Psalm 80–84

An Asaph Psalm

^1–280Listen, Shepherd, Israel’s Shepherd—

get all your Joseph sheep together.

Throw beams of light

from your dazzling throne

So Ephraim, Ben-jamin, 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.

³God, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

That will be our salvation.

^4–6God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano

while your people call for fire and brimstone?

You put us on a diet of tears,

bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.

You make us look ridiculous to our friends;

our enemies poke fun day after day.

⁷God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

That will be our salvation.

^8–18Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt,

cleared out the brambles and briers

and planted your very own vineyard?

You prepared the good earth,

you planted her roots deep;

the vineyard filled the land.

Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains,

even dwarfing the giant cedars.

Your vine ranged west to the Sea,

east to the River.

So why do you no longer protect your vine?

Trespassers pick its grapes at will;

Wild pigs crash through and crush it,

and the mice nibble away at what’s left.

God-of-the-Angel-Armies, turn our way!

Take a good look at what’s happened

and attend to this vine.

Care for what you once tenderly planted—

the vine you raised from a shoot.

And those who dared to set it on fire—

give them a look that will kill!

Then take the hand of your once-favorite child,

the child you raised to adulthood.

We will never turn our back on you;

breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!

¹⁹God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

That will be our salvation.

An Asaph Psalm

^1–581A song to our strong God!

a shout to the God of Jacob!

Anthems from the choir, music from the band,

sweet sounds from lute and harp,

Trumpets and trombones and horns:

it’s festival day, a feast to God!

A day decreed by God,

solemnly ordered by the God of Jacob.

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:

^6–7“I took the world off your shoulders,

freed you from a life of hard labor.

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.

^8–10“Listen, dear ones—get this straight;

O Israel, don’t take this lightly.

Don’t take up with strange gods,

don’t worship the latest in gods.

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.

^11–12“But my people didn’t listen,

Israel paid no attention;

So I let go of the reins and told them, ‘Run!

Do it your own way!’

^13–16“Oh, dear people, will you listen to me now?

Israel, will you follow my map?

I’ll make short work of your enemies,

give your foes the back of my hand.

I’ll send the God-haters cringing like dogs,

never to be heard from again.

You’ll feast on my fresh-baked bread

spread with butter and rock-pure honey.”

An Asaph Psalm

¹82God calls the judges into his courtroom,

he puts all the judges in the dock.

^2–4“Enough! You’ve corrupted justice long enough,

you’ve let the wicked get away with murder.

You’re here to defend the defenseless,

to make sure that underdogs get a fair break;

Your job is to stand up for the powerless,

and prosecute all those who exploit them.”

⁵Ignorant judges! Head-in-the-sand judges!

They haven’t a clue to what’s going on.

And now everything’s falling apart,

the world’s coming unglued.

^6–7“I commissioned you judges, each one of you,

deputies of the High God,

But you’ve betrayed your commission

and now you’re stripped of your rank, busted.”

⁸O God, give them their just deserts!

You’ve got the whole world in your hands!

An Asaph Psalm

^1–583God, don’t shut me out;

don’t give me the silent treatment, O God.

Your enemies are out there whooping it up,

the God-haters are living it up;

They’re plotting to do your people in,

conspiring to rob you of your precious ones.

“Let’s wipe this nation from the face of the earth,”

they say; “scratch Israel’s name off the books.”

And now they’re putting their heads together,

making plans to get rid of you.

^6–8Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,

Philistia and the Tyrians,

And now Assyria has joined up,

Giving muscle to the gang of Lot.

^9–12Do to them what you did to Midian,

to Sisera and Jabin at Kishon Brook;

They came to a bad end at Endor,

nothing but dung for the garden.

Cut down their leaders as you did Oreb and Zeeb,

their princes to nothings like Zebah and Zalmunna,

With their empty brags, “We’re grabbing it all,

grabbing God’s gardens for ourselves.”

^13–18My God! I’ve had it with them!

Blow them away!

Tumbleweeds in the desert waste,

charred sticks in the burned-over ground.

Knock the breath right out of them, so they’re gasping

for breath, gasping, “God.”

Bring them to the end of their rope,

and leave them there dangling, helpless.

Then they’ll learn your name: “God,”

the one and only High God on earth.

A Korah Psalm

^1–284What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,

Always dreamed of a room in your house,

where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

^3–4Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,

sparrows and swallows make nests there.

They lay their eggs and raise their young,

singing their songs in the place where we worship.

God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!

How blessed they are to live and sing there!

^5–7And how blessed all those in whom you live,

whose lives become roads you travel;

They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,

discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!

God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and

at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!

^8–9God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:

O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!

Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,

our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

^10–12One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,

beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.

I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God

than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.

All sunshine and sovereign is God,

generous in gifts and glory.

He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.

It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.