Sing Psalm 149

Listen to King's College Cambridge sing Psalm 149.

Here's another version of Psalm 149 as performed by 4th and 5th graders

Daily Prayer, Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Lord takes pleasure in the people;

   God adorns them with victory (from Psalm 149:4).

Morning

Invitatory Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

  and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name.

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

  and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 12

Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;

   the faithful have disappeared from humankind.

They utter lies to each other;

   with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

   the tongue that makes great boasts,

those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail;

   our lips are our own—who is our master?”

“Because the poor are despoiled,

   because the needy groan, I will now rise up,” says the Lord;

   “I will place them in the safety for which they long.”

The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure,

   silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

       purified seven times.

You, O Lord, will protect us;

   you will guard us from this generation forever.

On every side the wicked prowl,

   as vileness is exalted among humankind.

Psalm 13

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I bear pain in my soul,

   and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

and my enemy will say,

   “I have prevailed”;

my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

But I trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 17

Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;

give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.

From you let my vindication come;

let your eyes see the right.

If you try my heart,

if you visit me by night,

if you test me,

   you will find no wickedness in me;

   my mouth does not transgress.

As for what others do,

   by the word of your lips

   I have avoided the ways of the violent.

My steps have held fast to your paths;

my feet have not slipped.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

incline your ear to me, hear my words.

Wondrously show your steadfast love,

   O savior of those who seek refuge

       from their adversaries at your right hand.

Guard me as the apple of the eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings,

from the wicked who despoil me,

   my deadly enemies who surround me.

….

Rise up, O Lord, confront them, overthrow them!

By your sword deliver my life from the wicked,

   from mortals—by your hand, O Lord

   — from mortals whose portion in life is in this world.

….

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.

Daily Lectionary Reading, Psalm 149

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song; sing God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful! 2 Let Israel celebrate its maker; let Zion’s children rejoice in their king! 3 Let them praise God’s name with dance; let them sing God’s praise with the drum and lyre! 4 Because the Lord is pleased with his people, God will beautify the poor with saving help. 5 Let the faithful celebrate with glory; let them shout for joy on their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, 7 to get revenge against the nations and punishment on the peoples, 8 binding their rulers in chains and their officials in iron shackles, 9 achieving the justice written against them. That will be an honor for all God’s faithful people. Praise the Lord! [Common English Bible]

Prayer for Today: Pray for all the saints using the link to the GBOD website.

Midday Psalm 119:17-24

Deal bountifully with your servant,

   so that I may live and observe your word.

Open my eyes, so that I may behold

   wondrous things out of your law.

I live as an alien in the land;

   do not hide your commandments from me.

My soul is consumed with longing

   for your ordinances at all times.

You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,

   who wander from your commandments;

take away from me their scorn and contempt,

    for I have kept your decrees.

Even though princes sit plotting against me,

    your servant will meditate on your statutes.

Your decrees are my delight, they are my counselors.

Evening

Psalm 18

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress,

   and my deliverer, my God,

   my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield,

   and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

   so I shall be saved from my enemies.

The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of perdition assailed me;

the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

   and my cry to him reached his ears.

….

He reached down from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of mighty waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,

   and from those who hated me;

   for they were too mighty for me.

….

With the loyal you show yourself loyal;

with the blameless you show yourself blameless;

with the pure you show yourself pure;

   and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.

For you deliver a humble people,

   but the haughty eyes you bring down.

It is you who light my lamp;

the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.

By you I can crush a troop,

   and by my God I can leap over a wall.

….

You have given me the shield of your salvation,

   and your right hand has supported me;

your help has made me great.

You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,

and my feet did not slip.

….

The Lord lives!

Blessed be my rock,

   and exalted be the God of my salvation,

   the God who gave me vengeance

        and subdued peoples under me;

        who delivered me from my enemies;

indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;

you delivered me from the violent.

For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations,

   and sing praises to your name.

...

An Everlasting Dominion, a Reflection on Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18

After the End, a reflection on Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18

Many local churches celebrate All Saints Day by remembering by name the members of the congregation that have died in the last year. The church gathers, remembers, is consoled. I have been thinking about All Saints Day as a time we remember someone we have lost and receive consolation that that person is now in the presence of the Lord.

This passage from Daniel  at first didn't seem to me to fit the mood or message of that kind of service. But, I kept looking--at the words of Daniel, and, of course, of the words of commentators.

Daniel is living in troubled times. He is expecting apocalyptic change to come into his world. Cyrus of Persia had conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Judeans to return home from exile and to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Limited automony under Persian rule continued until Alexander led the Greek defeat of Persia. After his death, his empire split into rival empires--and Judea lay between them.

At the time the book of Daniel was written, the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, the Secleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes had turned his attention to control of the Jerusalem temple and the gold that was there Daniel was thinking about his whole nation and everybody in it being swept up. As he said, "my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me." Yet, the response to this terror is also one of great consolation, a promise to the holy ones of life in the kingdom of God forever.  

In his vision, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days, a overwhelmingly powerful one who is served by thousands and myriads. Daniel then sees what he describes as One like a human being. This one is presented to the Ancient One who gives him dominion, glory, and kingship. Every nation of every language is to serve him. His dominion is eternal. [Source: Lawrence M. Wills, commentary in the Jewish Study Bible]

Christians have appropriated this vision for the coming of Christ because we see his role as one to break the dominion of those who would do harm. We agree with the Jews that God is sovereign over history and that God intends blessings for us not repression and violence....

Daily Prayer, Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Praise God’s name with dancing,

  making melody with tambourine and lyre (from Psalm 149:3).

Morning

Invitatory Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, indeed it faints

   for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh sing for joy

    to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

   where she may lay her young,

  at your altars,

O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

Happy are those who live in your house,

  ever singing your praise. Selah

….

O Lord of hosts,

   happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Psalm 9

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

….

You judge the world with righteousness;

you judge the peoples with equity.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,

   a stronghold in times of trouble.

And those who know your name put their trust in you,

   for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

….

Be gracious to me, O Lord.

See what I suffer from those who hate me;

you are the one who lifts me up

   from the gates of death,

so that I may recount all your praises,

   and, in the gates of daughter Zion,

   rejoice in your deliverance.

….

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

   nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

….

Psalm 10

Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor

   — let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.

For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart,

  those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord.

In the pride of their countenance the wicked say,

   “God will not seek it out”;

….

they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert;

they lurk that they may seize the poor;

they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.

They stoop, they crouch,

   and the helpless fall by their might.

They think in their heart,

   “God has forgotten,

    he has hidden his face,

       he will never see it.”

Rise up, O Lord;

O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed.

Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts,

   “You will not call us to account”?

But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief,

   that you may take it into your hands;

the helpless commit themselves to you;       

   you have been the helper of the orphan.

….

O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek;

you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear

to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed,

   so that those from earth may strike terror no more.

Daily Lectionary Reading, Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18

In the first year of Babylon’s King Belshazzar, Daniel had a dream—a vision in his head as he lay on his bed. He wrote the dream down. Here is the beginning of the account: 2 I am Daniel. In the vision I had during the night I saw the four winds of heaven churning the great sea. 3 Four giant beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the others. 15 Now this caused me, Daniel, to worry. My visions disturbed me greatly. 16 So I went to one of the servants who was standing ready nearby. I asked him for the truth about all this. He spoke to me and explained to me the meaning of these things. 17 “These four giant beasts are four kings that will rise up from the earth, 18 but the holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingship. They will hold the kingship securely forever and always.” [Common English Bible]

Prayer for Today: God, when we look around us or especially when we look ahead, we may feel fear or uncertainty. After all, there are a lot of bad people out there who have a lot of power. Keep us mindful that you also are out there and that you also have a lot of power. We also ask that you keep us mindful that we may accept your will and reject the will of the wrong-doers, as powerful as they or we may think them. Mold our lives to receive your kingship forever and always. Amen.

Midday Psalm 119:9-16

How can young people keep their way pure?

   By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;

do not let me stray from your commandments.

I treasure your word in my heart,

   so that I may not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes.

With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth.

I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Evening

Psalm 11

In the Lord I take refuge;

   how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains;

   for look, the wicked bend the bow,

   they have fitted their arrow to the string,

   to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.

His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.

The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,

   and his soul hates the lover of violence.

….

For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds;

    the upright shall behold his face.

Psalm 14

Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

    there is no one who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind

   to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.

They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;

   there is no one who does good, no, not one.

Have they no knowledge,

   all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread,

   and do not call upon the Lord?

There they shall be in great terror,

   for God is with the company of the righteous.

You would confound the plans of the poor,

    but the Lord is their refuge.

….

Psalm 15

O Lord, who may abide in your tent?

Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Those who walk blamelessly,

    and do what is right,

    and speak the truth from their heart;

    who do not slander with their tongue,

    and do no evil to their friends,

    nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;

    in whose eyes the wicked are despised,

    but who honor those who fear the Lord;

    who stand by their oath even to their hurt;

    who do not lend money at interest,

     and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things shall never be moved.

Psalm 16

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.”

….

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

I have a goodly heritage.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

I keep the Lord always before me;

  because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;

   my body also rests secure.

For you do not give me up to Sheol,

   or let your faithful one see the Pit.

You show me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy;

in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.