27

By David.

1Yahweh is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

Yahweh is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh,

even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

3Though an army should encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear.

Though war should rise against me,

even then I will be confident.

4One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after:

that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life,

to see Yahweh’s beauty,

and to inquire in his temple.

5For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion.

In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me.

He will lift me up on a rock.

6Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me.

I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent.

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.

7Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice.

Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

8When you said, “Seek my face,”

my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, Yahweh.”

9Don’t hide your face from me.

Don’t put your servant away in anger.

You have been my help.

Don’t abandon me,

neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

10When my father and my mother forsake me,

then Yahweh will take me up.

11Teach me your way, Yahweh.

Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.

12Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries,

for false witnesses have risen up against me,

such as breathe out cruelty.

13I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.

14Wait for Yahweh.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for Yahweh.

28

By David.

1To you, Yahweh, I call.

My rock, don’t be deaf to me,

lest, if you are silent to me,

I would become like those who go down into the pit.

2Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you,

when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

3Don’t draw me away with the wicked,

with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors,

but mischief is in their hearts.

4Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings.

Give them according to the operation of their hands.

Bring back on them what they deserve.

5Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh,

nor the operation of his hands,

he will break them down and not build them up.

6Blessed be Yahweh,

because he has heard the voice of my petitions.

7Yahweh is my strength and my shield.

My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped.

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices.

With my song I will thank him.

8Yahweh is their strength.

He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.

9Save your people,

and bless your inheritance.

Be their shepherd also,

and bear them up forever.

29

A Psalm by David.

1Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty,

ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

2Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name.

Worship Yahweh in holy array.

3Yahweh’s voice is on the waters.

The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.

4Yahweh’s voice is powerful.

Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty.

5Yahweh’s voice breaks the cedars.

Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

6He makes them also to skip like a calf;

Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox.

7Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning.

8Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness.

Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve,

and strips the forests bare.

In his temple everything says, “Glory!”

10Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood.

Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.

11Yahweh will give strength to his people.

Yahweh will bless his people with peace.

30

A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David.

1I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up,

and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

2Yahweh my God, I cried to you,

and you have healed me.

3Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol.

You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

4Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his.

Give thanks to his holy name.

5For his anger is but for a moment.

His favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may stay for the night,

but joy comes in the morning.

6As for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I shall never be moved.”

7You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong;

but when you hid your face, I was troubled.

8I cried to you, Yahweh.

I made supplication to the Lord:

9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit?

Shall the dust praise you?

Shall it declare your truth?

10Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me.

Yahweh, be my helper.”

11You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.

You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

12to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent.

Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

31

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

1In you, Yahweh, I take refuge.

Let me never be disappointed.

Deliver me in your righteousness.

2Bow down your ear to me.

Deliver me speedily.

Be to me a strong rock,

a house of defense to save me.

3For you are my rock and my fortress,

therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.

4Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me,

for you are my stronghold.

5Into your hand I commend my spirit.

You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

6I hate those who regard lying vanities,

but I trust in Yahweh.

7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness,

for you have seen my affliction.

You have known my soul in adversities.

8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.

You have set my feet in a large place.

9Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.

My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

10For my life is spent with sorrow,

my years with sighing.

My strength fails because of my iniquity.

My bones are wasted away.

11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,

a horror to my acquaintances.

Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.

I am like broken pottery.

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

while they conspire together against me,

they plot to take away my life.

14But I trust in you, Yahweh.

I said, “You are my God.”

15My times are in your hand.

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

16Make your face to shine on your servant.

Save me in your loving kindness.

17Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.

Let the wicked be disappointed.

Let them be silent in Sheol.

18Let the lying lips be mute,

which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.

19Oh how great is your goodness,

which you have laid up for those who fear you,

which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,

before the sons of men!

20In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man.

You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.

21Praise be to Yahweh,

for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.

22As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.”

Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.

23Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints!

Yahweh preserves the faithful,

and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.

24Be strong, and let your heart take courage,

all you who hope in Yahweh.

32

By David. A contemplative psalm.

1Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

2Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity,

in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

4For day and night your hand was heavy on me.

My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

5I acknowledged my sin to you.

I didn’t hide my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh,

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found.

Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

7You are my hiding place.

You will preserve me from trouble.

You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.

I will counsel you with my eye on you.

9Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding,

who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

10Many sorrows come to the wicked,

but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh.

11Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous!

Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

33

1Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous!

Praise is fitting for the upright.

2Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre.

Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.

3Sing to him a new song.

Play skillfully with a shout of joy!

4For Yahweh’s word is right.

All his work is done in faithfulness.

5He loves righteousness and justice.

The earth is full of the loving kindness of Yahweh.

6By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made:

all their army by the breath of his mouth.

7He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.

He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

8Let all the earth fear Yahweh.

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

9For he spoke, and it was done.

He commanded, and it stood firm.

10Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

11The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever,

the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,

the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

13Yahweh looks from heaven.

He sees all the sons of men.

14From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

15he who fashions all of their hearts;

and he considers all of their works.

16There is no king saved by the multitude of an army.

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17A horse is a vain thing for safety,

neither does he deliver any by his great power.

18Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in his loving kindness,

19to deliver their soul from death,

to keep them alive in famine.

20Our soul has waited for Yahweh.

He is our help and our shield.

21For our heart rejoices in him,

because we have trusted in his holy name.

22Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh,

since we have hoped in you.