Meet Lindsay Calvert

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil ^{1 42:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of the Sons of Korah.

1  As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
2  My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? ^{2 42:2 Revocalization yields and see the face of God}
3  My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4  These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.

5  Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation ^{3 42:5 Hebrew the salvation of my face; also verse 11 and 43:5} 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7  Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
8  By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9  I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10  As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11  Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

1  Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
    deliver me!
2  For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?

3  Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
4  Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.

5  Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Come to Our Help

To the choirmaster. A Maskil ^{4 44:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of the Sons of Korah.

1  O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:
2  you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;
3  for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.

4  You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!
5  Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6  For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
7  But you have saved us from our foes
    and have put to shame those who hate us.
8  In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

9  But you have rejected us and disgraced us
    and have not gone out with our armies.
10  You have made us turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11  You have made us like sheep for slaughter
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12  You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
13  You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
14  You have made us a byword among the nations,
    a laughingstock ^{5 44:14 Hebrew a shaking of the head} among the peoples.
15  All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face
16  at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

17  All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
18  Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
19  yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
20  If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21  would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22  Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

23  Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24  Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25  For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
26  Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil ^{6 45:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of the Sons of Korah; a love song.

1  My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
    I address my verses to the king;
    my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

2  You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
    grace is poured upon your lips;
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
3  Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
    in your splendor and majesty!

4  In your majesty ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
5  Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king's enemies;
    the peoples fall under you.

6  Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
    The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7      you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
8      your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
9      daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
    at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

10  Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
    forget your people and your father's house,
11      and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12      The people ^{7 45:12 Hebrew daughter} of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
    the richest of the people. ^{8 45:12 Or The daughter of Tyre is here with gifts, the richest of people seek your favor}

13  All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14      In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
    with her virgin companions following behind her.
15  With joy and gladness they are led along
    as they enter the palace of the king.

16  In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
    you will make them princes in all the earth.
17  I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
    therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

God Is Our Fortress

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. ^{9 46:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} A Song.

1  God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present ^{10 46:1 Or well proved} help in trouble.
2  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3  though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

4  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
5  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
6  The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7  The LORD of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8  Come, behold the works of the LORD,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
10  “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11  The LORD of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

God Is King over All the Earth

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1  Clap your hands, all peoples!
    Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2  For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
    a great king over all the earth.
3  He subdued peoples under us,
    and nations under our feet.
4  He chose our heritage for us,
    the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

5  God has gone up with a shout,
    the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
6  Sing praises to God, sing praises!
    Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7  For God is the King of all the earth;
    sing praises with a psalm! ^{11 47:7 Hebrew maskil}

8  God reigns over the nations;
    God sits on his holy throne.
9  The princes of the peoples gather
    as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
    he is highly exalted!

Zion, the City of Our God

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1  Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
    in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation,
    is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
    the city of the great King.
3  Within her citadels God
    has made himself known as a fortress.

4  For behold, the kings assembled;
    they came on together.
5  As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
    they were in panic; they took to flight.
6  Trembling took hold of them there,
    anguish as of a woman in labor.
7  By the east wind you shattered
    the ships of Tarshish.
8  As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of the LORD of hosts,
in the city of our God,
    which God will establish forever. Selah

9  We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
    in the midst of your temple.
10  As your name, O God,
    so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11      Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
    because of your judgments!

12  Walk about Zion, go around her,
    number her towers,
13  consider well her ramparts,
    go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
14      that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
    He will guide us forever. ^{12 48:14 Septuagint; another reading is (compare Jerome, Syriac) He will guide us beyond death}

Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1  Hear this, all peoples!
    Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
2  both low and high,
    rich and poor together!
3  My mouth shall speak wisdom;
    the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
4  I will incline my ear to a proverb;
    I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

5  Why should I fear in times of trouble,
    when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
6  those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7  Truly no man can ransom another,
    or give to God the price of his life,
8  for the ransom of their life is costly
    and can never suffice,
9  that he should live on forever
    and never see the pit.

10  For he sees that even the wise die;
    the fool and the stupid alike must perish
    and leave their wealth to others.
11  Their graves are their homes forever, ^{13 49:11 Septuagint, Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Their inward thought was that their homes were forever}
    their dwelling places to all generations,
    though they called lands by their own names.
12  Man in his pomp will not remain;
    he is like the beasts that perish.

13  This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
    yet after them people approve of their boasts. ^{14 49:13 Or and of those after them who approve of their boasts} Selah
14  Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
    death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
    Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
15  But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
    for he will receive me. Selah

16  Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
    when the glory of his house increases.
17  For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
    his glory will not go down after him.
18  For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
    —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
19  his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
    who will never again see light.
20  Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.