PRAYERS IN WAR TIME

PSALM 17
Diligam te, Domine.

David's thanks to God for his delivery from all his enemies.

Unto the end, for David the servant of the Lord, wbo spoke to the Lord tbe words of this canticle, In the day that the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul [2 Kings 22.]

I WILL love Thee, O Lord, my strength:
The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer.
My God is my helper, and in Him will I put my trust.
My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.
Praising I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

The sorrows of death surrounded me:
and the torrents of iniquity troubled me.
The sorrows of Hell encompassed me:
and the snares of death prevented me.
In my affliction I called upon the Lord,
and I cried to my God:
And He heard my voice from His holy temple:
and my cry before Him came into His ears.
The earth shook and trembled:
the foundations of the mountains were troubled
and were moved, because He was angry with them.

There went up a smoke in His wrath: a
nd a fire flamed from His face:
coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens, and came down:
and darkness was under His feet.
And He ascended upon the Cherubim, and He flew;
He flew upon the wings of the winds.
And He made darkness His covert,
His pavilion round about Him:
dark waters in the clouds of the air.

At the brightness that was before Him
the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.
And the Lord thundered from Heaven,
and the highest gave His voice:
hail and coals of fire.

And He sent forth His arrows, and He scattered them:
He multiplied lightenings, and troubled them.
Then the fountains of waters appeared,
and the foundations of the world were discovered:
At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the Spirit of thy wrath.

He sent from on high, and took me:
and received me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strongest enemies,
and from them that hated me:
for they were too strong for me.
They prevented me in the day of my affliction:
and the Lord became my protector.
And he brought me forth into a large place:
He saved me, because He was well pleased with me.

And the Lord will reward me according to my justice;
and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:
Because I have kept the ways of the Lord;
and have not done wickedly against my God.

For all His judgments are in my sight:
and His justices I have not put away from me.
And I shall be spotless with Him:
and shall keep myself from my iniquity.
And the Lord will reward me according to my justice
and according to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes.

With the holy, thou wilt be holy;
and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent.
And with the elect thou wilt be elect:
and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.

For Thou wilt save the humble people,
but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.

For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord:
O my God enlighten my darkness.
For by Thee I shall be delivered from temptation;
and through my God I shall go over a wall.

As for my God, His way is undefiled:
the words of the Lord are fire tried:
He is the protector of all that trust in Him.
For Who is God but the Lord?
or Who is God but our God?

God Who hath girt me with strength;
and made my way blameless.
Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts:
and Who setteth me upon high places.

Who teacheth my hands to war:
and Thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.
And Thou hast given me the protection of Thy salvation:
and Thy right hand hath held me up:
And Thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end:
and Thy discipline, the same shall teach me.

Thou hast enlarged my steps under me;
and my feet are not weakened.
I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them:
and I will not turn again till they are consumed.
I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand:
they shall fall under my feet.

And Thou hast girded me with strength unto battle;
and hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.
And Thou hast made my enemies turn their back upon me,
and hast destroyed them that hated me.
They cried, but there was none to save them,
to the Lord: but He heard, them not.
And I shall beat them as small as the
dust before the wind;
I shall bring them to nought,
like the dirt in the streets.
Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people:
Thou wilt make me head of the Gentiles.

A people, which I knew not, hath served me:
at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.
The children that are strangers have lied to me,
strange children have faded away,
and have halted from their paths.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God,
and let the God of my salvation be exalted:
O God, Who avengest me,
and subduest the people under me,
my deliverer from my enemies.

And Thou wilt lift me up above them
that rise up against me:
from the unjust man Thou wilt deliver me.

Therefore will I give glory to Thee, O Lord,
among the nations,
and I will sing a psalm to Thy name.
Giving great deliverance to His king,
and shewing mercy to David hHs anointed:
and to his seed for ever.

PSALM 34
Judica, Domine, nocentes me.

JUDGE, Thou, O Lord, them that wrong me:
overthrow them that fight against me.

Take hold of arms and shield:
and rise up to help me.

Bring out the sword, and shut up the way against them
that persecute me: say to my soul: I am thy salvation.
Let them be confounded and ashamed
that seek after my soul.

Let them be turned back and be confounded
that devise evil against me.
Let them become as dust before the wind:
and let the Angel of the Lord straiten them.

Let their way become dark and slippery;
and let the Angel of the Lord pursue them.
For without cause they have hidden
their net for me unto destruction:
without cause they have upbraided my soul.

Let the snare which he knoweth not
come upon him:
and let the net which he hath hidden catch him:
and into that very snare let them fall.

But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord
and shall be delighted in His salvation.
All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like to Thee?

Who deliverest the poor from the hand of them
that are stronger than he;
the needy and the poor from them that strip him.

Unjust witnesses rising up have asked
me things I knew not.
They repaid me evil for good:
to the depriving me of my soul.

But as for me, when they were troublesome to me,
I was clothed with haircloth.
I humbled my soul with fasting;
and my prayer shall be tuned into my bosom.

As a neighbour and as an own brother,
so did I please: as one mourning
and sorrowful so I was humbled.

But they rejoiced against me,
and came together: scourges were gathered
together upon me, and I knew not.

They were separated, and repented not:
they tempted me, they scoffed at me with scorn:
they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

Lord, when wilt Thou look upon me?
rescue Thou my soul from their malice:
my only one from the lions.

I will give thanks to Thee in a great church;
I will praise Thee in a strong people.

Let not them that are my enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me:
who have hated me without cause,
and wink with the eyes.

For they spoke indeed peaceably to me;
and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.
And they opened their mouth wide against me;
they said: Well done, well done, our eyes have seen it.

Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not Thou silent:
O Lord, depart not from me.
Arise, and be attentive to my judgment:
to my cause, my God, and my Lord.

Judge me, O Lord my God according to Thy justice,
and let them not rejoice over me.
Let them not say in their hearts:
It is well, it is well, to our mind:
neither let them say:
We have swallowed him up.

Let them blush: and be ashamed together,
who rejoice at my evils.
Let them be clothed with confusion and shame,
who speak great things against me.

Let them rejoice and be glad,
who are well pleased with my justice,
and let them say always:
The Lord be magnified,
Who delights in the peace of His servant.

And my tongue shall meditate Thy justice,
Thy praise all the day long.

PSALM 143
Benedictus Dominus.

Calling on God to be victorious.

BLESSED be the Lord my God,
Who teacheth my hands to fight,
and my fingers to war.

My mercy and my refuge:
my support and my deliverer.

My protector, and I have hoped in Him:
Who subdueth my people under me.

Lord, what is man, that Thou art made known to him?
or the son of man, that Thou makest account of him?
Man is like to vanity:
and his days pass away like a shadow.

Lord, bow down Thy heavens and descend:
touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
Send forth lightning, and Thou shalt scatter them:
shoot out Thy arrows, and Thou shalt trouble them.

Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out,
and deliver me from many waters:
from the hand of strange children:
Whose mouth hath spoken vanity:
and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle:
on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings
I will sing praises to Thee.

Who givest salvation to kings:
Who hast redeemed Thy servant David
from the malicious sword:
Deliver me, and rescue me out of the hand
of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity:
and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:

Whose sons are as new plants in their youth:
Their daughters decked out, adorned round about
after the similitude of a temple:
Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that.

Their sheep fruitful in young,
abounding in their going forth: their oxen fat.
There is no breach of wall, nor passage,
nor crying out in their streets.

They have called the people happy,
that hath these things:
but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

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