A Prayer for Protection

51 Give ear to my words, Yahweh.
Consider my meditation. 2 Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God;
for to you do I pray. 3 Yahweh, in the morning you shall hear my voice.
In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly. 4 For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness.
Evil can’t live with you. 5 The arrogant shall not stand in your sight.
You hate all workers of iniquity. 6 You will destroy those who speak lies.
Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7 But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house.
I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you. 8 Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies.
Make your way straight before my face. 9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
Their heart is destruction.
Their throat is an open tomb.
They flatter with their tongue. 10 Hold them guilty, God.
Let them fall by their own counsels;
Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you. 11 But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice,
Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them.
Let them also who love your name be joyful in you. 12 For you will bless the righteous.
Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.

The Prayer of a Suffering Penitent

381 Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath,
neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. 2 For your arrows have pierced me,
your hand presses hard on me. 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation,
neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head.
As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds are loathsome and corrupt,
because of my foolishness. 6 I am pained and bowed down greatly.
I go mourning all day long. 7 For my waist is filled with burning.
There is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am faint and severely bruised.
I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart. 9 Lord, all my desire is before you.
My groaning is not hidden from you. 10 My heart throbs.
My strength fails me.
As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me. 11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague.
My kinsmen stand far away.

12 They also who seek after my life lay snares.
Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things,
and meditate deceits all day long. 13 But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear.
I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth. 14 Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear,
in whose mouth are no reproofs. 15 For in you, Yahweh, do I hope.
You will answer, Lord my God. 16 For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me,
or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.” 17 For I am ready to fall.
My pain is continually before me. 18 For I will declare my iniquity.
I will be sorry for my sin. 19 But my enemies are vigorous and many.
Those who hate me without reason are numerous. 20 They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me,
because I follow what is good. 21 Don’t forsake me, Yahweh.
My God, don’t be far from me. 22 Hurry to help me,
Lord, my salvation.

A Prayer for Healing

411 Blessed is he who considers the poor.
Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. 2 Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.
He shall be blessed on the earth,
and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. 3 Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,
and restore him from his bed of illness. 4 I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

5 My enemies speak evil against me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?” 6 If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.
His heart gathers iniquity to itself.
When he goes abroad, he tells it. 7 All who hate me whisper together against me.
They imagine the worst for me. 8 “An evil disease,” they say, “has afflicted him.
Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.” 9 Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
who ate bread with me,
has lifted up his heel against me. 10 But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up,
that I may repay them. 11 By this I know that you delight in me,
because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me. 12 As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever. 13 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
from everlasting and to everlasting!
Amen and amen.

BOOK II

Thirsting for God

421 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants after you, God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. 5 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

6 My God, my soul is in despair within me.
Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.
All your waves and your billows have swept over me. 8 Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime.
In the night his song shall be with me:
a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God! For I shall still praise him,
the saving help of my countenance, and my God.