A song of the ascents.

¹The good fortune of anyone who lives in awe of Yahweh,
who walks in his ways!
²Because you will eat the fruit of the palms of your hands,
your blessings and good things of yours.
³Your wife like a fruitful vine
in the inner rooms of your house,
Your children like the slips of olive trees
round your table.

⁴There, surely thus will he be blessed,
a man who lives in awe of Yahweh.
⁵May Yahweh bless you from Tsiyyon;
you can look at the good things of Yerushalaim,
All the days of your life,
⁶and look at your grandchildren;

well-being [be] on Yisra’el!

God be in head and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth and in my speaking;
God be in my heart and in my thinking;
God be at my end and at my departing.

A song of the ascents. Shelomoh’s.

¹If Yahweh doesn’t build a house,
in vain the builders have laboured on it.
If Yahweh doesn’t keep a town,
in vain the one who keeps watch has been wakeful.
²It is in vain for you,
being people early to get up, people late to sit down,
People who eat bread of toil
– yes, he gives sleep to his beloved.

³There, sons are your domain from Yahweh;
the fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴Like arrows in a strong man’s hand
– so are the sons of youth.
⁵The blessings of the man
who has filled his quiver!
Of them he will not be shamed
when they speak with enemies in the gateway.

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.

A song of the ascents.

¹When Yahweh turned back Tsiyyon’s fortunes,
we became like people dreaming.
²Then our mouth would fill with laughter,
our tongue with resounding.
Then they would say among the nations,
‘Yahweh has shown greatness in acting with them.’
₃Yahweh has shown greatness in acting with us;
we became people celebrating.

⁴Turn back our fortunes, Yahweh,
like canyons in the Negev.
⁵May people who sow with crying
reap with resounding.
⁶The person who goes, but goes crying,
carrying the seed bag
– As he comes, may he come with resounding,
carrying his sheaves.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

A song of the ascents.

¹ The people who rely on Yahweh are like Mount Tsiyyon,
which will not slip – it will sit permanently.
² Yerushalaim – mountains are round it;
Yahweh – he is round his people, now and permanently.
³ Because the faithless club will not rest
over the allocation of the faithful,
In order that the faithful do not put
their hands to evil.

⁴Do good, Yahweh, to the people who are good,
yes, to the people who are upright in their mind.
⁵ But the people who bend their crooked ways,
may Yahweh make them go, the people who devise trouble;
well-being [be] on Yisra’el!

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

A song of the ascents. David’s.

¹Were it not Yahweh who was ours,
Yisra’el is indeed to say,
²Were it not Yahweh who was ours
when people arose against us,
³Then they would have swallowed us alive
in their angry burning against us.
⁴Then the water
– it would have carried us off; the torrent
– it would have passed right over us.
⁵Then it would have passed right over us,
the seething water.

⁶Yahweh be blessed,
who did not give us as prey to their teeth.
⁷Our life is like a bird
that has escaped from the hunters’ trap.
The trap – it broke;
and we – we escaped.

⁸Our help is the very name of Yahweh,
maker of heavens and earth.

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

George Herbert

A song of the ascents.

¹To you I raise my eyes,
you who sit in the heavens.

²There, like the eyes of servants
towards the hand of their masters,
Like the eyes of a maidservant
towards the hand of her mistress,
So are our eyes towards Yahweh our God,
until he is gracious to us.

³Be gracious to us, Yahweh, be gracious,
because we’ve become very full of contempt.
⁴Our entire being has become very full for itself
of the ridicule of complacent people,
of the contempt of majestic people.

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

¹I rejoiced when people said to me,
‘We’ll go to Yahweh’s house.’

²Our feet have been standing
in your gates, Yerushalaim,
³Yerushalaim, which is built
as a town that is joined together to itself,
⁴Where the clans went up, Yah’s clans,
(an affirmation for Yisra’el),
to confess Yahweh’s name.
⁵Because thrones for exercising authority sat there,
thrones for David’s household.

⁶Ask for the well-being of Yerushalaim;
may people who are loyal to it be secure.
⁷May there be well-being in your rampart,
ease in your citadels.
⁸For the sake of my brothers and my friends
I shall please speak of well-being for you.
⁹For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God
I will seek good things for 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

A song for the ascents.

I raise my eyes to the mountains:
from where does my help come?
My help comes from Yahweh,
maker of heavens and earth.

May he not give your foot to slipping;
may he not doze, your keeper.
There, he doesn’t doze and he doesn’t sleep,
Yisrâ’el’s keeper.
Yahweh is your keeper, Yahweh is your shade,
at your right hand.
By day the sun will not strike you down,
or the moon by night.
Yahweh will keep you from everything bad;
he will keep your life.
Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in,
from now and permanently.

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

A song of the ascents.

¹To Yahweh, when I was under pressure,
I called and he answered me.

²Yahweh, rescue my life from false lips,
from a deceitful tongue.

³What will it give you,
what will it add to you, deceitful tongue?
⁴The arrows of a strong man, sharpened,
with coals of broom shrubs.

⁵Oh for me, that I’ve resided with Meshek,
dwelt with Qedara’s tents.
⁶A long time I’ve been dwelling
with someone hostile to peace.
⁷I am for peace, but when I speak,
they are for battle.

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