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Day Fifteen : 16th December

…click photo to enlarge

Psalm 80

Restore us again, O Lord of hosts:
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt:
you drove out the nations, and planted it in.

9 You cleared the ground before it:
and it struck root and filled the land.

10 The hills were covered with its shadow:
and it struck root and filled the land.

11 It stretched out its branches to the sea:
and its tender shoots to the Great River.

12 Why then have you broken down its walls:
so that every passer-by can pluck its fruit?

13 The wild boar out of the woods roots it up:
and the locusts from the wild places devour it.

14 Turn to us again, O Lord of hosts:
look down from heaven, and see.

15 Bestow your care upon this vine:
the stock which your own right hand has planted.

16 As for those that burn it with fire and cut it down:
let them perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

17 Let your power rest on the man at your right hand:
On that son of man whom you made so strong for yourself.

18 And so we shall not turn bakc from you:
give us life, and we shall call upon your name.

19 Restore us again, O Lord of hosts:
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.

A long selection from the psalm which is itself and extended metaphor of Israel as the vine planted by the Lord. It is a psalm which comes out of a society where people were familiar with cultivation and the difficult task of growing food. The photo for today is of a storm which did wreak havoc on the other side of the hill in the Tuggeranong Valley.
Weather events are becoming familiar and it is not simply because we hear about more of them. (Despite the media silence on the rains in Oro province PNG earlier this month.
And today (15th Dec) we are waiting to hear of the UN Conference in Bali, extended for a day.

Restore us again, O Lord of hosts:
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.