The Living Bible (187 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
O God, why have you cast us away forever? Why is your anger hot against us—the sheep of your own pasture?
2
Remember that we are your people—the ones you chose in ancient times from slavery and made the choicest of your possessions. You chose Jerusalem
*
as your home on earth!
3
Walk through the awful ruins of the city and see what the enemy has done to your sanctuary.
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There they shouted their battle cry and erected their idols to flaunt their victory.
5-6
Everything lies in shambles like a forest chopped to the ground. They came with their axes and sledgehammers and smashed and chopped the carved paneling;
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they set the sanctuary on fire, and razed it to the ground—your sanctuary, Lord.
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“Let’s wipe out every trace of God,” they said, and went through the entire country burning down the assembly places where we worshiped you.
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There is nothing left to show that we are your people. The prophets are gone, and who can say when it all will end? How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to dishonor your name? Will you let them get away with this forever?
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Why do you delay? Why hold back your power? Unleash your fist and give them a final blow.
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God is my King from ages past; you have been actively helping me everywhere throughout the land.
13-14
You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat!
15
At your command the springs burst forth to give your people water; and then you dried a path for them across the ever-flowing Jordan.
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Day and night alike belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun.
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All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter too.
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Lord, see how these enemies scoff at you. O Jehovah, an arrogant nation has blasphemed your name.
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O Lord, save me! Protect your turtledove from the hawks.
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Save your beloved people from these beasts.
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Remember your promise! For the land is full of darkness and cruel men.
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O Lord, don’t let your downtrodden people be constantly insulted. Give cause for these poor and needy ones to praise your name!
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Arise, O God, and state your case against our enemies. Remember the insults these rebels have hurled against you all day long.
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Don’t overlook the cursing of these enemies of yours; it grows louder and louder.
How we thank you, Lord! Your mighty miracles give proof that you care.
2
“Yes,” the Lord replies, “and when I am ready, I will punish the wicked!
3
Though the earth shakes and all its people live in turmoil, yet its pillars are firm, for I have set them in place!”
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I warned the proud to cease their arrogance! I told the wicked to lower their insolent gaze
*
5
and to stop being stubborn and proud.
6-7
For promotion and power come from nowhere on earth, but only from God. He promotes one and deposes another.
8
In Jehovah’s hand there is a cup of pale and sparkling wine. It is his judgment, poured out upon the wicked of the earth. They must drain that cup to the dregs.
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But as for me, I shall forever declare the praises of the God of Jacob.
10
“I will cut off the strength of evil men,” says the Lord,
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“and increase the power of good men in their place.”
God’s reputation is very great in Judah and in Israel.
2
His home is in Jerusalem. He lives upon Mount Zion.
3
There he breaks the weapons of our enemies.
4
The everlasting mountains cannot compare with you in glory!
5
The mightiest of our enemies are conquered. They lie before us in the sleep of death; not one can lift a hand against us.
6
When you rebuked them, God of Jacob, steeds and riders fell.
7
No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before an angry God?
8
You pronounce sentence on them from heaven; the earth trembles and stands silently before you.
9
You stand up to punish the evildoers and to defend the meek of the earth.
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Man’s futile wrath will bring you glory. You will use it as an ornament!
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Fulfill all your vows that you have made to Jehovah your God. Let everyone bring him presents. He should be reverenced and feared,
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for he cuts down princes and does awesome things to the kings of the earth.
I cry to the Lord; I call and call to him. Oh, that he would listen.
2
I am in deep trouble and I need his help so much. All night long I pray, lifting my hands to heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts.
3
I think of God and moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.
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I cannot sleep until you act. I am too distressed even to pray!
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I keep thinking of the good old days of the past, long since ended.
6
Then my nights were filled with joyous songs. I search my soul and meditate upon the difference now.
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Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be favorable?
8
Is his loving-kindness gone forever? Has his promise failed?
9
Has he forgotten to be kind to one so undeserving? Has he slammed the door in anger on his love?
10
And I said: This is my fate, that the blessings of God have changed to hate.
*
11
I recall the many miracles he did for me so long ago.
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Those wonderful deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.
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O God, your ways are holy. Where is there any other as mighty as you?
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You are the God of miracles and wonders! You still demonstrate your awesome power.
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You have redeemed us who are the sons of Jacob and of Joseph by your might.
16
When the Red Sea saw you, how it feared! It trembled to its depths!
17
The clouds poured down their rain, the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky. Your lightning flashed.
18
There was thunder in the whirlwind; the lightning lighted up the world! The earth trembled and shook.
19
Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there!
20
You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.
O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying.
2-3
For I will show you lessons from our history, stories handed down to us from former generations.
4
I will reveal these truths to you so that you can describe these glorious deeds of Jehovah to your children and tell them about the mighty miracles he did.
5
For he gave his laws to Israel and commanded our fathers to teach them to their children,
6
so that they in turn could teach their children too. Thus his laws pass down from generation to generation.
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In this way each generation has been able to obey his laws and to set its hope anew on God and not forget his glorious miracles.
8
Thus they did not need to be as their fathers were—stubborn, rebellious, unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
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The people of Ephraim, though fully armed, turned their backs and fled when the day of battle came
10
because they didn’t obey his laws. They refused to follow his ways.
11-12
And they forgot about the wonderful miracles God had done for them and for their fathers in Egypt.
13
For he divided the sea before them and led them through! The water stood banked up along both sides of them!
14
In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire.
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He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them plenty of water, as though gushing from a spring.
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Streams poured from the rock, flowing like a river!
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Yet they kept on with their rebellion, sinning against the God who is above all gods.
18
They murmured and complained, demanding other food than God was giving them.
19-20
They even spoke against God himself. “Why can’t he give us decent food as well as water?” they grumbled.
21
Jehovah heard them and was angry; the fire of his wrath burned against Israel
22
because they didn’t believe in God or trust in him to care for them,
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even though he commanded the skies to open—he opened the windows of heaven—
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and rained down manna for their food. He gave them bread from heaven!
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They ate angels’ food! He gave them all they could hold.
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And he led forth the east wind and guided the south wind by his mighty power.
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He rained down birds as thick as dust, clouds of them like sands along the shore!
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He caused the birds to fall to the ground among the tents.
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The people ate their fill. He gave them what they asked for.
30
But they had hardly finished eating, and the meat was yet in their mouths,
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when the anger of the Lord rose against them and killed the finest of Israel’s young men.
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Yet even so the people kept on sinning and refused to believe in miracles.
33
So he cut their lives short and gave them years of terror and disaster.
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Then at last, when he had ruined them, they walked awhile behind him; how earnestly they turned around and followed him!
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Then they remembered that God was their Rock—that their Savior was the God above all gods.
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But it was only with their words that they followed him, not with their hearts;
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their hearts were far away. They did not keep their promises.
38
Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and didn’t destroy them all. Many and many a time he held back his anger.
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For he remembered that they were merely mortal men, gone in a moment like a breath of wind.
40
Oh, how often they rebelled against him in those desert years and grieved his heart.
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Again and again they turned away and tempted God to kill them, and limited the Holy One of Israel from giving them his blessings.
42
They forgot his power and love and how he had rescued them from their enemies;
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they forgot the plagues he sent upon the Egyptians in Tanis
*
—
44
how he turned their rivers into blood so that no one could drink,
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how he sent vast swarms of flies to fill the land, and how the frogs had covered all of Egypt!
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He gave their crops to caterpillars. Their harvest was consumed by locusts.
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He destroyed their grapevines and their sycamores with hail.
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Their cattle died in the fields, mortally wounded by huge hailstones from heaven. Their sheep were killed by lightning.
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He loosed on them the fierceness of his anger, sending sorrow and trouble. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.
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He gave free course to his anger and did not spare the Egyptians’ lives, but handed them over to plagues and sickness.
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Then he killed the eldest son
*
in each Egyptian family—he who was the beginning of its strength and joy.
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But he led forth his own people like a flock, guiding them safely through the wilderness.
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He kept them safe, so they were not afraid. But the sea closed in upon their enemies and overwhelmed them.
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He brought them to the border of his land of blessing, to this land of hills he made for them.
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He drove out the nations occupying the land and gave each tribe of Israel its apportioned place as its home.
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Yet though he did all this for them, they still rebelled against the God above all gods and refused to follow his commands.
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They turned back from entering the Promised Land and disobeyed as their fathers had. Like a crooked arrow, they missed the target of God’s will.
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They made him angry by erecting idols and altars to other gods.
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When God saw their deeds, his wrath was strong and he despised his people.
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Then he abandoned his Tabernacle at Shiloh, where he had lived among mankind,
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and allowed his Ark to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.
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He caused his people to be butchered because his anger was intense.
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Their young men were killed by fire, and their girls died before they were old enough to sing their wedding songs.
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The priests were slaughtered, and their widows died before they could even begin their lament.
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Then the Lord rose up as though awakening from sleep, and like a mighty man aroused by wine,
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he routed his enemies; he drove them back and sent them to eternal shame.
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But he rejected Joseph’s family, the tribe of Ephraim,
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and chose the tribe of Judah—and Mount Zion, which he loved.
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There he built his towering temple, solid and enduring as the heavens and the earth.
70
He chose his servant David, taking him from feeding sheep
71-72
and from following the ewes with lambs; God presented David to his people as their shepherd, and he cared for them with a true heart and skillful hands.
