The Saint Helena Psalter

A New Version of the Psalms in Expansive Language

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• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781640655492
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

PSALM 84
1 How dear to me is your dwelling, o God of hosts!*
My soul has a desire and longing for your courts;
My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God
2 The sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, *
by the side of your altars, O God of hosts,
my Ruler and my God.
3 Happy are they who dwell in your house;*
they will always be praising you. For several years, the sisters of The Order of Saint Helena, a monastic community in the Episcopal Church, have been revising their services of worship. The primary goal of the revision is opening up the human vocabulary of prayer and expanding the ways in which we name and worship God. This version of the Psalter, based upon the translation in the Book of Common Prayer, softens the exclusively male Hebrew terminology for the Creator God and recasts texts in ways that avoid the need for a he (or she) personal pronoun.

BOOK FIVE

Twenty-second Day: Morning Prayer

PSALM 107

PART I

1We give you thanks, O God, for you are good; *

your mercy endures for ever.

2Let all those whom you have redeemed proclaim *

that you redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

3You gathered them out of the lands, *

from the east and from the west,

from the north and from the south.

4Some wandered in desert wastes; *

they found no way to a city where they might dwell.

5They were hungry and thirsty; *

their spirits languished within them.

6Then they cried to you in their trouble, *

and you delivered them from their distress.

7You put their feet on a straight path *

to go to a city where they might dwell.

8Let them give thanks to you for your mercy *

and the wonders you do for your children.

9For you satisfy the thirsty *

and fill the hungry with good things.

10Some sat in darkness and deep gloom, *

bound fast in misery and iron,

11Because they rebelled against your words, O God, *

and despised your counsel, O Most High.

12So you humbled their spirits with hard labor; *

they stumbled, and there was none to help.

13Then they cried to you in their trouble, *

and you delivered them from their distress.

14You led them out of darkness and deep gloom, *

and broke their bonds asunder.

15Let them give thanks to you for your mercy *

and the wonders you do for your children,

16For you shatter the doors of bronze *

and break in two the iron bars.

17Some were fools and took to rebellious ways; *

they were afflicted because of their sins.

18They abhorred all manner of food *

and drew near to death’s door.

19Then they cried to you in their trouble, *

and you d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Dedication
• Book One
• Book Two
• Book Three
• Book Four
• Book Five
• Back Cover