+ DAILY PRAYER +
A Lament in Time of National Defeat A maskil of Asaph. 1 Why, O God, have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? 2 Remember your congregation that you bought long ago, when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance. Remember ?Mount Zion? where you have dwelt. 3 Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins, to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary…
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!
In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 71:1-6, 17-18
Psa 71:1 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
Psa 71:2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Psa 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Psa 71:4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
Psa 71:5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust,
O LORD, from my youth.
Psa 71:6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
Psa 71:17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
Psa 71:18 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God,
do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Reading for Wednesday February 12th Psalm 74
A Lament in Time of National Defeat
74 A maskil of Asaph.
1 Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation that you bought long ago,
when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance.
Remember ?Mount Zion? where you have dwelt.
3 Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins,
to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they have set up their signs for signs.
5 They are known to be like those who ?wield?
axes in a thicket of trees.
6 And now its carved works altogether
they have smashed with axe and hammer.
7 They have set fire to your sanctuary.
They have defiled to the ground,
the dwelling place for your name.
8 They have said in their heart,
“We will completely oppress them.”
They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs,
and there is no longer a prophet.
No one with us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary taunt?
Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?
11 Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it from your bosom; destroy them!
12 But God has been my king from long ago,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You split open the sea by your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food to the desert dwelling creatures.
15 You split open spring and wadi.
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, yours is the night also.
You established light and the sun.
17 You defined all the boundaries of the earth;
Summer and winter—you formed them.
18 O Yahweh, remember this: the enemy taunts,
and foolish people treat your name with contempt.
19 Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;
do not ever forget the life of your afflicted ones.
20 Have regard for the covenant,
because the dark places of the land are full of
the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back humiliated;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember the reproaching of you by the foolish ?all day long?.
23 Do not forget the sound of your adversaries,
the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.
Lord’s Prayer
Daily Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, help us ever to seek You and to seek others for You, that Your harvest may be full and we may join those from every tribe and nation at the heavenly feast, where You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Concluding Prayer
Heavenly Father, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts to direct and rule us to do Your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
