Behold the power of God in the Psalms!

The future proves the past.

BOOK III

Psalm 73:

Plea for Relief from Oppressors

A Psalm of Asaph.

73 Truly God is good to the upright,

to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had well nigh slipped.

3 For I was envious of the arrogant,

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For they have no pangs;

their bodies are sound and sleek.

5 They are not in trouble as other men are;

they are not stricken like other men.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them as a garment.

7 Their eyes swell out with fatness,

their hearts overflow with follies.

8 They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

9 They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

10 Therefore the people turn and praise them;

and find no fault in them.

11 And they say, “How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12 Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

14 For all the day long I have been stricken,

and chastened every morning.

15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have been untrue to the generation of thy children.

16 But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I perceived their end.

18 Truly thou dost set them in slippery places;

thou dost make them fall to ruin.

19 How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

20 They are like a dream when one awakes,

on awaking you despise their phantoms.

21 When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

22 I was stupid and ignorant,

I was like a beast toward thee.

23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee;

thou dost hold my right hand.

24 Thou dost guide me with thy counsel,

and afterward thou wilt receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee?

And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

27 For lo, those who are far from thee shall perish;

thou dost put an end to those who are false to thee.

28 But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all thy works.

Behold the power of God in the Psalms!

The future proves the past.

Psalm 74:

Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation

A Maskil of Asaph.

74 O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever?

Why does thy anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,

which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thy heritage!

Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt.

3 Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4 Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place;

they set up their own signs for signs.

5 At the upper entrance they hacked

the wooden trellis with axes.

6 And then all its carved wood

they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

7 They set thy sanctuary on fire;

to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.

8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9 We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile thy name for ever?

11 Why dost thou hold back thy hand,

why dost thou keep thy right hand in thy bosom?

12 Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;

thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the waters.

14 Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,

thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15 Thou didst cleave open springs and brooks;

thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.

16 Thine is the day, thine also the night;

thou hast established the luminaries and the sun.

17 Thou hast fixed all the bounds of the earth;

thou hast made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,

and an impious people reviles thy name.

19 Do not deliver the soul of thy dove to the wild beasts;

do not forget the life of thy poor for ever.

20 Have regard for thy covenant;

for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21 Let not the downtrodden be put to shame;

let the poor and needy praise thy name.

22 Arise, O God, plead thy cause;

remember how the impious scoff at thee all the day!

23 Do not forget the clamor of thy foes,

the uproar of thy adversaries which goes up continually!

>>1168582

I struggle with patience quite a lot.

Lord, grant me the Grace of Patience, but please hurry up!

>>1168617

Yes, it sure does. I've been galled since Waco, 1993.