Judaism
Psalms 44
Text
For the Leader; [a Psalm] of the sons of Korah. Maschil.
O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us; a work Thou didst in their days, in the days of old.
Thou with Thy hand didst drive out the nations, and didst plant them in; Thou didst break the peoples, and didst spread them abroad.
For not by their own sword did they get the land in possession, Neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou wast favourable unto them.
Thou art my King, O God; command the salvation of Jacob.
Through Thee do we push down our adversaries; through Thy name do we tread them under that rise up against us.
For I trust not in my bow, neither can my sword save me.
But Thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to shame that hate us.
In God have we gloried all the day, and we will give thanks unto Thy name for ever. Selah
Yet Thou hast cast off, and brought us to confusion; and goest not forth with our hosts.
Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary; and they that hate us spoil at their will.
Thou hast given us like sheep to be eaten; and hast scattered us among the nations.
Thou sellest Thy people for small gain, and hast not set their prices high.
Thou makest us a taunt to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
All the day is my confusion before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
For the voice of him that taunteth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and the revengeful.
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we been false to Thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy path;
Though Thou hast crushed us into a place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god; .
Would not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Nay, but for Thy sake are we killed all the day; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arouse Thyself, cast not off for ever.
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercy's sake.
Text: The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society (1917), public domain, via Sefaria.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.”
Luke 6:36
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”
Snp 1.8 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Even as a mother would protect with her life her child, her only child, so too for all creatures unfold a boundless heart.”
Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1
“ik oankaar sat naam: one Creator, whose Name is Truth, beyond fear and enmity.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277 (trans. F. Max Müller)
“‘All created things perish,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.”
Tao Te Ching 76 (trans. James Legge)
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“Nay, but as when one layeth His worn-out robes away, And taking new ones, sayeth, "These will I wear to-day!" So putteth by the spirit Lightly its garb of flesh, And passeth to inherit A residence afresh.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Dhammapada 2 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with pure intent you speak or act, happiness follows you like a shadow that never leaves.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”