Psalms 79; Psalms 80; Psalms 81

Psalms 79

1 God! Barbarians have broken into your home, violated your holy temple, left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!

2 They've served up the corpses of your servants as carrion food for birds of prey, Threw the bones of your holy people out to the wild animals to gnaw on.

3 They dumped out their blood like buckets of water. All around Jerusalem, their bodies were left to rot, unburied.

4 We're nothing but a joke to our neighbors, graffiti scrawled on the city walls.

5 How long do we have to put up with this, God? Do you have it in for us for good? Will your smoldering rage never cool down?

6 If you're going to be angry, be angry with the pagans who care nothing about you, or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.

7 They're the ones who ruined Jacob, who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.

8 Don't blame us for the sins of our parents. Hurry up and help us; we're at the end of our rope.

9 You're famous for helping; God, give us a break. Your reputation is on the line. Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins - do what you're famous for doing!

10 Don't let the heathen get by with their sneers: "Where's your God? Is he out to lunch?" Go public and show the godless world that they can't kill your servants and get by with it.

11 Give groaning prisoners a hearing; pardon those on death row from their doom - you can do it!

12 Give our jeering neighbors what they've got coming to them; let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.

13 Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for, will thank you over and over and over. We'll tell everyone we meet how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are!

Psalms 80

1 Listen, Shepherd, Israel's Shepherd - get all your Joseph sheep together. Throw beams of light from your dazzling throne

2 So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh can see where they're going. Get out of bed - you've slept long enough! Come on the run before it's too late.

3 God, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.

4 God, God of the angel armies, how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano while your people call for fire and brimstone?

5 You put us on a diet of tears, bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.

6 You make us look ridiculous to our friends; our enemies poke fun day after day.

7 God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.

8 Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt, cleared out the brambles and briers and planted your very own vineyard?

9 You prepared the good earth, you planted her roots deep; the vineyard filled the land.

10 Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains, even dwarfing the giant cedars.

11 Your vine ranged west to the Sea, east to the River.

12 So why do you no longer protect your vine? Trespassers pick its grapes at will;

13 Wild pigs crash through and crush it, and the mice nibble away at what's left.

14 God of the angel armies, turn our way! Take a good look at what's happened and attend to this vine.

15 Care for what you once tenderly planted - the vine you raised from a shoot.

16 And those who dared to set it on fire - give them a look that will kill!

17 Then take the hand of your once-favorite child, the child you raised to adulthood.

18 We will never turn our back on you; breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!

19 God, God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.

Psalms 81

1 A song to our strong God! a shout to the God of Jacob!

2 Anthems from the choir, music from the band, sweet sounds from lute and harp,

3 Trumpets and trombones and horns: it's festival day, a feast to God!

4 A day decreed by God, solemnly ordered by the God of Jacob.

5 He commanded Joseph to keep this day so we'd never forget what he did in Egypt. I hear this most gentle whisper from One I never guessed would speak to me:

6 "I took the world off your shoulders, freed you from a life of hard labor.

7 You called to me in your pain; I got you out of a bad place. I answered you from where the thunder hides, I proved you at Meribah Fountain.

8 "Listen, dear ones - get this straight; O Israel, don't take this lightly.

9 Don't take up with strange gods, don't worship the latest in gods.

10 I'm God, your God, the very God who rescued you from doom in Egypt, Then fed you all you could eat, filled your hungry stomachs.

11 "But my people didn't listen, Israel paid no attention;

12 So I let go of the reins and told them, 'Run! Do it your own way!'

13 "Oh, dear people, will you listen to me now? Israel, will you follow my map?

14 I'll make short work of your enemies, give your foes the back of my hand.

15 I'll send the God-haters cringing like dogs, never to be heard from again.

16 You'll feast on my fresh-baked bread spread with butter and rock-pure honey."