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(A prayer of Moses.)
Dear Lord, we have lived in you for all generations. Before the mountains were made, in the time preceding your creation of our globe and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
You send man into destruction; then you say: “Come back.”
One thousand years to you are like yesterday, like the night that just passed. You carry the years away as with a flood; they are as a sleep. Then, on the morrow, they are like the grass springing up: in the morning it grows; in the evening it is cut down.
You are beginning to trouble us with your anger. Why are you behaving so wrathfully towards us?
Are you truly searching out our sins, and inspecting our souls for flaws and for wrongdoings?
Our days are few, and your anger subtracts even more. Our whole life passes like a very short story that is told.
We are given seventy years of decent life; eighty if we are lucky. And all of them are spent in labor and sorrow. Then you snip our cord, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your mad fury? You are as frightful as you appear. Your constant anger teaches us to cherish the rare day of gladness.
Decrease the amount of time that you plan to afflict us with evil. Let us see beauties instead of horrors. Be a good god, Yahweh.
91
He that dwells in the secret nest of the Most High shall take comfort under the shadow of the Almighty. He will save you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers, and you shall trust in his wings: his truth is your shield and buckler. You shall not fear predators flying in the night, nor arrows flying in the day.
When the plague comes walking in darkness, it shall destroy thousands behind you, and ten thousand more shall fall before you, but it shall not come near you. You shall remain upright.
He shall command his angels to protect you in all your ways. They shall lift you up with their hands, lest you trip over a stone.
You shall step on lions and dragons with your feet. You shall trample rhinoceri and jabberwocks.
“Because he loves me, I will save him.”
92
(A sabbath som.)
It is a good idea to give thanks to the god Yahweh, and to sing him songs. Soothe him with music: play to him on a ten-stringed instrument.
O Yahweh, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep.
The brutes and fools do not understand you, so they perform wicked actions; but then you destroy them forever.
Your enemies shall perish and be scattered, but you shall boost my horn like the horn of a unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. You will invite me to watch while you subjugate my foes.
The righteous shall grow like the palm tree that is planted before God. Even in old age, they shall bear fruit. They shall be fat and flourishing.
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Yahweh reigns, clothed in majesty; he has girded himself with power. His world is fixed in place: it cannot be moved.
Your throne is old: it was put there long ago. You are from everlasting.
The floods are rising, O Yahweh, the floods are lifting their voice; the floods push up their waves.
But Yahweh at the pinnacle is mightier than the noise of all the oceans. His statements are certified TRUE.
94
I call on the god who owns vengeance: O Yahweh, enactor of revenge, show yourself! Lift up yourself, O judge of all the earth: render a reward to the arrogant.
How long are you going to let the greedy triumph? They break in pieces your wayfarers, O Yahweh; they slay widows, immigrants, and orphans. Yet they say: “God will not see our evil deeds. God will never awake to punish us.”
O you brutish fools, when will you understand? He that fashioned the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that invented knowledge, shall he not know?
Yahweh can read your mind, and he has found that all your thoughts are emptiness.
Who will come and sweep away these evildoers? Who will stand up for the compassionate against the cruel?
If Yahweh had not hastened to help, my soul would have made silence its permanent residence. But I said: “My foot is slipping,” and Yahweh held me up.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me your comforts delight my soul.
95
Come along with me, and we will sing praises to Yahweh.
Let us exalt Yahweh as the biggest God, and the Chief Executive God.
In one hand, he holds the deep places of the earth; and in his other hand, he holds the highest mountains.
He also owns the sea and all the dry land.
Come, my friend, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the god Yahweh who crafted us.
For he is our herdsman, and we are the goats of his pasture. We should try to listen to him.
Do not turn and run away from him; do not lynch our leader, as that one time in the wilderness. Otherwise, he will never allow us to sleep.
96
Let us sing unto Yahweh a new song: one that he has never heard before.
Let the sea roar. Let the field be joyful. Let all the trees in the forest have their say.
Now Yahweh is coming to show us what truth really is.
97
Yahweh rules. All the multitudes of islands in the sea should express their gladness.
There are clouds and darkness all around him. He shoots out lightnings and causes the earth to quake. He melts hills like wax. Yahweh fills the whole earth.
The heavens shout and moan and grumble.
Yahweh is higher than any being has ever gotten. Yahweh is far above all the gods.
Everyone who loves Yahweh hates misfortune.
98
Let us compose for Yahweh a new song, because his holy arm has achieved a marvelous victory.
Yahweh won a race against all the priests. Therefore, praise him loudly: at the top of your lungs.
Bring out the harp, and let us sing a song to Yahweh. Play trumpets, with the sound of the cornet as well.
The singing of the sea is a full roaring. I wonder what type of people dwell in the sea.
Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together.
Yahweh is coming to judge the earth. He is holding a weapon.
99
Yahweh is now in charge. Let the people tremble. He sits between the cherubims. Let the earth be moved.
Yahweh is colossal in Eldorado. He is taller than everyone.
Moses and Bryan among his prophets; also Amos: they called upon Yahweh, and he answered them. He spoke with them in the cloudy pillar, among thick smoke: they discussed the future of mankind and the caravansary. God made Bryan the Eternal King among his Anointed Messiahs.
100
Landscapes everywhere, I prompt you: make a joyful noise unto the LORD.
Serve Yahweh gladly and willingly. Sing to him always.
He is Yahweh our god. He made us; we did not make ourselves. We are his wayfarers, the goats of his pasture.
Enter into his house bleating praise, for Yahweh is friendly.
101
If I behave myself wisely in a perfect way, will you come unto me? I will walk with a perfect heart, to make you visit me, Yahweh.
I will look at no wicked thing. I will not know a wicked person.
Whoever privately slanders his neighbor, I will refuse to salute. I will indulge no one who has an arrogant look and a puffed-up heart.
I will early destroy all those who work deceit and tell lies. In this way, all the wickedness may be eliminated from your city, O Yahweh. I look forward to meeting you.
102
Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, stop avoiding me.
Do not hide your face, but bring your ear down to my level. When I cry to you, answer speedily.
For my life is consumed as smoke; and my bones are burned as in a firepit.
My heart is mashed: withered like grass. I forgot to eat my bread.
All I do is groan; you can see my ribcage through my skin.
I am like a pelican of the wilderness, or like an owl of the desert. I watch like a sparrow alone on the house’s rooftop.
My enemies rant and rage against me all day. They served me ashes for a meal, and my drink is diluted with tears.
You have lifted me up, and cast me down. My days are now a declining shadow.
But you, O Yahweh, live forever; so why should you care about people who are transient?
Still, dear God, do not stop my life right in the middle: let me have my remaining years; what could that signify, next to your endlessness?
You built the foundation of the earth long ago; you constructed the heavens with hammer and nails. They shall perish, but you shall endure. They shall become torn in tatters like a garment, after heavy wear, and then you shall change them. Yes, the heaven and earth shall be changed.
But you remain the same. Your skin never ages. Your life has no date of expiration.
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