Psalm 49
O hear this, all you peoples
: give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,
All children of men and sons of Adam
: both rich and poor alike.
For my mouth shall speak wisdom
: and the thoughts of my heart shall be full of understanding.
I will incline my ear to a riddle
: and unfold the mystery to the sounds of the harp.
Why should I fear in the evil days
: when the wickedness of my deceivers surrounds me,
Though they trust to their great wealth
: and boast of the abundance of their riches?
No man may ransom his brother
: or give God a price for him,
So that he may live for ever
: and never see the grave;
For to ransom men’s lives is so costly
: that he must abandon it for ever.
For we see that wise men die
: and perish with the foolish and the ignorant,
leaving their wealth to others.
The tomb is their home for ever,
their dwelling-place throughout all generations
: though they called estates after their own names.
A rich man without understanding
: is like the beasts that perish.
This is the lot of the foolish
: the end of those who are pleased with their own words.
They are driven like sheep into the grave,
and death is their shepherd
: they slip down easily into the tomb.
Their bright forms shall wear away in the grave
: and lose their former glory.
But God will ransom my life
: he will take me from the power of the grave.
Do not fear when a man grows rich
: when the wealth of his household increases,
For he will take nothing away when he dies
: nor will his wealth go down after him.
Though he counts himself happy while he lives
: and praises you also when you prosper,
He will go to the company of his fathers
: who will never see the light.
A rich man without understanding
: is like the beasts that perish.
Psalm 73
God is indeed good to Israel
: to those whose hearts are pure.
Nevertheless, my feet were almost gone
: my steps had well-nigh slipped.
For I was filled with envy at the boastful
: when I saw the ungodly had such tranquillity.
For they suffer no pain
: and their bodies are hale and fat.
They come to no misfortune like other folk
: nor are they plagued like other men.
Therefore they put on pride as a necklace
: and clothe themselves in violence as in a garment.
Their eyes shine from folds of fatness
: and they have all that heart could wish.
Their talk is malice and mockery
: and they hand down slanders from on high.
Their mouths blaspheme against heaven
: and their tongues go to and fro on earth.
Therefore my people turn to them
: and find in them no fault.
They say ‘How can God know
: is there understanding in the Most High?’
Behold, these are the ungodly
: yet they prosper and increase in riches.
Was it for nothing then that I cleansed my heart
: and washed my hands in innocence?
Have I been stricken all day long in vain
: and rebuked every morning?
If I had said ‘I will speak thus’
: I should have betrayed the family of your children.
Then I thought to understand this
: but it was too hard for me,
Till I went into the sanctuary of God
: and then I understood what their end will be.
For you set them in slippery places
: and cause them to fall from their treacherous footholds.
How suddenly they are laid waste
: they come to an end, they perish in terror.
As with a dream when one awakes
: so when you rouse yourself, O Lord,
you will despise their image.
When my heart was soured
: and I was wounded to the core,
I was but brutish and ignorant
: no better than a beast before you.
Nevertheless, I am always with you
: for you hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with your counsel
: and afterwards you will lead me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
: and there is no one upon earth
that I desire in comparison with you.
Though my flesh and my heart fail me
: you, O God, are my portion for ever.
Behold, those who forsake you shall perish
: and all who whore after other gods you will destroy.
But it is good for me to draw near to God
: I have made the Lord God my refuge,
and I will tell of all that you have done.
Psalm 78
Give heed to my teaching, O my people
: incline your ears to the words of my mouth;
For I will open my mouth in a parable
: and expound the mysteries of former times.
What we have heard and known
: what our forefathers have told us,
We will not hide from their children,
but declare to a generation yet to come
: the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works.
He established a law in Jacob and made a decree in Israel
: which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
That future generations might know, and the children yet unborn
: that they in turn might teach it to their sons;
So that they might put their confidence in God
: and not forget his works, but keep his commandments,
And not be as their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation
: a generation that did not set their heart aright,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
The children of Ephraim, armed with the bow
: turned back in the day of battle.
They did not keep God’s covenant, they refused to walk in his law
: they forgot what he had done, and the wonders he had shown them.
For he did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers
: in the land of Egypt, in the country of Zoan.
He divided the sea and let them pass through
: he made the waters stand up in a heap.
In the daytime he led them with a cloud
: and all night long with the light of fire.
He cleft rocks in the wilderness
: and gave them drink in abundance as from springs of water.
He brought streams out of the rock
: and caused the waters to flow down like rivers.
But for all this they sinned yet more against him
: and rebelled against the Most High in the desert.
They wilfully put God to the test
: and demanded food for their appetite.
They spoke against God, and said
: ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
‘He indeed struck the rock,
so that the waters gushed and the streams overflowed
: but can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?’
When the Lord heard it he was angry,
and a fire was kindled against Jacob
: his wrath blazed against Israel.
For they put no trust in God
: nor would they believe his power to save.
Then he commanded the clouds above
: and opened the doors of heaven.
He rained down manna for them to eat
: and gave them the grain of heaven.
So men ate the bread of angels
: and he sent them food in abundance.
He stirred up the south east wind in the heavens
: and guided it by his power.
He rained down meat upon them thick as dust
: and winged birds like the sands of the sea.
He made them fall into the midst of their camp
: and all about their tents.
So they ate and were well-filled
: for he had given them what they desired.
But before they had satisfied their craving
: while the food was still in their mouths,
The anger of God blazed up against them
: and he slew their strongest men, and laid low the youth of Israel.
But for all this they sinned yet more
: and put no faith in his wonders.
So he ended their days like a breath
: and their years with sudden terror.
When he struck them down, then they sought him
: they turned, and sought eagerly for God.
They remembered that God was their rock
: that God Most High was their redeemer.
But they lied to him with their mouths
: and dissembled with their tongues;
For their hearts were not fixed upon him
: nor were they true to his covenant.
Yet he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity
and did not destroy them
: many times he turned his anger aside,
and would not wholly arouse his fury.
He remembered that they were but flesh
: like a wind that passes, and does not return.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
: and grieved him in the desert!
Again and again they put God to the test
: and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his power
: or the day when he redeemed them from the enemy;
How he wrought his signs in Egypt
: his wonders in the country of Zoan.
For he turned their rivers into blood
: so that they could not drink from the streams.
He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
: and frogs that laid them waste.
He gave their crops to the locust
: and the fruits of their labour to the grasshopper.
He struck down their vines with hailstones
: and their sycomore trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle to the hail
: and their flocks to the flash of the lightning.
He loosed on them the fierceness of his anger,
his fury, his indignation and distress
: and these were his messengers of destruction.
He opened a path for his fury
: he would not spare them from death,
but gave up their lives to the pestilence.
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt
: the first-fruits of their manhood in the dwellings of Ham.
As for his own people, he led them out like sheep
: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
He led them in safety, and they were not afraid
: but the sea covered their enemies.
He brought them to his holy land
: to the mountains that his own right hand had won.
He drove out the nations before them,
and apportioned their lands as a possession
: and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
But they rebelled against God Most High and put him to the test
: they would not obey his commandments.
They turned back and dealt treacherously like their fathers
: they turned aside, slack as an unstrung bow.
They provoked him to anger with their heathen shrines
: and moved him to jealousy with their carved images.
God heard and was angry, he utterly rejected Israel
: he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among men.
He gave the ark of his might into captivity
: and his glory into the hands of the enemy.
He delivered his people to the sword
: and was enraged against his own possession.
Fire devoured the young men
: there was no one to bewail the maidens;
Their priests fell by the sword
: and there was none to mourn for the widows.
Then the Lord awoke like a man out of sleep
: like a warrior that had been overcome with wine.
He struck the backs of his enemies as they fled
: and put them to perpetual shame.
He rejected the family of Joseph
: he refused the tribe of Ephraim.
But he chose the tribe of Judah
: and the hill of Zion which he loved.
He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven
: like the earth which he had founded for ever.
He chose David his servant
: and took him from the sheepfolds;
He brought him from following the ewes
: to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
and of Israel his own possession.
So he tended them with upright heart
: and guided them with skilful hand.