(A special psalm by the clan of Korah and for the music leader.)
A Prayer for Help
1 Our God, our ancestors told us
what wonders you worked
and we listened carefully.
2 You chased off the nations
by causing them trouble
with your powerful arm.
Then you let our ancestors
take over their land.
3 Their strength and weapons
were not what won the land
and gave them victory!
You loved them and fought
with your powerful arm
and your shining glory.
4 You are my God and King,
and you give victory
to the people of Jacob.
5 By your great power,
we knocked our enemies down
and trampled on them.
6 I don't depend on my arrows
or my sword to save me.
7 But you saved us
from our hateful enemies,
and you put them to shame.
8 We boast about you, our God,
and we are always grateful.
9 But now you have rejected us;
you don't lead us into battle,
and we look foolish.
10 You made us retreat,
and our enemies have taken
everything we own.
11 You let us be slaughtered
like sheep,
and you scattered us
among the nations.
12 You sold your people
for little or nothing,
and you earned no profit.
13 You made us look foolish
to our neighbors;
people who live nearby
insult us and sneer.
14 Foreigners joke about us
and shake their heads.
15 I am embarrassed every day,
and I blush with shame.
16 But others mock and sneer,
as they watch my enemies
take revenge on me.
17 All this happened to us,
though we didn't forget you
or break our agreement.
18 We always kept you in mind
and followed your teaching.
19 But you crushed us,
and you covered us
with deepest darkness
where wild animals live.
20 We did not forget you
or lift our hands in prayer
to foreign gods.
21 You would have known it
because you discover
every secret thought.
22 We face death all day for you.
We are like sheep on their way
to be slaughtered.
23 Wake up! Do something, Lord!
Why are you sleeping?
Don't desert us forever.
24 Why do you keep looking away?
Don't forget our sufferings
and all our troubles.
25 We are flat on the ground,
holding on to the dust.
26 Do something! Help us!
Show how kind you are
and come to our rescue.
A Prayer for Protection
1 With our own ears we have heard it, O God—
our ancestors have told us about it,
about the great things you did in their time,
in the days of long ago:
2 how you yourself drove out the heathen
and established your people in their land;
how you punished the other nations
and caused your own to prosper.
3 Your people did not conquer the land with their swords;
they did not win it by their own power;
it was by your power and your strength,
by the assurance of your presence,
which showed that you loved them.
4 You are my king and my God;
you give victory to your people,
5 and by your power we defeat our enemies.
6 I do not trust in my bow
or in my sword to save me;
7 but you have saved us from our enemies
and defeated those who hate us.
8 We will always praise you
and give thanks to you forever.
9 But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated;
you no longer march out with our armies.
10 You made us run from our enemies,
and they took for themselves what was ours.
11 You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep;
you scattered us in foreign countries.
12 You sold your own people for a small price
as though they had little value.
13 Our neighbors see what you did to us,
and they mock us and laugh at us.
14 You have made us a joke among the nations;
they shake their heads at us in scorn.
15 I am always in disgrace;
I am covered with shame
16 from hearing the sneers and insults
of my enemies and those who hate me.
17 All this has happened to us,
even though we have not forgotten you
or broken the covenant you made with us.
18 We have not been disloyal to you;
we have not disobeyed your commands.
19 Yet you left us helpless among wild animals;
you abandoned us in deepest darkness.
20 If we had stopped worshiping our God
and prayed to a foreign god,
21 you would surely have discovered it,
because you know our secret thoughts.
22 But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time,
that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep?
Rouse yourself! Don't reject us forever!
24 Why are you hiding from us?
Don't forget our suffering and trouble!
25 We fall crushed to the ground;
we lie defeated in the dust.
26 Come to our aid!
Because of your constant love save us!