The Psalms of Thanksgiving To YAHWEH
9
THOU Hast Set Me O YAHWEH
I give thanks unto Thee, 0 YAHWEH,
for Thou hast not forsaken me
though I dwell as a sojourner
among an alien people,
nor cast me forth from Thy sight,
nor judged me according to my guilt,
nor abandoned me to my lusts;
but hast rescued my life from the pit.
Though Thou hast set my soul amid lions
prompt to spring on the guilty
-fearful lions that break men's bones,
mighty lions that drink their blood
and though Thou hast placed me full oft
in ready reach of their haul
who spread their nets for the froward
like fishers upon the waters,
or seek, like hunters, to trap them,
yet, when Thou hast placed me there,
Thou hast dealt justly with me.
For Thou hast set firm in my heart
Thy deep, deep truth;
and to them that seek after that truth
Thou bindest Thyself in pledge.
So hast Thou put a lock
upon the mouths of those lions,
whose teeth are like a sword,
whose fangs like a sharp spear,
whose breath is the venom of serpents.
Though ever they seek to raven,
and though ever they lie in wait,
they have closed not their jaws upon me.
Thou hast sheltered me, 0 YAHWEH,
in the face of all mankind,
and hidden Thy teaching within me,
until it be shown unto me
that the hour of Thy triumph is come.
In all the distress of my soul
Thou hast not abandoned me.
In the bitterness of my spirit
Thou hast heard my cry,
and in my sighing discerned
the song of my pain.
When I have found myself
in a very den of lions,
whetting their tongues like a sword,
Thou hast rescued me in my plight.
Yea, O my YAHWEH, Thou hast locked their teeth
lest they rend a hapless man apart;
and Thou hast drawn back their tongue
like a sword into its sheath,
lest it do hurt to Thy servant.
Moreover, to show forth Thy power
in the sight of all men,
Thou hast singled me out, a hapless wretch,
and worked a wonder in me,
passing me like gold through a furnace,
even through the action of fire,
and like silver that is refined
in the crucible of the smith,
to come forth sevenfold pure,
The wicked rush wildly upon me
to grasp me in their vice,
and they crush my spirit all day,
but Thou, 0 my YAHWEH,
dost turn the storm to a calm.
From the jaws of very lions
Thou hast snatched a poor lost soul,
when it was nigh to be rent.
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