Tikkun HaKlali: The General Remedy

A Poem by David. Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.

My soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”

As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips.

The LORD assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.

I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety.

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.

By David. A contemplative psalm. Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the LORD.

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Blessed is he who considers the poor. The LORD will deliver him in the day of evil.

The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness.

I said, “LORD, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?”

If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.

All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me.

“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.

But you, LORD, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.

By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.

As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.

For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

The LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, LORD.

I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

You, LORD God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.

They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.

Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”

But you, LORD, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations.

Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, for God is my high tower.

My God will go before me with his loving kindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.

Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.

For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.

Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah.

At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.

They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.

But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.

To you, my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.

For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph. My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires:

“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

Then I thought, “I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the LORD’s deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old.

I will also meditate on all your work, and consider your doings.

Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God?

You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples.

You have redeemed your people with your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.

The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.

The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

Your way was through the sea, your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.

You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

A Prayer by Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.

Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.”

For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.

In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.

For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Relent, LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work appear to your servants, your glory to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.

Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.

Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forever more.

Remember his marvelous works that he has done: his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

He is the LORD, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.

He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,

the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,

and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,

saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”

when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.

They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.

He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,

“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”

He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.

He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.

They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,

until the time that his word happened, and the LORD’s word proved him true.

The king sent and freed him, even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.

He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions,

to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.

He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.

He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.

He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn’t rebel against his words.

He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.

Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.

He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.

He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.

He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.

He spoke, and the locusts came with the grasshoppers, without number.

They ate up every plant in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.

He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.

He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.

They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.

He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.

For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.

He brought his people out with joy, his chosen with singing.

He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,

that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps.

For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Remember, LORD, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”

Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us.

Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!

Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!

Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!

Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!