Penitential psalm
1Yahweh’s arm is not too short to save nor his ear too dull to hear.
2It is your sins, rather,
that separate you from God.
It is your iniquities that veil his face, so that he does not hear you.
3For your hands are blood-stained, your fingers blotted with crimes;
your lips have spoken lies,
your tongues have uttered deceit.
4No one fights for a right cause;
no one makes a truthful plea.
They all tell lies and rely on vanity;
they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
5They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever eats their eggs dies; and from an egg that is crushed a venomous snake is hatched.
6Their thread gives useless cloth; their works are of help to no one. Their plans are evil plots executed in deeds of violence.
7Their feet rush to do evil;
they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their minds are full of wicked thoughts, leaving in their wake ruin and havoc. 8They do not know the way of peace; from them no one can expect justice.
They have made their roads tricky and crooked
so that he who follows them is lost or waylaid.
9So, far away from us lies justice, and beyond reach is righteousness. We look for light but behold darkness; we long for brightness but walk in gloom.
10Like the blind we grope for the wall, like those without eyes we feel our way. We stumble at noon as at twilight; we are dead in the midst of our sins.
11We are like bears that growl; we are like doves that moan. We look for justice and find none; we wait for salvation that never comes.
12For our offenses before you are many, and our sins bear witness against us. We acknowledge our offenses; we know all our iniquities.
13Yes, we have betrayed and deceived Yahweh,
turning away from following our God.
We have planned violence and rebellion;
we have thought and murmured lies.
14Justice has been withheld,
righteousness stands aloof,
for truth has fallen in the public square and integrity is not allowed to enter.
15 ① There is no sincerity nor honesty. The one who turns from evil is despoiled.
Yahweh has seen this and is aggrieved that justice does not exist.
16Appalled at seeing none would intervene,
his own arm brought about the victory, his justice giving him its support.
17He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and salvation as a helmet upon his head.
He wrapped himself in garments of vengeance
and put on a mantle of fury.
18To each he will pay his due – wrath to his enemy, reprisal to his foe.
19Those in the west will hear the name of Yahweh;
those in the east will see his glory. For it will come like a pent-up stream driven by the breath of Yahweh.
20But to Zion he will come as redeemer, and to those of Jacob who turn from sin. This is Yahweh speaking.
21For my part, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh. My spirit which I have poured out on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will never leave you, nor your children, nor your children’s children forever and ever.
- Is 59,15 The Lord appears as a warrior as in 63:1. Here he appears with the weapons proper to his Rule: - justice, here it means the power of God who comes to bring justice on earth; - salvation, this is total human liberation in order to make us holy; - zeal, this is the jealous love of God for his faithful people. The book of Wisdom will use these words in 5:17 and so will Paul in Ephesians 6:14.
