UST PSA Chapter 80

◄ PSA 80 ► ║ ═ ©

80 This is a note for the worship leader: tune is “Lilies.” Levite from the clan of Asaph wrote song an appeal to Yahweh for help.

1 God, you are like a shepherd to the people of Israel, so please listen to me.

You lead the descendants of Joseph the way a shepherd leads his flock.

You were present with us in your temple above the statues of the cherubim;

reveal your glory to us again!

2 Just as you moved powerfully through the wilderness

right ahead of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,

come powerfully once again and save us.

3 God, make us strong again.

Regard us favorably and save us.

4 Yahweh, you are the God who commands the heavenly armies.

You have been angry with us, and so you have not been doing what we ask

when we pray to you. But please now answer our prayers.

5 You have caused us to experience constant sorrow.

It feels as if you are punishing us three times as much as we deserve.

6 The nations around us have become hostile to us,

and our enemies make fun of us.

7 God, you who command the heavenly armies, make us strong again!

Regard us favorably and save us.

8 You brought your people out of Egypt as if you were transplanting a vine from there.

You forced other nations to leave this land

and you allowed your people to settle in it,

as if you were planting that vine here.

9 You removed the foreign nations, just as a farmer clears the ground for a new plant.

This enabled your people to become a strong nation that occupied the entire country.

10 It was as if that vine became so large that its shadow darkened the mountains

and its branches were like great cedar trees.

11 They controlled the territory from the Great Sea in the west

to the Euphrates River in the east.

12 But now you have allowed enemies to invade and conquer us,

as if you had torn down a fence that protected that vine,

so that everyone who walked past it

could take whatever fruit they wanted from it.

13 Those enemies have destroyed the country,

as if a wild boar had chewed up that vine

and wild animals ate what remained.

14 God, commander of the heavenly armies, please help us again!

Look down from heaven and see what is happening to us!

Come and care for your people, who are like a vine that you planted

15 and worked hard to make sure that it would grow well.

Your people are also like your own son whom you helped grow up to be strong.

16 But now, because you do not regard them favorably,

their enemies are destroying them

as if someone had cut down that vine and burned it.

17 Even though we are human, we are like your own son

whom you helped grow up to be strong,

so please help us with your power.

Restore us to a position of honor.

18 Then we will not worship other gods again.

Give us new life, and we will worship only you.

19 Yahweh, the God who commands the heavenly armies, make us strong again!

Regard us favorably and save us.