LENT 2020: Day 23

• Lent 2020: Day 23 Monday, March 23, 2020:
  Psalm 146; Isaiah 59:9-19; Acts 9:1-20

Therefore is justice far from us,
    and vindication does not reach us.
We hope for light, but, look, darkness,
    for brightness, but we go in gloom.
We grope the wall like blind men,
    like the eyeless we grope.
We stumble at noon as at twilight,
    among the robust like dead men.
All of us growl like bears,
    and like doves we ever moan.
We hope for justice but there is none,
    for rescue, — it is far from us.
For many are our crimes before you,
    and our offenses bear witness against us.
For our crimes are with us,
    and our misdeeds, we know them.
Rebelling and denying the LORD
    and falling back from our God,
speaking oppression and waywardness,
    conceiving in the heart and uttering lying words.
And justice is made to fall back,
    and vindication stands off afar,
for truth stumbles in the square,
    and honesty cannot come in.
And truth is not to be found,
    who turns from evil is despoiled.
And the LORD saw, and it was evil in his eyes,
    for there was no justice.
…
He shall come like a pent-up river,...
And a redeemer shall come to Zion,
    and to those who turn back from crime in Jacob
          said the LORD.     

~Isaiah 59.1-20 (Robert Alter's translation)