84.4 Prayer Of An Afflicted Sinner

(Psalm 38)

O Lord, don't punish me in your anger!

You have wounded me with your arrows; you have struck me down.

Because of your anger, I am in great pain;

my whole body is diseased because of my sins.

I am drowning in the flood of my sins;

they are burden too heavy to bear.

Because I have been foolish, my sores stink and rot.

I am bent over, I am crushed; I mourn all day long.

I am burning with fever and I am near death.

I am worn out and utterly crushed;

my heart is troubled, and I groan with pain.

O Lord, you know what I long for;

you hear all my groans.

My heart is pounding, my strength is gone,

and my eyes have lost their brightness.

My friends and neighbors will not come near me,

because of my sores; even my family keeps away from me.

Those who want to kill me lay traps for me,

and those who want to hurt me threaten to ruin me;

they never stop plotting against me.

I am like a deaf man and cannot hear, like a dumb man and cannot speak.

I am like a man who does not answer, because he cannot hear.

But I trust in you, O Lord, and you, O Lord my God, will answer me.

Don't let my enemies gloat over my distress;

don't let them boast about my downfall!

I am about to fall and am in constant pain.

I confess my sins, they fill me with anxiety

My enemies are healthy and strong; 

there are many who hate me for no reason.

Those who pay back evil for good are against me because I try to do right.

Do not abandon me, O Lord;

do not stay away, my God!

Help me now, O Lord my savior!

84.3 Parable Of The Unfruitful Fig Tree

(Luke 13:6-9)

Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was once a man who had fig tree growing in his vineyard. He went looking for figs on it but found none. So he said to his gardener, 'Look, for three years I have been coming here looking for figs on this fig tree, and I haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it go on using up the soil?' But the gardener answered, 'Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig around it and put in some fertilizer. Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down.'"

84.2 Turn Your Hearts To God

(John 1:13-16)

They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

John spoke about him.  He cried out, "This is one I was talking about when I said, 'He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.'"

Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.

84.1 Two Baskets Of Figs

(Jeremiah 24:1-10)

The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple. (This was after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had taken away Jehoiakim's son, King Jehoiachin of Judah, as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylonia, together with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the skilled workers.) The first basket contained good figs, those that ripen early; the other one contained bad figs, too bad to eat. Then the Lord said to me, "Jeremiah, what do you see?"

I answered, "Figs. The good ones are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, too bad to eat."
So the Lord said to me, "I, the Lord, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness. I will watch over them and bring them back to this land. I will build them  up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pull them up. I will give them the desire to know that I am the Lord. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.

"As for King Zedekiah of Judah, the politicians around him, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who have stayed in this land or moved to Egypt-- I, the Lord, will treat them all like these figs that are too bad to be eaten.  I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun on them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.  I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors."

83.4 Restoration Through God

(Psalm 85)

Lord, you have been merciful to your land;
you have made Israel prosperous again.
You have forgiven your people's sins
and pardoned all their wrongs.
You stopped being angry with them
and held back your furious rage.

Brings us back, O God our savior,
and stop being displeased with us!
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will your anger never cease?
Make us strong again,
and we, your people, will praise you.
Show us your constant love, O Lord,
and give us your saving help.

I am listening to what the Lord God is saying;
he promises peace to us, his own people,
if we do not go back to our foolish ways.
Surely he is ready to save those who honor him,
and his saving presence will remain in our land.

Love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will embrace.
Man's loyalty will reach up from the earth,
and God's righteousness will look down from heaven.
The Lord will make us prosperous,
and our land will produce rich harvests.
Righteousness will go before the Lord
and prepare the path for him.