Day 3: Psalms 7-9

Two more ways of reading a psalm are antiphonal recitation and responsive recitation.  Antiphonal recitation is when the recitation or singing of verses alternates between the choir and congregation or one side of the church and the other.  Responsive recitation is when a leader reads or sings alternating verses with the congregation.  The church I grew up in used responsive recitation.  The leader said the first verse and the congregation said the next.  I remember quickly glancing at the psalm to see if it had an even or odd number of verses.  When there was an odd number of verses, I would snap shut my prayerbook after the final even verse was said.  I was finished!  

Here's Psalm 7

1 O LORD my God, I take refuge in you; *     save and deliver me from all who pursue me; 2 Lest like a lion they tear me in pieces *     and snatch me away with none to deliver me. 3 O LORD my God, if I have done these things: *     if there is any wickedness in my hands,

4	If I have repaid my friend with evil, *     or plundered him who without cause is my enemy;
5	Then let my enemy pursue and overtake me, *     trample my life into the ground,     and lay my honor in the dust.
6	Stand up, O LORD, in your wrath; *     rise up against the fury of my enemies.
7	Awake, O my God, decree justice; *     let the assembly of the peoples gather round you.
8	Be seated on your lofty throne, O Most High; *     O LORD, judge the nations.
9	Give judgment for me according to my    righteousness, O LORD, *     and according to my innocence, O Most High.
10	Let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; *     for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.
11	God is my shield and defense; *     he is the savior of the true in heart.
12	God is a righteous judge; *     God sits in judgment every day.
13	If they will not repent, God will whet his sword; *     he will bend his bow and make it ready.
14	He has prepared his weapons of death; *     he makes his arrows shafts of fire.
15	Look at those who are in labor with wickedness, *     who conceive evil, and give birth to a lie.

16	They dig a pit and make it deep *     and fall into the hole that they have made.
17	Their malice turns back upon their own head; *     their violence falls on their own scalp.
18	I will bear witness that the LORD is righteous; *     I will praise the Name of the LORD Most High. So another psalm beseeching God to rescue the writer from the enemy.  I can't imagine a time when your daily life had to include a prayer that you wouldn't be torn to pieces like a lion. Psalm 8

1	O LORD our Governor, *     how exalted is your Name in all the world!
2	Out of the mouths of infants and children *     your majesty is praised above the heavens.
3	You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, *     to quell the enemy and the avenger.
4	When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *     the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
5	What is man that you should be mindful of him? *     the son of man that you should seek him out?
6	You have made him but little lower than the angels; *     you adorn him with glory and honor;
7	You give him mastery over the works of your hands; *     you put all things under his feet:
8	All sheep and oxen, *     even the wild beasts of the field,
9	The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, *     and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.
10	O LORD our Governor, *     how exalted is your Name in all the world! A psalm of praise!  Finally!  I love this image "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses."  The writer, or psalmist, continues on to praise God for creating humans and placing them just below the angels. This reminds me of the soliloquy from Hamlet---"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable!  In action how like an Angel!  In apprehension how like a god!" Psalm 9 1 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with my whole heart; *     I will tell of all your marvelous works. 2 I will be glad and rejoice in you; *     I will sing to your Name, O Most High. 3 When my enemies are driven back, *     they will stumble and perish at your presence. 4 For you have maintained my right and my cause; *     you sit upon your throne judging right. 5 You have rebuked the ungodly and destroyed the wicked; *     you have blotted out their name for ever and ever. 6 As for the enemy, they are finished, in perpetual ruin, *     their cities plowed under, the memory of them perished; 7 But the LORD is enthroned for ever; *     he has set up this throne for judgment. 8 It is he who rules the world with righteousness; *     he judges the peoples with equity. 9 The LORD will be a refuge for the oppressed, *     a refuge in time of trouble. 10 Those who know your Name will put their trust in you, *     for you never forsake those who seek you, O LORD. 11 Sing praise to the LORD who dwells in Zion; *     proclaim to the peoples the things he has done. 12 The Avenger of blood will remember them; *     he will not forget the cry of the afflicted. 13 Have pity on me, O LORD; *     see the misery I suffer from those who hate me,     O you who lift me up from the gate of death; 14 So that I may tell of all your praises and rejoice in your salvation *     in the gates of the city of Zion. 15 The ungodly have fallen into the pit they dug, *     and in the snare they set is their own foot caught. 16 The LORD is known by his acts of justice; *     the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands. 17 The wicked shall be given over to the grave, *     and also all the people that forget God. 18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, *     and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever. 19 Rise up, O LORD, let not the ungodly have the upper hand; *     let them be judged before you. 20 Put fear upon them, O LORD; *     let the ungodly know they are but mortal. Another psalm asking for God to smite the enemy.  My enemy is cancer.  Does that count?