those who cherish His name shall dwell there.
70 For the leader. Of David. Lehazkir.a
2bHasten, O God, to save me;
O LORD, to aid me!
3Let those who seek my life
be frustrated and disgraced;
let those who wish me harm,
fall back in shame.
4Let those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
turn back because of their frustration.
5But let all who seek You be glad and rejoice in You;
let those who are eager for Your deliverance always say,
“Extolled be God!”
6But I am poor and needy;
O God, hasten to me!
You are my help and my rescuer;
O LORD, do not delay.
71I seek refuge in You, O LORD;
may I never be disappointed.
2As You are beneficent, save me and rescue me;
incline Your ear to me and deliver me.
3Be a sheltering rock for me to which I may always repair;
decree my deliverance,
for You are my rock and my fortress.
4My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and the lawless.
5For You are my hope,
O Lord God,
my trust from my youth.
6While yet unborn, I depended on You;
in the womb of my mother, You were my support;a
I sing Your praises always.
7I have become an example for many,
since You are my mighty refuge.
8My mouth is full of praise to You,
glorifying You all day long.
9Do not cast me off in old age;
when my strength fails, do not forsake me!
10For my enemies talk against me;
those who wait for me are of one mind,
11saying, “God has forsaken him;
chase him and catch him,
for no one will save him!”
12O God, be not far from me;
my God, hasten to my aid!
13Let my accusers perish in frustration;
let those who seek my ruin be clothed in reproach and disgrace!
14As for me, I will hope always,
and add to the many praises of You.
15My mouth tells of Your beneficence,
of Your deliverance all day long,
though I know not how to tell it.
16I come with praise of Your mighty acts, O Lord GOD;
I celebrate Your beneficence, Yours alone.
17You have let me experience it, God, from my youth;
until now I have proclaimed Your wondrous deeds,
18and even in hoary old age do not forsake me, God,
until I proclaim Your strength to the next generation,
19Your mighty acts, to all who are to come,
Your beneficence, high as the heavens, O God,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is Your peer!
20You who have made me undergo many troubles and
misfortunes
will revive me again,
and raise me up from the depths of the earth.
21You will grant me much greatness,
You will turn and comfort me.
22Then I will acclaim You to the music of the lyre
for Your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing a hymn to You with a harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
23My lips shall be jubilant, as I sing a hymn to You,
my whole being, which You have redeemed.
24All day long my tongue shall recite Your beneficent acts,
how those who sought my ruin were frustrated and
disgraced.
72 Of Solomon.
O God, endow the king with Your judgments,
the king’s son with Your righteousness;
2that he may judge Your people rightly,
Your lowly ones, justly.
3Let the mountains produce well-being for the people,
the hills, the reward of justice.
4Let him champion the lowly among the people,
deliver the needy folk,
and crush those who wrong them.
5Let them fear You as long as the sun shines,
while the moon lasts, generations on end.
6Let him be like rain that falls on a mown field,
like a downpour of rain on the ground,
7that the righteous may flourish in his time,
and well-being abound, till the moon is no more.
8Let him rule from sea to sea,
from the river to the ends of the earth.
9Let desert-dwellers kneel before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
10Let kings of Tarshish and the islands pay tribute,
kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
11Let all kings bow to him,
and all nations serve him.
12For he saves the needy who cry out,
the lowly who have no helper.
13He cares about the poor and the needy;
He brings the needy deliverance.
14He redeems them from fraud and lawlessness;
a-the shedding of their blood weighs heavily upon him.-a
15So let him live, and receive gold of Sheba;
let prayers for him be said always,
blessings on him invoked at all times.
16b-Let abundant grain be in the land, to the tops of the
mountains;
let his crops thrive like the forest of Lebanon;
and let men sprout up in towns like country grass.
17May his name be eternal;
while the sun lasts, may his name endure;-b
let men invoke his blessedness upon themselves;
let all nations count him happy.
18Blessed is the LORD God, God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things;
19Blessed is His glorious name forever;
His glory fills the whole world.
Amen and Amen.
20End of the prayers of David son of Jesse.
book three
73 A psalm of Asaph.
God is truly good to Israel,
to those whose heart is pure.
2As for me, my feet had almost strayed,
my steps were nearly led off course,
3for I envied the wanton;
I saw the wicked at case.
4Death has no pangs for them;
their body is healthy.
5They have no part in the travail of men;
they are not afflicted like the rest of mankind.
6So pride adorns their necks,
lawlessness enwraps them as a mantle.
7a-Fat shuts out their eyes;
their fancies are extravagant.-a
8They scoff and plan evil;
from their eminence they plan wrongdoing.
9They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.
10a-So they pound His people again and again,
until they are drained of their very last tear.-a
11Then they say, “How could God know?
Is there knowledge with the Most High?”
12Such are the wicked;
ever tranquil, they amass wealth.
13It was for nothing that I kept my heart pure
and washed my hands in innocence,
14seeing that I have been constantly afflicted,
that each morning brings new punishments.
15Had I decided to say these things,
I should have been false to the circle of Your disciples.
16So I applied myself to understand this,
but it seemed a hopeless task
17till I entered God’s sanctuary
and reflected on their fate.
18You surround them with flattery;
You make them fall through blandishments.
19How suddenly are they ruined,
wholly swept away by terrors.
20a-When You are aroused You despise their image,
as one does a dream after waking, O LORD,-a
21My mind was stripped of its reason,
b-my feelings were numbed.-b
22I was a dolt, without knowledge;
I was brutish toward You.
23Yet I was always with You,
You held my right hand;
24You guided me by Your counsel
c-and led me toward honor.-c
25Whom else have I in heaven?
And having You, I want no one on earth.
26My body and mind fail;
but God is the stayd of my mind, my portion forever.
27Those who keep far from You perish;
You annihilate all who are untrue to You.
28As for me, nearness to God is good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may recount all Your works.
74 A maskil of Asaph.
Why, O God, do You forever reject us,
do You fume in anger at the flock that You tend?
2Remember the community You made Yours long ago,
Your very own tribe that You redeemed,
Mount Zion, where You dwell.
3a-Bestir Yourself-a because of the b-perpetual tumult,-b
all the outrages of the enemy in the sanctuary.
4Your foes roar inside Your meeting-place;
they take their signs for true signs.
5b-It is like men wielding axes
against a gnarled tree;
6with hatchet and pike
they hacked away at its carved work.-b
7They made Your sanctuary go up in flames;
they brought low in dishonor the dwelling-place of Your
presence.
8They resolved, “Let us destroy them altogether!”
They burned all God’s tabernacles in the land.
9No signs appear for us;
there is no longer any prophet;
no one among us knows for how long.
10Till when, O God, will the foe blaspheme,
will the enemy forever revile Your name?
11Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?
b-Draw it out of Your bosom!-b
12O God, my king from of old,
who brings deliverance throughout the land;
13it was You who drove back the sea with Your might,
who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters;
14it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan,
who left him as food for c-the denizens of the desert;-c
15it was You who released springs and torrents,
who made mighty rivers run dry;
16the day is Yours, the night also;
it was You who set in place the orb of the sun;
17You fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
summer and winter—You made them.
18Be mindful of how the enemy blasphemes the LORD,
how base people revile Your name.
19Do not deliver Your dove to the wild beast;
do not ignore forever the band of Your lowly ones.
20Look to the covenant!
For the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of
lawlessness.
21Let not the downtrodden turn away disappointed;
let the poor and needy praise Your name.
22Rise, O God, champion Your cause;
be mindful that You are blasphemed by base men all day
long.
23Do not ignore the shouts of Your foes,
the din of Your adversaries that ascends all the time.
`
75 For the leader; al tashheth.
A psalm of Asaph, a song.
2We praise You, O God;
we praise You;
Your presence is near;
men tell of Your wondrous deeds.
3“At the time I choose,
I will give judgment equitably.
4Earth and all its inhabitants dissolve;
it is I who keep its pillars firm. Selah.
5To wanton men I say, ‘Do not be wanton!’
to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns!’ ”
6Do not lift your horns up high
a-in vainglorious bluster.-a
7For what lifts a man comes not from the east
or the west or the wilderness;b
8for God it is who gives judgment;
He brings down one man, He lifts up another.
9There is a cup in the LORD’s hand
with foaming wine fully mixed;
from this He pours;
all the wicked of the earth drink,
draining it to the very dregs.
10As for me, I will declare forever,
I will sing a hymn to the God of Jacob.
11“All the horns of the wicked I will cut;
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.”
76 For the leader; with instrumental music.
A psalm of Asaph, a song.
2God has made Himself known in Judah,
His name is great in Israel;
3Salem became His abode;
Zion, His den.
4There He broke the fiery arrows of the bow,
the shield and the sword of war. Selah.
5You were resplendent,
glorious, on the mountains
