Psalms

¹  Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked,
    nor stand on the path of sinners,
    nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in Yahweh’s ^[a] law.
    On his law he meditates day and night.
³ He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
    that produces its fruit in its season,
    whose leaf also does not wither.
    Whatever he does shall prosper.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
    but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
⁶ For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked shall perish.

¹  Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased!
    Many are those who rise up against me.
² Many there are who say of my soul,
    “There is no help for him in God.” ^[a] Selah.
³ But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me,
    my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cry to Yahweh with my voice,
    and he answers me out of his holy hill. Selah.
⁵ I laid myself down and slept.
    I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people
    who have set themselves against me on every side.
⁷ Arise, Yahweh!
    Save me, my God!
For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone.
    You have broken the teeth of the wicked.
⁸ Salvation belongs to Yahweh.
    May your blessing be on your people. Selah.

¹  Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
    neither discipline me in your wrath.
² Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint.
    Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul is also in great anguish.
    But you, Yahweh—how long?
⁴ Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul,
    and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
⁵ For in death there is no memory of you.
    In Sheol, ^[a] who shall give you thanks?
⁶ I am weary with my groaning.
    Every night I flood my bed.
    I drench my couch with my tears.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief.
    It grows old because of all my adversaries.
⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,
    for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
⁹ Yahweh has heard my supplication.
    Yahweh accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed.
    They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly.

¹  Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you.
    Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,
² lest they tear apart my soul like a lion,
    ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
³ Yahweh, my God, if I have done this,
    if there is iniquity in my hands,
⁴ if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me
    (yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),
⁵     let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it;
yes, let him tread my life down to the earth,
    and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
⁶ Arise, Yahweh, in your anger.
    Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries.
Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.
⁷     Let the congregation of the peoples surround you.
    Rule over them on high.
⁸ Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples.
    Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness,
    and to my integrity that is in me.
⁹ Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end,
    but establish the righteous;
    their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.
¹⁰ My shield is with God,
    who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
    yes, a God who has indignation every day.
¹² If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword;
    he has bent and strung his bow.
¹³ He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death.
    He makes ready his flaming arrows.
¹⁴ Behold, ^[a] he travails with iniquity.
    Yes, he has conceived mischief,
    and brought out falsehood.
¹⁵ He has dug a hole,
    and has fallen into the pit which he made.
¹⁶ The trouble he causes shall return to his own head.
    His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.
¹⁷ I will give thanks to Yahweh according to his righteousness,
    and will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.

¹  Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
    You have set your glory above the heavens!
² From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength,
    because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
⁴ what is man, that you think of him?
    What is the son of man, that you care for him?
⁵ For you have made him a little lower than the angels,^[a]
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
    You have put all things under his feet:
⁷ All sheep and cattle,
    yes, and the animals of the field,
⁸     the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea,
    and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
⁹ Yahweh, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

¹  I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart.
    I will tell of all your marvelous works.
² I will be glad and rejoice in you.
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
³ When my enemies turn back,
    they stumble and perish in your presence.
⁴ For you have maintained my just cause.
    You sit on the throne judging righteously.
⁵ You have rebuked the nations.
    You have destroyed the wicked.
    You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
⁶ The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin.
    The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.
⁷ But Yahweh reigns forever.
    He has prepared his throne for judgment.
⁸ He will judge the world in righteousness.
    He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.
⁹ Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed;
    a high tower in times of trouble.
¹⁰ Those who know your name will put their trust in you,
    for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
¹¹ Sing praises to Yahweh, who dwells in Zion,
    and declare among the people what he has done.
¹² For he who avenges blood remembers them.
    He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
¹³ Have mercy on me, Yahweh.
    See my affliction by those who hate me,
and lift me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴     that I may show all of your praise.
    I will rejoice in your salvation in the gates of the daughter of Zion.
¹⁵ The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made.
    In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.
¹⁶ Yahweh has made himself known.
    He has executed judgment.
    The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.
¹⁷ The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, ^[a]
    even all the nations that forget God.
¹⁸ For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    nor the hope of the poor perish forever.
¹⁹ Arise, Yahweh! Don’t let man prevail.
    Let the nations be judged in your sight.
²⁰ Put them in fear, Yahweh.
    Let the nations know that they are only men. Selah.

¹  In Yahweh, I take refuge.
    How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
² For, behold, the wicked bend their bows.
    They set their arrows on the strings,
    that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
³ If the foundations are destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?
⁴ Yahweh is in his holy temple.
    Yahweh is on his throne in heaven.
His eyes observe.
    His eyes examine the children of men.
⁵ Yahweh examines the righteous,
    but his soul hates the wicked and him who loves violence.
⁶ On the wicked he will rain blazing coals;
    fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
⁷ For Yahweh is righteous.
    He loves righteousness.
    The upright shall see his face.

¹  Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases.
    For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
² Everyone lies to his neighbor.
    They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
³ May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
    and the tongue that boasts,
⁴ who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.
    Our lips are our own.
    Who is lord over us?”
⁵ “Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy,
    I will now arise,” says Yahweh;
“I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
⁶ Yahweh’s words are flawless words,
    as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.
⁷ You will keep them, Yahweh.
    You will preserve them from this generation forever.
⁸ The wicked walk on every side,
    when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.

¹   How long, Yahweh?
    Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
    having sorrow in my heart every day?
    How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
³ Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
    Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
⁴     lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
    lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

¹  The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt.
    They have done abominable deeds.
    There is no one who does good.
² Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men,
    to see if there were any who understood,
    who sought after God.
³ They have all gone aside.
    They have together become corrupt.
    There is no one who does good, no, not one.
⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and don’t call on Yahweh?
⁵ There they were in great fear,
    for God is in the generation of the righteous.
⁶ You frustrate the plan of the poor,
    because Yahweh is his refuge.
⁷ Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
    When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people,
    then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

¹  Yahweh, who shall dwell in your sanctuary?
    Who shall live on your holy hill?
² He who walks blamelessly and does what is right,
    and speaks truth in his heart;
³ he who doesn’t slander with his tongue,
    nor does evil to his friend,
    nor casts slurs against his fellow man;
⁴ in whose eyes a vile man is despised,
    but who honors those who fear Yahweh;
    he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;
⁵ he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury,
    nor take a bribe against the innocent.

¹  Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
² My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord.
    Apart from you I have no good thing.”
³ As for the saints who are in the earth,
    they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

¹  Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea.
    Give ear to my prayer that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips.
² Let my sentence come out of your presence.
    Let your eyes look on equity.
³ You have proved my heart.
    You have visited me in the night.
    You have tried me, and found nothing.
    I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.
⁴ As for the deeds of men, by the word of your lips,
    I have kept myself from the ways of the violent.
⁵ My steps have held fast to your paths.
    My feet have not slipped.
⁶ I have called on you, for you will answer me, God.
    Turn your ear to me.
    Hear my speech.
⁷ Show your marvelous loving kindness,
    you who save those who take refuge by your right hand from their enemies.
⁸ Keep me as the apple of your eye.
    Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
⁹ from the wicked who oppress me,
    my deadly enemies, who surround me.
¹⁰ They close up their callous hearts.
    With their mouth they speak proudly.
¹¹ They have now surrounded us in our steps.
    They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth.
¹² He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey,
    as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
¹³ Arise, Yahweh, confront him.
    Cast him down.
Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
¹⁴     from men by your hand, Yahweh,
    from men of the world, whose portion is in this life.
You fill the belly of your cherished ones.
    Your sons have plenty,
    and they store up wealth for their children.
¹⁵ As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness.
    I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.

¹  I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
² Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;
    my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
    my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
³ I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised;
    and I am saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death surrounded me.
    The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
⁵ The cords of Sheol ^[a] were around me.
    The snares of death came on me.
⁶ In my distress I called on Yahweh,
    and cried to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
    My cry before him came into his ears.
⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled.
    The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken,
    because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke went out of his nostrils.
    Consuming fire came out of his mouth.
    Coals were kindled by it.
⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
    Thick darkness was under his feet.
¹⁰ He rode on a cherub, and flew.
    Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him,
    darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
¹² At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,
    hailstones and coals of fire.
¹³ Yahweh also thundered in the sky.
    The Most High uttered his voice:
    hailstones and coals of fire.
¹⁴ He sent out his arrows, and scattered them.
    He routed them with great lightning bolts.
¹⁵ Then the channels of waters appeared.
    The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh,
    at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
¹⁶ He sent from on high.
    He took me.
    He drew me out of many waters.
¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy,
    from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
¹⁸ They came on me in the day of my calamity,
    but Yahweh was my support.
¹⁹ He brought me out also into a large place.
    He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
²⁰ Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
    According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.
²¹ For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
    and have not wickedly departed from my God.
²² For all his ordinances were before me.
    I didn’t put away his statutes from me.
²³ I was also blameless with him.
    I kept myself from my iniquity.
²⁴ Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
²⁵ With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.
    With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.
²⁶ With the pure, you will show yourself pure.
    With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
²⁷ For you will save the afflicted people,
    but the arrogant eyes you will bring down.
²⁸ For you will light my lamp, Yahweh.
    My God will light up my darkness.
²⁹ For by you, I advance through a troop.
    By my God, I leap over a wall.
³⁰ As for God, his way is perfect.
    Yahweh’s word is tried.
    He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
³¹ For who is God, except Yahweh?
    Who is a rock, besides our God,
³²     the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
³³ He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
    and sets me on my high places.
³⁴ He teaches my hands to war,
    so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
³⁵ You have also given me the shield of your salvation.
    Your right hand sustains me.
    Your gentleness has made me great.
³⁶ You have enlarged my steps under me,
    My feet have not slipped.
³⁷ I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them.
    I won’t turn away until they are consumed.
³⁸ I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise.
    They shall fall under my feet.
³⁹ For you have armed me with strength to the battle.
    You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
⁴⁰ You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
    that I might cut off those who hate me.
⁴¹ They cried, but there was no one to save;
    even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
⁴² Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind.
    I cast them out as the mire of the streets.
⁴³ You have delivered me from the strivings of the people.
    You have made me the head of the nations.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
⁴⁴     As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me.
    The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.
⁴⁵ The foreigners shall fade away,
    and shall come trembling out of their strongholds.
⁴⁶ Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock.
    Exalted be the God of my salvation,
⁴⁷ even the God who executes vengeance for me,
    and subdues peoples under me.
⁴⁸ He rescues me from my enemies.
    Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.
    You deliver me from the violent man.
⁴⁹ Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations,
    and will sing praises to your name.
⁵⁰ He gives great deliverance to his king,
    and shows loving kindness to his anointed,
    to David and to his offspring, ^[b] forever more.

¹  The heavens declare the glory of God.
    The expanse shows his handiwork.
² Day after day they pour out speech,
    and night after night they display knowledge.
³ There is no speech nor language,
    where their voice is not heard.
⁴ Their voice has gone out through all the earth,
    their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
⁵     which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room,
    like a strong man rejoicing to run his course.
⁶ His going out is from the end of the heavens,
    his circuit to its ends.
    There is nothing hidden from its heat.

¹  May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble.
    May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,
²     send you help from the sanctuary,
    grant you support from Zion,
³     remember all your offerings,
    and accept your burned sacrifice. Selah.
⁴ May he grant you your heart’s desire,
    and fulfill all your counsel.
⁵ We will triumph in your salvation.
    In the name of our God, we will set up our banners.
    May Yahweh grant all your requests.
⁶ Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed.
    He will answer him from his holy heaven,
    with the saving strength of his right hand.
⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God.
⁸ They are bowed down and fallen,
    but we rise up, and stand upright.
⁹ Save, Yahweh!
    Let the King answer us when we call!

¹  The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh!
    How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!
² You have given him his heart’s desire,
    and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
³ For you meet him with the blessings of goodness.
    You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
⁴ He asked life of you and you gave it to him,
    even length of days forever and ever.
⁵ His glory is great in your salvation.
    You lay honor and majesty on him.
⁶ For you make him most blessed forever.
    You make him glad with joy in your presence.
⁷ For the king trusts in Yahweh.
    Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
⁸ Your hand will find out all of your enemies.
    Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
⁹ You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger.
    Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath.
    The fire shall devour them.
¹⁰ You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
    their posterity from among the children of men.
¹¹ For they intended evil against you.
    They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
¹² For you will make them turn their back,
    when you aim drawn bows at their face.
¹³ Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength,
    so we will sing and praise your power.

¹  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
² My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer;
    in the night season, and am not silent.
³ But you are holy,
    you who inhabit the praises of Israel.
⁴ Our fathers trusted in you.
    They trusted, and you delivered them.
⁵ They cried to you, and were delivered.
    They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.
⁶ But I am a worm, and no man;
    a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
⁷ All those who see me mock me.
    They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
⁸     “He trusts in Yahweh.
    Let him deliver him.
    Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
⁹ But you brought me out of the womb.
    You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb.
    You are my God since my mother bore me.
¹¹ Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near.
    For there is no one to help.
¹² Many bulls have surrounded me.
    Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
¹³ They open their mouths wide against me,
    lions tearing prey and roaring.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water.
    All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
    It is melted within me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd.
    My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have brought me into the dust of death.
¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me.
    A company of evildoers have enclosed me.
    They have pierced my hands and feet. ^[a]
17 I can count all of my bones.
They look and stare at me.
¹⁸ They divide my garments among them.
    They cast lots for my clothing.

¹  The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness;
    the world, and those who dwell in it.
² For he has founded it on the seas,
    and established it on the floods.

¹  To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.
² My God, I have trusted in you.
    Don’t let me be shamed.
    Don’t let my enemies triumph over me.
³ Yes, no one who waits for you will be shamed.
    They will be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.

¹  Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity.
    I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.
² Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me.
    Try my heart and my mind.
³ For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
    I have walked in your truth.
⁴ I have not sat with deceitful men,
    neither will I go in with hypocrites.
⁵ I hate the assembly of evildoers,
    and will not sit with the wicked.
⁶ I will wash my hands in innocence,
    so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,
⁷     that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard
    and tell of all your wondrous deeds.
⁸ Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house,
    the place where your glory dwells.
⁹ Don’t gather my soul with sinners,
    nor my life with bloodthirsty men;
¹⁰     in whose hands is wickedness,
    their right hand is full of bribes.

¹  Yahweh is my light and my salvation.
    Whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the strength of my life.
    Of whom shall I be afraid?
² When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh,
    even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
³ Though an army should encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear.
Though war should rise against me,
    even then I will be confident.
⁴ One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after:
    that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life,
    to see Yahweh’s beauty,
    and to inquire in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion.
    In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me.
    He will lift me up on a rock.
⁶ Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me.
I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent.
    I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.

¹  To you, Yahweh, I call.
    My rock, don’t be deaf to me,
    lest, if you are silent to me,
    I would become like those who go down into the pit.
² Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you,
    when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
³ Don’t draw me away with the wicked,
    with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors,
    but mischief is in their hearts.
⁴ Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings.
    Give them according to the operation of their hands.
    Bring back on them what they deserve.
⁵ Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh,
    nor the operation of his hands,
    he will break them down and not build them up.

¹  Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty,
    ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
² Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name.
    Worship Yahweh in holy array.

¹  I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up,
    and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.
² Yahweh my God, I cried to you,
    and you have healed me.
³ Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. ^[a]
    You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
⁴ Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his.
    Give thanks to his holy name.
⁵ For his anger is but for a moment.
    His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for the night,
    but joy comes in the morning.
⁶ As for me, I said in my prosperity,
    “I shall never be moved.”
⁷ You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong;
    but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
⁸ I cried to you, Yahweh.
    I made supplication to the Lord:
⁹ “What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit?
    Shall the dust praise you?
    Shall it declare your truth?
¹⁰ Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me.
    Yahweh, be my helper.”
¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.
    You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
¹²     to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent.
Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

¹  In you, Yahweh, I take refuge.
    Let me never be disappointed.
    Deliver me in your righteousness.
² Bow down your ear to me.
    Deliver me speedily.
Be to me a strong rock,
    a house of defense to save me.
³ For you are my rock and my fortress,
    therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
⁴ Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me,
    for you are my stronghold.
⁵ Into your hand I commend my spirit.
    You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
⁶ I hate those who regard lying vanities,
    but I trust in Yahweh.
⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness,
    for you have seen my affliction.
    You have known my soul in adversities.
⁸ You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.
    You have set my feet in a large place.
⁹ Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.
    My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow,
    my years with sighing.
My strength fails because of my iniquity.
    My bones are wasted away.
¹¹ Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,
    a horror to my acquaintances.
    Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
¹² I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.
    I am like broken pottery.
¹³ For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side,
    while they conspire together against me,
    they plot to take away my life.
¹⁴ But I trust in you, Yahweh.
    I said, “You are my God.”
¹⁵ My times are in your hand.
    Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
¹⁶ Make your face to shine on your servant.
    Save me in your loving kindness.
¹⁷ Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.
    Let the wicked be disappointed.
    Let them be silent in Sheol. ^[a]
18 Let the lying lips be mute,
    which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.
¹⁹ Oh how great is your goodness,
    which you have laid up for those who fear you,
    which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,
    before the sons of men!
²⁰ In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man.
    You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.
²¹ Praise be to Yahweh,
    for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
²² As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.”
    Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
²³ Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints!
    Yahweh preserves the faithful,
and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
    all you who hope in Yahweh.

¹  Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity,
    in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy on me.
    My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you.
    I didn’t hide my iniquity.
I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh,
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
⁶ For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found.
    Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
⁷ You are my hiding place.
    You will preserve me from trouble.
    You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.
    I will counsel you with my eye on you.
⁹ Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding,
    who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
¹⁰ Many sorrows come to the wicked,
    but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh.
¹¹ Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous!
    Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

^1  [a] I will bless Yahweh at all times.
    His praise will always be in my mouth.
² My soul shall boast in Yahweh.
    The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
³ Oh magnify Yahweh with me.
    Let’s exalt his name together.
⁴ I sought Yahweh, and he answered me,
    and delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ They looked to him, and were radiant.
    Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
⁶ This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him,
    and saved him out of all his troubles.
⁷ Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him,
    and delivers them.
⁸ Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good.
    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
⁹ Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints,
    for there is no lack with those who fear him.
¹⁰ The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger,
    but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.

¹  Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me.
    Fight against those who fight against me.
² Take hold of shield and buckler,
    and stand up for my help.
³ Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me.
    Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.”
⁴ Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor.
    Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
⁵ Let them be as chaff before the wind,
    Yahweh’s angel driving them on.
⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery,
    Yahweh’s angel pursuing them.
⁷ For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me.
    Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.
⁸ Let destruction come on him unawares.
    Let his net that he has hidden catch himself.
    Let him fall into that destruction.

¹  A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked:
    “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
² For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
    too much to detect and hate his sin.
³ The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
    He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
⁴ He plots iniquity on his bed.
    He sets himself in a way that is not good.
    He doesn’t abhor evil.

¹  Don’t fret because of evildoers,
    neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.
² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
    and wither like the green herb.
³ Trust in Yahweh, and do good.
    Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Also delight yourself in Yahweh,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to Yahweh.
    Trust also in him, and he will do this:
⁶ he will make your righteousness shine out like light,
    and your justice as the noon day sun.
⁷ Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him.
    Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way,
    because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.
⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath.
    Don’t fret; it leads only to evildoing.
⁹ For evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land.
¹⁰ For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more.
    Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there.
¹¹ But the humble shall inherit the land,
    and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
¹² The wicked plots against the just,
    and gnashes at him with his teeth.
¹³ The Lord will laugh at him,
    for he sees that his day is coming.
¹⁴ The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow,
    to cast down the poor and needy,
    to kill those who are upright on the path.
¹⁵ Their sword shall enter into their own heart.
    Their bows shall be broken.
¹⁶ Better is a little that the righteous has,
    than the abundance of many wicked.
¹⁷ For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
    but Yahweh upholds the righteous.
¹⁸ Yahweh knows the days of the perfect.
    Their inheritance shall be forever.
¹⁹ They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil.
    In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

¹  Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath,
    neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
² For your arrows have pierced me,
    your hand presses hard on me.
³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation,
    neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head.
    As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
⁵ My wounds are loathsome and corrupt
    because of my foolishness.
⁶ I am in pain and bowed down greatly.
    I go mourning all day long.
⁷ For my waist is filled with burning.
    There is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸ I am faint and severely bruised.
    I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
⁹ Lord, all my desire is before you.
    My groaning is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart throbs.
    My strength fails me.
    As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
¹¹ My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague.
    My kinsmen stand far away.
¹² They also who seek after my life lay snares.
    Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things,
    and meditate deceits all day long.
¹³ But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear.
    I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.
¹⁴ Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear,
    in whose mouth are no reproofs.
¹⁵ For I hope in you, Yahweh.
    You will answer, Lord my God.
¹⁶ For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me,
    or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
¹⁷ For I am ready to fall.
    My pain is continually before me.
¹⁸ For I will declare my iniquity.
    I will be sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ But my enemies are vigorous and many.
    Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
²⁰ They who render evil for good are also adversaries to me,
    because I follow what is good.
²¹ Don’t forsake me, Yahweh.
    My God, don’t be far from me.
²² Hurry to help me,
    Lord, my salvation.

¹  I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.
    I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
² I was mute with silence.
    I held my peace, even from good.
    My sorrow was stirred.
³ My heart was hot within me.
    While I meditated, the fire burned.
I spoke with my tongue:
⁴     “Yahweh, show me my end,
    what is the measure of my days.
    Let me know how frail I am.
⁵ Behold, you have made my days hand widths.
    My lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
⁶ “Surely every man walks like a shadow.
    Surely they busy themselves in vain.
    He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
⁷ Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
    My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions.
    Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
⁹ I was mute.
    I didn’t open my mouth,
    because you did it.
¹⁰ Remove your scourge away from me.
    I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
¹¹ When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,
    you consume his wealth like a moth.
Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
¹² “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry.
    Don’t be silent at my tears.
For I am a stranger with you,
    a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,
    before I go away and exist no more.”

¹  I waited patiently for Yahweh.
    He turned to me, and heard my cry.
² He brought me up also out of a horrible pit,
    out of the miry clay.
He set my feet on a rock,
    and gave me a firm place to stand.
³ He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.
    Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.
⁴ Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust,
    and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
⁵ Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done,
    and your thoughts which are toward us.
They can’t be declared back to you.
    If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
⁶ Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire.
    You have opened my ears.
    You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I have come.
    It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
⁸ I delight to do your will, my God.
    Yes, your law is within my heart.”
⁹ I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly.
    Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know.
¹⁰ I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart.
    I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation.
    I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
¹¹ Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh.
    Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
¹² For innumerable evils have surrounded me.
    My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up.
They are more than the hairs of my head.
    My heart has failed me.
¹³ Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me.
    Hurry to help me, Yahweh.
¹⁴ Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it.
    Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
¹⁵ Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
¹⁶ Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
    Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let Yahweh be exalted!”
¹⁷ But I am poor and needy.
    May the Lord think about me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
    Don’t delay, my God.

¹  Blessed is he who considers the poor.
    Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.
² Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.
    He shall be blessed on the earth,
    and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.
³ Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,
    and restore him from his bed of illness.
⁴ I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me!
    Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
⁵ My enemies speak evil against me:
    “When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.
    His heart gathers iniquity to itself.
    When he goes abroad, he tells it.
⁷ All who hate me whisper together against me.
    They imagine the worst for me.
⁸ “An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him.
    Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”
⁹ Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
    who ate bread with me,
    has lifted up his heel against me.

¹  As the deer pants for the water brooks,
    so my soul pants after you, God. ^[a]
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When shall I come and appear before God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night,
    while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
    how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house,
    with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
⁵ Why are you in despair, my soul?
    Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God!
    For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
⁶ My God, my soul is in despair within me.
    Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.
    All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

¹  We have heard with our ears, God;
    our fathers have told us what work you did in their days,
    in the days of old.
² You drove out the nations with your hand,
    but you planted them.
You afflicted the peoples,
    but you spread them abroad.
³ For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword,
    neither did their own arm save them;
but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face,
    because you were favorable to them.
⁴ God, you are my King.
    Command victories for Jacob!
⁵ Through you, we will push down our adversaries.
    Through your name, we will tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For I will not trust in my bow,
    neither will my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our adversaries,
    and have shamed those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have made our boast all day long.
    We will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.

¹  My heart overflows with a noble theme.
    I recite my verses for the king.
    My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
² You are the most excellent of the sons of men.
    Grace has anointed your lips,
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
³ Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one:
    your splendor and your majesty.
⁴ In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness.
    Let your right hand display awesome deeds.
⁵ Your arrows are sharp.
    The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies.
⁶ Your throne, God, is forever and ever.
    A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.
⁷ You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness.
    Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
⁸ All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
    Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
⁹ Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women.
    At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.
¹⁰ Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear.
    Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.
¹¹     So the king will desire your beauty,
    honor him, for he is your lord.
¹² The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift.
    The rich among the people entreat your favor.
¹³ The princess inside is all glorious.
    Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ She shall be led to the king in embroidered work.
    The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.
¹⁵ With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led.
    They shall enter into the king’s palace.
¹⁶ Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
    You shall make them princes in all the earth.
¹⁷ I will make your name to be remembered in all generations.
    Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.

¹  God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes,
    though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;
³     though its waters roar and are troubled,
    though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah.

¹  Oh clap your hands, all you nations.
    Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
² For Yahweh Most High is awesome.
    He is a great King over all the earth.
³ He subdues nations under us,
    and peoples under our feet.
⁴ He chooses our inheritance for us,
    the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
⁵ God has gone up with a shout,
    Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
⁶ Sing praises to God! Sing praises!
    Sing praises to our King! Sing praises!
⁷ For God is the King of all the earth.
    Sing praises with understanding.
⁸ God reigns over the nations.
    God sits on his holy throne.
⁹ The princes of the peoples are gathered together,
the people of the God of Abraham.
    For the shields of the earth belong to God.
    He is greatly exalted!

¹  Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised,
    in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.
² Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
    is Mount Zion, on the north sides,
    the city of the great King.
³ God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.
⁴ For, behold, the kings assembled themselves,
    they passed by together.
⁵ They saw it, then they were amazed.
    They were dismayed.
    They hurried away.
⁶ Trembling took hold of them there,
    pain, as of a woman in travail.
⁷ With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.
⁸ As we have heard, so we have seen,
    in the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God.
God will establish it forever. Selah.
⁹ We have thought about your loving kindness, God,
    in the middle of your temple.
¹⁰ As is your name, God,
    so is your praise to the ends of the earth.
    Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹¹ Let Mount Zion be glad!
    Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.
¹² Walk about Zion, and go around her.
    Number its towers.
¹³ Notice her bulwarks.
    Consider her palaces,
    that you may tell it to the next generation.
¹⁴ For this God is our God forever and ever.
    He will be our guide even to death.

¹  Hear this, all you peoples.
    Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,
²     both low and high,
    rich and poor together.
³ My mouth will speak words of wisdom.
    My heart will utter understanding.
⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb.
    I will solve my riddle on the harp.
⁵ Why should I fear in the days of evil,
    when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?
⁶ Those who trust in their wealth,
    and boast in the multitude of their riches—
⁷     none of them can by any means redeem his brother,
    nor give God a ransom for him.
⁸ For the redemption of their life is costly,
    no payment is ever enough,
⁹     that he should live on forever,
    that he should not see corruption.
¹⁰ For he sees that wise men die;
    likewise the fool and the senseless perish,
    and leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever,
    and their dwelling places to all generations.
    They name their lands after themselves.
¹² But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure.
    He is like the animals that perish.

¹  The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks,
    and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines out.
³ Our God comes, and does not keep silent.
    A fire devours before him.
    It is very stormy around him.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above,
    to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather my saints together to me,
    those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
⁶ The heavens shall declare his righteousness,
    for God himself is judge. Selah.
⁷ “Hear, my people, and I will speak.
    Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
⁸ I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.
    Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I have no need for a bull from your stall,
    nor male goats from your pens.
¹⁰ For every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the livestock on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know all the birds of the mountains.
    The wild animals of the field are mine.
¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
¹³ Will I eat the meat of bulls,
    or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
    Pay your vows to the Most High.
¹⁵ Call on me in the day of trouble.
    I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

¹  Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
    According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
    Cleanse me from my sin.
³ For I know my transgressions.
    My sin is constantly before me.
⁴ Against you, and you only, I have sinned,
    and done that which is evil in your sight,
so you may be proved right when you speak,
    and justified when you judge.
⁵ Behold, I was born in iniquity.
    My mother conceived me in sin.
⁶ Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.
    You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean.
    Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness,
    that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all of my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God.
    Renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Don’t throw me from your presence,
    and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
    Uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways.
    Sinners will be converted to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation.
    My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Lord, open my lips.
    My mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.
    You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
    O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.

¹  Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man?
    God’s loving kindness endures continually.
² Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
³ You love evil more than good,
    lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah.
⁴ You love all devouring words,
    you deceitful tongue.
⁵ God will likewise destroy you forever.
    He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent,
    and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
⁶ The righteous also will see it, and fear,
    and laugh at him, saying,
⁷ “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength,
    but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
    and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
⁸ But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house.
    I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.
⁹ I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it.
    I will hope in your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of your saints.

¹  The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity.
    There is no one who does good.
² God looks down from heaven on the children of men,
    to see if there are any who understood,
    who seek after God.
³ Every one of them has gone back.
    They have become filthy together.
    There is no one who does good, no, not one.
⁴ Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and don’t call on God?
⁵ There they were in great fear, where no fear was,
    for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.
You have put them to shame,
    because God has rejected them.
⁶ Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God brings back his people from captivity,
    then Jacob shall rejoice,
    and Israel shall be glad.

¹   Save me, God, by your name.
    Vindicate me in your might.
² Hear my prayer, God.
    Listen to the words of my mouth.
³ For strangers have risen up against me.
    Violent men have sought after my soul.
    They haven’t set God before them. Selah.
⁴ Behold, God is my helper.
    The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.
⁵ He will repay the evil to my enemies.
    Destroy them in your truth.
⁶ With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you.
    I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.
⁷ For he has delivered me out of all trouble.
    My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.

¹  Listen to my prayer, God.
    Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.
² Attend to me, and answer me.
    I am restless in my complaint,
and moan ³     because of the voice of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they bring suffering on me.
    In anger they hold a grudge against me.
⁴ My heart is severely pained within me.
    The terrors of death have fallen on me.
⁵ Fearfulness and trembling have come on me.
    Horror has overwhelmed me.
⁶ I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!
    Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
⁷ Behold, then I would wander far off.
    I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
⁸ “I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.”
⁹ Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language,
    for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they prowl around on its walls.
    Malice and abuse are also within her.
¹¹ Destructive forces are within her.
    Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets.
¹² For it was not an enemy who insulted me,
    then I could have endured it.
Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me,
    then I would have hidden myself from him.
¹³ But it was you, a man like me,
    my companion, and my familiar friend.
¹⁴ We took sweet fellowship together.
    We walked in God’s house with company.
¹⁵ Let death come suddenly on them.
    Let them go down alive into Sheol. ^[a]
    For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
¹⁶ As for me, I will call on God.
    Yahweh will save me.
¹⁷ Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress.
    He will hear my voice.
¹⁸ He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
    although there are many who oppose me.
¹⁹ God, who is enthroned forever,
    will hear and answer them. Selah.

¹  Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up.
    All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
² My enemies want to swallow me up all day long,
    for they are many who fight proudly against me.
³ When I am afraid,
    I will put my trust in you.
⁴ In God, I praise his word.
    In God, I put my trust.
I will not be afraid.
    What can flesh do to me?
⁵ All day long they twist my words.
    All their thoughts are against me for evil.
⁶ They conspire and lurk,
    watching my steps.
    They are eager to take my life.
⁷ Shall they escape by iniquity?
    In anger cast down the peoples, God.
⁸ You count my wanderings.
    You put my tears into your container.
    Aren’t they in your book?
⁹ Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call.
    I know this: that God is for me.
¹⁰ In God, I will praise his word.
    In Yahweh, I will praise his word.
¹¹ I have put my trust in God.
    I will not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?
¹² Your vows are on me, God.
    I will give thank offerings to you.
¹³ For you have delivered my soul from death,
    and prevented my feet from falling,
    that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

¹   Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me,
    for my soul takes refuge in you.
Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge,
    until disaster has passed.
² I cry out to God Most High,
to God who accomplishes my requests for me.
³ He will send from heaven, and save me,
    he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah.
God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
⁴ My soul is among lions.
    I lie among those who are set on fire,
    even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
    and their tongue a sharp sword.
⁵ Be exalted, God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be above all the earth!

¹  Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones?
    Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men?
² No, in your heart you plot injustice.
    You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.
³ The wicked go astray from the womb.
    They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a snake,
    like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,
⁵     which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers,
    no matter how skillful the charmer may be.
⁶ Break their teeth, God, in their mouth.
    Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.
⁷ Let them vanish like water that flows away.
    When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.
⁸ Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away,
    like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
⁹ Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns,
    he will sweep away the green and the burning alike.
¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance.
    He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
¹¹ so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous.
    Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

¹   Deliver me from my enemies, my God.
    Set me on high from those who rise up against me.
² Deliver me from the workers of iniquity.
    Save me from the bloodthirsty men.
³ For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul.
    The mighty gather themselves together against me,
    not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
⁴ I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me.
    Rise up, behold, and help me!
⁵ You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel,
    rouse yourself to punish the nations.
    Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.
⁶ They return at evening, howling like dogs,
    and prowl around the city.
⁷ Behold, they spew with their mouth.
    Swords are in their lips,
    “For”, they say, “who hears us?”
⁸ But you, Yahweh, laugh at them.
    You scoff at all the nations.
⁹ Oh, my Strength, I watch for you,
    for God is my high tower.
¹⁰ My God will go before me with his loving kindness.
    God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.
¹¹ Don’t kill them, or my people may forget.
    Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
¹² For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips,
    let them be caught in their pride,
    for the curses and lies which they utter.
¹³ Consume them in wrath.
    Consume them, and they will be no more.
Let them know that God rules in Jacob,
    to the ends of the earth. Selah.
¹⁴ At evening let them return.
    Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.
¹⁵ They shall wander up and down for food,
    and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.