Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 99
78:59–79:2
P salms
When God heard them, he was very angry,
and he completely rejected Israel.
Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,
the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.
He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured;
he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.
He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword,
because he was so angry with his own people—his special
possession.
Their young men were killed by fire;
their young women died before singing their wedding songs.
Their priests were slaughtered,
and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,
like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.
He routed his enemies
and sent them to eternal shame.
But he rejected Joseph’s descendants;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
and Mount Zion, which he loved.
There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens,
as solid and enduring as the earth.
He chose his servant David,
calling him from the sheep pens.
He took David from tending the ewes and lambs
and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants—
God’s own people, Israel.
He cared for them with a true heart
and led them with skillful hands.
PSALM 79
A psalm of Asaph.
O God, pagan nations have conquered your land,
your special possession.
They have defiled your holy Temple
and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.
They have left the bodies of your servants
as food for the birds of heaven.
The flesh of your godly ones
has become food for the wild animals.
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