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PSALM 69 - Please Pray PS69 for the Netherlands 9 Jan 2020

Finally I found a psalm for the Netherlands! Please PRAY this psalm OFTEN for the Netherlands. Everywhere it speaks about water. See especially the verses 1-3 and 14-15.

Netherlands

The psalm really describes well the situation of the church in the Netherlands. Our church is like sinking in the water. I take the freedom to change the I into WE.

Psalm 69 (adapted for Dutch Church)

1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'lLilies . . .' Of David]
Save us, God,
for the waters have closed in on our very being.
2 We are sinking in the deepest swamp
and there is no firm ground.
We have stepped into deep water
and the waves are washing over us.
3 We are exhausted with calling out,
our throats are hoarse,
our eyes are worn out with searching for our God.
4 More numerous than the hairs of our heads
are those who hate us without reason.
Those who seek to get rid of us are powerful,
our treacherous enemies.
(Must we give back what we have never stolen?)
5 God, you know how foolish we are,
our offences are not hidden from you.
6 Those who hope in you must not be made fools of,
Yahweh Sabaoth, because of us!
Those who seek you must not be disgraced,
God of Netherlands, because of us!
7 It is for you we bear insults,
our face is covered with shame,
8 We are estranged from our brothers,
alienated from our own mother's sons;
9 for we are eaten up with zeal for your house,
and insults directed against you fall on us.
10 We mortify ourself with fasting,
and find ourself insulted for it,
11 We dress ourself in sackcloth
and become their laughing-stock,
12 the gossip of people sitting at the gate,
and the theme of drunkards' songs.
13 And so, we pray to you, Yahweh,
at the time of your favour;
in your faithful love answer us,
in the constancy of your saving power.
14 Rescue us from the mire before we sink in;
so we shall be saved from those who hate us,
from the watery depths.
15 Let not the waves wash over us,
nor the deep swallow us up,
nor the pit close its mouth on us.
16 Answer us, Yahweh,
for your faithful love is generous;
in your tenderness turn towards us;
17 do not turn away from your servants,
be quick to answer us, for we are in trouble.
18 Come to our side, redeem us,
ransom us because of our enemies.
19 You know well the insults,
the shame and disgrace we endure.
Every one of our oppressors is known to you.
20 Insult has broken our heart past cure.
We hoped for sympathy, but in vain,
for consolers -- not one to be found.
21 To eat they gave us poison,
to drink, vinegar when we were thirsty.
22 May their own table prove a trap for them,
and their abundance a snare;
23 may their eyes grow so dim that they cannot see,
all their muscles lose their strength.
24 Vent your fury on them,
let your burning anger overtake them.
25 Reduce their encampment to ruin,
and leave their tents untenanted,
26 for hounding someone you had already stricken,
for redoubling the pain of one you had wounded.
27 Charge them with crime after crime,
exclude them from your saving justice,
28 erase them from the book of life,
do not enrol them among the upright.
29 For ourself, wounded wretches that we are,
by your saving power raise us up!
30 We will praise God's name in song,
we will extol him by thanksgiving,
31 for this will please Yahweh more than an ox,
than a bullock horned and hoofed.
32 The humble have seen and are glad.
Let your courage revive, you who seek God.
33 For God listens to the poor,
he has never scorned his captive people.
34 Let heaven and earth and seas,
and all that stirs in them, acclaim him!
35 For God will save The Dutch church,
and rebuild the cities of the Netherlands,
and people will live there on their own land;
36 the descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will dwell there.

Excerpt from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright (c) 1985 by
Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division
of Penguin Random House, Inc. Reprinted by Permission.

Please pray for the church in the Netherlands