Praise for God's Bounty in Nature

651 Praise waits for you, God, in Zion.
To you shall vows be performed. 2 You who hear prayer,
to you all men will come. 3 Sins overwhelmed me,
but you atoned for our transgressions. 4 Blessed is one whom you choose, and cause to come near,
that he may live in your courts.
We will be filled with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us,
God of our salvation.
You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth,
of those who are far away on the sea;

6 Who by his power forms the mountains,
having armed yourself with strength; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations. 8 They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders.
You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy. 9 You visit the earth, and water it.
You greatly enrich it.
The river of God is full of water.
You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. 10 You drench its furrows.
You level its ridges.
You soften it with showers.
You bless it with a crop. 11 You crown the year with your bounty.
Your carts overflow with abundance. 12 The wilderness grasslands overflow.
The hills are clothed with gladness. 13 The pastures are covered with flocks.
The valleys also are clothed with grain.
They shout for joy!
They also sing.

Praise for God's Mighty Deeds

661 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! 2 Sing to the glory of his name!
Offer glory and praise! 3 Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you. 4 All the earth will worship you,
and will sing to you;
they will sing to your name.” Selah. 5 Come, and see God’s deeds—
awesome work on behalf of the children of men. 6 He turned the sea into dry land.
They went through the river on foot.
There, we rejoiced in him. 7 He rules by his might forever.
His eyes watch the nations.
Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.

8 Praise our God, you peoples!
Make the sound of his praise heard, 9 who preserves our life among the living,
and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved. 10 For you, God, have tested us.
You have refined us, as silver is refined. 11 You brought us into prison.
You laid a burden on our backs. 12 You allowed men to ride over our heads.
We went through fire and through water,
but you brought us to the place of abundance.

13 I will come into your temple with burnt offerings.
I will pay my vows to you, 14 which my lips promised,
and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress. 15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat animals,
with the offering of rams,
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah. 16 Come, and hear, all you who fear God.
I will declare what he has done for my soul. 17 I cried to him with my mouth.
He was extolled with my tongue. 18 If I cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord wouldn’t have listened. 19 But most certainly, God has listened.
He has heard the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer,
nor his loving kindness from me.

The Nations Exhorted to Praise God

671 May God be merciful to us, bless us,
and cause his face to shine on us. Selah. 2 That your way may be known on earth,
and your salvation among all nations, 3 let the peoples praise you, God.
Let all the peoples praise you. 4 Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you will judge the peoples with equity,
and govern the nations on earth. Selah. 5 Let the peoples praise you, God.
Let all the peoples praise you. 6 The earth has yielded its increase.
God, even our own God, will bless us. 7 God will bless us.
All the ends of the earth shall fear him.

A Cry of Distress

691 Save me, God,
for the waters have come up to my neck! 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary with my crying.
My throat is dry.
My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
I have to restore what I didn’t take away. 5 God, you know my foolishness.
My sins aren’t hidden from you. 6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies.
Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. 7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s children. 9 For the zeal of your house consumes me.
The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and I fasted,
that was to my reproach. 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them. 12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
I am the song of the drunkards.

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time.
God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. 14 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me,
neither let the deep swallow me up.
Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. 16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. 17 Don’t hide your face from your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me speedily! 18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it.
Ransom me because of my enemies. 19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you. 20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none. 21 They also gave me gall for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

22 Let their table before them become a snare.
May it become a retribution and a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see.
Let their backs be continually bent. 24 Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. 25 Let their habitation be desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime.
Don’t let them come into your righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and not be written with the righteous. 29 But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, God, protect me.

30 I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox,
or a bull that has horns and hoofs. 32 The humble have seen it, and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live. 33 For Yahweh hears the needy,
and doesn’t despise his captive people. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him;
the seas, and everything that moves therein! 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there, and own it. 36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

A Prayer for Deliverance

701 Hurry, God, to deliver me.
Come quickly to help me, Yahweh. 2 Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul.
Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 3 Let them be turned because of their shame
Who say, “Aha! Aha!” 4 Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Let God be exalted!” 5 But I am poor and needy.
Come to me quickly, God.
You are my help and my deliverer.
Yahweh, don’t delay.