1: Listen, Shepherd, Israel's Shepherd--get all your Joseph sheep together. Throw beams of light from your dazzling throne
2: So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh can see where they're going. Get out of bed--you've slept long enough! Come on the run before it's too late.
3: God, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
4: GOD, God of the angel armies, how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano while your people call for fire and brimstone?
5: You put us on a diet of tears, bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.
6: You make us look ridiculous to our friends; our enemies poke fun day after day.
7: God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
8: Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt, cleared out the brambles and briers and planted your very own vineyard?
9: You prepared the good earth, you planted her roots deep; the vineyard filled the land.
10: Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains, even dwarfing the giant cedars.
11: Your vine ranged west to the Sea, east to the River.
12: So why do you no longer protect your vine? Trespassers pick its grapes at will;
13: Wild pigs crash through and crush it, and the mice nibble away at what's left.
14: God of the angel armies, turn our way! Take a good look at what's happened and attend to this vine.
15: Care for what you once tenderly planted--the vine you raised from a shoot.
16: And those who dared to set it on fire--give them a look that will kill!
17: Then take the hand of your once-favorite child, the child you raised to adulthood.
18: We will never turn our back on you; breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!
19: GOD, God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation. An Asaph psalm