An Asaph Psalm

1-2 Listen, Shepherd, Israel’s Shepherd—

get all your Joseph sheep together.

Throw beams of light

from your dazzling throne

So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh

can see where they’re going.

Get out of bed—you’ve slept long enough!

Come on the run before it’s too late.

3 God, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

Thatwill be our salvation.

4-6 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano

while your people call for fire and brimstone?

You put us on a diet of tears,

bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.

You make us look ridiculous to our friends;

our enemies poke fun day after day.

7 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

Thatwill be our salvation.

8-18 Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt,

cleared out the brambles and briers

and planted your very own vineyard?

You prepared the good earth,

you planted her roots deep;

the vineyard filled the land.

Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains,

even dwarfing the giant cedars.

Your vine ranged west to the Sea,

east to the River.

So why do you no longer protect your vine?

Trespassers pick its grapes at will;

Wild pigs crash through and crush it,

and the mice nibble away at what’s left.

God-of-the-Angel-Armies, turn our way!

Take a good look at what’s happened

and attend to this vine.

Care for what you once tenderly planted—

the vine you raised from a shoot.

And those who dared to set it on fire—

give them a look that will kill!

Then take the hand of your once-favorite child,

the child you raised to adulthood.

We will never turn our back on you;

breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!

19 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!

Smile your blessing smile:

Thatwill be our salvation.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/PSA/80-e1eab98a2020c75890050c4d5ee81233.mp3?version_id=97—