The leader’s. On the Gittite. A composition. David’s.

1 Yahweh our lord, how powerful is your name in all the earth,
You who put your grandeur above the heavens .
2 At the mouth of babies and sucklings,
You founded a barricade to deal with your adversaries,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I see the heavens, the things that your fingers made,
moon and stars that you established,
4 What are weak-people that you are mindful of them,
‘human beings’ that you attend to them?
5 But you made them fall short of God by a little,
and you crown them with honour and magnificence.
6 You let them rule over the things that your hands made;
you put everything under their feet –
7 Sheep and cattle, all of them,
and the animals of the wild, too,
8 The birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea,
what passes over the paths in the seas.

9 Yahweh our lord,
how powerful is your name in all the earth!

Lord God,,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Lament. David’s, which he sang for Yahweh concerning the Kushite [Sudanese] words. The Binyaminite.

1 Yahweh my God, in you I take shelter
– deliver me from all the people who are pursuing me, rescue me,
2 So that one doesn’t tear me apart like a lion,
ripping me to pieces when there’s no one to rescue.

3 Yahweh my God, if I did this,
if there’s meanness in the palms of my hands,
4 If I have dealt something bad to my friend,
but released my adversary without reason,
5 May the enemy pursue me and overtake me,
may he trample my life to the ground,
may he lay my honour in the dirt. (Rise)

6 Rise up, Yahweh, in your anger;
lift yourself up at the great outburst of my adversaries.
Awake, my God, you must order the exercise of authority;
7 the assembly of the nations should come round you.
Take your seat over it on high;
8 Yahweh must rule the peoples.
Exercise authority for me, Yahweh,
in accordance with my faithfulness
and with my integrity, which are over me.
9 The bad ways of faithless people must please come to an end,
and you must establish the faithful person.
The faithful God
is one who tests minds and inner being.

10 God is my shield on high,
one who delivers people who are upright in mind.
11God exercises authority for the faithful person;
God is indignant each day.
12 If someone doesn’t turn back, he whets his sword;
he’s directed his bow and fixed it.
13 He’s fixed deadly weapons for himself,
he makes his arrows into flames.
14 There, someone twists with trouble,
he’s pregnant with oppression, he gives birth to falsehood.
15 He’s dug a cistern and made it deep,
but he’s fallen into the hole he makes.
16 His act of oppression comes back on to his own head,
his violence comes down on his own skull.

17 I will confess Yahweh in accordance with his faithfulness
and make music to the name of Yahweh, the One on High.

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power, be our support;
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance:
That we may seek your face
with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Amen.
Alcuin

And the LORD, god, said
Look! The man became like one of us,
– knowing good and evil.
And now
lest he will put out his hand
and will take also from the Tree of Life
and he will eat
and he will live forever…

And the Lord, god, expelled him
from the garden of Eden.
so that he might work the ground
from which he was taken.

And he drove out the man,
and he caused to dwell
on the east of the garden of Eden
the cherubim
and a flaming sword
turning back and forth
to guard the way of the tree of Life.

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts,
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil,
Eternal Power, be our support,
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance,
Eternal Pity, have mercy upon us;
that with all our heart and mind
and soul and strength we may seek thy face
and be brought by thine infinite mercy
to thy holy presence;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Alcuin (735-804)

And the man called his wife ‘Life’
because she will be (was) mother of all living.
And the Lord, god, made
for Adam and for his wife
tunics of leather
and he clothed them.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

And to Adam he said:
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and you have eaten from the tree
which I commanded you,
by saying
Do not eat from it
Cursed is the ground
on account of you
With hard work you will eat (from) it
all the days of your life;
And (the ground) will cause thorns and thistles
to grow for you.
And you will eat the vegetation of the field.
By the sweat of your nose
you will eat bread
Until you return to the ground
because from it you were taken
because dust you are
and to dust you will return.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

And the LORD, god, said to the serpent:
Because you have done this
Cursed are you,
more than all the livestock
and the living creatures of the field
On your belly you will move
And dust you will eat all the days of your life.
Enmity I will place
between you and between the woman
and between your seed and between her seed.
He will crush you, that is your head,
You will crush him, that is his heel.

To the woman, he said,
I will greatly increase your hard-work-in-child-bearing
with hard work you will bear children.
And your desire (will be) to your husband
And he will rule you.

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

And they heard the sound of the LORD, god,
walking back and forth in the garden in the ‘wind of the day’
And the man and the woman hid from the face of the LORD, god,
among the trees of the garden.

And the LORD, god, called to the man
saying to him
‘Where are you?’
And he said
‘I heard the sound of you in the garden
so I was fearful
because I was naked.
So I hid myself. ‘

And he said:
‘Who told you that you were naked?
Have you from the tree
which I commanded you not to eat from
eaten?’

And the man said:
‘the woman
whom you gave to be with/ to me –
she gave to me
from the tree
and I ate.’

And the Lord, god, said to the woman:
‘What is this that you have done?’

And the woman said:
‘The serpent deceived me
so I ate.’

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

And the woman saw that the tree (was) good for food
and that it (was) a delight for the eyes
and desirable for gaining in wisdom
and she took from its fruit
and she ate.
And she also gave (it) to her man, with her,
and he ate.

Then the eyes of the two were opened
and they knew that they were naked
and they sewed ‘fig leafs’
and they made for themselves coverings.

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

And YHWH, god, dropped sleep on the human,
and he slept
and he took one of/from his ribs
and he closed (the) flesh
underneath it.

And YHWH, god, built the rib
which he took from the human,
into a woman.
And he brought her to the human.

And the human said:
‘This one,
this time,
is a bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
this one will be called “woman”
because from the man she was taken.’

Therefore
a man will leave his father and his mother
and stick with his woman /wife
and become one flesh
and the two – the man and the woman – were naked
and they were not ashamed.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen