Book 1.2: The Backslidden and Rebellious Saint

Complement    Part 1: The Backslidden Saint

Opposite   Chapter 1.1: The backslider focused on the greatness and mercy of Jehovah (Psalm 102)

¹Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and let my cry come to you. ²Hide not your face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline your ear to me; in the day when I call answer me speedily: ³for my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. ⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. ⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones stick to my skin. ⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert. ⁷I watch; and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. ⁸My enemies reproach me all day long; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me: ⁹for I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, ¹⁰because of your indignation and your wrath: for you have lifted me up, and cast me down. ¹¹My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass.

¹²But you, O Jehovah, shall endure forever; and your remembrance to all generations. ¹³You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, moreover, the set time, has come: ¹⁴for your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor its dust. ¹⁵So shall the heathen fear the Name of Jehovah, and all the kings of the earth your glory.

¹⁶When Jehovah shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. ¹⁷He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. ¹⁸This shall be written for the generation to come; and the people who shall be created shall praise Jehovah. ¹⁹For he has looked down from the height of his Sanctuary; from Heaven did Jehovah behold the earth: ²⁰to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to release those that are appointed to death; ²¹to declare the Name of Jehovah in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem, ²²when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve Jehovah.

²³He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. ²⁴I said, “O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days; your years are throughout all generations.”

²⁵You laid the foundation of the earth of old; and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶They shall perish, but you shall endure; moreover, all of them shall grow old like a garment; as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed; ²⁷but you are the same, and your years shall have no end. ²⁸The children of your servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before you.

Opposite   Chapter 1.2: The backslider remembered the grace of Jehovah toward Israel (Psalm 77)

¹I cried to God with my voice, even to God with my voice; and he gave ear to me. ²In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand stretched out to God in the night, and did not cease; my soul refused to be comforted. ³I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

⁴You hold my eyes awake; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. ⁵I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. ⁶I call to remembrance my song in the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search, saying: ⁷“Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he no longer be favorable? ⁸Has his mercy completely gone forever? Does his promise fail forevermore? ⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies?” Selah.

¹⁰And I said, “This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” ¹¹I will remember the works of JAH; surely I will remember your wonders of old. ¹²I will meditate also of all your work, and talk of your doings.

¹³Your way, O God, is in the Sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? ¹⁴You are the God that does wonders; you have declared your strength among the people. ¹⁵You have with your arm redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

¹⁶The waters saw you, O God; the waters saw you; they were afraid; the depths also were troubled. ¹⁷The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; your arrows also went abroad. ¹⁸The voice of your thunder was in the heaven; the lightning lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook. ¹⁹Your way is in the sea, and your path in the great waters; and your footsteps are not known. ²⁰You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

 

 

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Complement    Chapter 1.3: The backslider rejoiced in the forgiveness of Jehovah (Psalm 30)

§Unique   Introduction: O Jehovah, I cried to you and you healed me

¹I will extol you, O Jehovah: for you have lifted me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

²O Jehovah my God, I cried to you, and you healed me.

³O Jehovah, you have brought up my soul from the grave; you have kept me alive, so that I would not go down to the grave.

§Complement   Body: Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning

⁴Sing to Jehovah, O you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness: ⁵for his anger endures only for a moment; in his favor is Life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

⁶And in my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.”

⁷Jehovah, only by your favor have you made my mountain to stand strong; you hid your face, and I was troubled.

⁸I cried to you, O Jehovah, and to Jehovah I made supplication: ⁹“What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the grave? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?”

¹⁰Hear, O Jehovah, and have mercy upon me. O Jehovah, be my helper.

§Complement   Conclusion: You have turned my mourning into dancing for joy

¹¹You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.

You have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness, ¹²to the end that my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent.

O Jehovah my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Complement    Chapter 1.4: The backslider was restored to fellowship with Jehovah (Psalm 116)

§Unique   Introduction: The sorrows of death led me to call upon the Name of Jehovah

¹I love Jehovah, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. ²Because he has inclined his ear to me; therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

³The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the pains of Hell laid hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then I called upon the Name of Jehovah, “O Jehovah, please, deliver my soul.”

§Complement   Body: Jehovah helped me and delivered my soul from death

⁵Gracious is Jehovah, and righteous; moreover, our God is merciful. ⁶Jehovah preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he helped me.

⁷Return to your rest, O my soul: for Jehovah has dealt bountifully with you: ⁸for you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. ⁹I will walk before Jehovah in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed; therefore have I spoken. ¹¹I was greatly afflicted; ¹²I said in my haste, “All men are liars.”

¹³What shall I render to Jehovah for all his benefits toward me? ¹⁴I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of Jehovah. ¹⁵I will pay my vows to Jehovah now in the presence of all his people.

¹⁶Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints.

§Complement   Conclusion: I am your servant; I will offer thanksgiving and call upon the Name of Jehovah

¹⁷O Jehovah, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, and the son of your maidservant; you have loosened my bonds.

¹⁸I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of Jehovah.

¹⁹I will pay my vows to Jehovah now in the presence of all his people, ²⁰in the courts of Jehovah’s House, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise Jehovah!

Unique   Chapter 1.5: The backslider repented of his sins (Psalm 51)

§Complement   Introduction: I confess my sins against you

¹Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin: ³for I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is always before me.

⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge.

§Complement   Body: Restore to me the joy of your salvation

⁵Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. ⁹Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free Spirit. ¹³Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted to you.

¹⁴Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, you God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

§Unique   Conclusion: God desires a broken spirit more than religious acts

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth your praise: ¹⁶for you do not desire sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷The true sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸Do good in your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹Then shall you be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bulls upon your altar.

 

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Complement   Part 2: The Rebellious Saint

Opposite   Chapter 2.1: The rebellious saint pled for mercy from Jehovah (Psalm 6)

¹O Jehovah, rebuke me not in your anger; neither discipline me in your hot displeasure. ²Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah: for I am weak. O Jehovah, heal me: for my bones tremble. ³My soul is also greatly afraid; but you, O Jehovah, how long?

⁴Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul; oh save me for your mercies’ sake: ⁵for in death there is no remembrance of you; in the grave who shall give you thanks?

⁶I am weary with my groaning; I make my bed to swim all night long; I water my couch with my tears. ⁷My eye is consumed because of grief: it grows old because of all my enemies.

⁸Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity: for Jehovah has heard the voice of my weeping. ⁹Jehovah has heard my supplication; Jehovah will receive my prayer.

¹⁰Let all my enemies be ashamed and afraid; let them return and be suddenly ashamed.

Opposite   Chapter 2.2: The rebellious saint did not understand the wrath of God upon him (Psalm 88)

¹O Jehovah God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. ²Let my prayer come before you, and incline your ear to my cry: ³for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. ⁴I am counted with them that go down into Hell; I am as a man that has no strength; ⁵adrift among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you no longer remember; and they are cut off from your hand. ⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. ⁷Your wrath lies hard upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.

⁸You have put away my acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and cannot come forth. ⁹My eye mourns by reason of affliction.

Jehovah, I have called daily upon you; I have stretched out my hands to you. ¹⁰Will you show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise you? Selah. ¹¹Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in destruction? ¹²Shall your wonders be known in the dark, and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But I have cried to you, O Jehovah; and in the morning shall my prayer come before you. ¹⁴Jehovah, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? ¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors I am distracted. ¹⁶Your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off. ¹⁷They came around me daily like water; they surrounded me together.

¹⁸Loved one and friend have you put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness.

 

 

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Complement    Chapter 2.3: The rebellious saint was consumed by the blow of God’s hand (Psalm 39)

§Unique   Introduction: I was mute with silence; my heart was hot within me

¹I said, “I will take heed to my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked are before me.”

²I was mute with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

³My heart was hot within me; while I was musing the fire burned.

§Complement   Body: My life is very short, and our lives are vain

I spoke with my tongue, ⁴“Jehovah, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, you have made my days as a hand-breadth; and my age is as nothing before you; truly every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶Surely every man walks in a vain display; surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up riches, and does not know who shall gather them.

⁷And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. ⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish. ⁹I was mute; I did not open my mouth, because you did it. ¹⁰Remove your stroke away from me; I am consumed by the blow of your hand.

¹¹When you correct man with rebukes for his iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity. Selah.

§Complement   Conclusion: Hear my prayer, O Jehovah; and do not keep silent at my tears

¹²Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear to my cry.

Hold not your peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with you, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go from here, and be no more.”

Complement    Chapter 2.4: The rebellious saint was pressed sore by the hand of Jehovah (Psalm 38)

§Unique   Introduction: My iniquities have gone over my head; and my body is filled with disease

¹O Jehovah, rebuke me not in your wrath; neither discipline me in your hot displeasure: ²for your arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presses me sore.

³There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin: ⁴for my iniquities have gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

⁵My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. ⁶I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all day long: ⁷for my groin is filled with a loathsome disease; and there is no soundness in my flesh. ⁸I am feeble and sore broken; I have cried by reason of the turmoil of my heart.

§Complement   Body: My friends and family shun me

⁹Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hidden from you. ¹⁰My heart pants; my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.

¹¹My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my relatives stand far away.

¹²They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my harm speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all day long.

¹³But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was like a mute man that opens not his mouth. ¹⁴Thus I was like a man that hears not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

¹⁵For in you, O Jehovah, do I hope. You will hear, O Lord my God: ¹⁶for I said, “Hear me, lest they should rejoice over me; when my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me.” ¹⁷For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me: ¹⁸for I will declare my iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

§Complement   Conclusion: My enemies are strong and they multiply

¹⁹But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong. And they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

²⁰They also that render evil for good are my adversaries, because I follow that which is good.

²¹Forsake me not, O Jehovah; O my God, be not far from me. ²²Hurry to help me, O Lord my salvation.

Unique   Chapter 2.5: The rebellious saint repented of his sins (Psalm 32)

§Complement   Introduction: Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah does not impute iniquity and whose spirit is without guile

¹Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

²Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah does not impute not iniquity;

and in whose spirit there is no guile.

§Complement   Body: I acknowledged my sin to you; you are my hiding place

³When I kept silence, my bones became old through my crying all day long: ⁴for day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

⁵I acknowledged my sin to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah”; and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶For this reason every one that is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come near to him.

⁷You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; you shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go; I will guide you with my eye. ⁹Be not as the horse or the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near you.”

§Unique   Conclusion: Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusts in Jehovah shall be surrounded by mercy

¹⁰Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;

but he that trusts in Jehovah, mercy shall surround him.

¹¹Be glad in Jehovah, and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.

 

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