Morning
I have been cast out of Your sight;
yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.
Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.” § Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. § Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God?” § “With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance. § We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
Jonah 2:4; Isa. 49:14–15; Lam. 3:17–18;
Ps. 44:23; Isa. 40:27; 54:8; Ps. 43:5; 2 Cor. 4:8–9
Evening
The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,
their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them.
There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” § What has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest … All is vanity and grasping for the wind. § They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. § I will pour water on him who is thirsty. § Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
Isa. 41:17; Ps. 4:6; Eccl. 2:22–23, 17; Jer. 2:13;
John 6:37; Isa. 44:3; Matt. 5:6; Ps. 63:1
