Two Songs
Here are two songs I am engrossed in this week:
Preserve 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.”
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall mutliply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol
or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.—Psalm 16
I said, In the middle of my days I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end.
Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years because of bitterness of my soul.
O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit.
Oh restore me to health and make me live!
Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins behind my back.
For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.
The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.
The Lord will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives, at the house of the Lord.—Isaiah 38
Joy in His presence!!
He said so!