Refrain:Rise up, O Lord, to help us. 1We have heard with our ears, O God, our forebears have told us, • all that you did in their days, in time of old; 2How with your hand you drove out nations and planted us in, • and broke the power of peoples and set us free. 3For not by their own sword did our ancestors take the land • nor did their own arm save them, 4But your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, • because you were gracious to them. R 5You are my King and my God, • who commanded salvation for Jacob. 6Through you we drove back our adversaries; • through your name we trod down our foes. 7For I did not trust in my bow; • it was not my own sword that saved me; 8It was you that saved us from our enemies • and put our adversaries to shame. 9We gloried in God all the day long, • and were ever praising your name. R 10But now you have rejected us and brought us to shame • and go not out with our armies. 11You have made us turn our backs on our enemies, • and our enemies have despoiled us. 12You have made us like sheep to be slaughtered, • and have scattered us among the nations. 13You have sold your people for a pittance • and made no profit on their sale. 14You have made us the taunt of our neighbours, • the scorn and derision of those that are round about us. 15You have made us a byword among the nations; • among the peoples they wag their heads. R 16My confusion is daily before me, • and shame has covered my face, 17At the taunts of the slanderer and reviler, • at the sight of the enemy and avenger. 18All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you • and have not played false to your covenant. 19Our hearts have not turned back, • nor our steps gone out of your way, 20Yet you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, • and covered us with the shadow of death. 21If we have forgotten the name of our God, • or stretched out our hands to any strange god, 22Will not God search it out? • For he knows the secrets of the heart. 23But for your sake are we killed all the day long, • and are counted as sheep for the slaughter. R 24Rise up! Why sleep, O Lord? • Awake, and do not reject us for ever. 25Why do you hide your face • and forget our grief and oppression? 26Our soul is bowed down to the dust; • our belly cleaves to the earth. 27Rise up, O Lord, to help us • and redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. Refrain:Rise up, O Lord, to help us. In the darkness of unknowing, when your love seems absent, draw near to us, O God, in Christ forsaken, in Christ risen, our Redeemer and our Lord. |
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