Psalm 82

1 [Psalm Of Asaph] God takes his stand in the divine assembly, surrounded by the gods he gives judgement.

2 'How much longer will you give unjust judgments and uphold the prestige of the wicked?

3 Let the weak and the orphan have justice, be fair to the wretched and the destitute.

4 'Rescue the weak and the needy, save them from the clutches of the wicked.

5 'Ignorant and uncomprehending, they wander in darkness, while the foundations of the world are tottering.

6 I had thought, "Are you gods, are all of you sons of the Most High?"

7 No! you will die as human beings do, as one man, princes, you will fall.'

8 Arise, God, judge the world, for all nations belong to you.

Psalm 81

1 [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of Asaph] Sing for joy to God our strength, shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.

2 Strike up the music, beat the tambourine, play the melodious harp and the lyre;

3 blow the trumpet for the new month, for the full moon, for our feast day!

4 For Israel has this statute, a decision of the God of Jacob,

5 a decree he imposed on Joseph, when he went to war against Egypt. I heard a voice unknown to me,

6 'I freed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were able to lay aside the laborer's basket.

7 You cried out in your distress, so I rescued you. 'Hidden in the storm, I answered you, I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

8 Listen, my people, while I give you warning; Israel, if only you would listen to me!

9 'You shall have no strange gods, shall worship no alien god.

10 I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you here from Egypt, you have only to open your mouth for me to fill it.

11 'My people would not listen to me, Israel would have none of me.

12 So I left them to their stubborn selves, to follow their own devices.

13 'If only my people would listen to me, if only Israel would walk in my ways,

14 at one stroke I would subdue their enemies, turn my hand against their opponents.

15 'Those who hate Yahweh would woo his favor, though their doom was sealed for ever,

16 while I would feed him on pure wheat, would give you your fill of honey from the rock.'

Psalm 80

1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'The decrees are lilies' Of Asaph Psalm] Shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock, enthroned on the winged creatures, shine forth

2 over Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh; rouse your valor and come to our help.

3 God, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.

4 Yahweh, God Sabaoth, how long will you flare up at your people's prayer?

5 You have made tears their food, redoubled tears their drink.

6 You let our neighbors quarrel over us, our enemies mock us.

7 God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt, to plant it you drove out nations;

9 you cleared a space for it, it took root and filled the whole country.

10 The mountains were covered with its shade, and the cedars of God with its branches,

11 its boughs stretched as far as the sea, its shoots as far as the River.

12 Why have you broken down its fences? Every passer-by plucks its grapes,

13 boars from the forest tear at it, wild beasts feed on it.

14 God Sabaoth, come back, we pray, look down from heaven and see, visit this vine;

15 protect what your own hand has planted.

16 They have thrown it on the fire like dung, the frown of your rebuke will destroy them.
17 May your hand protect those at your side, the child of Adam you have strengthened for yourself!

18 Never again will we turn away from you, give us life and we will call upon your name.

19 God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.

Psalm 79

1 [Psalm Of Asaph] God, the pagans have invaded your heritage, they have defiled your holy temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins,

2 they have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the air, the bodies of your faithful for the wild beasts.

3 Around Jerusalem they have shed blood like water, leaving no one to bury them.

4 We are the scorn of our neighbors, the butt and laughing-stock of those around us.

5 How long will you be angry, Yahweh? For ever? Is your jealousy to go on smoldering like a fire?

6 Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;

7 for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his home.

8 Do not count against us the guilt of former generations, in your tenderness come quickly to meet us, for we are utterly weakened;

9 help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; Yahweh, wipe away our sins, rescue us for the sake of your name.

10 Why should the nations ask, 'Where is their God?' Let us see the nations suffer vengeance for shedding your servants' blood.

11 May the groans of the captive reach you, by your great strength save those who are condemned to death!

12 Repay our neighbors seven-fold for the insults they have leveled at you, Lord.

13 And we, your people, the flock that you pasture, will thank you for ever, will recite your praises from age to age.

Psalm 78

1 [Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say.

2 I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past.

3 What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us

4 we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.

5 He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,

6 that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,

7 and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God's great deeds, always keeping his commands,

8 and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.

9 The archer sons of Ephraim turned tail when the time came for fighting;

10 they failed to keep God's covenant, they refused to follow his Law;

11 they had forgotten his great deeds, the marvels he had shown them;

12 he did marvels in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.

13 He split the sea and brought them through, made the waters stand up like a dam;

14 he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with the light of a fire;

15 he split rocks in the desert, let them drink as though from the limitless depths;

16 he brought forth streams from a rock, made waters flow down in torrents.

17 But they only sinned against him more than ever, defying the Most High in barren country;

18 they deliberately challenged God by demanding food to their hearts' content.

19 They insulted God by saying, 'Can God make a banquet in the desert?

20 True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?'

21 When he heard them Yahweh vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,

22 because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.

23 Even so he gave orders to the skies above, he opened the sluice-gates of heaven;

24 he rained down manna to feed them, he gave them the wheat of heaven;

25 mere mortals ate the bread of the Mighty, he sent them as much food as they could want.

26 He roused an east wind in the heavens, dispatched a south wind by his strength;

27 he rained down meat on them like dust, birds thick as sand on the seashore,

28 tumbling into the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling-place.

29 They ate as much food as they wanted, he satisfied all their cravings;

30 but their cravings were still upon them, the food was still in their mouths,

31 when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.

32 Despite all this, they went on sinning, they put no faith in his marvels.

33 He made their days vanish in mist, their years in sudden ruin.

34 Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him,

35 recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.

36 They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him;

37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,

39 remembering they were creatures of flesh, a breath of wind that passes, never to return.

40 How often they defied him in the desert! How often they grieved him in the wastelands!

41 Repeatedly they challenged God, provoking the Holy One of Israel,

42 not remembering his hand, the time when he saved them from the oppressor,

43 he who did his signs in Egypt, his miracles in the plains of Tanis,

44 turning their rivers to blood, their streams so that they had nothing to drink.

45 He sent horseflies to eat them up, and frogs to devastate them,

46 consigning their crops to the caterpillar, the fruit of their hard work to the locust;

47 he killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost,

48 delivering up their cattle to hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.

49 He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;

50 he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.

51 He struck all the first-born in Egypt, the flower of the youth in the tents of Ham.

52 He brought out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert,

53 leading them safe and unafraid, while the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 He brought them to his holy land, the hill-country won by his right hand;

55 he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56 But still they challenged the Most High God and defied him, refusing to keep his decrees;

57 as perverse and treacherous as their ancestors, they gave way like a faulty bow,

58 provoking him with their high places, rousing his jealousy with their idols.

59 God listened and vented his wrath, he totally rejected Israel;

60 he forsook his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he used to dwell on the earth.

61 He abandoned his power to captivity, his splendor to the enemy's clutches;

62 he gave up his people to the sword, he vented his wrath on his own heritage.

63 Fire devoured their young men, their young girls had no wedding-song;

64 their priests fell by the sword and their widows sang no dirge.

65 The Lord arose as though he had been asleep, like a strong man fighting-mad with wine,

66 he struck his enemies on the rump, and put them to everlasting shame.

67 Rejecting the tents of Joseph, passing over the tribe of Ephraim,

68 he chose the tribe of Judah, his well-loved mountain of Zion;

69 he built his sanctuary like high hills, like the earth set it firm for ever.

70 He chose David to be his servant, took him from the sheepfold,

71 took him from tending ewes to pasture his servant Jacob, and Israel his heritage.

72 He pastured them with unblemished heart, with a sensitive hand he led them.

Psalm 77

1 [For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Of Asaph Psalm] I cry to God in distress, I cry to God and he hears me.

2 In the day of my distress I sought the Lord; all night I tirelessly stretched out my hands, my heart refused to be consoled.

3 I sigh as I think of God, my spirit faints away as I ponder on him.

4 You kept me from closing my eyes, I was too distraught to speak;

5 I thought of former times, years long past

6 I recalled; through the night I ponder in my heart, as I reflect, my spirit asks this question:

7 Is the Lord's rejection final? Will he never show favor again?

8 Is his faithful love gone for ever? Has his Word come to an end for all time?

9 Does God forget to show mercy? In anger does he shut off his tenderness?

10 And I said, 'This is what wounds me, the right hand of the Most High has lost its strength.'

11 Remembering Yahweh's great deeds, remembering your wonders in the past,

12 I reflect on all that you did, I ponder all your great deeds.

13 God, your ways are holy! What god is as great as our God?

14 You are the God who does marvelous deeds, brought nations to acknowledge your power,

15 with your own arm redeeming your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.

16 When the waters saw you, God, when the waters saw you they writhed in anguish, the very depths shook with fear.

17 The clouds pelted down water, the sky thundered, your arrows shot back and forth.

18 The rolling of your thunder was heard, your lightning-flashes lit up the world, the earth shuddered and shook.

19 Your way led over the sea, your path over the countless waters, and none could trace your footsteps.

20 You guided your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 76

1 [For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of Asaph Song] God is acknowledged in Judah, his name is great in Israel,

2 his tent is pitched in Salem, his dwelling is in Zion;

3 there he has broken the lightning-flashes of the bow, shield and sword and war.

4 Radiant you are, and renowned for the mountains of booty

5 taken from them. Heroes are now sleeping their last sleep, the warriors' arms have failed them;

6 at your reproof, God of Jacob, chariot and horse stand stunned.

7 You, you alone, strike terror! Who can hold his ground in your presence when your anger strikes?

8 From heaven your verdicts thunder, the earth is silent with dread

9 when God takes his stand to give judgement, to save all the humble of the earth.

10 Human anger serves only to praise you, the survivors of your anger will huddle round you.

11 Make and fulfill your vows to Yahweh your God, let those who surround him make offerings to the Awesome One.

12 He cuts short the breath of princes, strikes terror in earthly kings.