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
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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.
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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.
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You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat!
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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.
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“Yes,” the Lord replies, “and when I am ready, I will punish the wicked!
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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.
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For promotion and power come from nowhere on earth, but only from God. He promotes one and deposes another.
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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.
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“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.
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His home is in Jerusalem. He lives upon Mount Zion.
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There he breaks the weapons of our enemies.
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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.
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When you rebuked them, God of Jacob, steeds and riders fell.
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No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before an angry God?
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You pronounce sentence on them from heaven; the earth trembles and stands silently before you.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Has he forgotten to be kind to one so undeserving? Has he slammed the door in anger on his love?
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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.
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When the Red Sea saw you, how it feared! It trembled to its depths!
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The clouds poured down their rain, the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky. Your lightning flashed.
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There was thunder in the whirlwind; the lightning lighted up the world! The earth trembled and shook.
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Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there!
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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.
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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.
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For he gave his laws to Israel and commanded our fathers to teach them to their children,
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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.
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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
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because they didn’t obey his laws. They refused to follow his ways.
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And they forgot about the wonderful miracles God had done for them and for their fathers in Egypt.
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For he divided the sea before them and led them through! The water stood banked up along both sides of them!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
*
—
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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.
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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.