7) I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war. Psalm 120 (NRSV*) Not included in the Revised Common Lectionary. This is one of those short, "simple" psalms, yet it says a lot in seven verses. We all know about lying lips. I do not know if lying is relatively constant across time. I do know that we are presented daily with falsehood presented as truth. Swimming in a se...

Jump to end of psalm A Psalm of Asaph. 1) The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2) Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 3) Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him. 4) He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5) "Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!" 6) The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah 7) “Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. 8) Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. 9) I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. 10) For every wild animal of the fores...

Jump to end of psalm To the leader. Of David. A Psalm 1) Do not be silent, O God of my praise. 2) For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. 3) They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. 4) In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them. 5) So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. 6) They say, "Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right. 7) When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin. 8) May his days be few; may another seize his position. 9) May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow. 10) May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit. 11) May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil. 12)...