Psalm 80–84

A Prayer to Bring Israel Back

For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies of the Agreement.” A psalm of Asaph.

80Shepherd of Israel, listen to us.

You lead the people of Joseph like a flock.

You sit on your throne between the gold creatures with wings.

Show your greatness ²to the people of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.

Use your strength,

and come to save us.

³God, take us back.

Show us your kindness so we can be saved.

⁴Lord God All-Powerful,

how long will you be angry

at the prayers of your people?

⁵You have fed your people with tears;

you have made them drink many tears.

⁶You made those around us fight over us,

and our enemies make fun of us.

⁷God All-Powerful, take us back.

Show us your kindness so we can be saved.

⁸You brought us out of Egypt as if we were a vine.

You forced out other nations and planted us in the land.

⁹You cleared the ground for us.

Like a vine, we took root and filled the land.

¹⁰We covered the mountains with our shade.

We had limbs like the mighty cedar tree.

¹¹Our branches reached the Mediterranean Sea,

and our shoots went to the Euphrates River.

¹²So why did you pull down our walls?

Now everyone who passes by steals from us.

¹³Like wild pigs they walk over us;

like wild animals they feed on us.

¹⁴God All-Powerful, come back.

Look down from heaven and see.

Take care of us, your vine.

¹⁵You planted this shoot with your own hands

and strengthened this child.

¹⁶Now it is cut down and burned with fire;

you destroyed us by your angry looks.

¹⁷With your hand,

strengthen the one you have chosen for yourself.

¹⁸Then we will not turn away from you.

Give us life again, and we will call to you for help.

¹⁹Lord God All-Powerful, take us back.

Show us your kindness so we can be saved.

A Song for a Holiday

For the director of music. By the gittith. A psalm of Asaph.

81Sing for joy to God, our strength;

shout out loud to the God of Jacob.

²Begin the music. Play the tambourines.

Play pleasant music on the harps and lyres.

³Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon,

when the moon is full, when our feast begins.

⁴This is the law for Israel;

it is the command of the God of Jacob.

⁵He gave this rule to the people of Joseph

when they went out of the land of Egypt.

I heard a language I did not know, saying:

⁶“I took the load off their shoulders;

I let them put down their baskets.

⁷When you were in trouble, you called, and I saved you.

I answered you with thunder.

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Selah

⁸My people, listen. I am warning you.

Israel, please listen to me!

⁹You must not have foreign gods;

you must not worship any false god.

¹⁰I, the Lord, am your God,

who brought you out of Egypt.

Open your mouth and I will feed you.

¹¹“But my people did not listen to me;

Israel did not want me.

¹²So I let them go their stubborn way

and follow their own advice.

¹³I wish my people would listen to me;

I wish Israel would live my way.

¹⁴Then I would quickly defeat their enemies

and turn my hand against their foes.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would bow before him.

Their punishment would continue forever.

¹⁶But I would give you the finest wheat

and fill you with honey from the rocks.”

A Cry for Justice

A psalm of Asaph.

82God is in charge of the great meeting;

he judges among the “gods.”

²He says, “How long will you defend evil people?

How long will you show greater kindness to the wicked?

Selah

³Defend the weak and the orphans;

defend the rights of the poor and suffering.

⁴Save the weak and helpless;

free them from the power of the wicked.

⁵“You know nothing. You don’t understand.

You walk in the dark,

while the world is falling apart.

⁶I said, ‘You are “gods.”

You are all sons of God Most High.’

⁷But you will die like any other person;

you will fall like all the leaders.”

⁸God, come and judge the earth,

because you own all the nations.

A Prayer Against the Enemies

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

83God, do not keep quiet;

God, do not be silent or still.

²Your enemies are making noises;

those who hate you are getting ready to attack.

³They are making secret plans against your people;

they plot against those you love.

⁴They say, “Come, let’s destroy them as a nation.

Then no one will ever remember the name ‘Israel.’ ”

⁵They are united in their plan.

These have made an agreement against you:

⁶the families of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷the people of Byblos, Ammon, Amalek,

Philistia, and Tyre.

⁸Even Assyria has joined them

to help Ammon and Moab, the descendants of Lot.

Selah

⁹God, do to them what you did to Midian,

what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

¹⁰They died at Endor,

and their bodies rotted on the ground.

¹¹Do to their important leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb.

Do to their princes what you did to Zebah and Zalmunna.

¹²They said, “Let’s take for ourselves

the pasturelands that belong to God.”

¹³My God, make them like tumbleweed,

like chaff blown away by the wind.

¹⁴Be like a fire that burns a forest

or like flames that blaze through the hills.

¹⁵Chase them with your storm,

and frighten them with your wind.

¹⁶Cover them with shame.

Then people will look for you, Lord.

¹⁷Make them afraid and ashamed forever.

Disgrace them and destroy them.

¹⁸Then they will know that you are the Lord,

that only you are God Most High over all the earth.

Wishing to Be in the Temple

For the director of music. On the gittith. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

84Lord All-Powerful,

how lovely is your Temple!

²I want more than anything

to be in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.

My whole being wants

to be with the living God.

³The sparrows have found a home,

and the swallows have nests.

They raise their young near your altars,

Lord All-Powerful, my King and my God.

⁴Happy are the people who live at your Temple;

they are always praising you.

Selah

⁵Happy are those whose strength comes from you,

who want to travel to Jerusalem.

⁶As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it like a spring.

The autumn rains fill it with pools of water.

⁷The people get stronger as they go,

and everyone meets with God in Jerusalem.

⁸Lord God All-Powerful, hear my prayer;

God of Jacob, listen to me.

Selah

⁹God, look at our shield;

be kind to your appointed king.

¹⁰One day in the courtyards of your Temple is better

than a thousand days anywhere else.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the Temple of my God

than live in the homes of the wicked.

¹¹The Lord God is like a sun and shield;

the Lord gives us kindness and honor.

He does not hold back anything good

from those whose lives are innocent.

¹²Lord All-Powerful,

happy are the people who trust you!