Day 188 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Psalm 42 (43)

1 A Psalm of David. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, against an ungodly nation: deliver me from the unjust and crafty man. 2 For thou, O God, art my strength: wherefore hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses [me]? 3 Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and brought me to thy holy mountain, and to thy tabernacles. 4 And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth: I will give thanks to thee on the harp, O God, my God. 5 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? Hope in God; for I will give thanks to him, [who is] the health of my countenance, [and] my God.

Psalm 43 (44)

1 For the end, a Psalm for instruction, for the sons of Core. 2 O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, the work which thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old. 3 Thine hand utterly destroyed the heathen, and thou didst plant them: thou didst afflict the nations, and cast them out. 4 For they inherited not the land by their [own] sword, and their [own] arm did not deliver them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou wert well pleased in them. 5 Thou art indeed my King and my God, who commandest deliverances for Jacob. 6 In thee will we push down our enemies, and in thy name will we bring to nought them that rise up against us. 7 For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword shall not save me. 8 For thou hast saved us from them that afflicted us, and hast put to shame them that hated us. 9 In God will we make our boast all the day, and to thy name will we give thanks for ever. Pause. 10 But now thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and thou wilt not go forth with our hosts. 11 Thou hast turned us back before our enemies; and they that hated us spoiled for themselves. 12 Thou madest us as sheep for meat; and thou scatteredst us among the nations. 13 Thou hast sold thy people without price, and there was no profit by their exchange. 14 Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 15 Thou hast made us a proverb among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the nations. 16 All the day my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face has covered me, 17 because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler; because of the enemy and avenger. 18 All these things are come upon us: but we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt unrighteously in thy covenant. 19 And our heart has not gone back; but thou hast turned aside our paths from thy way. 20 For thou hast laid us low in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death has covered us. 21 If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out? 22 for he knows the secrets of the heart. 23 For, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for slaughter. 24 Awake, wherefore sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, and do not cast [us] off for ever. 25 Wherefore turnest thou thy face away, [and] forgettest our poverty and our affliction? 26 For our soul has been brought down to the dust; our belly has cleaved to the earth. 27 Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for thy name's sake.

Psalm 44 (45)

1 For the end, for alternate [strains] by the sons of Core; for instruction, a Song concerning the beloved. 2 My heart has uttered a good matter: I declare my works to the king: my tongue is the pen of a quick writer. 3 Thou art more beautiful than the sons of men: grace has been shed forth on thy lips: therefore God has blessed thee for ever. 4 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Mighty One, in thy comeliness, and in thy beauty; 5 and bend [thy bow], and prosper, and reign, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall guide thee wonderfully. 6 Thy weapons are sharpened, Mighty One, (the nations shall fall under thee) [they are] in the heart of the king's enemies. 7 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. 8 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy fellows. 9 Myrrh, and stacte, and cassia [are exhaled] from thy garments, [and] out of the ivory palaces, 10 with which kings' daughters have gladdened thee for thine honour: the queen stood by on thy right hand, clothed in vesture wrought with gold, [and] arrayed in divers colours. 11 Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father's house. 12 Because the king has desired thy beauty; for he is thy Lord. 13 And the daughter of Tyre shall adore him with gifts; the rich of the people of the land shall supplicate thy favour. 14 All her glory [is that] of the daughter of the king of Esebon, robed [as she is] in golden fringed garments, 15 in embroidered [clothing]: virgins shall be brought to the king after her: her fellows shall be brought to thee. 16 They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the king's temple. 17 Instead of thy fathers children are born to thee: thou shalt make them princes over all the earth. 18 They shall make mention of thy name from generation to generation: therefore shall the nations give thanks to thee for ever, even for ever and ever.