Redeem Us, O God (Romans 8:35–39)
1 UST God, we listened carefully when our ancestors told us about the great things you did long ago when the Israelites first came into the land of Canaan. BSB BSB: For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.
2 UST { They told us about} how powerfully you forced the other nations to leave and established our ancestors securely in their land. It was as if they had been plants that you put firmly in the ground. You destroyed the people groups that had lived there and enabled our ancestors to settle there. BSB BSB: With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.
3 UST Our ancestors did not conquer this land with their own weapons or by their own power. Instead, you helped them and defeated their enemies by your own great power. You did that because you loved them. BSB BSB: For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them.
4 UST You are our real king, O God. Please enable the people of Israel to defeat their enemies. BSB BSB: You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.
5 UST You enable us to defeat our enemies. Because you help us, we destroy armies that fight against us. BSB BSB: Through You we repel our foes; through Your name we trample our enemies.
6 UST We do not expect to win victories because of the weapons we have. BSB BSB: For I do not trust in my bow, nor does my sword save me.
7 UST Instead, you rescue us from our enemies. You disgrace our opponents{ by defeating them}. BSB BSB: For You save us from our enemies; You put those who hate us to shame.
8 UST We regularly celebrate what God has done for us. We will always praise him. Selah BSB BSB: In God we have boasted all day long, and Your name we will praise forever. Selah
9 UST But now it appears that you no longer want to help us. This has embarrassed us. When our armies march out to fight a battle, you no longer enable them to win victories. BSB BSB: But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies.
10 UST You make us retreat from our enemies. We must leave behind weapons and possessions, and they take as many of those as they want. BSB BSB: You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us.
11 UST You have allowed our enemies to slaughter us as if we were sheep. Foreign armies have captured many of our people and taken them back to their countries as slaves. BSB BSB: You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.
12 UST You did not even receive any money for allowing others to take your people as their slaves. You did not become any richer as a result of that. BSB BSB: You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.
13 UST Because you no longer help us, the people groups around us insult us. They express contempt for us and laugh at us. BSB BSB: You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
14 UST People in other nations are using us Israelites as an example of an unfortunate people group. They are shaking their heads at us to ridicule us. BSB BSB: You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
15 UST I am constantly aware of my disgrace. I feel complete shame BSB BSB: All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face,
16 UST because people are speaking so harshly to me. Those people are my enemies, and they want to harm me. BSB BSB: at the voice of the scorner and reviler, because of the enemy, bent on revenge.
17 UST These things have happened to us even though we have not stopped worshiping you and we have not disobeyed the solemn agreement that you made with our ancestors. BSB BSB: All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant.
18 UST We still love you as our God, and we have continued to do what you have commanded us to do. BSB BSB: Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path.
19 UST But{ you have allowed} our enemies to ruin our land and leave it desolate. You have left us feeling as though we are going to die. BSB BSB: But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.
20 UST If we had stopped worshiping you as our God and had started worshiping a foreign god, BSB BSB: If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 UST you would surely have known that. That is because you know even what people secretly think. BSB BSB: would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
22 UST Because you are not helping us, our enemies are continuing to kill our people. They believe they can kill us as easily as if we were sheep, which people slaughter easily. BSB BSB: Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 UST Protect us! Do not fail to act, Lord, as if you were asleep! Defend us! Do not keep treating us as if we were not your people! BSB BSB: Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
24 UST Please be favorable to us and help us! Consider how badly our enemies are harming us and how greatly we are suffering! BSB BSB: Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?
25 UST We ask you to do this because we are helpless, as if we had fallen down and were lying on the ground and could not get up. BSB BSB: For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth.
26 UST You have promised to love us faithfully because we belong to you. So please do something to rescue us from our enemies! BSB BSB: Rise up; be our help! Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.