Thursday > Thursday Matins
1 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that
rise up against me.
2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in
God.
Selah.
3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up
of mine head.
4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his
holy hill. Selah.
5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set
themselves against me round about.
7 Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine
enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the
ungodly.
8 Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy
people.
Selah.
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a
joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the
hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry
land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD
our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the
sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day
of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said,
It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my
ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my
rest.
1 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger
smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the
rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion,
wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that
the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up
their ensigns for signs.
5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the
thick trees.
6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes
and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by
casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they
have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is
there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy
blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out
of thy bosom.
12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the
earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the
heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to
be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up
mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared
the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made
summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that
the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of
the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy
praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish
man reproacheth thee daily.
23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that
rise up against thee increaseth continually.
1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks:
for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.
3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear
up the pillars of it. Selah.
4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked,
Lift not up the horn:
5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west,
nor from the south.
7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up
another.
8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red;
it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs
thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink
them.
9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of
Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns
of the righteous shall be exalted.
1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and
he gave ear unto me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the
night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit
was overwhelmed. Selah.
4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot
speak.
5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine
own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no
more?
8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for
evermore?
9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his
tender mercies? Selah.
10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years
of the right hand of the most High.
11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember
thy wonders of old.
12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as
our God?
14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy
strength among the people.
15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob
and Joseph. Selah.
16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were
afraid: the depths also were troubled.
17 The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine
arrows also went abroad.
18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings
lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy
footsteps are not known.
20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and
Aaron.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words
of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of
old:
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the
generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his
wonderful works that he hath done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in
Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them
known to their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their
children:
7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works
of God, but keep his commandments:
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose
spirit was not stedfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned
back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his
law;
11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the
land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made
the waters to stand as an heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night
with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out
of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to
run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High
in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their
lust.
19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table
in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the
streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for
his people?
21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was
kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his
salvation:
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the
doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them
of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power
he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like
as the sand of the sea:
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their
habitations.
29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their
own desire;
30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat
was yet in their mouths,
31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them,
and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his
wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years
in trouble.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and
enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God
their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they
lied unto him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they
stedfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and
destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did
not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth
away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him
in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One
of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them
from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the
field of Zoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that
they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their
labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees
with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to
hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and
indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their
strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them
in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea
overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this
mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an
inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their
tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not
his testimonies:
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they
were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved
him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he
placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into
the enemy's hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with
his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not
given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no
lamentation.
65 Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man
that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a
perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the
tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
78:69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth
which he hath established for ever.
70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds:
71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed
Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and
guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
1 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy
temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto
the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of
the earth.
3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and
there was none to bury them.
4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision
to them that are round about us.
5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy
burn like fire?
6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and
upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender
mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and
deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.
10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be
known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of
thy servants which is shed.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to
the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to
die;
12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their
reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks
for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a
flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength,
and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall
be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the
prayer of thy people?
5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears
to drink in great measure.
6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies
laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and
we shall be saved.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the
heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep
root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs
thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the
river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they
which pass by the way do pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of
the field doth devour it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven,
and behold, and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the
branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the
rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of
man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call
upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and
we shall be saved.
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the
God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp
with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on
our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out
through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood
not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered
from the pots.
7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee
in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of
Meribah.
Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if
thou wilt hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship
any strange god.
10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of
Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would
none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked
in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked
in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand
against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto
him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and
with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among
the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the
wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and
needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the
wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in
darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most
High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all
nations.
1 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not
still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee
have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted
against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a
nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are
confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the
Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the
inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of
Lot.
Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin,
at the brook of Kison:
10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their
princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in
possession.
13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the
wind.
14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the
mountains on fire;
15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with
thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O
LORD.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be
put to shame, and perish:
18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art
the most high over all the earth.
1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD:
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for
herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of
hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still
praising thee. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are
the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain
also filleth the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion
appeareth before God.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.
Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine
anointed.
10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace
and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
1 Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought
back the captivity of Jacob.
2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered
all their sin. Selah.
3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger.
4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us
to cease.
5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine
anger to all generations?
6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in
thee?
7 Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
8 I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace
unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to
folly.
9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may
dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have
kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall
look down from heaven.
12 Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall
yield her increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way
of his steps.