39

For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David.

1I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.

I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”

2I was mute with silence.

I held my peace, even from good.

My sorrow was stirred.

3My heart was hot within me.

While I meditated, the fire burned.

I spoke with my tongue:

4“Yahweh, show me my end,

what is the measure of my days.

Let me know how frail I am.

5Behold, you have made my days hand widths.

My lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.

6“Surely every man walks like a shadow.

Surely they busy themselves in vain.

He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

7Now, Lord, what do I wait for?

My hope is in you.

8Deliver me from all my transgressions.

Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.

9I was mute.

I didn’t open my mouth,

because you did it.

10Remove your scourge away from me.

I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,

you consume his wealth like a moth.

Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.

12“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry.

Don’t be silent at my tears.

For I am a stranger with you,

a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

13Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,

before I go away and exist no more.”

40

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

1I waited patiently for Yahweh.

He turned to me, and heard my cry.

2He brought me up also out of a horrible pit,

out of the miry clay.

He set my feet on a rock,

and gave me a firm place to stand.

3He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.

Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.

4Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust,

and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.

5Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done,

and your thoughts which are toward us.

They can’t be declared back to you.

If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.

6Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire.

You have opened my ears.

You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.

7Then I said, “Behold, I have come.

It is written about me in the book in the scroll.

8I delight to do your will, my God.

Yes, your law is within my heart.”

9I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly.

Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know.

10I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart.

I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation.

I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.

11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh.

Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.

12For innumerable evils have surrounded me.

My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up.

They are more than the hairs of my head.

My heart has failed me.

13Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me.

Hurry to help me, Yahweh.

14Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it.

Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

15Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”

16Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.

Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let Yahweh be exalted!”

17But I am poor and needy.

May the Lord think about me.

You are my help and my deliverer.

Don’t delay, my God.

41

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

1Blessed is he who considers the poor.

Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

2Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.

He shall be blessed on the earth,

and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

3Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,

and restore him from his bed of illness.

4I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

5My enemies speak evil against me:

“When will he die, and his name perish?”

6If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.

His heart gathers iniquity to itself.

When he goes abroad, he tells it.

7All who hate me whisper together against me.

They imagine the worst for me.

8“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him.

Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

9Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,

who ate bread with me,

has lifted up his heel against me.

10But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up,

that I may repay them.

11By this I know that you delight in me,

because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.

12As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,

and set me in your presence forever.

13Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,

from everlasting and to everlasting!

Amen and amen.

42

BOOK 2

For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah.

1As the deer pants for the water brooks,

so my soul pants after you, God.

2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

3My tears have been my food day and night,

while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

4These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,

how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house,

with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.

5Why are you in despair, my soul?

Why are you disturbed within me?

Hope in God!

For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

6My God, my soul is in despair within me.

Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.

All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

8Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime.

In the night his song shall be with me:

a prayer to the God of my life.

9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me,

while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

11Why are you in despair, my soul?

Why are you disturbed within me?

Hope in God! For I shall still praise him,

the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

43

1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.

Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3Oh, send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me.

Let them bring me to your holy hill,

to your tents.

4Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God, my exceeding joy.

I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.

5Why are you in despair, my soul?

Why are you disturbed within me?

Hope in God!

For I shall still praise him:

my Savior, my helper, and my God.

44

For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative psalm.

1We have heard with our ears, God;

our fathers have told us what work you did in their days,

in the days of old.

2You drove out the nations with your hand,

but you planted them.

You afflicted the peoples,

but you spread them abroad.

3For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword,

neither did their own arm save them;

but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face,

because you were favorable to them.

4God, you are my King.

Command victories for Jacob!

5Through you, we will push down our adversaries.

Through your name, we will tread down those who rise up against us.

6For I will not trust in my bow,

neither will my sword save me.

7But you have saved us from our adversaries,

and have shamed those who hate us.

8In God we have made our boast all day long.

We will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.

9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor,

and don’t go out with our armies.

10You make us turn back from the adversary.

Those who hate us take plunder for themselves.

11You have made us like sheep for food,

and have scattered us among the nations.

12You sell your people for nothing,

and have gained nothing from their sale.

13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,

a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.

14You make us a byword among the nations,

a shaking of the head among the peoples.

15All day long my dishonor is before me,

and shame covers my face,

16at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses,

because of the enemy and the avenger.

17All this has come on us,

yet we haven’t forgotten you.

We haven’t been false to your covenant.

18Our heart has not turned back,

neither have our steps strayed from your path,

19though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals,

and covered us with the shadow of death.

20If we have forgotten the name of our God,

or spread out our hands to a strange god,

21won’t God search this out?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

22Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.

23Wake up!

Why do you sleep, Lord?

Arise!

Don’t reject us forever.

24Why do you hide your face,

and forget our affliction and our oppression?

25For our soul is bowed down to the dust.

Our body clings to the earth.

26Rise up to help us.

Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.

45

For the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A contemplation by the sons of Korah. A wedding song.

1My heart overflows with a noble theme.

I recite my verses for the king.

My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

2You are the most excellent of the sons of men.

Grace has anointed your lips,

therefore God has blessed you forever.

3Strap your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,

in your splendor and your majesty.

4In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness.

Let your right hand display awesome deeds.

5Your arrows are sharp.

The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies.

6Your throne, God, is forever and ever.

A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.

7You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness.

Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.

8All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia.

Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.

9Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women.

At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.

10Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear.

Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.

11So the king will desire your beauty,

honor him, for he is your lord.

12The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift.

The rich among the people entreat your favor.

13The princess inside is all glorious.

Her clothing is interwoven with gold.

14She shall be led to the king in embroidered work.

The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.

15With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led.

They shall enter into the king’s palace.

16Your sons will take the place of your fathers.

You shall make them princes in all the earth.

17I will make your name to be remembered in all generations.

Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.