URC Daily Devotion 6th January 2019

1 Hear us, O Israel’s Shepherd, Joseph’s guide,
The one enthroned between the cherubim.
2 Show forth your splendour to the threatened tribes,
Manasseh, Benjamin and Ephraim.
Come to our aid, O God, stir up your might;
3 Restore and save us! Shed on us your light!

4 LORD God of hosts, when will your anger cease
To burn against the prayers of your folk?
5 For food and drink you give them endless tears;
6 You make our neighbours rage and enemies mock.
7 Come to our aid, O sovereign God of might;
Restore and save us! Shed on us your light!

8 You brought a vine from Egypt to this land;
You drove the nations out and cleared the ground.
9 You planted it, and it took root and grew;
10 It filled the land and spread its branches round.
11 Its boughs extended, shading hill and tree,
To the Euphrates and to the Great Sea.

12 Why have you broken down its shielding walls,
So that all passers-by can pluck its fruit?
13 All creatures of the field make it their food;
Boars from the forest tear it from the root.
14 Return to us, Almighty God, and shine:
Look down from heav’n upon your ravaged vine!

15 This vine, this root, which by your own right hand
You planted for yourself, you now have spurned.
This branch, this son, whom you raised for yourself,
16 Has been cut down and in the fire is burned.
Your people—those whom for yourself you took—
Are perishing because of your rebuke.

17 Your hand place on the man at your right hand—
The son of man you raised up strong and true.
18 Revive us; then we’ll call upon your name,
And we will never turn away from you.
19 Come to our aid, O sovereign God of might;
Restore and save us! Shed on us your light!

The Editors of Sing Psalms suggest either Orlando Gibbon’s Song 1 or the tune Ravendale for this Psalm.