In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord
To the choirmaster: according to vJeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 I wcry aloud to God,
aloud to God, and he will hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 When I remember God, I moan;
when I meditate, xmy spirit faints. Selah
4 You hold my eyelids open;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the ydays of old,
the years long ago.
6 I said,1 “Let me remember my song in the znight;
let me meditate in my heart.”
Then my spirit made a diligent search:
7 “Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
10 Then I said, “I will appeal to this,
11 I will bremember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work,
and cmeditate on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy.
dWhat god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have emade known your might among the peoples.
15 You with your arm fredeemed your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 gWhen the waters hsaw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
indeed, the deep trembled.
17 iThe clouds poured out water;
the skies gave forth thunder;
your jarrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lighted up the world;
kthe earth trembled and shook.
19 Your lway was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.3
20 You mled your people like a nflock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Tell the Coming Generation
A oMaskil4 of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 pI will open my mouth in a qparable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that rour fathers have told us.
4 sWe will not hide them from their children,
but ttell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a utestimony in Jacob
vand appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children wyet unborn,
and arise and xtell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not yforget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be zlike their fathers,
a astubborn and brebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with5 the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not ckeep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
12 dIn the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 eHe divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 fIn the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
15 gHe split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They htested God in their heart
by demanding the food they icraved.
19 jThey spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”
21 kTherefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
22 because lthey did not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and mopened the doors of heaven,
24 and nhe rained down on them manna to eat
and ogave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
26 pHe caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
for qhe gave them what they craved.
30 rBut before they had satisfied their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed the strongest of them
and laid low the young men of Israel.
32 sIn spite of all this, they still sinned;
tdespite his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he made their days vanish like6 a breath,7
and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their uredeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
vatoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He wremembered that they were but xflesh,
a ywind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they zrebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power8
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 awhen he performed his signs in Egypt
and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
44 bHe turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 cHe sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and dfrogs, which destroyed them.
46 eHe gave their crops to the destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 fHe destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamores with frost.
48 gHe gave over their cattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 hHe struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
ithe firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
and jguided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
kbut the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he lbrought them to his holy land,
mto the mountain which his right hand had won.
55 He ndrove out nations before them;
ohe apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted plike a deceitful bow.
58 qFor they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rrejected Israel.
60 sHe forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his tpower to captivity,
uhis glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no marriage song.
64 Their vpriests fell by the sword,
and their wwidows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord xawoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, ywhich he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He zchose David his servant
and took him afrom the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to bshepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his inheritance.
72 cWith upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.
1 Brothers,1 vmy heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a wzeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the xrighteousness of God, and yseeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For zChrist is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.2
The Message of Salvation to All
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that athe person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the brighteousness based on faith says, c“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you dconfess with your mouth that eJesus is Lord and fbelieve in your heart that gGod raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, h“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is ino distinction between jJew and Greek; for the same Lord is kLord of all, lbestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For m“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?3 And nhow are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, o“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But pthey have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, q“Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So rfaith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? sIndeed they have, for
t“Their voice has gone out uto all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
v“I will wmake you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
x“I have been found yby those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But of Israel he says, z“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
