Psalm 79-144 (Study of "Sheep" and "Shepherd" in Psalms)

For school today, I worked on my study of the words "sheep" and "shepherd" in Psalms. I love re-writing things in my own words; it helps me understand the stories so much better! Enjoy!

Psalm 79—my retelling of the psalm:

Oh, God, the wicked people have come among Your chosen people. They have defiled Your holy temple, and have turned Jerusalem into heaps of rubble. The dead bodies of Your people lay all over the place. So many people died that there is nobody to bury them. Our neighbors daily reproach and scorn us. How long, oh, Lord? How long will You be angry with us? Pour out Your wrath on the nations that have denied that You are! Don't remember our former sins, let Your tender mercy quickly help us! Help us, oh God of our salvation, so that Your name can be glorified. Deliver us, otherwise the heathen will say contemptuously, “Where is their god? They don't have one!” Let your power be known by revenging the blood of Your servants which has been shed. Give to our neighbors seven times the amount of the reproach they have given Your Name. Then we, Your people, the sheep of Your pastures, will give You thanks for ever. We will shout out Your praise through all generations.

A spreading vine

Psalm 80—my retelling of the psalm: 

Listen, O Shepherd of Israel, the person Who leads Joseph like a flock of sheep, You who dwell between the cherubim. Turn again to us, O God, and cause the sunshine of Your grace to shine on us, so that we will be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against Your people? You make us to be a proverb to our neighbors, our enemies laugh openly at us. Turn again to us, O God, and cause the sunshine of Your grace to shine on us, so that we will be saved. You who have cast out the heathen before us, and planted us as a vine in this land. You prepared the rich soil to give us food, and caused us (as a vine) to take great root, and we filled the land. The hills were covered with our shadow, we were like the beautiful cedars. Our boughs stretched out over the sea, they covered the rivers of water. Our hedges are broken down, so that all who pass by break pieces off. The wild boar comes out of the forest, and devours us, and leaves nothing. Return, we beg of You, O Lord, look down from heaven, behold this vine that You have planted with Your own hands. See this vineyard that You have planted, O Lord! It is burned with fire, the wicked have cut it down. Let Your hand be upon those whom You've chosen, help us, quicken us to life again, and we will call on Your name. Turn to us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause Your face to shine on us again, and we will be saved.

Psalm 95—my retelling of the psalm: 

O come, all people! Let us sing unto the Lord! Let us come before His presence with singing, and make a joyful noise unto Him with songs. The LORD is a great God, a King above all gods. In His hands are the depths of the earth, the strength of the hills is His. The sea is His (He made it), His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow low at His feet, let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For He is our God, we are the people of His pasture. The sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear Him call, don't harden your hearts against Him, like you did when you were tempted in the wilderness. “Forty years long,” says the Lord, “Forty years long I was sorrowful against this generation of people, and said, 'It is a people that stray from me in their heart. They have not known my ways. Now I swear in my wrath that they will not enter into my rest.'”

Psalm 100—my retelling of the psalm: 

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all nations! Serve the LORD with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Know this day that the LORD is GOD. It was He that made us, (we didn't make ourselves), we are HIS people, the sheep of HIS pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His holy name. The LORD is good, His mercy is eternal, His truth endures through all ages of time.

Psalm 119, verses 169-176—my retelling of the verses (the psalm is just way too big to do it all!): 

Let my cry come before You, O LORD, give me understanding according to Your Word. Let my plea come before You, O Most High, and deliver me according to Your Word. My lips will express praise when You have taught me Your laws. My tongue will speak of Your Word, because all Your commands are righteous. Let Your hand help me, because I have chosen Your precepts. I have longed for Your salvation, O LORD, Your law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it will praise You, let Your judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; look for Your servant, for I don't forget Your law.

Psalm 144—my retelling of the psalm: 

Blessed be the LORD my strength, Who teaches my hands how to war, and my fingers to fight. My goodness, and my fortress, my high tower, and my deliverer, my shield, and He whom I trust, who subdued people under me. Lord, what is man that You notice him? Man is like a shadow, that comes and then is gone. Lord, You are so mighty—you can touch the mountains, and they will smoke. Deliver me from the hands of people who don't know you, whose mouths speak lies and their right hand is a hand of untruth. So that our sons can be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters can be as corner stones, polished like palace stone. That our stores of food can be full, and our sheep can give many lambs. That our cattle can be strong to labor, that there will be no complaining in our houses. Happy are those people who are in such a situation!Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Entering this in Women Living Well's Wednesday Link-Up Party!