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Psalm 38

A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
¹ O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,
   or discipline me in your wrath.
² For your arrows have sunk into me,
   and your hand has come down on me.

³ There is no soundness in my flesh
   because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
   because of my sin.
⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head;
   they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

⁵ My wounds grow foul and fester
   because of my foolishness;
⁶ I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
   all day long I go around mourning.
⁷ For my loins are filled with burning,
   and there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸ I am utterly spent and crushed;
   I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

⁹ O Lord, all my longing is known to you;
   my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
   as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
¹¹ My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,
   and my neighbours stand far off.

¹² Those who seek my life lay their snares;
   those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin,
   and meditate treachery all day long.

¹³ But I am like the deaf, I do not hear;
   like the mute, who cannot speak.
¹⁴ Truly, I am like one who does not hear,
   and in whose mouth is no retort.

¹⁵ But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;
   it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I pray, ‘Only do not let them rejoice over me,
   those who boast against me when my foot slips.’

¹⁷ For I am ready to fall,
   and my pain is ever with me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
   I am sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ Those who are my foes without cause^* are mighty,
   and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
²⁰ Those who render me evil for good
   are my adversaries because I follow after good.

²¹ Do not forsake me, O Lord;
   O my God, do not be far from me;
²² make haste to help me,
   O Lord, my salvation.

False and True Worship

58Shout out, do not hold back!
   Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
   to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet day after day they seek me
   and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
   and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
   they delight to draw near to God.
³ ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
   Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
   and oppress all your workers.
⁴ Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
   and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
   will not make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is such the fast that I choose,
   a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
   and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
   a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator^* shall go before you,
   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
⁹ Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,
   the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
¹⁰ if you offer your food to the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
   and your gloom be like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually,
   and satisfy your needs in parched places,
   and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
   like a spring of water,
   whose waters never fail.
¹² Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
   you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
   the restorer of streets to live in.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” ¹³But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Psalm 6

Prayer for Recovery from Grave Illness

To the leader: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
¹ O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,
   or discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
   O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
³ My soul also is struck with terror,
   while you, O Lord—how long?

⁴ Turn, O Lord, save my life;
   deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
   in Sheol who can give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
   every night I flood my bed with tears;
   I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eyes waste away because of grief;
   they grow weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
   for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The Lord has heard my supplication;
   the Lord accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror;
   they shall turn back, and in a moment be put to shame.

Psalm 32

The Joy of Forgiveness

Of David. A Maskil.
¹ Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
   whose sin is covered.
² Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
   and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ While I kept silence, my body wasted away
   through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
   my strength was dried up^* as by the heat of summer.
          Selah

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
   and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
   and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
          Selah

⁶ Therefore let all who are faithful
   offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress,^* the rush of mighty waters
   shall not reach them.
⁷ You are a hiding-place for me;
   you preserve me from trouble;
   you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
          Selah

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
   I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
⁹ Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
   whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
   else it will not stay near you.

¹⁰ Many are the torments of the wicked,
   but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
   and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Conversion of Nineveh

3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ²‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ ³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. ⁸Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. ⁹Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. ²⁵Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; ²⁷but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.