3 “Let us snap their tether

and tear off their ropes.”

4 He who sits in heaven will laugh;

the Lord will deride them.

5 Then he will speak to them in his anger

and throw them into consternation by his heat,

6 “But I, I have invested my king

on my sacred mountain Sion.”

7 I will tell the story of Jehovah’s ordinance:

He said to me “You are my son,

I myself have today given you birth.

8 Ask me and I will make nations your estate

and the ends of earth your holding.

9 You shall break them with iron truncheon,

smash them like crockery.”

10 And now, kings, be canny;

take your lesson to heart, judges of earth;

11 Worship Jehovah in fear

and kiss his feet with quaking,

12 For fear he should be angry and you perish right away,

because his anger takes fire easily.

Happy are all that take refuge in him.

3 Jehovah, how thick come my foes!

Many are standing up against me,

2 Many are saying of my soul

“There is no help for him in his God.” (Selah)

3 But you, Jehovah, are a shield before me,

my glory and the uplifter of my head.

4 Aloud to Jehovah I call,

and he has answered me from his sacred mountain. (Selah)

5 I have lain down and gone to sleep

and waked up, because Jehovah supports me.

6 I will not be afraid of thousands upon thousands of people

who on all sides have beset me.

7 Stand up, Jehovah, save me, my God;

For you have struck all my enemies on the jaw,

broken the teeth of malefactors.

8 Salvation is a thing of Jehovah’s;

your blessing be on your people! [Selah]

4 When I call answer me, my God of the righteous cause:

in distress you have relieved me; be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

2 Gentlemen, how long—heavy-witted ones, what for—

will you love emptiness, seek after a lie? (Selah)

3 But know that Jehovah has distinguished a man of his friendship;

Jehovah will hear when I call to him.

4 Tremble and do not sin;

tell yourselves as you lie in your beds, and be quiet. (Selah)

5 Offer rightful sacrifices

and trust to Jehovah.

6 Many are saying “Who will let us see anything good?”

Lift up over us the light of your face, Jehovah.

7 You have put gladness in our hearts

surpassing the time their grain and grape-juice are plentiful.

5 Give ear to my say, Jehovah!

take in my moan!

2 Listen to the sound of my clamor, my King and God,

for it is to you I pray.

3 Jehovah, in the morning you shall hear my voice,

in the morning I will address you and be on the lookout.

4 For you are not a crime-loving deity,

wickedness will not make its home with you,

5 Wild men will not take their stand under your eyes,

you hate all that commit villainy,

6 You will destroy those who speak lies;

Jehovah detests a man of bloodshed and fraud.

7 But I by the abundance of your friendship will enter your house,

will do reverence toward your holy temple in your fear.

8 Jehovah, guide me in your righteousness on account of my ill-wishers,

lay your way out straight before me.

9 For there is nothing solid in their mouths; their inward thought is catastrophe;

their throats are open graves; they keep their tongues slippery.

10 Hold them to the penalty, God; let them come to a fall by their plans;

for the multiplicity of their crimes banish them, because they have disobeyed you;

11 And let all that take refuge in you be glad

And carol forever, you sheltering them, and let those who love your name exult in you,

12 Because you, Jehovah, bless an honest man,

envelop him with goodwill like a shield.

6 Jehovah, do not correct me in your anger

nor chastise me in your ire;

2 Do me a kindness, Jehovah, because I am forlorn;

make me well, Jehovah, because my bones are flinching.

3 My soul is flinching utterly;

Jehovah, how long will you?

4 Come back, Jehovah, rescue my soul;

save me for your friendship’s sake.

5 For in death there is no remembrance of you,

in the world below who will give you thanks?

6 I am tired with moaning; all night

I wash my bed with my tears;

I melt down my bedstead.

7 My eyes have been wearing away for vexation,

aging by all that distress me.

8 Away from me, all you that commit villainy,

for Jehovah has heard the sound of my weeping,

9 Jehovah has heard my petition,

Jehovah will receive my prayer.

10 All my enemies will be in great shame and consternation,

will turn back and be in sudden shame.

7 Jehovah, my God, in you I take refuge:

save me from all my persecutors and deliver me,

2 For fear he should make prey of my life like a lion,

bringing down, and nobody rescuing.

3 Jehovah, my God, if I did this,

if there is foul play in my hands,

4 If I injured one who was at peace with me

and wantonly harassed one who was my foe,

5 Let an enemy chase after my soul and run it down

and trample my life to the earth,

and my glory be lodged in the dust. (Selah)

6 Rise in your anger, Jehovah; up with you against my foemen’s wrath, and bestir yourself to reach me.

A judgment you have ordained;

7 let a congregation of gods surround you,

and above them sit aloft.

8 Jehovah is arbiter of peoples:

give judgment for me, Jehovah,

in accordance with my fair dealing and the integrity I cherish;

9 Let wrong-doers’ evil disappear and right-doing be made regular—

the Tester of Heads and Hearts is a right-doing God!

10 My shield is carried by God,

saver of men of upright heart.

11 God is an honest man’s judge

and the Deity is hostile to schemers.

12 If he does not turn back, he sharpens his sword,

has strung his bow and bent it,

13 And got ready instruments of death,

makes his arrows fireballs.

14 Here he is in labor with villainy,

has become pregnant with mischief and will give birth to lies.

15 He has dug and sunk a pitfall

and tumbled into the trap he was making.

16 His mischief will come back on his own head

and his outrage come down on his own pate.

17 I thank Jehovah as befits his right-doing

and sing a psalm to the name of Jehovah Most High.

2 Who out of the mouths of children at play and babies at the breast have laid a foundation of might

on account of those who are foes to you, to put a stop to enemy and avenger!

3 When I see your sky, the work of your fingers,

moon and stars that you have set,

4 What is man that you should remember him,

any of humankind that you should attend to him?

5 And you have made him little short of God,

with state and glory you crown him,

6 And have given him rule over the works of your hands,

have placed everything under his feet,

7 Sheep and cattle all,

beasts of the wilds too;

8 Bird of air and fish of sea,

those that traverse fluid paths.

9 I will give thanks to Jehovah with all my heart;

I will tell the story of all your wonders;

2 I will be glad and exult in you,

I will sing psalms to your name, Most High,

3 For my enemies’ turning to go backward,

stumbling and perishing before you;

4 For you have given me justice and my rights,

you sit enthroned as a fair judge.

5 You rebuke nations, you destroy a wrong-doer,

you blot out their name forever and evermore.

6 The enemy are all gone, perpetual wastes,

and cities you have uprooted; their memory has perished,

7 But Jehovah will stand fast forever,

he has planted his throne for judgment,

8 And he will judge the world honestly,

give fair verdicts for many a folk,

9 So that Jehovah may be a fastness for the downtrodden man,

a fastness for hard times,

11 Sing psalms to Jehovah, him who is seated on Sion;

tell among the peoples his deeds;

12 For a prosecutor of bloodshed remembers them;

he never forgets the crying of unhappy men.

13 Be gracious to me, Jehovah; see my unhappy state because of those who hate me,

you who uplift me from the gates of death,

14 So that I may tell all the story of your praises,

exult in your salvation at the gates of the daughter of Sion.

15 Nations have sunk in a pitfall they had made;

in a net that they hid their own feet are caught.

16 Jehovah has won recognition, has done justice;

a wrong-doer is snared in the work of his own hands.

(Higgaion. Selah)

17 Wrong-doers shall go back to the world below;

all nations are forgetful of God.

18 For a needy man will not be perpetually forgotten,

humble men’s hopes will not be lost forevermore.

19 Up, Jehovah; let man not be high and mighty;

let nations bring their causes before you for judgment.

20 Put them in fear, Jehovah;

let nations know they are human beings. (Selah)

10 Why do you stand aloof, Jehovah,

ignore hard times?

2 Pridefully a wrong-doer chases a poor wretch—

they shall be caught in the designs they have thought up.

3 For a wrong-doer praises, a grasping man blesses,

on the basis of his own heart’s desire.

4 A wrong-doer loftily insults Jehovah,

does not look out for his anger;

All his calculations are that there is no God.

5 His courses are persistent at every time;

Your judgments are too exalted to come within his view;

all his foemen he pooh-poohs.

6 He says to himself “I shall be unshaken,

for generation upon generation I shall be firm,

to disaster I shall never succumb.”

7 His mouth is full of fraud and extortion;

under his tongue are mischief and villainy.

8 He sits in village ambushes,

kills innocent men under cover.

His eyes are in wait for a wretched man.

9 He lies in wait under cover like a lion in its thicket,

Lies in wait to catch a poor fellow,

catches a poor fellow by drawing his net:

10 He beats down, brings low;

wretches have fallen by his force.

11 He says to himself “Deity has forgotten,

has veiled his face, does not see forevermore.”

12 Up, Jehovah! Deity, lift your hand!

do not forget miserable men!

13 On what ground has a wrong-doer been contemptuous of God,

said to himself you would not look into it?

14 You do see, because you look at mischief

and offense, to put it into your hands;

To you the orphan wretch leaves his cause;

you have been a helper.

15 Break the arm of a wrong-doer and rascal;

you look for his criminal work, it is not to be found.

16 Jehovah is king of ages on ages,

heathen nations perish out of his country.

17 Humble men’s desire you have heard,

Jehovah, the address of their hearts;

18 You sharpen your ear to judge orphan and downtrodden;

Never again let a man out of the earth be arrogant.

11 In Jehovah I take refuge: how is it you say to my soul

“Flit mountainward like a sparrow”?

2 For here have the wicked strung their bow,

Set their arrow on the string,

in gloom to shoot at right-minded men.

3 When the foundations are torn up

what does an honest man do?

4 Jehovah is in his holy temple;

Jehovah has his throne in the sky;

His eyes view,

his glances test, the sons of men.

5 Jehovah tests honest man and rascal,

and his nature hates a lover of outrage.

6 He will rain on rascals burning charcoal and sulfur,

and scorching wind is the cup poured out for them.

7 For Jehovah is honest, loves honest doings;

upright men shall behold his face.

12 Save, Jehovah, because godly men have disappeared,

because all is over with reliability among mankind.

2 They talk make-believes to each other,

talk with slippery lips and double heart.

3 Jehovah will exterminate slippery lips,

tongues that make great propositions,

4 Men that say “With our tongues we shall do bravely;

we have our lips with us, who is sovereign over us?”

5 For violence to men in want, for needy men’s groaning,

now I will stand up, says Jehovah,

will set in salvation who pants for that.

6 Jehovah’s say is clean say,

silver refined in a cupel on the ground,

purified seven times.

7 You, Jehovah, will guard them,

will keep them for this generation and forever.

8 Wrong-doers walk about on all sides

when shabbiness stands high for mankind.

13 How long, Jehovah, will you perpetually forget?

how long will you veil your face from me?

2 How long shall I house anxieties in my soul,

have sorrow in my heart through the day?

How long shall my enemies stand high over me?

3 Look at it, answer me, Jehovah, my God;

give light to my eyes, that I may not sleep the sleep of death,

4 That my enemies may not say “I was too much for him,”

my foes jubilate because I stagger,

5 when I have put my confidence in your friendship;

Let my heart jubilate in your salvation,

14 A rascal has said to himself

“There is no God.”

They behave viciously, abominably;

there is nobody that does what is good.

2 Jehovah looked from the heavens upon mankind

to see if there was a canny man,

one that looked to God:

3 The whole lot had drawn off together, had degenerated,

there was nobody that did what was good, not a single one.

4 Do all who perpetrate villainy not know?

those who eat up my people eat bread, never call on Jehovah,—

5 There they are seized with terror,

because God breaks up an ungodly man’s plan;

6 You shall put them to shame,

because Jehovah has repudiated them.

7 O for Israel’s salvation coming from Sion!

When Jehovah comes back to his people

Jacob will jubilate, Israel make merry.

15 Jehovah, who will find a home in your tent,

who reside on your sacred mountain?

2 One who walks conscientiously and does right

and speaks truth in his heart.

3 He has not talked scandal, nor done an injury to his fellow,

nor taken part in jeering at his neighbor.

4 He has no use for an immoral man,

but those who fear Jehovah he honors.

He swears to do a bad thing and does not substitute anything else;

5 he does not put out his money on interest

Nor take a bribe against an innocent man.

One who does these things will be unshaken forever.

3 Counting out all holy ones that are on earth,

grand ones that I have no fancy for.”

4 They get themselves many griefs;

they hurry to get another god.

I will not pour their libations of blood

nor take their names on my lips.

5 Jehovah, you have apportioned my dish and my cup;

you guide the falling of my lot.

6 Lines have fallen in pleasant places for me;

Yes, and my estate has grown finer on my hands.

7 I will bless Jehovah, who has advised me;

nights too my bosom instructs me.

8 I keep Jehovah always before me;

because he is at my right hand I shall be unshaken.

9 So my heart is glad and my soul jubilant;

my flesh too rests assured,

10 Because you will not leave my soul to the realm of death,

will not give up the man of your friendship to see dissolution.

11 You will send me along paths of life;

in your company there are joys in plenty,

pleasant things are in your right hand perpetually.

17 Hear a just cause, Jehovah, listen to my appeal,

give ear to my prayer not made with cheating lips.

2 From before you let judgment issue on my behalf;

let your eyes take cognizance of equity.

3 You have tested me, examined me at night,

assayed me; you will not find viciousness of mine;

My mouth shall not pass over

4 for deeds of man.

By the words of your lips I have kept

from ruffian’s paths.

5 Steady my steps in your roads;

let me not lose my footing.

6 I call to you, because you will answer me, God:

bend your ear to me, hear my say.

7 Do acts of special friendship,

you who by your right hand save from adversaries men who take refuge in you.

8 Guard me like the apple of your eye,

screening me in the shadow of your wings,

9 From criminals who have assaulted me,

my enemies who greedily surround me.

10 Their heart is tallow, their chest is blubber;

they talk with a swagger.

11 They eye us, they surround us now,

they fix their eyes on the country.

12 What he is like is a lion eager to make a kill,

a two-year-old lion sitting in a covert.

13 Up, Jehovah, meet him face to face;

put him down; preserve my life,

14 Your sword preserve it from a ruffian, your hand from men, Jehovah,

from men whose part in life is earthly,

Whose stomach you fill with your stores; they have all the sons they want,

lay down their surplus for their youngsters.

15 As for me, by integrity I shall gaze on your face;

at waking I shall look at your form as much as I please.

2 Jehovah is my cliff and fastness, my preserver;

my God is my rock that I take refuge in, my shield and victorious horn,

3 My citadel and refuge, my savior saving me from outrage.

I proclaim Jehovah a God to be praised, and am saved from my enemies.

6 In my distress I call on Jehovah, and to my God I cry,

and he has heard my voice out of his palace, and my cry sounded in his ears.

7 And the earth rolled and shook,

the sky’s foundations trembled

and rolled because he was angry;

8 Smoke rose at his nostril,

and fire out of his mouth devoured what it met;

coals caught from it.

9 And he bent the sky and came down

with thick air under his feet,

10 And mounted a cherub and flew,

sped on the wings of the wind,

11 Made darkness his screen around him,

his bower a clump of water, a cloud in the heavens;

13 Jehovah thundered out of the skies,

the Lord above uttered his voice,

14 And sent his arrows and scattered them,

flashed lightning and threw them into confusion,

15 And the chasms of the sea came in sight,

the foundations of the world were uncovered,

At your rebuke, Jehovah,

at a breath from your nostrils.

16 He has sent from on high and taken me,

drawn me out of deep waters,

17 Delivered me from my enemy strong,

from my haters when they were too much for me—

18 They advanced on me in my day of calamity,

but Jehovah was a stay to me,

19 And brought me out where I had room,

rescuing me because he held me dear.

20 Jehovah gives me requital suitable to my honesty,

return suitable to the cleanness of my hands,

21 Because I have kept Jehovah’s ways

and not gone into wickedness from my God,

22 Because all his laws are present to my mind

and his usages I do not set aside,

23 And I have been straightforward toward him

and guarded against my offending nature;

24 And Jehovah has given me return suitable to my honesty,

to the cleanness of my hands under his eyes.

25 With a godly man you deal friendlily;

with a straightforward man, straightforwardly;

26 With a clean man, cleanly;

and a dodger you outmaneuver,

27 And downtrodden people you save,

and lofty eyes you bring down.

28 For you are my lamp, Jehovah,

and my God lights up my darkness;

29 For by you I break a fence,

by my God I leap a wall.

30 The Deity’s path is straightforward;

Jehovah’s say is sterling;

he is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God besides Jehovah?

and who is a rock except our God?

32 The Deity it is that girds me with stoutness

and makes my path straightforward,

33 Makes my feet like a wild doe’s

and brings me to stand on heights,

34 Trains my hands for the battle

till my arms break a bow of bronze.

35 And you have given me the shield of your aid,

and your care makes me great;

36 You make my stride bold

and my ankles do not turn.

37 I pursue my enemies and overtake them,

and do not turn back till I have finished them.

38 I finish them, I batter them so that they do not rise,

they fall under my feet.

39 And you have girded me with stoutness for the battle,

you lay my adversaries low under me,

40 And give me my enemies’ backs;

my haters I annihilate.

41 They cry and there is nobody to save them,

cry to Jehovah and he does not answer them,

42 And I rub them fine like dust on the ground,

like clay in the streets I beat them to powder.

43 And you have preserved me out of my people’s conflicts,

guarded me for a head of nations;

a people that I had not known shall serve me;

44 Foreigners cringe to me,

upon hearsay they are at my orders;

45 Foreigners break up,

are frightened out of their coverts.

46 Living is Jehovah, and blessed my Rock,

and lofty my God of salvation,

47 The Deity who grants me vengeances

and brings peoples down under me,

48 My Preserver from my enemies;

you uplift me above my adversaries,

deliver me from the man of outrage.

49 Therefore I thank you, Jehovah, among the nations,

and sing psalms to your name:

50 He greatly saves his king

and befriends his anointed,

David and his posterity forever.

19 The skies tell the tale of the Deity’s glory,

and the firmament announces the work of his hands,

2 Day pouring out utterance to day

and night demonstrating knowledge to night

3 With no utterance, no language;

their voice is unheard.

4 Throughout the earth their lines are drawn

and their words come out at the end of the world.

He has made a tent for the sun in them,

5 and it comes out like a bridegroom out of his bower,

Rejoicing as an athlete rejoices in running a distance;

6 its start is from the edge of the sky

And its round covers the edges of it,

and nothing is screened from its heat.

7 Jehovah’s instructions are unerring,

life-restoring;

Jehovah’s lessons are trustworthy,

enlightening simpletons;

8 Jehovah’s mandates are acceptable,

gladdening hearts;

Jehovah’s commandment is honest,

brightening eyes.

9 The fear of Jehovah is clean,

standing forevermore;

Jehovah’s decisions are true,

every one right,

10 They that are more enjoyable than gold,

than red gold in abundance,

And sweeter than honey

and drippings of the comb.

11 By them, too, your servant takes warning;

from attention to them come great returns.

12 Missteps who can keep track of?

Hold me clear of unnoticed things!

13 From high-handed ways too keep me back,

let them not rule me;

Then I shall be all right,

innocent of great crime.

14 May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable

before you, Jehovah, my Rock and my Friend in need!

20 Jehovah answer you on a day of crisis,

the name of Israel’s God set you out of reach of harm,

2 Send you help from sacred ground

and from Sion give you support,

3 Remember all your oblations

and make much of your burnt-offering, (Selah)

4 Give you what you have at heart

and bring fulfillment to all your purposes.

5 We will shout over your victory

and fly our colors in the name of our God;

Jehovah give fulfillment to all your requests.

6 Now I know that Jehovah gives victory to his anointed;

he will answer him from his hallowed heavens

with the mighty saving acts of his right hand.

7 Chariots these and ponies those,

and we the name of our God Jehovah commemorate.

8 They have stooped and fallen,

but we are up and keep our feet.

9 Jehovah, make the king victorious

and answer us on the day when we call.

21 In your might, Jehovah, a king will be glad,

in the victory you give how overjoyed he will be!

2 You have given him what his heart desired

and not refused what his lips requested; (Selah)

3 For you confront him with the best of blessings,

set on his head a crown of red gold.

4 For life he asked you; you gave it to him,

length of days, ever and evermore.

5 Great is his glory by the victory you give;

majesty and splendor you impart to him.

6 For you will make him a name of blessing forevermore;

you will delight him with rejoicings in your presence.

7 For the king puts his confidence in Jehovah,

and by the friendship of the Lord in high he will stand unshaken.

8 Your hand shall light on all your enemies,

your right hand on those who hate you;

9 You will make them like a baking-crock full of fire at the time of your presence;

Jehovah in his anger will engulf them, fire will consume them;

10 You will destroy their line out of earth

and their blood out of mankind,

11 Because they pointed mischief at you,

contrived a design they could not carry through.

12 For you will make them turn their backs,

you will aim your bow at their faces.

13 Rise high, Jehovah, in your might!

we will sing your exploits and make music of them.

22 My God, my God, why have you left me?

far from my Salvation are the words of my roaring!

2 My God, I call by day and you do not answer,

by night and have no response.

3 And you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel!

4 It was in you our fathers put their confidence,

put their confidence and you brought them through.

5 To you they cried, and came off safe;

in you they put their confidence and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm, not a man,

a thing flouted by men, despised by people.

7 All who see me make fun of me,

curl their lips, swing their heads:

8 “He relied on Jehovah, let him bring him through,

let him deliver him because he likes him.”

9 When it was you that made me come out of my mother’s body,

made me fearless as I lay on her breast,

10 On whom I was thrown from birth,

who have been my God since I was in my mother’s body,

11 Do not be far from me, for it is a hard pinch; come near,

for there is nobody to give help.

12 Many steers surround me,

bulls of Bashan encircle me,

13 Rapacious roaring lions

face me with wide-open mouths,

14 I am as weak as water,

my bones are all coming apart;

My heart is like wax,

it melts in my body.

15 My strength is dried out like a chip of crockery,

My tongue sticks to my jaws,

and you set me on the clay of death.

16 For dogs surround me,

a company of malefactors have come about me,

They dig into my arms and legs—

17 I can count all my bones!

They look on and gloat over me,

18 They divide my garments among them

and toss lots for my clothing.

19 But, Jehovah, do not hold aloof!

my upholder, make haste for my help!

20 Deliver my life from swords,

my dear life from dogs’ paws;

21 Save me from a lion’s mouth,

my wretchedness from ure’s horns.

22 I will recount your fame to my brothers,

in mid-assembly I will praise you.

23 You who fear Jehovah, praise him!

All Jacob’s race, glorify him!

And quail before him, all you race of Israel!

24 For he has not despised nor loathed a wretched man’s wretched state

Nor veiled his face from him,

but listens when he clamors to him.

25 His faithfulness is my praise in a great assembly;

I will pay my vows before those who fear him;

26 Humble men shall eat and have a full meal,

those who invoke Jehovah shall praise him;

blithe be your hearts forevermore!

27 Let all the ends of earth

remember and come back to Jehovah,

And let all clans of nations

do reverence before him;

28 For the kingship is Jehovah’s

and he governs among the nations.

29 Only to him shall all the hale of earth do reverence,

before him all who go down into clay shall bow

And he who does not keep his soul alive.

31 A generation shall come and report his right-doing

to a people that is to be born, because he acted.

23 Jehovah is my shepherd;

I shall never have less than I need.

2 He has me lie down in green pastures;

he takes me to resting-places along the water.

3 He puts life back into me;

he leads me on trails that go right, for the sake of his name.

4 Even when I go in a valley of gloom

I will not be afraid of anything bad, because you are with me;

Your club and staff,

they set my mind at rest.

5 You lay a table before me

in my foemen’s presence;

You have lavished oil on my head,

my cup is full of refreshment.

6 I shall have nothing but kindness and friendliness following me all my life,

and I shall stay at Jehovah’s house for long years.

24 To Jehovah belong the earth and all it holds,

the world and those who live in it,

2 Because it was he laid its foundations on seas

and seats it firm on streams.

3 Who shall go up on Jehovah’s mountain,

and who stand up in his sacred place?

4 A man of innocent hands and single heart,

one who has never planned a quibble nor sworn a fraudulent oath,

5 Shall obtain a blessing from Jehovah

and vindication from his saving God.

6 This is the generation of those who go to Jehovah,

who look for the face of Jacob’s Deity. (Selah)

7 Raise up, gates, your heads,

be raised, ancient doors,

for the King of Glory to enter!

8 Who is that, the King of Glory?

Jehovah, potent and doughty,

Jehovah, doughty in battle!

9 Raise up, gates, your heads,

raise them, ancient doors,

for the King of Glory to enter!

10 Who is that, this King of Glory?

Jehovah of Armies,

he is the King of Glory. [Selah]

2 my God, you are my stay.

In you I trust; let me not be disappointed;

let my enemies not be gleeful over me.

3 Nay, never are any of those who hope in you disappointed;

disappointed are those who commit treachery to no purpose.

4 Make your roads known to me, Jehovah,

teach me your paths.

5 Direct me in your faithfulness, and teach me,

because you are the God of my salvation

And in you I hope all day.

6 Remember, Jehovah, your sympathy and friendliness,

because they have been yours from of old.

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth nor my crimes.

Do you remember me in accordance with your friendship,

for your kindness’ sake, Jehovah.

8 Kind and frank is Jehovah;

therefore he will show the way to those that go wrong.

9 He will direct humble men’s course aright

and teach humble men his road.

10 All Jehovah’s paths are friendship and loyalty

to those who keep his covenant and his lessons.

11 For the sake of your name, Jehovah,

forgive my guilt, great as it is.

12 Who is the man that is a fearer of Jehovah?

he will instruct him what way to choose.

13 He shall lodge in comfort,

his posterity shall possess a domain.

14 Those who fear Jehovah are intimate with him

and his covenant is to be made known to them.

15 My eyes are constantly toward Jehovah

because he gets my feet out of nets.

16 Turn toward me and be gracious to me,

because I am lonely and wretched.

17 Relieve my heart’s distresses

and bring me out of my hard straits.

18 See my wretchedness and my difficulties

and pardon all my sins.

19 Confront my enemies, for there are many of them

and they hate me savagely.

20 Preserve my life and deliver me;

let me not be put to shame, because I have taken refuge in you.

21 Let sincerity and principle be my guard;

for my heart is set on you, Jehovah.

26 Do justice for me, Jehovah, because I go sincerely

and put an unfaltering trust in Jehovah.

2 Test me, Jehovah, and try me,

probe my heart and brain,

3 Because I have your friendship before my eyes

and walk by your good faith,

4 I have not taken my seat with disorderly men

and do not go in with underhanded men,

5 I hate a coterie of evil-doers

and will not live with knaves.

6 I will wash my hands in innocence

and go round your altar, Jehovah,

7 To sound the voice of thanksgiving

and tell the story of all your wonders.

8 Jehovah, I love the site of your house,

the place where your glory is tabernacled.

9 Do not sweep away my life with sinners,

with murderers my being,

10 Who have misdeeds in hand

and their fists full of bribes.

11 But I go sincerely;

redeem me, Jehovah, and be gracious to me.

12 My foot is standing on level ground;

in assembled throngs I will bless Jehovah.

27 Jehovah is my light and salvation;

whom should I fear?

Jehovah is my lifesaving citadel;

whom should I dread?

2 When evil-doers came on to eat my flesh,

my foemen, enemies to me, they stumbled and fell.

3 If an army should take the field against me

my heart would not fear;

If a battle comes upon me,

even with that I rest secure.

4 One thing I ask of Jehovah, it I seek,

the staying at Jehovah’s house all my life long

To gaze on Jehovah’s delectable sights

and to examine his temple.

5 For he would shelter me in his pavilion on a day of calamity, would shroud me in the screen of his tent,

would uplift me on a rock.

6 And now my head rises above my enemies all round me,

and in his tent I will offer shouted sacrifices,

I will sing to make music to Jehovah.

7 Hear, Jehovah, my voice;

I call; be gracious to me and answer me.

8 My heart has said to you

“My face seeks yours”;

Jehovah I seek.

9 Do not veil your face from me;

do not dismiss your servant’s case in anger.

You were my help;

do not turn me adrift

nor leave me, God of my salvation.

10 For my father and mother have left me,

but Jehovah takes me in.

11 Show me your road, Jehovah,

and guide me on the level path

on account of my ill-wishers.

12 Do not give me over to the passions of my foes,

for there have stood up against me false accusers

and a snorter of outrages.

13 If I did not trust to have the sight of God’s goodness

in the land of the living—

14 Hope in Jehovah;

courage, and keep a constant heart,

and hope in Jehovah.

28 To you, Jehovah, I call;

my Rock, do not be deaf to me,

For fear you should keep quiet in my case

and I become such as are those who are down in the Pit;

2 Hear my suppliant voice when I clamor to you,

when I raise my hands toward your holy shrine.

3 Do not rake me up with malefactors,

with those who practice villainy,

That talk peace with their neighbors

but have harm in their hearts.

4 Give them what will match their doings,

the viciousness of their practices;

Such as the work their hands have done give to them,

give them back their own dealings!

5 Because they have no sense of Jehovah’s doings

and of the work his hands have done,

he shall tear them down and not rebuild them.

6 Blessed be Jehovah

because he has heard my suppliant voice.

7 Jehovah is my strength and my song;

my heart relies on him,

And I am helped, and my heart exults,

and with my song I will thank him.

8 Jehovah is might to his people,

and his anointed one’s citadel of salvation is he.

9 Save your people and bless your estate,

and shepherd them and carry them forever.

29 Sons of deity, give to Jehovah,

give to Jehovah glory and might.

2 Give to Jehovah the glory that belongs to his name;

do reverence to Jehovah in stately sacred garb.

3 Jehovah’s voice over the water!

The God of glory is thundering, Jehovah over a great water!

4 Jehovah’s voice in power,

Jehovah’s voice in sublimity!

5 Jehovah’s voice breaking cedars!

and Jehovah has broken the cedars of the Lebanon

6 And made them skip like a calf,

Lebanon and Sirjon like a young ure.

8 Jehovah’s voice terrifies wilderness,

Jehovah terrifies the wilderness of Kadesh.

9 Jehovah’s voice sends deer into birth-throes

and strips woodlands;

and in his temple it all says “Glory!”

10 Jehovah was enthroned at the Deluge,

and Jehovah is enthroned as king forever.

11 Jehovah will give might to his people,

Jehovah will bless his people with peace.

30 I will exalt you, Jehovah, because you have rescued me

and not had my enemies be glad for me.

2 My God Jehovah,

I implored you and you healed me.

3 Jehovah, you have brought up my soul from the world below,

have restored my life from among those who go down to the Pit.

4 Make music for Jehovah, men of his friendship,

and give thanks in holy commemoration of him.

5 For there is a moment in his anger, life by his favor;

sobs come in the evening to lodge, but in the morning there is caroling.

6 And for me, I had thought in my prosperity

“I shall be unshaken forever”;

7 Jehovah, by your favor you had given my mountains solid strength;

you have veiled your face, I am seized with consternation.

8 To you, Jehovah, I call,

and with my Lord I plead:

9 “What gain is to be made by my blood,

by my going down to dissolution?

Will clay give thanks to you,

will it report your faithfulness?”

10 Listen, Jehovah, and be gracious to me;

Jehovah, be helper of mine.

11 You have turned my wailing to dancing for me,

have undone my sackcloth and kilted me with joy,

12 That my soul may make music to you and not be silent;

Jehovah my God, forever I will give thanks to you.

31 In you, Jehovah, I take refuge;

forever let me not be disappointed;

in your right-doing bring me safe through.

2 Turn your ear toward me;

deliver me quickly;

Be a citadel rock for me,

a fastness house to save me,

3 because you are my cliff and fastness

And for the sake of your name you will guide me and lead me,

4 will get me out of nets that they hid for me,

because you are my citadel.

5 To your hands I commit my spirit;

you have redeemed me, Jehovah, loyal God.

6 You hate those who attend to futile superstitions;

but I rest my confidence in Jehovah.

7 I am gay and glad in your friendship,

that you saw my wretched state,

knew about my soul’s distresses,

8 And did not give me up into an enemy’s hands;

you set my feet to stand in a broad place.

9 Be gracious to me, Jehovah, because I am in distress;

my eyes have been wearing away with vexation,

my soul and my body.

10 For my life passes away in sorrow and my years in moaning,

my strength breaks down in wretchedness and my bones wear away.

11 By all my persecutors I have been a downright butt to my neighbors

and a dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street shy away from me.

12 I am gone from memory like a dead man;

I am like a lost basket.

13 For I have heard the gossip of many, terror on every side,

while they concerted their program against me, designing to take my life.

14 But I rest my confidence in you, Jehovah;

I have said “You are my God.”

15 The events of my life are in your hands:

deliver me out of the hands of my enemies and persecutors;

16 Show your servant a shining face;

save me in your friendship.

17 Jehovah, let me not be disappointed, because I have called you;

let wicked men be disappointed, be silenced for the grave.

18 Let falsifying lips grow dumb,

those that make arrogant talk against an honest man

in pride and contempt.

19 How great is your kindness, Jehovah,

which you have kept laid by for those who fear you,

Have put in action before men

for those who take refuge in you!

20 You will screen them in the veil of your face from the grapplings of a man,

embower them in privacy from the strife of tongues.

22 when I thought in my alarm I was cut off from before your eyes;

Yet you did hear my suppliant voice

when I clamored to you.

23 Love Jehovah, all men of his friendship!

Jehovah keeps faithful men safe

and more than pays off one who acts proudly.

24 Courage, and keep a constant heart,

all you who wait for Jehovah.

32 Happy he who has transgression forgiven,

sin covered up;

2 Happy a man for whom Jehovah does not count guilt

and who has no fraud at heart.

3 When I was silent my bones were wearing out

with my roaring all day,

4 Because by day and by night your hand lay heavy on me,

I was double-baked with summer droughts. [Selah]

5 I acknowledged my sin to you

and did not cover up my guilt,

I said “I will avow my offenses to Jehovah,”

and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)

6 Since this has been, let every man of your friendship pray to you in crisis;

when waters are poured out in highest flood they shall not reach him.

7 You are a screen for me; you will keep me safe from distress;

you will surround me with shouts of preservation. [Selah]

8 I will teach you good sense, and instruct you as to the way you should go;

I will give advice; my eye is on you.

9 Do not be like a senseless pony or mule

whose wildness, that will not come near you, has to be curbed with

bridle and halter.

10 Many are the pains of a wrong-doer,

but him who trusts to Jehovah friendliness will encircle.

11 Be glad and gay, right-doers, in Jehovah,

and shout, you that have straightforward hearts!

33 Sing a carol of Jehovah, right-doers;

praise is glorious work for straightforward men.

2 Sing thanks to Jehovah with a lyre,

with a ten-stringed harp make music for him,

3 Sing a new song for him,

make the strings ring well!

4 For Jehovah’s word is straightforward

and all his work is done on honor.

5 He loves honesty and justice;

the earth is full of Jehovah’s friendliness.

6 By Jehovah’s word the sky was made,

and all its legions by the breath of his mouth.

7 He masses up the water of the sea like a heap of grain,

puts the deeps in storerooms.

8 Let all the earth stand in fear of Jehovah,

all the inhabitants of the world quail before him,

9 Because he said, and there it was,

he gave an order and there it stood.

10 Jehovah foils the policies of nations,

blocks the plans of peoples;

11 Jehovah’s policies stand forever,

the plans in his heart to generation after generation.

12 Happy the nation that has Jehovah for its God,

the people that he chose as his estate!

13 From heaven Jehovah looks,

sees all the sons of man.

14 From his firm seat he observes

all the inhabitants of the earth,

15 He who framed their hearts one and all,

who understands all their doings.

16 Never is the king saved by greatness of forces;

a champion is not delivered by greatness of strength.

17 The pony is an illusion for preservation,

and, with all its energy, it does not bring one safe off.

18 Jehovah’s eye is toward those who fear him,

those who rest their expectations on his friendliness,

19 To deliver their lives from death

and to maintain them in time of famine.

20 Our souls are waiting for Jehovah;

he is our help and our shield;

21 For our hearts are glad in him

because we have confidence in his hallowed name.

22 Let your friendship be over us, Jehovah,

as we rest our expectations on you.

34 I will bless Jehovah at every time;

always in my mouth is his praise.

2 Of Jehovah my soul will make its boast;

humble men shall hear and be glad.

3 Proclaim Jehovah’s greatness with me

and let us exalt his name together.

4 I invoked Jehovah, and he answered me

and delivered me from all my terrors.

5 Look toward him and brighten up,

and let your faces not be abashed.

6 This was a wretched man, who called and Jehovah heard it

and saved him out of all his distresses.

7 Jehovah’s angel camps

around those who fear him and rescues them.

8 Taste and see that Jehovah is good;

happy is the man who takes refuge in him.

9 Fear Jehovah, you who are consecrated to him,

for those who fear him have no scarcity.

10 Lions in their youthful prime may go poor and hungry,

but those who invoke Jehovah shall not have too little of everything good.

11 Come, sons, listen to me,

I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.

12 Who is the man that would like life,

that loves years to see good in?

13 Keep your tongue from evil

and your lips from uttering cheat;

14 Shun what is bad and do what is good;

try for a wholesome life and follow it up.

15 Jehovah’s eyes are toward honest men

and his ears are toward their call;

16 Jehovah’s face is against doers of evil

to blot out from earth the memory of them.

17 They cry, and Jehovah hears

and delivers them out of all their distresses.

18 Jehovah is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the battered-down in spirit.

19 Many evils an honest man suffers,

but out of them all Jehovah delivers him.

20 He guards all his bones;

not one of them is broken.

21 An evil will give a guilty man his death-stroke,

and those who hate an honest man shall stand condemned.

22 Jehovah redeems his servants’ lives,

and none shall stand condemned of those who take refuge in him.

35 Oppose those who oppose me, Jehovah!

combat those who combat me!

2 Grasp buckler and shield

and stand up in my behalf,

3 Take out spear and battle-ax

to meet my pursuers;

Say to my soul

“I am your salvation.”

4 Let those who are after my life

be disappointed and humiliated;

Let those who plan harm to me

fall back and be abashed;

5 Let them be like chaff before a wind,

with Jehovah’s angel pushing them,

6 Let their road be darkness and slippery rocks,

with Jehovah’s angel chasing them,

7 Because without a motive they laid their net for me,

sunk a pitfall for my life.

8 An unexpected storm shall come upon him

and the net that he laid catch himself,

into the pit he shall fall,

9 And my soul shall jubilate in Jehovah,

shall rejoice in his salvation.

10 All my bones shall say

“Jehovah, who is like you,

Deliverer of a downtrodden man from a stronger,

a man downtrodden and needy from the one who robs him?”

11 Malicious accusers stand up,

ask me things that I do not know about,

12 Repay me evil for good,

childlessness to my soul.

13 But I when they were sick had had a sackcloth for my clothing, had crushed down my appetite with fasting,

—and my prayer shall come back into my own lap.

14 I walked as if it were a friend, a brother of mine;

I went stooping and in black like one in mourning for a mother.

15 But at my breaking down they rejoiced and came together, smiters came together against me and I did not know it,

They assailed me and were not quiet.

16 When I was smitten, what they did was to make fun,

to grind their teeth at me.

17 Lord, how long will you look on?

bring my life back from the roaring lions,

from two-year-old lions my dear life.

18 I will thank you in a great assembly,

praise you among a mighty people.

19 Let those who are my enemies on false grounds not be joyous over me,

those who hate me for nothing not leer,

20 Because they talk nothing wholesome

and think up insidious words against my ease.

21 And they opened their mouths wide against me,

said “Oho, oho, he is getting it now!”

22 You saw it, Jehovah; do not be deaf!

Lord, do not stand aloof from me!

23 Rouse and wake in defense of my cause,

my God and Lord, in my behalf;

24 Do me justice in accordance with your fairness, my God Jehovah,

let them not have their joy over me!

25 Let them not say to themselves

“Ah there, something to relish!”

26 Let those be disappointed and abashed together

who have their joy over harm to me;

Let those be wrapped in disappointment and humiliation

who swagger over me.

27 Let those who take pleasure in having me found in the right carol and have joy

And say all the time “Great is Jehovah

who takes pleasure in his servant’s welfare!”

28 And my tongue shall voice your right-doing,

all day long your praise.

36 Quoth a knave, “I have it at heart to be wicked”;

dread of God is nowhere within his sight,

2 Because, to his mind, he has made it slippery for him

to find out his guilt, to hate it.

3 The words of his mouth are villainy and fraud;

he rules out doing anything sensible or good;

4 He thinks up villainy as he lies in bed,

takes his stand on a road that is not good,

does not keep out of anything bad.

5 Jehovah, your friendliness is in the skies,

your faithfulness up to the heavens,

6 Your fairness is like God’s mountains,

your justice is the great deep;

man and beast you save, Jehovah.

7 How priceless is your friendship, God!

and mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

8 They shall be refreshed with the rich flow of your house

and you will give them the stream of your nectar to drink.

9 For with you is the source of life;

by your shining we see light.

10 Keep up your friendship to those who know you

and your fairness to men of sincere heart.

11 Let the feet of pride not come in to me

and the hands of wrong-doers not dislodge me.

12 Doers of villainy have fallen there;

they are dashed down and cannot get up.

37 Do not lose your temper at evil-doers

nor be jealous of rogues,

2 Because they will speedily be mowed like grass

and wilt as the verdure of plants does.

3 Rely on Jehovah, and do what is good;

live at home and cultivate fidelity,

4 And be happy because of Jehovah,

and let him give you what your heart is asking for.

5 Turn over the course of your affairs to Jehovah,

and rely on him, and he will act

6 And will bring your rightness out like the light

and the justice of your case like noonday.

7 Leave it silently to Jehovah and wait for him;

do not lose your temper at one who comes off successfully,

a man who executes deep-laid plots.

8 Give up anger and leave off ire;

do not lose your temper just to cause evil,

9 Because evil-doers will be exterminated,

and those who hope in Jehovah, they will possess the land.

10 And in a little longer the rascal is not there;

you observe his place, and he is not there;

11 But humble men will possess the land

and be happy because of abounding prosperity.

12 A rascal is forming designs against an honest man

and grinding his teeth at him;

13 The Lord laughs at him

because he sees that his day is coming.

14 Rascals have unsheathed swords

and strung their bows to bring down a needy and unfortunate man, to slaughter men whose course is straightforward.

15 Their swords shall go into their own hearts

and their bows shall break.

16 A few on the side of right

are better than a host of many rascals,

17 For rascals’ arms will be broken

but Jehovah holds honest men up.

18 Jehovah knows the lives of upright men,

and their inheritance shall be forever.

19 They shall not be put to shame at a time of disaster,

and in days of famine they shall have their fill.

20 For rascals shall perish

and Jehovah’s enemies are spent like the fuel of a kitchen brazier, spent in smoke.

21 A rascal is borrowing and will not pay,

but an honest man is gracious and is giving;

22 For those who are blessed by him will have possession of the land,

and those who are cursed by him will be cut off.

23 The places where a man sets his feet come from Jehovah;

he steadies him and keeps his course unswerving.

24 When he does fall he will not go flying,

because Jehovah holds him up by the hand.

25 I have been young and have been old,

and have never seen an honest man left in the lurch

and his offspring hunting for bread.

26 All day he is gracious and is lending,

and his offspring becomes a name to bless by.

27 Shun what is bad and do what is good

and live there forever,

28 Because Jehovah loves justice

and will not leave in the lurch those who are friends with him.

Rogues are rooted out forever,

and rascals’ line will be cut off;

29 Honest men will have possession of the land

and live in it evermore.

30 An honest man’s mouth breathes wisdom

and his tongue speaks justice.

31 His God’s instructions are in his heart;

his steps will not be shaky.

32 A rascal is on the watch for an honest man

and looking for a chance to take his life;

33 Jehovah will not abandon him into his hands

nor have him condemned when he comes into court.

34 Set your hope on Jehovah and keep to his course,

and he will uplift you to have possession of the land;

you shall look on while rascals are extirpated.

35 I saw a rascal arrogant

and leafed out like a verdant cedar;

36 But he went past, and he was not there,

and I looked for him and he was not to be found.

37 Keep to uprightness and look to straightforwardness,

because a man of peace has a future;

38 But criminals will be rooted out together;

rascals’ future will be cut off.

39 Honest men’s salvation comes from Jehovah,

their citadel at a time of distress,

40 And Jehovah will help them and see them through,

will see them clear of rascals

and save them because they took refuge in him.

38 Jehovah, do not correct me in your wrath

and discipline me in your ire!

2 For your arrows have sunk into me

and your hand rests on me.

3 There is not a sound spot in my flesh in consequence of your hostility;

there is no health in my bones in consequence of my sin;

4 For my guilts rise above my head;

like a load of dead weight they are too heavy for me.

5 My sores are reeking, rotted,

in consequence of my foolishness.

6 I am dizzy, I am very low indeed,

all day I go in black,

7 Because my loins are full of roasting heat

and there is not a sound spot in my flesh.

8 I am utterly benumbed and beaten down;

I roar out of the groaning of my heart.

9 Lord, all my craving is present before you,

my moaning is not concealed from you.

10 My heart throbs, my strength has left me,

the light of my very eyes is not by me;

11 My lovers and friends move off from my blight

and my nearest stand at a distance.

12 Those who are looking for my life set traps,

and those who aim at harm to me talk up catastrophes

and whisper fraud all day,

13 And I am like a deaf man who will not hear

and like a dumb man who will not open his mouth,

14 I have become like a person who does not hear

and has no protests to make,

15 Because I am waiting for you, Jehovah;

you were to answer, Lord, my God,

16 Because I thought “They might have a fine time over me;

when my foot slipped they said great things about me.”

17 For I am ready to break down,

always conscious of pain.

18 For I quail at my guilt,

am anxious over my sin,

20 And those who pay me back evil for good

are hostile to me while I practice kindness.

21 Do not abandon me, Jehovah;

my God, do not be far from me.

22 Lord, my savior,

hasten to my help.

39 I said “I will watch my courses

to keep from sinning with my tongue;

I will put a muzzle on my mouth

so long as I am facing a rascal.”

2 I was mute accordingly,

I refrained from saying anything good,

And my pain was stirred,

3 my heart grew hot within me,

In my brooding a fire was burning;

I spoke with my tongue,

4 “Make my end known to me, Jehovah,

and what is the measure of my days;

let me be conscious how transitory I am.

5 Here you have made my days some handbreadths

and before you my tenure of life is as if there were none of it;

every man bases himself just on air. (Selah)

6 A man walks along in a mere picture,

they make an uproar of mere air,

one piles up heaps and does not know who is going to take them home.

7 And now what am I counting on, Lord?

it is for you I wait.

8 Deliver me from all my crimes;

do not make me a butt for a scamp’s taunting.

9 I was mute, did not open my mouth,

because it was you that had acted.

10 Take your visitation off me;

by the stress of your hand I am finished.

11 With discipline for guilt you correct a man

and you melt down his attractive figure like a moth;

every man is just air.” [Selah]

12 Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear to my cry;

do not be deaf to my sobs;

For I am a visitor with you

and a tenant, like all my fathers.

13 Take your eyes off me and let me brighten up

before I go away and am gone.

40 I rested my hope in Jehovah

and he bent toward me and heard my cry

2 And took me up out of a pit of ruin,

out of quagmire mud,

And set my feet to stand erect on a crag,

made my tread sure,

3 And put in my mouth a new song,

praise to our God;

Many will see and fear

and rest secure in Jehovah.

4 Happy the man who has made Jehovah his reliance

and not turned toward pretenders and lie-peddlers.

5 Many are your wonders that you,

Jehovah my God, have done,

And your conceptions for us

cannot be listed for you;

Would I state and recite them,

they are beyond telling the story.

6 Sacrifice and grain-offering you did not care for;

ears you gave me.

Burnt-offering and sin-offering you did not ask;

7 Then I said “Here I come,

I have my instructions in a book.”

8 I mean to do your pleasure, my God,

and I have your instructions in my bosom.

9 I have told the news of right-doing

in a great assembly;

Here, I do not lock up my lips,

Jehovah, you know.

10 I have not covered up your right-doing inside my heart;

I have told your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your friendship and loyalty

in a great assembly.

11 And you, Jehovah,

will not lock up your sympathy from me;

Your friendship and loyalty

will keep me always.

12 For evils have enveloped me beyond measure,

my misdeeds have overtaken me and I cannot see,

There are more of them than of hairs on my head,

and my heart has left me.

13 Be pleased to deliver me, Jehovah;

Jehovah, hasten to my help.

14 Let those be disappointed and abashed together

who are looking for my life to sweep it away;

Let those fall back and be humiliated

who would like harm for me.

16 Let all who go in quest of you

be joyous and merry in you;

Let those who love your salvation

say all the time “Jehovah is showing himself great!”

17 And me, insignificant and needy,

may the Lord have me in mind;

You are my help and deliverer;

my God, do not delay.

41 Happy is one who acts considerately toward a poor man:

on a day of disaster Jehovah will see him through.

2 Jehovah will guard him and give him life;

he shall run a happy course in the country;

do not give him up to the will of his enemies.

3 Jehovah will uphold him on his invalid couch;

you make all his bed in his sickness.

4 Say I, Be gracious to me, Jehovah;

heal my soul, because I have sinned against you.

5 My enemies say bad words for me,

“how soon will he die and his name perish?”

7 All who hate me are whispering over me together,

planning over me a mischief for me:

8 “His bale is washing over him,

and from where he has lain down he will never get up.”

9 Even the man I was on the best terms with, in whom I had confidence,

who ate my bread, has tricked me grossly.

10 Do you, Jehovah, be gracious to me and set me on my feet,

and I will pay them back.

11 By this I know you hold me dear,

that my enemies do not hurrah over me.

12 And me you hold up in my integrity

and have me standing before you forever.

13 Blessed be Israel’s God Jehovah

from all eternity to all eternity.

Amen and amen.

42 Like a deer that stretches toward glens of water,

so, God, my soul stretches toward you.

2 My soul is thirsty for God, for living Deity;

how soon shall I go in and see God’s face?

3 I had my tears for bread day and night

at the saying to me all the time “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul at the recollection,

how at the Feast of Booths I went skipping along to God’s house with voices of caroling and thanksgiving, a festal host.

5 Wherefore are you downhearted, my soul, and in a turmoil over my fate?

wait for God, for I shall again give thanks to him,

my open savior and my God.

7 Deep calls to deep in the noise of your flumes;

all your breakers and surges have gone over me.

8 By day I shout “Jehovah ordain his friendliness,”

and in the night I sing by myself a prayer to the God of my life;

9 I say to God my rock “Why have you forgotten me?

why do I go in black for oppression by an enemy?

10 For murder in my bones,—my foes taunt me,—

for their saying to me all the time ‘Where is your god?’”

11 Wherefore are you downhearted, my soul, and wherefore in a turmoil over my fate?

wait for God, for I shall again give thanks to him,

my open savior and my God.

43 Do justice for me, God, and vindicate my rights from an ungodly nation,

from men of fraud and foul play bring me to safety,

2 Because you are my citadel-God; why have you repudiated me?

why do I go in black for oppression by an enemy?

3 Send your light and your loyal help; let those lead me on,

let them bring me to your sacred mountain and to your abode,

5 Wherefore are you downhearted, my soul, and wherefore in a turmoil over my fate?

wait for God, for I shall again give thanks to him,

my open savior and my God.

44 God, we have heard with our ears,

our fathers have told us the story,

Of work you did in their days,

in the days of old.

3 For it was not by their swords that they got possession of a country,

nor was it their arm that saved them,

But your right hand and your arm

and the light of your face because you took them into favor.

4 You are my king, my God,

the ordainer of Jacob’s salvations,

5 By you we gore our foes,

by your name we tread down our adversaries;

6 For not in my bow will I put confidence,

and my sword shall not save me,

7 But you have saved us from our foes

and disappointed those who hated us.

8 Of God we boast all day

and thankfully acknowledge your name forever. (Selah)

9 And you have repudiated and humiliated us,

you do not go out on our campaigns,

10 You turn us back from a foe,

and our haters have their pillaging.

11 You make us like sheep to be eaten

and you have scattered us among the nations.

12 You sell your people for no great riches

and do not charge a high price for them.

13 You make us the butt of our neighbors’ taunts,

of the quips and gibes of those who live around us;

14 You make us a byword among the nations,

a thing that they shake their heads at in every folk.

15 All day I face my humiliation

and the consciousness of shame covers me

16 At the voices of taunter and vituperator,

at the faces of enemy and avenger.

17 All this has come to us, and we have not forgotten you

nor been false to your covenant,

18 Our hearts have not shrunk back

nor our steps swerved from your path,

19 That you have felled us in a place of jackals

and covered us over with gloom.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God

and spread out our hands to a strange God,

21 Would not God look into this?

for he knows the secrets of hearts.

22 But it is on your account we have been killed all day,

thought of like slaughtering sheep.

23 Rouse up! why are you sleeping, Lord?

wake up! do not repudiate us permanently!

24 Why do you veil your face,

forget our wretched and oppressed condition?

25 For our souls are down to the earth,

our bodies flattened on the ground.

26 Stand up for our help,

and redeem us for your friendship’s sake!

45 My heart is busy on a good topic,

I am saying my verses for the king;

my tongue is a quick writer’s pen.

2 Superb are you beyond mankind;

charm is poured over your lips;

therefore God has blessed you forever.

3 Belt your sword to your side,

champion, your majesty and your splendor.

4 Ride successfully in the cause of truth, modesty, right,

and let your right hand give you terrible instructions.

5 Your arrows are keen;

peoples fall under you;

the king’s enemies are frayed to rags.

6 God is your throne forever and evermore;

the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of equity.

7 You love right and hate wrong;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you

with more of the oil of rejoicing than your compeers.

8 Your garments are all myrrh and eaglewood and cassia;

out of ivory palaces sounding strings gladden you.

9 A daughter of kings stands forth in your costly adornments,

at your right hand a queen in fine gold from Ophir.

10 Hear, daughter, and see, and bend your ear,

and forget your people and your family,

11 And have the king desire your beauty;

for he is your lord;

12 And the daughter of Tyre shall do reverence to you,

the rich men of a people shall bring presents to propitiate you.

13 A king’s daughter all glorious,

her dress coral in filigree of gold,

14 Is conducted to the king with dances,

maidens behind her, her companions, brought to you;

15 They are conducted with gladness and glee,

they enter the royal palace.

16 In place of your fathers shall be your sons.

You shall set them as viceroys all through the earth

17 I will make your name to be remembered in every succeeding generation;

therefore peoples shall praise you forever and evermore.

46 God is to us refuge and strength,

a most accessible help in distress.

2 Therefore we will not be afraid when earth changes

and mountains rock in the heart of the sea,

3 Its water roars and foams,

mountains shake with its fury. (Selah)

4 A river’s channels gladden the city of God,

holiest of dwelling-places of the Most High.

5 She has God within her; she will not rock;

God will help her before the night is over.

6 Nations were in uproar, kingdoms rocked;

he has sounded his voice, earth goes back and forth;

7 Jehovah of Armies is with us;

we have Jacob’s God as our fastness. (Selah)

8 Come, view Jehovah’s doings,

the awful work he has wrought on earth,

9 Silencing wars to the earth’s end,

breaking bows and unheading spears,

burning up carriages:

10 “Forbear, and know that I am God;

I am seated on high among the nations,

on high in the earth.”

11 Jehovah of Armies is with us;

we have Jacob’s God as our fastness. (Selah)

47 All peoples, clap your hands!

shout for God with voice of cheer,

2 Because Jehovah is a terrible one on high,

a great king over all the earth!

3 He brings peoples down under us,

many a folk under our feet;

4 He chooses our estate for us,

the pride of Jacob whom he loves. (Selah)

5 God has come up with cheering,

Jehovah with sound of ram-horn.

6 Make music to God, make music!

make music for our King, make music!

7 For king of all the earth is God;

make well-considered music!

8 God reigns over nations,

God is seated on his hallowed throne.

9 Nobles of peoples have come together,

the people of the God of Abraham,

Because the shields of earth belong to God;

high indeed is he.

48 Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised

in our God’s city, his sacred mountain.

2 Beautiful on its crest, the joy of all the earth,

is Mount Sion, deep in the north,

town of the Great King.

3 In her palaces God

has made himself known as a fastness.

4 For the kings had held their rendezvous,

had come over together—

5 Just as they saw it they found themselves in bewilderment,

in consternation, in haste of flight.

6 Quaking had seized upon them,

pangs as if of a childbearing woman.

7 With east wind

you shatter Spain-ships.

8 As we had heard, so we have seen

in the city of Jehovah of Armies, the city of our God;

God makes her firm forever. (Selah)

9 Within your temple, God,

we respond to your friendship.

10 As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth;

your right hand is full of right-doing.

11 Let Mount Sion be glad, let the daughters of Judah be gay,

for your deeds of justice.

12 Go round Sion,

make the circuit of her,

13 Take notice of her bulwark, survey her palaces,

in order that you may tell the story to an after generation.

14 For this is God, our God;

forever and evermore he will lead us on.

49 Hear this, all peoples,

give ear, all dwellers here below,

2 Humankind and sons of men,

together rich and poor.

3 My mouth shall speak wisdom

and the thought of my heart shall be reason.

4 I will bend my ear to aphorism,

will expound a problem with the lyre.

5 Why must I be afraid in days of evil,

with the knavery of my underminers all round me,

6 Who are confident in their fortunes

and boast of the greatness of their wealth?

7 Only not a man will buy himself off,

will give God his composition-money

8 The ransom of their lives is too high,

and they let it go forever—

9 That one should live on to perpetuity,

not see the Pit.

10 For see it he will. Wise men will die,

rattlehead and blockhead will perish as well,

and leave their fortunes to others.

11 Their graves are their houses forever,

their dwellings for generation after generation.

They have named lands after themselves,

12 but man is not in honor through the night;

He is on a level with the cattle—

all is over with them.

13 This course of theirs is a foolishness that they have;

and after them they run, going by their utterances. (Selah)

14 Like sheep they are brought down to the world below,

death shepherding them,

And upright men shall tread over them in the morning

and their forms are to waste away, having the world below for dwelling.

15 Yet God will ransom my soul

out of the hands of the world below when it takes me. (Selah)

16 Do not be afraid when a man grows rich,

when the assets of his house grow large;

17 For he will not at his death take it all along,

his assets will not follow him down.

18 Though he blesses himself in his life,

“they will praise you because you have done well by yourself,”

20 Man in honor, without being conscious of it,

is on a level with the cattle—

all is over with them.

50 Deity, God, Jehovah has spoken

and called earth from sunrise land to sunset.

2 Out of Sion, perfection of beauty,

God has beamed.

3 Our God shall come

and not be silent,

Fire consuming before him

and utmost tempest surrounding him,

4 Calling to the skies above

and to the earth to pronounce the verdict for his people,

5 “Bring together to me the men of my friendship,

those who have entered into covenant with me over a sacrifice,”

6 That the skies may report his right-doing,

that he is a judging God. (Selah)

7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak,

Israel, and I will testify to you:

I am God, your God.

8 I will not reprove you over your sacrifices,

and I have your burnt-offerings constantly before me;

9 I will not take a steer out of your house

nor he-goats out of your pens,

10 For all the wild things of the bush belong to me,

beasts on mountains where thousands dwell.

11 I know all birds of the mountains

and have in my mind the insects of the fields.

12 If I should grow hungry I would not tell you,

because I have the world and all that fills it.

13 Am I to eat bulls’ flesh

and drink he-goats’ blood?

14 Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God

and make good your vows to the Most High,

15 And call on me in a day of distress;

I will rescue you and you shall glorify me.

16 What business of yours is it to tell off my usages

and take my covenant into your mouth

17 When yourself you hate lessons

and throw my words behind you,

18 If you see a thief you say amen to him

and you are participant with adulterers,

19 You have put your mouth to vicious use

and your tongue is hitching up fraud,

20 You sit talking about your brother,

defaming your mother’s son?

21 These things you have done, and was I to keep silence?

You imagined I was positively like you;

I will arraign you and bring on the evidence before your eyes.

22 Understand this, forgetters of God,

for fear I should make a pounce from which nobody would deliver you:

23 He who makes thanksgiving his sacrifice is paying me honor,

and to him who holds to his course I will give the sight of God’s salvation.”

2 Wash my guilt thoroughly out of me and make me

clean from my sin.

3 For I am conscious of my crime

and have my sin always facing me.

4 Against you alone I sinned

and did what you found bad,

In order that you should be in the right when you speak

and be irreproachable when you judge.

5 It was in guilt I was brought to birth,

and in sin my mother received the seed for me.

6 Ah, you wish for truth in what is mistiest,

will open to me insight in what is unapparent,

7 Will take off my sin with marjoram and have me clean,

wash me out and have me come whiter than snow,

8 Set me to hearing joy and gladness;

let the bones you battered be gleeful.

9 Veil your face from my sins

and wipe out all my guilts.

10 Create a clean heart for me, God,

and put a new-resolved spirit within me.

11 Do not throw me out from your presence

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

12 Give me back the joy of your salvation

and let a ready spirit uphold me.

13 I will teach rebels your ways,

and sinners shall come back to you.

15 Lord, open my lips

and my mouth shall tell your praise.

16 For you do not wish a sacrifice that I should give;

you would not welcome a burnt-offering.

17 God’s sacrifices are a broken spirit;

a heart broken and battered down, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Sion in your kindness;

let Jerusalem’s walls be built.

19 Then you shall be pleased with rightful sacrifices, burnt-offering and offering entire;

then they shall burn steers on your altar.

52 Why boast in evil, ruffian?

Deity’s friendship lasts all day.

2 You plan catastrophes; your tongue

is like a whetted razor, playing false.

3 You prefer evil to good,

falsehood to right speaking. (Selah)

4 You love all quibbling words,

a cheating tongue.

5 The Deity on his part will break you down for good,

scoop you up and tear you out of home

and your root out of the land of living men. (Selah)

6 And honest men shall see and fear

and laugh over him:

7 “There is the man that was not making God his citadel

but had put his confidence in the greatness of his riches,

was mighty by his capital.”

8 But I am like a verdant olive-tree in God’s house;

I have put my confidence in God’s friendship forever and aye.

9 I will thank you forever, because you acted,

and hope in your name, because it is good,

in the presence of the men of your friendship.

53 A rascal has said to himself

“There is no God.”

They behave viciously, abominably;

there is nobody that does what is good.

2 God looked from the heavens upon mankind

to see if there was a canny man,

one that looked to God:

3 The whole lot had drawn off together, had degenerated,

there was nobody that did what was good, not a single one.

4 Do all who perpetrate villainy not know?

those who eat up my people eat bread, never call on God,—

5 There they are seized with terror,

because God breaks up an ungodly man’s plan;

You shall put them to shame,

because God has repudiated them.

6 O for Israel’s salvation coming from Sion!

When God comes back to his people

Jacob will jubilate, Israel make merry.

54 Save me, God, by your name,

affirm my right by your feats;

2 Hear, God, my prayer,

give ear to the words of my mouth;

3 For high-handed men have stood up against me

and overbearing men are looking for my life,

have not set God before them. (Selah)

4 Here I have God to help me;

the Lord is a bearer-up of my soul.

5 Let evil come back upon my ill-wishers;

in your faithfulness annihilate them:

6 I will sacrifice to you without limit,

will give thanks to your name, Jehovah, because it is good,

7 Because you have delivered me out of all distress

and my eye has looked on at the fate of my enemies.

55 Give ear to my prayer, God,

and do not disregard my petition.

2 Listen to me and answer me:

I range about in my anxiety and am perturbed

3 At an enemy’s voice,

at a wrong-doer’s growl,

Because they are launching villainy against me

and pursuing an angry grudge against me.

4 My heart is convulsed within me

and terrors of death have fallen upon me,

5 Fear and quaking come into me

and a cold sweat has covered me,

6 And I think “If only I had wings like a dove!

I would fly off, would light,

7 Here I would flit far away,

would be in the wilderness for the night, (Selah)

8 Would make haste to some retreat

from driving wind, from tempest.”

9 Make a sweep, Lord! divide their tongues,

because I have seen outrage and feud in the city,

10 By day and by night going round it on its walls,

and villainy and mischief are within it.

11 It has malignity within it,

and extortion and fraud never budge out of its square.

12 For it is not an enemy that insults me;

I would bear it;

It was not my hater that swaggered against me;

I would veil my face from him;

13 But you, a man in my own class,

my comrade and my intimate—

14 We that used to have delightful intercourse,

to consort together at the house of God.

15 May death crash down on them!

may they go down alive to the world below!

for they had evil in their lockers, in their breasts.

16 For me, I will call to God

and Jehovah will save me.

17 Evening and morning and noon

I will grieve and plead that he may hear my voice.

18 He has brought off my life safe and sound

from those who were in ambush for me, near as they were to me.

19 Deity will hear

and he who is enthroned of old will tame them, (Selah)

Those for whom there are no changes

and who do not fear God.

21 His face was smoother than clabber,

but his heart was war;

His words were softer than oil,

but drawn swords were they.

23 And you, God, will send them down to the abysmal pit; cutthroats and cheats will not live half their time,

but I rest confident in you.

56 Show me grace, God, because man is snapping his jaws at me;

all day a battler is crowding me back.

2 My ill-wishers are snapping their jaws all day

because many are battling me bitterly.

4 in God I will praise his word.

In God I rest confident; I will not be afraid;

what shall mortals do to me?

5 All day they talk torment,

their thoughts are about me for harm;

6 They start quarrels, hide traps,

watch my heels as they hope to get my life.

7 Because of their villainy there is no escape for them;

in anger bring down peoples, God.

8 You have counted my writhings;

my tears are placed in your bag.

9 Then, on the day when I call, my enemies will turn backward again;

this I know, that I have a God.

10 In God I will praise his word;

in Jehovah I will praise his word.

11 In God I rest confident; I will not be afraid;

what shall man do to me?

12 I owe you what I have vowed, God;

I will pay you thank-offerings,

13 Because you have delivered my soul from death,

to walk before God in the light of the living.

57 Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me,

because my soul has taken refuge in you,

And in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge

till catastrophes pass by.

2 I will cry to God on high,

to a Deity who carries through what concerns me;

3 He will send from heaven and save me

from the hands of those who are panting after my life. (Selah)

4 In the midst of lions I will lie down,

such as flash at human beings;

Their teeth are spears and arrows

and their tongues sharp swords.

5 Abide aloft, God, above the sky,

your glory above all the earth.

6 They got a net ready for my steps—

their own foot was caught.

They dug a pitfall before me—

they fell squarely into it. [Selah]

7 My heart is firm, God, my heart is firm;

I will sing and make music.

8 Wake, my glory! wake, harp and lyre!

I will wake the dawn.

9 I will give you thanks among the nations, Lord,

I will make music among many a folk,

10 Because your friendliness is great to the skies

and your loyalty to the uppermost air.

11 Abide aloft, God, above the sky,

your glory above all the earth.

58 Do you indeed, notables, speak right,

judge even-handedly the sons of men?

2 Nay, at heart you practice foul play,

in the country your hands aim for outrage.

3 Tyrants are congenital perverts;

Falsifiers have gone wrong ever since they came out of their mother’s bodies.

4 The venom they have is the counterpart of a snake’s venom;

like a deaf viper that plugs its ear,

5 That will not listen to the voice of charmers,

of wisest sorcerer.

6 God, demolish their teeth in their mouths!

break down young lions’ fangs, Jehovah!

7 Let them dissolve like water running down a slope;

like dead grass let them be mowed—

8 Like a slug that melts off as it goes along,

an abortion that has not looked upon the sun.

9 Let their shoots dry out and be cut off

like thornbushes, like briers, like weed-stalks, be blown away.

11 That mankind may say “O, but the right-doer does get fruit;

O, but there are gods that judge on earth.”

59 Deliver me from my enemies, my God,

set me out of reach of my adversaries;

2 Deliver me from villains;

save me from ruffians.

3 For here they have laid in ambush for my life,

powerful men are starting quarrels against me,

Not for crime of mine or sin of mine, Jehovah;

4 without guilt of mine they are running and making ready.

Rouse up to come to me, and see!—

5 and you are Jehovah God, Armies, the God of Israel.

Wake up to deal with all the nations;

show no favor to any treacherous villains. (Selah)

6 They come back at evening,

growl like dogs,

go round the city.

7 Here they are pattering with their mouths,

with swords on their lips,

for who is hearing?

8 But you, Jehovah, will laugh at them,

will deride all nations.

9 My strength, toward you I watch,

because God is my fastness.

10 My God will bring on to me his friendliness;

God will let me see the fate of my ill-wishers.

11 Do not kill them, for fear my people should forget:

drive them by your forces to roving and roaming back and forth.

12 Hand them over, Lord, to the sins of their mouths,

the word of their lips; and let them be taken in their pride;

And for cursing and falsehood which they speak

13 finish them in ire, finish and let there be nothing of them,

And let them find out that God is ruler in Jacob

for the ends of the earth. (Selah)

14 And they come back at evening,

growl like dogs,

go round the city.

15 As for them, they rove back and forth to eat,

if they do not get their fill they grumble.

16 But as for me, I sing your might,

carol your friendship when morning comes,

Because you have been a fastness to me,

a place to flee to on a day when I was in distress.

17 My strength, to you I make music,

because God is my fastness,

my God of friendship.

60 You have repudiated us, God, broken us through;

you were angry; you should restore us.

2 You have shaken earth, cracked it open;

heal its breaks, for it is giving way.

3 You have shown your people a hard sight,

have given us a staggering drink of wine.

4 You have given those who fear you a standard

to rally in the face of bows. (Selah)

5 So that your darlings may be delivered

hold out your right hand and answer us.

6 God spoke in his sanctuary:

“I will triumph, will divide Shekem,

will measure off Succoth Vale;

7 Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine,

and Ephraim is the keep of my head;

Judah is my baton.

8 Moab is my bathtub,

on Edom I throw my sandal,

over Philistia are my hurrahs.”

9 Who will bring me to a city for a siege?

who has led me through to Edom?

10 Have not you, God, repudiated us?

and you do not go out, God, in our campaigns.

11 Give us help from a foe—

human salvation is futile.

12 Through God we shall play a sturdy part,

and he himself will trample down our foes.

61 Hear my appeal, God,

listen to my prayer.

2 From the earth’s end to you I call when my heart is fainting away;

you will set me on a rock too lofty for me to climb,

3 Because you have been a refuge to me,

a tower of shelter before an enemy.

4 I will find a home in your tent eternally,

will take refuge under the screen of your wings. (Selah)

5 For you, God, have heard my vows,

have granted the request of those who fear your name.

6 You will add time to the king’s time;

his years shall be like generation upon generation;

7 He shall be enthroned forever before God;

set friendship and loyalty to keep him.

8 Thus I will make music to your name for aye,

paying my vows day by day.

62 My soul is attentive just to God;

from him my salvation comes.

2 He, just he, is my rock and my salvation,

my fastness; I shall not be greatly stirred.

3 How long will you be bullying a man, murdering?

all of you are like a wall out of plumb, a fence knocked in.

4 They are just planning to knock off from his dignity;

they take satisfaction in lying;

With their mouths they bless

and inwardly they are cursing. (Selah)

5 Be attentive just to God, my soul,

because from him my hope comes.

6 He, just he, is my rock and my salvation,

my fastness; I shall not be stirred.

7 On God rest my salvation and my glory;

my citadel rock, my refuge, is in God.

8 Trust to him every time, people,

pour out your hearts before him;

God is a refuge for us. (Selah)

9 Human beings are just air, sons of man a lie;

they are quicker to fly up in the balance together than a whiff of air.

11 One thing God has spoken,

two that I have heard,

12 That strength is God’s, and yours, Lord, is friendship;

that you will repay each man in accordance with his deeds.

63 God, you are my Deity;

I go in quest of you;

My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,

like a droughty and thirsty country without water.

2 Thus have I sought for the vision of you,

to see your power and glory,

3 Because your friendship is better than life;

my lips shall praise you.

4 Thus I will bless you while I live,

will raise my hands in your name.

5 My soul will have its fill as if of fat and dripping,

and my mouth shall give praise with caroling lips.

6 If I remember you on my couch,

in the hours of night I muse on you.

7 For you have been a help to me

and in the shadow of your wings I carol.

8 My soul keeps close behind you

because your right hand holds me fast.

9 But they, they accomplish nothing by hunting for my life;

they shall go into the lowest depths of the earth,

10 Shall be laid low by the sword,

shall be the portion of foxes.

11 And the king, he will rejoice in Jehovah,

everyone who swears by him shall boast,

because those who are speaking falsely will be gagged.

64 God, hear my voice in my anxiety;

you are to protect me from the dread of an enemy,

2 To screen me from a coterie of malefactors,

from an aggregation of villains,

3 Who have sharpened their tongues like swords,

have drawn their arrows, bitter matter,

4 To shoot from behind a blind at a steady man,

shoot him suddenly and not be seen,

5 Strengthen their position in a bad business,

recite directions for hiding traps;

They say “who sees them,

6 searches out their foul play?”

But the searching of them is done,

each man’s bosom is searched, and a deep heart,

7 And God shoots an arrow at them,

suddenly come their wounds,

8 And they make him stumble;

against them is their tongue;

Everybody that has the sight of them will make off,

9 and all mankind be aghast

And report God’s doing

and be enlightened as to his work.

65 Praise responds to you, God, in Sion,

and to you vows have to be made good,

4 Happy he whom you choose and bring near to be an inmate of your courts;

we shall feed full upon the good things of your house, the sacred things of your sanctuary.

5 Terrible answers will you in fair dealing give us, God of our salvation,

reliance of all ends of earth and of distant coasts,

6 Planter of mountains by your strength,

belted with sturdiness,

7 Stiller of the roar of seas,

the booming of their waves,

9 You look after the earth and make it teem,

give it great riches;

God’s canal is full of water;

you provide their grain when duly you have prepared the earth.

10 Drenching its furrows, washing down its ridges,

you churn it up with showers, you bless its sprouting.

11 You have put the crown on your year of goodness,

and your tracks drip fat.

12 Wilderness pastures drip

and hills put on a girdle of glee,

13 Uplands robe themselves with the sheep

and vales drape themselves with grain;

they triumph, yes, they sing.

2 Make music for the glory of his name;

make his praise a glory.

3 Say of God “What a fearful thing are your works!

at the greatness of your might your enemies cringe to you.

4 All the earth shall do reverence to you

and make music for you, make music for your fame.” (Selah)

5 Come and see God’s doings;

he is fearful in action over humankind.

6 He turned a sea to dry land—

they were to cross the channel on foot;

there let us make merry in him!

7 He rules eternally by his might;

his eyes look out among the nations;

let the stubborn not set themselves up aloft. (Selah)

8 Bless our God, peoples,

make the sound of his praise heard,

9 Him who has put our souls into life

and has not yielded our feet to totter.

10 For you have assayed us, God,

smelted us as silver is smelted,

11 Brought us into the toils,

put a cinch round our waists,

12 Mounted men on our heads,

we came into fire and water—

and you brought us out to comfort.

13 I will come into your house with burnt-offerings,

will make good my vows to you,

14 Which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke

when I was in distress.

15 Burnt-offerings of fat tegs I will offer you,

with smoke of rams;

I will do steers with goats. (Selah)

16 Come, listen, and I will tell the story,

all you who fear God,

of what he did for me.

17 I called to him with my mouth,

while acclamation waited under my tongue.

18 I said to my own self

“My Lord will not hear me”;

19 But God did hear me,

listened for the sound of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,

who did not put aside my prayer

nor his friendship from me.

67 God be gracious to us and bless us,

show a shining face among us, (Selah)

2 That your course may be known in the earth,

your salvation among all the nations.

3 Let peoples praise you, God,

let peoples all praise you.

4 Let many a folk be glad and shout

because you judge peoples fairly

and guide many a folk on the earth. (Selah)

5 Let peoples praise you, God,

let peoples all praise you.

6 Earth has given its growth;

God, our God, blesses us.

7 God blesses us,

and let all the ends of earth fear him.

68 Let God stand up, let his enemies scatter,

and let those who hate him take flight before him.

2 As wind-driven smoke drives off,

as wax melts before a fire,

let wrong-doers perish before God,

3 But right-doers make merry, exult

before God, and rejoice merrily.

4 Sing for God, make music for his name;

lay a road for him who rides on the clouds;

make merry in Jehovah and exult before him.

5 Father of orphans, champion of widows’ causes,

is God in his hallowed dwelling.

6 God establishes isolated men in households,

brings prisoners out hardily—

only stubborn men lodge on bare rocks.

7 God, when you came out before your people,

when you paced forth in desert land, [Selah]

8 The earth quaked; aye, the heavens dripped

before God,—this is Sinai,—

before God, Israel’s God.

9 Showers of generosity you swing, God;

your estate, it was fatigued; you brought it into condition.

10 Your animals lived in it;

you provide in your kindness

for the destitute one, God.

11 The Lord gives word;

the women that carry the news are a great host:

12 “Kings of hosts take flight, take flight,

and housemates divide booty”—

13 “If you lie in the forks of the paths”—

“A dove’s wings coated with silver

and its pinions with gold leaf”—

14 “By Shaddai’s breaking kings in it

let it snow in the Black Forest.”

15 A highland of God is the Bashan highland;

a rugged highland is the Bashan highland.

16 Why should you look with menacing eye, rugged highlands,

at the highland God desired to occupy,

and Jehovah will, too, dwell there forevermore?

18 You have gone up on high, have brought a train of captives, have received human gifts,

and even sinful men are to be neighbors of Jehovah God.

19 Blessed be the Lord, who day by day takes our load;

the Deity is our salvation. (Selah)

20 The Deity is to us a deity for salvation,

and Jehovah the Lord has ways out of death.

21 God does shatter the heads of his enemies,

the thick-haired crown of one who goes around incurring guilt.

22 The Lord has said “Back from Bashan I will bring,

bring back from the bottom of the sea,

23 So that your foot may be dyed in blood, your dogs’

tongues may have their portion out of enemies.”

24 They see your processions, God,

the processions of my Deity, my King, in the sanctuary.

25 Singers go before, harpers behind,

in the midst of young women sounding their tambourines.

26 Bless God in assembled throngs,

the Lord out of Israel’s meeting.

27 There is Benjamin the little in men,

the captains of Judah the abundant in citizens,

the captains of Zebulun, the captains of Naphtali.

28 Ordain your might, God;

be mighty, God, you who wrought for us

29 Out of your temple, in behalf of Jerusalem;

to you kings shall bring a tribute.

30 Rebuke reed-beasts,

a company of bulls among calves of peoples,

One who tramples on silver chips;

scatter peoples that take pleasure in battle.

31 They shall bring bronzes from Egypt;

Nubia’s hands shall speed them to God.

32 Kings of the earth, sing to God,

make music for the Lord, (Selah)

33 Him who rides on the sky of the ancient sky;

lo, he sounds his voice with a tone of might.

34 Give might to God!

Over Israel is his pride, and his might is in the heavens;

35 Terrible is God out of his sanctuary;

Israel’s Deity is he, giver of might and multitude to the people.

Blessed be God!

69 Save me, God—

I am drowning.

2 I am sunk in a quagmire of ooze

with no standing-ground;

I have got into the deep places in the water,

and the current sweeps me away.

3 I am exhausted with calling out; my throat is inflamed;

my eyes have given out with waiting for my God.

4 There are more of those who hate me for nothing than of hairs on my head;

those who are enemies to me on false pretexts are more numerous than my bones;

what I have not stolen I am then to give back.

5 God, you are aware of my follies,

and my delinquencies are not unknown to you:

6 Let those who hope in you not be put to shame over me,

Jehovah of Armies,

Let those who seek for you not be humiliated over me,

God of Israel,

7 For it is on your account I have borne insult,

humiliation covers my face,

8 I have been made a stranger to my brothers,

a foreigner to my mother’s sons.

9 For jealousy for your house has eaten me up,

and the insults of those who were insulting you fell on me;

10 And I mortified my flesh with fasting

and it became ignominy to me,

11 And I made a sackcloth my clothing

and became a byword of theirs;

12 Sitters in the gate made me their topic,

and beer-drinkers made jingles about me.

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you;

let there now be acceptance,

God, in your great friendliness;

answer me in your saving faithfulness.

14 Deliver me out of the mud and let me not sink in;

let me be delivered from those who hate me and from deep holes in the water,

15 Let no current of water sweep me away,

no ooze swallow me,

no well close its mouth in upon me.

16 Answer me, Jehovah, because kind is your friendliness;

turn toward me as the abundance of your sympathy would have you,

17 And do not veil your face from your servant;

because I am in distress, answer me quickly.

18 Be near my soul; stand its friend in need;

redeem me on account of my enemies.

19 you know my ignominy and shame and humiliation;

all my foemen are before your presence;

20 Insult has broken my heart,

and my case is desperate,

And I hope for condolence and there is none,

for comforters and do not find any,

21 But they have put bitter juice in the meal that was to cheer me up,

and for my thirst they give me a drink of vinegar.

22 May their table become a trap for them,

their welfare-feasts the bait on a trigger;

23 May their eyes be darkened out of seeing;

set their backs to suddenly giving way at any time;

24 Pour out your hostility over them,

and may your anger overtake them;

25 May their camping-ground be desolate

and may there be nobody to live in their tents.

26 Because they pursued those whom you had struck

and added to the pain of those whom you had stabbed,

27 Put on guilt to their guilt

and may they not have the benefit of your right-doing.

28 May they be erased from the book of life

and not written down with honest men.

29 But I am in hardship and in pain;

may your salvation, God, set me out of reach of harm.

30 I will praise God’s name in song

and proclaim his greatness in thanksgiving,

31 And it will be better to Jehovah than a beast,

a horned and hoofed steer.

32 See, humble men, and be glad;

you who invoke God, and blithe be your hearts,

33 Because Jehovah is a hearer of needy men

and does not disdain his prisoners.

34 Let sky and earth praise him,

seas and everything that stirs in them,

35 Because God will save Sion,

will rebuild the cities of Judah,

and they shall live there and have possession of it,

36 And his servants’ issue shall take it as their estate

and those who love his name shall people it.

70 Be pleased to deliver me, God;

Jehovah, hasten to my help.

2 Let those be disappointed and abashed

who are hunting after my life;

Let those fall back and be humiliated

who would like harm for me.

3 Let those stand aghast as they look back on their disappointment

who are saying “Oho, oho!”

4 Let all who go in quest of you

be joyous and merry in you;

Let those who love your salvation

say all the time “God is showing himself great!”

5 And me, insignificant and needy,

make haste for me, God;

You are my help and deliverer;

my God, do not delay.

71 In you, Jehovah, I take refuge;

forever let me not be disappointed.

2 In your right-doing deliver me and bring me through;

turn your ear toward me and save me.

3 Be a citadel rock for me,

a fastness house to save me,

because you are my cliff and fastness.

4 My God, bring me off out of a wrong-doer’s hands,

out of the clutch of an unscrupulous and unjust man.

5 For you are my hope, Lord;

Jehovah has been my confidence from my childhood;

6 On you I have propped myself ever since my birth;

it was you that severed me from my mother’s body;

for you is my constant praise.

7 I rate like a miracle for many,

and you are my sheltering refuge.

8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise

and your magnificence all day.

9 Do not throw me away at the time of old age,

when my strength gives out do not abandon me,

10 For my enemies are saying of me

and those who watch for my life are conferring together,

11 Saying “God has abandoned him;

give chase and catch him, for there is nobody to deliver him.”

12 God, do not be far off from me;

my God, hasten to my help.

13 Let those who are adversaries to my life be disappointed, give out;

let those who are looking for harm to me be wrapped in ignominy and humiliation.

14 But I will be always in expectation

and be adding to all your praise;

15 My mouth shall tell the story of your right-doing

and your salvation all day,

For I do not know books,

16 I am bringing the Lord Jehovah’s exploits,

I commemorate your right-doing, yours alone.

17 God, you have taught me since my childhood,

and down to now I am telling your wonderful deeds;

18 And even to old age and gray hair,

God, do not abandon me,

Till I tell of your arm to a generation that is coming.

19 Your might and your right-doing, God, are most high,

Forasmuch as you have done great things.

God, who is like you?

20 You who have showed us distresses many and grievous

will again bring us to life

and again bring us up from the deeps of the earth.

21 Give me much greatness,

comfort me more and more.

22 I on my part will give thanks to you,

with a harp to your faithfulness, my God,

Will make music for you with a lyre,

Holy One of Israel.

23 My lips shall carol

because I am making music for you,

and my soul, which you have redeemed.

24 My tongue too all day

shall deal with your right-doing,

Because shamed are they, abashed are they,

who seek harm for me.

72 God, give a king your justice,

a king’s son your right-dealing!

2 He will give his verdicts to your people rightly

and to your downtrodden justly.

3 Mountains shall carry peace for the people,

and hills, by right.

4 He will do justice for downtrodden classes,

will save sons of poverty,

and will beat down a refuser of rights.

5 He shall last along with the sun,

and before the moon for a cycle of generations.

6 He shall come down like rain on mowings,

like showers drenching earth.

7 In his days right will flower

and plentiful peace till there shall be no moon.

8 And he shall have the mastery from sea to sea

and from the River to ends of earth.

9 Before him foes shall stoop

and his enemies shall lick dust.

10 Kings of Spain and islands shall pay him tribute,

kings of Sheba and Seba present gratuities,

11 And all kings shall do him reverence,

all nations be subject to him.

12 For he shall deliver needy suppliant

and downtrodden man and man whom none will help,

13 He shall have mercy on poor man and needy

and save needy men’s lives,

14 From extortion and outrage he shall protect their lives,

and deem their blood worth his attention,

15 That he may live and may be given gold from Sheba

and that they may pray for him continually,

may bless him all the day,

16 There may be plenty of grain in the country,

shaking on mountaintops,

His fruit may be like that of the Lebanon

and the offspring of his body like the herbage of the earth.

17 Be his name forever,

before the sun be his name set firm,

And may they bless by him,

all nations proclaim his happiness!

18 Blessed be Jehovah God, Israel’s God,

who alone does wonders,

19 And blessed be his glorious name forever

and be all the earth filled with his glory!

Amen and amen!

73 Assuredly the Deity is good to the upright man,

God to the single-hearted.

2 But as for me, my feet were very near going wrong,

my steps were at the point of slipping,

3 Because I was jealous at reckless men,

seeing the welfare of wrong-doers,

4 That they are under no duress,

their paunch is sound and plump.

5 They are not in the troubles of humanity

and are not stricken with mankind.

6 So pride is their necklace,

a drapery of enormities wraps them round,

7 Their complexion is clearer than milk,

they surpass the imagery of fancy.

8 They crack jokes over bad things

and refuse justice in most lofty terms.

9 They have set their mouth in the sky

and their tongue walks about on earth.

10 So his people turns back to this,

and they are humiliated at the fullness of them

11 And say “How can it be that Deity knows

and there is knowledge on high?

12 Here these are wrong-doers

and forever undisturbed, they aggrandize their fortunes.

13 It was just to no purpose that I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence,

14 And I have been smitten all day

and my chastisement comes every morning.”

15 If I thought I would tell the story like that

I should be faithless to the generation of your children.

16 And I studied to know about this;

I found it a trying task

17 Till I went into Deity’s sanctuary,

discerned their future:

18 You set their feet altogether in slippery places

and bring them to their fall with blasting.

19 How they have become blighted wrecks in an instant,

ended, totally gone in dissolution,

20 Like a dream that after waking is not there,

at rousing you despise its images!

21 When my heart goes sour

and I am pricked in my bosom,

22 I am brutish and do not know;

I am a beast to you.

23 But I am always with you;

you hold my right hand;

24 You will guide me on the line of your plan

and afterward take me in glory.

25 Who is there for me in heaven?

and beside you I care for nothing on earth.

26 My muscles and my brain are giving out,

but God is my portion forever.

27 For those who are far from you do perish,

you annihilate those who leave you and find an unlawful mate,

28 But to me God’s nearness is good;

I have made the Lord Jehovah my refuge,

telling the story of all your workings.

74 Why do you permanently repudiate us, God,

why is your anger at the sheep you tended so smoking hot?

2 Remember your congregation you acquired of old,

claimed as the tribe of your estate,

The mountain of Sion on which you dwell,

3 which your footsteps have exalted to perpetual sublimity.

An enemy has done everything bad to the holy things.

4 Your foemen roared like wild beasts within your meeting-place,

set their ensigns as signs.

7 They have set fire to your sanctuary,

desecrated the abode of your name down to the ground.

9 We have not seen our signs; there is no longer any prophet;

we have nobody with us who knows how far it will go.

10 How long, God, shall a foe offer insults?

Shall an enemy eternally treat your name with contempt?

11 Why do you draw back your hand

and imprison your right hand in the fold of your robe?

12 But God is my King from of old,

who does saving work in the midst of the earth.

13 It was you that by your might tore sea with convulsions

and broke monsters’ heads to pieces over the water;

14 It was you that splintered Leviathan’s heads,

giving him for food to the race of wildcats;

15 It was you that opened up spring and arroyo,

it was you that dried out perennial rivers.

16 Yours is day, yours too is night;

it was you that installed heavenly orb and sun.

17 It was you that set all the boundaries of earth;

summer and winter it was you that framed.

18 Remember this; an enemy has been taunting Jehovah,

an uncivilized people have treated your name with contempt.

19 Do not give up to wild beasts a soul that gives its thanks to you;

do not permanently forget the life of your sufferers.

20 Look at your creatures filling with viciousness,

for earth is the field of outrage.

21 Let a downtrodden man not come back humiliated;

let a sufferer and a needy man praise your name.

22 Stand up, God, defend your rights!

remember the insults you have had from rascals all day!

23 Do not forget the voice of your foemen,

the hubbub of those who are out against you, that goes up all the time!

75 We thank you, God, we thank you

and call on your name, tell the story of your wonders.

2 “When my day comes

I will judge evenhandedly.

3 Earth and all its inhabitants swing back and forth—

I make its pillars fast. (Selah)

4 I say to reckless men ‘Do not be so reckless,’

and to wrong-doers ‘Do not carry your horns so loftily.’”

5 Do not carry your horns so very loftily,

talking arrogance against the Rock;

6 For not from east nor from west

nor yet from wilderness comes uplifting,

7 But God gives judgment,

brings this one down and that one up.

8 For Jehovah has in his hand a cup

with foaming wine full of strong spice,

And he pours to this one and to that one;

they are to drain its very dregs,

all earth’s wrong-doers are to drink.

9 But I will exult forever,

will make music to the God of Jacob,

10 And chop off all the horns of wrong-doers;

right-doers’ horns shall be carried loftily.

76 Known in Judah is God,

in Israel his name is great,

2 And he has his lodge in Salem

and his dwelling in Sion.

3 There he broke quiver and bow,

shield and sword and battalion. (Selah)

4 More grand and resplendent are you

than mountains of prey.

5 Men of warlike heart were despoiled, lay sound asleep,

and not any stalwart men could find their hands.

6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob,

chariot and pony were in a trance.

7 Fearful are you, and who will stand his ground before you

in your moment of anger?

8 From heaven you proclaimed a sentence;

earth feared and was still

9 When God stood up for judgment

to save all earth’s sufferers. (Selah)

10 For man’s rage pays homage to you,

and the remnant from rage you gird up.

11 Vow and pay to your God Jehovah;

all who live around him shall bring tribute to the Fearful.

12 He abates the spirits of potentates;

he is fearful to the kings of earth.

77 Aloud to God I cry,

aloud to God that he may give ear to me.

2 In my day of distress I invoke the Lord,

I spread out my hands.

By night my soul drains out

and never has its pain dulled, refuses to be comforted.

3 I remember God and am in a turmoil;

I muse and my spirit fails me. (Selah)

4 My eyelids are held,

I am oppressed and cannot speak.

5 I think over ancient days,

remember years of old;

6 I wonder to myself in the night;

I muse and make mental explorations:

7 Does the Lord repudiate us forever and ever,

and will he never again be favorable?

8 Is his friendship permanently at an end,

is all over with his loyalty, generation after generation?

9 Has Deity forgotten graciousness

or shut up his sympathies in anger? (Selah)

10 And I thought of Jehovah’s being sick,

of change in the right hand of the Most High.

11 I bring to mind Jehovah’s doings,

because I remember out of ancient time your work of wonder,

12 And study over all your activities

and muse on your deeds.

13 God, through the holy sphere is your course;

who is so great a deity as God?

14 You are the Deity that did work of wonder,

made your might known among the peoples.

15 With might and main you championed your people

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah)

16 Water saw you, God,

water saw you, winced,

the deeps quavered too,

17 Clouds showered water,

the heavens resounded,

your arrows too flew about,

18 The sound of your thunder went like chariot-wheels,

lightnings lighted up the world,

earth quavered and quaked.

19 Your road was through the sea

and your paths through a great water,

and your footprints were not known.

20 You led your people along like a flock of sheep

by the hands of Moses and Aaron.

78 Give ear to my instructions, my people,

bend your ears to the say of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a lesson of history,

will stream mysterious facts from ancient time.

3 What we have heard and know

and our fathers have told us

4 We will not conceal from their children,

telling the tale to a later generation,

Jehovah’s praises and his feats of might

and the wonders that he did

5 And set up a testimony in Jacob

and established a code of instructions in Israel

Which he commanded our fathers

to make known to their children,

6 In order that a later generation might know,

children that were to be born,

Might stand up and tell the story to their children,

7 to have them set their confidence in God

And not forget Deity’s doings

but keep his commandments,