Happy the man who has not walked in the wicked’s counsel,
    nor in the way of offenders has stood,
        nor in the session of scoffers has sat.
But the LORD’s teaching is his desire,
    and His teaching he murmurs day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water,
    that bears its fruit in its season,
        and its leaf does not wither—
and in all that he does he prospers.
Not so the wicked,
    but like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand up in judgment,
    nor offenders in the band of the righteous.
For the LORD embraces the way of the righteous,
    and the way of the wicked is lost.

What makes nations erupt and people’s minds go wild?
The heedless take counsel of the heedless
And in their senselessness think to flee from you
And from the authority only you confer, saying
“Let us break apart the ties
And throw away the cords”

You laugh at them, hold them up in derision
You speak your anger for them, terrifying them in your confoundedness:

I have ordained what is as it utterly is
On Zion, this mountain where you stand
Announcing the order of things in clear words:
That you are my children, repeatedly created as I am now
And that what you with rounded words pronounce
I will grant
The nations are for you only, your immediate birthright
 You possess and are possessed by all and everywhere
And so you break oppression like a rod of iron is broken
And you crush heedlessness as a potter’s vessel is crushed underfoot

And you who think that flight from me is possible
That it is protection, advancement, and power—
Take warning in these words:

Recognize the sovereignty of what is
Recognize it with awesome respect
Rejoice in it, but with care
Pay homage to it, but without greed
Lest the unnameable consume you in the leaping flames
Of loneliness, dispossession, and hatred

    Happy are they who find their home
    In the kingdom of what is

LORD, how many are my foes,
    many, who rise up against me.
Many, who say of my life:
    “No rescue for him through God.”           selah
And You, LORD, a shield are for me,
    my glory, Who lifts up my head.
With my voice I cry out to the LORD,
    and He answers me from His holy mountain.       selah
I lie down and I sleep.
    I awake, for the LORD has sustained me.
I fear not from myriads of troops
    that round about set against me.
Rise, LORD! Rescue me, my God,
    for You strike all my foes on the cheek,
        the teeth of the wicked You smash.
Rescue is the LORD’s!
    On Your people Your blessing.           selah

Because I call
You answer
For you are fitting
Because I am small
You enlarge me
For you are gracious
You hear my song
How long will the others
Darken my light
How long will they
Live in uselessness
Lies and seduction
Knowing you set aside
The good for your own
And answer me when I call

People, tremble
And be upright
Commune with your hearts
In the deep of night
Awake on your beds

Be still: Offer that
For it is fitting
Trust it
For it is the rightness
Of all that is

People say
Who will bring us
What we need?
Who will beam
Heaven’s light
On us?

But already
My heart has more joy
Than full granaries
And wineries
Could provide

And I will lie down
To sleep
With a deep peace
For in you
I find my completion

Hearken to my speech, O LORD,
    attend to my utterance.
Listen well to my voice crying out, my king and my God,
    for to You I pray.
LORD, in the morning You hear my voice,
    in the morning I lay it before You and wait.
For not a god desiring wickedness are You,
    no evil will sojourn by You.
The debauched take no stand in Your eyes,
    You hate all the wrongdoers.
You destroy the pronouncers of lies,
    a man of blood and deceit the LORD loathes.
As for me—through Your great kindness I enter Your house,
    I bow to Your holy temple in the fear of You.
Guide me, O LORD, in Your righteousness.
    On account of my foes, make my way straight before me.
For there is nothing right in their mouths,
    within them—falsehood.
An open grave their throat,
    their tongue, smooth-talking.
Condemn them, O God.
    Let them fall by their counsels for their many sins.
        Cast them off, for they have rebelled against You.
Let all who shelter in You rejoice,
    let them sing gladly forever—protect them!
        and those who love Your name exult in You.
For You bless the just man, O LORD.
    Like a shield You crown him with favor.

LORD, do not chastise me in Your wrath,
    do not punish me in Your fury.
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am wretched.
    Heal me, for my limbs are stricken.
And my life is hard stricken.
    —and You, O LORD, how long?
Come back, LORD, deliver my life,
    rescue me for the sake of Your kindness.
For death holds no mention of You.
    In Sheol who can acclaim You?
I weary in my sighing.
    I make my bed swim every night,
        with my tears I water my couch.
From vexation my eye becomes dim,
    is worn out, because of all my foes.
Turn from me, all you wrongdoers,
    for the LORD hears the sound of my weeping.
The LORD hears my plea,
    the LORD will take my prayer.
Let all my enemies be shamed and hard stricken,
    let them turn back, be shamed in an instant.

LORD, my God, in You I sheltered.
    Rescue me from all my pursuers and save me.
Lest like a lion they tear up my life—
    rend me, with no one to save me.
LORD, my God, if I have done this,
    if there be wrongdoing in my hands.
If I paid back my ally with evil,
    if I oppressed my foes without reason—
may the enemy pursue and overtake me
    and trample to earth my life
        and make my glory dwell in the dust.        selah
Rise up, O LORD, in Your anger,
    Loom high against the wrath of my enemies.
        Rouse for me the justice You ordained.
A band of nations surrounds You,
    and above it to the heights return.
The LORD will judge peoples.
    Grant me justice, LORD, as befits my righteousness
        and as befits my innocence that is in me.
May evil put an end to the wicked;
    and make the righteous stay unshaken.
He searches hearts and conscience,
    God is righteous.
My shield—upon God,
    rescuing the upright.
God exacts justice for the righteous
    and El utters doom each day.
If a man repent not, He sharpens His sword,
    He pulls back his bow and aims it.
And for him, He readies the tools of death,
    lets fly His arrows at the fleers.
Look, one spawns wrongdoing,
    grows big with mischief,
        gives birth to lies.
A pit he delved, and dug it,
    and he fell in the trap he made.
His mischief comes down on his head,
    on his skull his outrage descends.
I acclaim the LORD for His righteousness,
    let me hymn the LORD’s name, Most High.

Your unsayable name: it covers all the earth
And your presence extends ever outward
From the furthest conceivable point

Out of the mouths of babes
Who speak only wordless wondering words
You fashion your incomprehensible power
That gathers into silence all opposition
All that pressure to deaden and destroy

When I behold the night sky, the work of your fingers
The bright moon and the many-layered stars which you have established
I think:

A woman is so frail and you remember her
A man so small and you think of him

And yet
In you woman and man become as angels
Crowned with a luminous presence
And you have given them care for the works of your hands
Placed the solid growing earth under their feet

Flocks of birds and herds of deer
Oxen and sheep and goats and cows
Soaring birds and darting fishes
All that swims the paths of the sea

O you whom I am ever addressing
Your unsayable name covers heaven and earth

I acclaim the LORD with all my heart,
    let me tell of all His wonders.
Let me rejoice and be glad in You,
    let me hymn Your name, Most High,
when my enemies turn back,
    when they stumble and perish before You.
For You upheld my justice, my right,
    You sat on the throne of the righteous judge.
You rebuked the nations, destroyed the wicked,
    their name You wiped out forever.
The enemy—ruins that are gone for all time,
    and the towns you smashed, their name is lost.
But the LORD is forever enthroned,
    makes His throne for justice unshaken.
And He judges the world in righteousness,
    lays down law to the nations in truth.
Let the LORD be a fortress for the downcast,
    a fortress in times of distress.
And those who know Your name will trust You,
    for You forsook not Your seekers, O LORD.
Hymn to the LORD Who dwells in Zion,
    tell among the peoples His deeds.
For the Requiter of blood recalled them,
    He forgot not the cry of the lowly.
Grant me grace, O LORD,
    see my torment by my foes,
        You Who raise me from the gates of death.
So that I may tell all Your praise
    in the gates of the Daughter of Zion.
        Let me exult in Your rescue.
The nations sank down in the trap that they made,
    in the snare that they made their foot was caught.
The LORD is known for the justice He did.
    By his own handiwork was the wicked ensnared.    higayon selah
The wicked will turn back to Sheol,
    All the nations forgetful of God.

For not forever will the poor man be forgotten,
    the hope of the lowly not lost forever.
Arise, O LORD, let not man flaunt his strength,
    let nations be judged in Your presence.
O LORD, put fear upon them,
    let the nations know they are mortal.            selah

Why do you stand aloof
    Hiding yourself in troubled times?

The heedless in their arrogance pursue the lowly
And catch them with their subtle devices
The heedless flaunt their appetites
In their grasping they bless themselves
And despise you
His arrogance is this:
That he thinks you are not watching
Nowhere in all his schemes does he account for you
He is always prosperous—
Whatever affliction you are reserving for him
Is far away for now
So he snorts at his adversaries
Saying to himself, I will not be moved
I will live forever without any trouble
His mouth is full of false promises deceit and fraud
Under his tongue are mischief and misdeeds
He hides in the shadows and alleyways of the villages
Murders the innocent in these out-of-the-way places
His eyes always watching out for the lowly
He lies in wait in the secret places
Like a lion in his den
Lies in wait to snatch up the lowly
And he snatches them up when they’re drawn into his trap
He crouches, he bends down low to deceive them
And they are deceived by his deceptions
He thinks in his heart that you have forgotten him
That you have hidden away your face
That you aren’t watching, will not see

Stir yourself!
Lift your hand!

Do not forget the sufferers!
Why should the heedless go on being heedless?
Why should they continue to think in their hearts
That you are not watching?

You are watching!
You see all trouble and misaction
You give it its due with your own hand
The sufferer relies on you
The unprotected counts on your help
Break the arm of the heedless one
Search out his callousness thoroughly
Till there isn’t any left

You are sovereign endlessly
All lesser powers pass away
You hear the longing of the sufferers
And make them strong
By your listening
Knowing the unprotected and oppressed as they actually are
And thus no mortal of the earth can be arrogant

I have trusted you—
How can you say to my soul
“Take flight like a mountain bird?”

Can’t you see
Crookedness bending its bow
Setting its arrow on the string
To shoot in the dark
At the upright heart?

When the foundation crumbles
What is right?

You are in your holy temple
Reclining on your heavenly throne
Yet your eye still sees us
Your gaze still proves us

I know you prove the upright
But crookedness and violence—
These your soul casts off
You hurl burning coals at them
Fire and brimstone you rain down
And from their cup they drink
The flaming ripping wind

For you are where rightness is
Rightness is your loving-kindness
Your face glows with it

I call out to you
For the real is gutted
The truth has fallen away
From the human family
And self-deceit and small advantage corrupt speech

Between neighbor and neighbor subtle lies weave entangling threads
They speak with a heart and a heart beside that heart
Even their own hearts they unknowingly deny

Cut off all nattering lips
The self-doubtful tongue that speaks a twisted language
Saying, “With our words we’ll be mighty
We’ll speak as we wish,
Our words are ours to fashion”

And you reply,
“Because of the oppression of the poor
Because of the sighs of the needy
I will rise up
I will grant them safety
For whom the others have laid a snare
By the self-deceit of their words”

Your words
Axe straight, clear, shining
As silver refined in earth’s crucible
Seven times purified—
You will deliver them, guard them
From the generation of the lie Always—

For when the lie is raised up
The wicked walk proudly on every side
As if the world were made for them

How long will you persist in forgetting me?
How long will you hide your face?
How long do I have to drive my soul on
With useless heartache and grief?
How long will my detractors laugh at my manufactured troubles?

Look down, answer me—
Brighten my eyes so they won’t sink into deadness
So that my detractors won’t say
“Look, we have deceived him”
So that they won’t rejoice as I slip out of sight

I trust your kindness—
Gladden my heart with your responding
And I will sing your songs
In this sudden opening to you

The useless fool says in his heart
“God is nothing”
People are corrupt, do only harm
Not one does good unselfishly, not one

You gaze down from the highest
Upon humankind in the middle
To see if there is one person with eyes
One with understanding
One capable of seeing your seeing

But they are all gone bad
All turned sour and blind
There is none who knows good
Not one

Is there not even a speck of understanding
In all the world of blind heedlessness
Among those who eat up others as if they were bread
And do not even know their own hearts
Or a single true word?

But they become terrified even within their terror
When they see you burning in the circle of goodness
Shining out of the eyes of the lowly and the poor
Showing your holiness in their defeat
Your invincible power at the center of their weakness  

O that someone might come out of Zion
To bring freedom to the strugglers!

When you capture the people again
The sojourners will be glad
And the strugglers will rejoice with strong singing

LORD, who will sojourn in Your tent,
    who will dwell on Your holy mountain?
He who walks blameless
    and does justice
             and speaks the truth in his heart.
Who slanders not with his tongue
    nor does to his fellow man evil
        nor bears reproach for his kin.
The debased in his eyes is repugnant
    but to LORD-fearers he accords honor.
When he vows to his fellow man,
    he does not revoke it.
His money he does not give at interest
    and no bribe for the innocent takes.
He who does these
    will never stumble.

Protect me from fear
For I place my trust only in you
My soul has said, “You are my guardian
Sole foundation of my happiness
And I will find my delight
In all that is yours on earth”

As for all that shuts you out—
Great will be their sorrow
I will not pour out their offerings
Nor call their names even in my dreams

    You, you, only you

Are my share and my cup
You have drawn my lot

Lovely indeed is my estate
My heritage is pleasant to me
And even at night in the trying times
My trembling body is tethered to you

Your presence is always before me
In all the deeds of my hand
I will not be shaken from it
So my heart rejoices
My spirit is glad
And my body rests secure

For you will not abandon my soul to the darkness
You will not suffer me to be overwhelmed in terror
You will teach me the path toward life

Your presence is my sweetest joy
Your right hand my chief delight

Always

Hear, O LORD, a just thing.
    Listen well to my song.
        Hearken to my guileless prayer.
From before You my judgment will come,
    Your eyes behold rightness.
You have probed my heart, come upon me by night,
    You have tried me, and found no wrong in me.
        I barred my mouth to let nothing pass.
As for human acts—by the word of Your lips!
    I have kept from the tracks of the brute.
Set firm my steps on Your pathways,
    so my feet will not stumble.
I called You, for You will answer me, God.
    Incline your ear, O hear my utterance.
Make Your mercies abound, O rescuer of those who shelter
    from foes at Your right hand.
Guard me like the apple of the eye,
    in the shadow of Your wings conceal me
from the wicked who have despoiled me,
    my deadly enemies drawn round me.
Their fat has covered their heart.
    With their dewlaps they speak haughty words.
My steps now they hem in,
    their eyes they cast over the land.
He is like a lion longing for prey,
    like the king of beasts lying in wait.
Rise, LORD, head him off, bring him down,
    save my life from the wicked with Your sword,
from men, by Your hand, from men,
    from those fleeting of portion in life.
And Your protected ones—fill their bellies,
    let their sons be sated,
        and let them leave what is left for their young.
As for me, in justice I behold Your face,
    I take my fill, wide awake, of Your image.

I love you, O God, my strength
You are my cliff, my fortress, my champion
Rock on whom I build my house
My shield, trumpet of my salvation
My towering spire
I shout out praise to you
And am saved
The ropes of death bound me
Floods of devastation terrified me
Ropes of darkness cut into me
Snares of death entrapped me
In my distress I called out to you
To you I cried desperately
And from your temple
You heard my voice
My bitter complaint reached your ear
And the earth rocked and trembled
The foundations of the mountains shook
Split open by your anger
Smoke billows plumed out
Devouring fire flamed up
Burning coals shot forth from you
And the sky bent and you arrived
Thick darkness under your feet
Riding a cloud, soaring
Darting along on the wind’s wings
You hid yourself in darkness
Round about you swirled black thunderheads
Thick black beasts of the sky
From the blinding brilliance before you
These thick clouds were driven on
With icy hailstones and blazing coals
And the sky thundered deafeningly
And your voice boomed with hail and coals
And the sky shot blazing arrows and scattered them
Shot flashing lightnings and drove them off
And the ocean beds were exposed like entrails
The foundations of the world laid open like wounds
Through your roaring
At the blast of the breath of your nostrils
You reached down and snatched me
Drew me out of the foaming waters
Delivered me from my enemy
The hatred that was too strong for me
That overcame me on the day of my calamity
But you were my support
And brought me forth into a large space
Saved me because I was your delight
You rewarded my rightness
Reached out to my open hands
For I have always heeded you
Have never slipped from your path
Your ways have always been before me
Nothing have I ignored or denied
I have been upright
Guarding myself against crookedness and deception
Therefore you requited me according to my rightness
According to the openness of my hands before your eyes
To the kind you are kindness
To the upright uprightness
To the pure purity
And for the perverse you provide difficulty
For you will surely save the sufferers
But the high and mighty you bring down
You will cause my light to shine
You will illuminate my darkness
With you I will break through enemy lines
With you I will scale prison walls
Your way is perfect, your word true
You shield all who trust you
Who else can protect them?
You who made me iron
You who removed all my obstructions
You who gave me deer’s legs
You who made me stand in the high places
Who trained my hands for the struggle
Who made my arms strong to bend a bronze bow
And gave me your unbreachable shield
And held me up with your right hand
Whose attention has made me great
Who made my steps swift and sure
So that I never slip
And when I pursue my enemies I overtake them
And I do not run hack until I make an end of them
I uproot them entirely so they can never rise up
They fall under my onrushing feet
You who have given me the power to struggle
Who hurl my enemies under my feet
Who cause them to turn and run from me
All that hatred—entirely gone—
They cry out but no one helps them
To you hut you don’t answer them
And they are beaten fine as windswept dust
Like dirt they are swept off the streets
You who have removed me from desire’s contentions
Who have made me sovereign among nations
That all shall honor me
As soon as their ears hear my words they heed
The children of the stranger pledge loyalty to me
Their opposition fades away
They come tumbling out of their hiding places
Into the light of day
Like bees from a hive in the sunlight
Only you live, blessed, my rock
Exalted, my protection
Only you who lifted me up
And placed all my hatred under me
You who saved me from hatred
And lifted me high above it
Who delivered me safe from violence
Therefore I will give all thanks to you
And I will sing songs to your unsayableness
To you who gave me sovereignty
Who anointed me with loving-kindness
David and his seed
Always

The heavens express your fire
The night sky is the work of your hands
Day after day is your spoken language
Night after night your perfect knowing
There is no speech, there are no words
Their voice falls silent
Yet the music plays everywhere
To the end of the earth its clear notes float out
To the end of the worlds the words pronounced
Become a tabernacle for the sun
That comes out like a bridegroom from his chamber
A robust runner to run his day’s course
To the end of the heavens he races
And back again he returns
And there is nothing hidden from his heat

Your pattern is perfection
It quiets the soul that knows it
And its eloquent expression
Makes everything clear
So that even the simple are wise

Your ways are upright
Making the heart glad
Your distances are clear
Washing out the eyes
Your awesomeness is pure
And endures constantly
What you require is just
For it is nothing but the truth
And it is more durable than the finest gold
Sweeter than the drippings of the honeycomb
Who serves you is inspired
And in following you finds reward

Who is free from all error?
You take hold of it and turn it right
And where there is confusion
Let me not become entangled
And I will be blameless
Clear of any misdirection

May these words of my mouth
And these meditations of my heart
Be acceptable to you
My rock, my release

May the LORD answer you on the day of distress,
    the name of Jacob’s God make you safe.
May He send help to you from the sanctum,
    and from Zion may He sustain you.
May He recall all your grain-offerings,
    and your burnt-offerings may He relish.       selah
May He grant you what your heart would want,
    and all your counsels may He fulfill.
Let us sing gladly for Your rescue
    and in our God’s name our banner raise.
        May the LORD fulfill all your desires.
Now do I know
    that the LORD rescued His anointed.
He has answered him from His holy heavens
    in the might of His right hand’s rescue.
They—the chariots, and they—the horses,
        but we—the name of the LORD our God invoke.
They have tumbled and fallen
    but we arose and took heart.
O LORD, rescue the king.
    May He answer us on the day we call.

LORD, in Your strength the king rejoices,
    and in Your rescue how much he exults!
His heart’s desire You gave to him,
    and his lips’ entreaty You did not withhold.       selah
For You met him with blessings of bounty,
    You set on his head a crown of pure gold.
Life he asked You—You gave him,
    length of days for time without end.
Great is his glory through Your rescue.
    Glory and grandeur You bestowed upon him.
For you granted him blessings forever,
    cheered him with joy in Your presence.
For the king puts his trust in the LORD,
    through Elyon’s kindness he will not fail.
Your hand will find out your enemies,
    your right hand find out your foes.
You will make them like a fiery kiln
    in the hour of Your wrath.
The LORD will devour them in His anger,
    and fire will consume them.
Their fruit from the land You destroy
    and their seed from among humankind.
For evil they plotted against you,
    devised schemes they could not fulfill.
For you will make them turn back,
    with your bowstring you aim at their face.
Loom high, O LORD, in Your strength.
    Let us sing, let us hymn Your might.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why so far from my delivery    
So empty in the anguish of my words?
I call to you in the daytime but you don’t answer
And all night long I plead restlessly, uselessly

I know your holiness, find it in the memorized praises
Uttered by those who’ve struggled with you
Through all the generations
These, my forebears, trusted you
And through their trusting you touched them
Held and delivered them
They cried out to you and you met them face to face
Their confidence was strong and they were not confounded

But I am not as they
Utterly alone, I am cast out of the circle
A worm, a living reproach, scorned and despised, even less than despised
Unheard, unseen, unacknowledged, denied
And all who encounter me revile me with cynic laughter
Shaking their heads, parting their nattering lips, mocking
“Let him throw himself at God for his deliverance,” they say
“Since that is who he trusts let the Lord save him.”

And they are right:
How not trust you, and what else to trust?

You I entered on leaving the womb
You I drank at my mother’s breast

I was cast upon you at birth
And even before birth I swam in you, my heart’s darkness

Be not far from me now
When suffering is very near
And there is no help
And I am beset all round by threatening powers
The bulls of Bashan gaping their dismal braying mouths
Their ravenous roaring lion mouths

I am poured out like water
My bones’ joints are snapped like twigs
My heart melts like wax
Flooding my bowels with searing viscid emotion
My strength is dried up like a potsherd
My tongue cleaves woolly to the roof of my mouth
And I feel my body dissolving into death’s dusts

For I am hounded by my isolation
Am cast off and encircled by the assembly of the violent
Who like vicious dogs snap at my hands and feet
I count the hones of my naked body
As the mongrels shift and stare and circle
They divide my clothes among themselves, casting lots for them

So now in this very place I call on you
There is no one left

Do not be far from me
Be the center
Of the center
Of the circle
Be the strength of that center

The power of the absence that is the center
Deliver my life from the killing sharpnesses
Deliver my soul from the feverish dogs
Save me from the lion mouths
Answer me with the voice of the ram’s horn

And I will seek and form and repeat your name among my kinsmen
In the midst of everyone I will compose praises with my lips
And those who enter your awesomeness through my words will also praise
All the seed of Jacob will glorify you
And live in awe of you
All those who question and struggle
Will dawn with your light
For they will know
You have not scorned the poor and despised
Nor recoiled disgusted from their faces
From them your spark has never been hidden
And when they cried out in their misery
You heard and answered and ennobled them
And it is the astonishment of this that I will praise in the Great Assembly
Making deep vows in the presence of those who know your heart
Know that in you the meek eat and are satisfied
And all who seek and struggle find the tongue to praise
Saying to you:

May your heart live forever
May all the ends of the earth remember and return to you
And all the families of all the nations how before you
For all that is your domain
Your flame kindles all that lives and breathes
And you are the motive force of all activity
The yearning of the grasses, the lovers’ ardor
And they that rise up, live, and eat the fat of the earth will bow before you
Before you will bow all those who lie down, find peace, and enter the dust
For none can keep alive by his own power—you alone light the soul
Distant ages to come shall serve you, shall be related to you in future times
Those people not yet born
Will sing of your uprightness, your evenness, your brightness
To a people not yet born that is still yet to come
That this is how you are

The LORD is my shepherd,
    I shall not want.
In grass meadows He makes me lie down,
    by quiet waters guides me.
My life He brings back.
    He leads me on pathways of justice
        for His name’s sake.
Though I walk in the vale of death’s shadow,
    I fear no harm,
        for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff—
    it is they that console me.
You set out a table before me
    in the face of my foes.
You moisten my head with oil,
    my cup overflows.
Let but goodness and kindness pursue me
    all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
    for many long days.

The LORD’s is the earth and its fullness,
    the world and the dwellers within it.
For He on the seas did found it,
    and on the torrents set it firm.
Who shall go up on the mount of the LORD,
    and who shall stand up in His holy place?
The clean of hands and the pure of heart,
    who has given no oath in a lie
        and has sworn not in deceit.
He shall bear blessing from the LORD
    and bounty from his rescuing God.
This is the generation of His seekers,
    those who search out your presence, Jacob.       selah
Lift up your heads, O gates,
    and rise up, eternal portals,
        that the king of glory may enter.
Who is the king of glory?
    The LORD, most potent and valiant,
        The LORD Who is valiant in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates,
    and lift up, eternal portals,
        that the king of glory may enter.
Who is he, the king of glory?
    The LORD of armies, He is the king of glory.      selah

To You, O LORD, I lift my heart.
    My God, in You I trust. Let me be not shamed,
        let my enemies not gloat over me.
Yes, let all who hope in You be not shamed.
    Let the treacherous be shamed, empty-handed.
Your ways, O LORD, inform me,
    Your paths, instruct me.
Lead me in Your truth and instruct me,
    for You are the God of my rescue.
        In You do I hope every day.
Recall Your mercies, O LORD,
    and your kindnesses—they are forever.
My youth’s offenses and my crimes recall not.
    In Your kindness, recall me—You;
        for the sake of Your goodness, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD.
    Therefore He guides offenders on the way.
He leads the lowly in justice
    and teaches the lowly His way.
All the LORD’s paths are kindness and truth
    for the keepers of His pact and His precepts.
For the sake of Your name, O LORD,
    may You forgive my crime, which is great.
Whosoever the man who fears the LORD,
    He will guide him in the way he should choose.
His life will repose in bounty,
    and his seed will inherit the earth.
The LORD’s counsel is for those who fear Him,
    and His pact He makes known to them.
My eyes at all times to the LORD,
    for He draws my feet from the net.
Turn to me and grant me grace,
    for alone and afflicted am I.
The distress of my heart has grown great.
    From my straits bring me out.
See my affliction and suffering
    and forgive all my offenses.
See my enemies who are many
    and with outrageous hatred despise me.
Guard my life and save me.
    Let me be not shamed, for I shelter in You.
May uprightness, wholeness, preserve me,
    for in You do I hope.
Redeem, God, Israel from all its straits.

Judge me, O LORD.
    For I have walked in my wholeness,
        And the LORD I have trusted.
            I shall not stumble.
Test me, O LORD, and try me.
    Burn pure my conscience and my heart.
For Your kindness is before my eyes
    and I shall walk in Your truth.
I have not sat with lying folk
    nor with furtive men have dealt.
I despised the assembly of evildoers,
    nor with the wicked have I sat.
Let me wash my palms in cleanness
    and go round Your altar, LORD,
to utter aloud a thanksgiving
    and to recount all Your wonders.
LORD, I love the abode of Your house
    and the place where Your glory dwells.
Do not take my life’s breath with offenders
    nor with blood-guilty men my life,
in whose hands there are plots,
    their right hand full of bribes.
But I shall walk in my wholeness.
    Redeem me, grant me grace.
My foot stands on level ground.
    In the chorus I bless the LORD.

The LORD is my light and my rescue.
    Whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s stronghold.
    Of whom should I be afraid?
When evildoers draw near me to eat my flesh—
    my foes and my enemies are they—
        they trip and they fall.
Though a camp is marshaled against me,
    my heart shall not fear.
Though battle is roused against me,
    nonetheless do I trust.
One thing do I ask of the LORD,
    it is this that I seek—
that I dwell in the house of the LORD
    all the days of my life,
to behold the LORD’s sweetness
    and to gaze on His palace.
For He hides me in His shelter
    on the day of evil.
He conceals me in the recess of His tent,
    On a rock He raises me up.
And now my head rises
    over my enemies around me:
Let me offer in His tent
    sacrifices with joyous shouts.
        Let me sing and hymn to the LORD.
Hear, O LORD, my voice when I call,
    and grant me grace and answer me.
Of You, my heart said:
    “Seek My face.”
        Your face, LORD, I do seek.
Do not hide Your face from me,
    do not turn Your servant away in wrath.
You are my help.
    Abandon me not, nor forsake me,
        O God of my rescue.
Though my father and mother forsook me,
    the LORD would gather me in.
Teach me, O LORD, Your way,
    and lead me on a level path
        because of my adversaries.
Do not put me in the maw of my foes.
    For false witnesses rose against me,
        outrageous deposers.
If I but trust to see the LORD’s goodness,
    in the land of the living—
Hope for the LORD!
    Let your heart be firm and bold,
        and hope for the LORD.

Don’t tum unheeding from me
For if you silent move away
I will be like one fallen down
Into a dark cold pit

Hear my voice reaching outward
When it cries for you
When I lift up my hands
Toward your holiness
Don’t mistake me
Don’t sweep me away with the crooked
With the heedless ones
Who speak pleasingly with their neighbors
But have hidden mischief in their hearts

Give them the just results of their actions
Reward them according to the work of their hands
Bestow on them what they deserve
Because they don’t see your ways
Don’t care about the work of your hands
Let them fall down
Let them not build up

Gratitude to you
Who are the hearing of my outreaching words
My strength and shield
In whom my heart trusts
And I am helped
And my heart enraptures
And I sing thanksgiving songs to you
Who are the strength of all who love you

The fortress of those dedicated to you
Help us, bless our ongoingness
Feed our hearts
Open us up in the timeless days

Grant to the LORD, O sons of God,
    Grant to the LORD glory and strength!
Grant to the LORD His name’s glory.
    Bow to the LORD in holy majesty!
The LORD’s voice is over the waters.
    The God of glory thunders.
        The LORD is over the mighty waters.
The LORD’s voice in power,
    the LORD’s voice in majesty,
the LORD’s voice breaking cedars,
    the LORD shatters the Lebanon cedars,
and He makes Lebanon dance like a calf,
    Sirion like a young wild ox.
The LORD’s voice hews flames of fire.
The LORD’s voice makes the wilderness shake,
    the LORD makes the Kadesh Wilderness shake.
The LORD’s voice brings on the birth-pangs of does
    and lays bare the forests.
        And in His palace all says glory.
The LORD was enthroned at the flood
    and the LORD is enthroned as king for all time.
May the LORD give strength to His people.
    May the LORD bless His people with peace.

I shall exalt You, LORD, for You drew me up,
    and You gave no joy to my enemies.
LORD, my God,
    I cried to You and You healed me.
LORD, You brought me up from Sheol,
    gave me life from those gone down to the Pit.
Hymn to the LORD, his faithful,
    acclaim his holy name.
But a moment in His wrath,
    life in His pleasure.
At evening one beds down weeping,
    and in the morning, glad song.
As for me, I thought in my quiet days,
    “Never will I stumble.”
LORD, in your pleasure You made me stand mountain-strong.
    —When You hid Your face, I was stricken.
To You, O LORD, I call,
    and to the Master I plead.
“What profit in my blood,
    in my going down deathward?
Will dust acclaim You,
    will it tell Your truth?”
Hear, LORD, and grant me grace.
    LORD, become helper to me.
You have turned my dirge to a dance for me,
    undone my sackcloth and bound me with joy.
O, let my heart hymn You and be not still,
    LORD, my God, for all time I acclaim You.

In you I put my trust
Let me never be ashamed—
Release me in your rightness
Bend your ear to me
Deliver me quickly
Be my rock of protection
Like a mountain my stronghold of safety
You are my rock and my stronghold
For the sake of your unsayableness
Lead me, guide me
Draw me out of the net
Set within the secret darkness
For you are my protection
I put my soul in your hands
And you hold it fast in your truth
From those that depend on deceit
I hasten away
Trusting indeed in you
I will gladly rejoice in your kindness
Because you have seen my misery
And have not turned your face away
You have known the distress of my soul
And have not abandoned me to adversity
Have given me an ample space on which to stand
Be gracious for I am in distress
My eye is consumed with restless clinging
My body twists and my soul writhes
For my life is exhausted with dissatisfaction
My years are like broken sighs
My strength fails because of my inner trials
Even my bones grow thin
To all my assailants I am an insult
To my neighbors an embarrassment
To my friends a horror
When they see me on the street they run away
I am as forgotten as the dead
As unremembered as a broken pot
I heard the whispering of many
Terror assailed me on every side
As they spoke of a plot against me
But my trust in you was strong
I said, “You are my ruler
In your hand is my destiny”
Deliver me from their hands
Snatch me away from those who wish me harm
Shine the light of your eye on me
And save me through your kindness
Do not let me be put to shame
Unworthy and out of your sight
For I have called out to you with these words
Let the adversary be put to shame
Let him be eclipsed in silence
Passing into dark unspeakable worlds
Let the lying lips be stilled
That speak harsh words against the faithful
With pride and contempt
O how great is your goodness
Which you have treasured up for the faithful
Which you use on behalf of those who trust you
In the face of humankind
You will conceal them within your hidden presence
From the conspiracy of men
Will keep them within your secret tent
Far from the strife of plotting tongues
Blessed are you
Who have soothed me with kindness
In the midst of a contentious world
In my despair I cried that I was cut off from you
And you heard my words when they were voiced
You preserve the love and trust of the faithful
And give recompense to the presumptions of the proud

    All you whose hope is in God—
    Be strong and of good cheer

Happy is the one who is forgiven
Whose wound is healed
Happy the one restored to your harmony
In whose spirit there is no more deceit

When I held my silence
My bones grew brittle with crying all day
For by day and night your hand lay heavy on me
And my life’s moisture dried up
Through the long droughts of summer

But then I turned toward my mistakes and shortcomings
Knew my unworthiness, did not cover it up
I said, “I will confess all this, since it is so”
And you forgave me for what I am

Therefore let all the faithful
When they find their confusion find you
And pray that the waters of self-delusion
Won’t crest to crush them in their time

You are my shelter
You help me withstand my suffering
I endure it warmed in the winds of your exultant songs

I will instruct and I will teach the way to go
I will counsel, my eye is on you

Don’t be like a horse or mule
That has no understanding
That must be led along with bridle and bit
His constant ornament
Lest he bump or push or go off course

Many are the pains of the heedless
Those who hold back from you
But the one who trusts self all to you
Will swim in your kindness

So the upright rejoice in you and are glad
The upright in heart shout for joy

Sing gladly, O righteous, of the LORD,
    for the upright, praise is befitting.
Acclaim the LORD with the lyre,
    with the ten-stringed lute hymn to Him.
Sing Him a new song,
    play deftly with joyous shout.
For the word of the LORD is upright,
    and all His doings in good faith.
He loves the right and the just.
    The LORD’s kindness fills the earth.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
    and by the breath of His mouth all their array.
He gathers like a mound the sea’s waters,
    puts in treasure houses the deeps.
All the earth fears the LORD,
    all the world’s dwellers dread Him.
For He did speak and it came to be,
    He commanded, and it stood.
The LORD thwarted the counsel of nations,
    overturned the devisings of peoples.
The LORD’s counsel will stand forever,
    His heart’s devisings for all generations.
Happy the nation whose god is the LORD,
    the people He chose as estate for Him.
From the heavens the LORD looked down,
    saw all the human creatures.
From his firm throne He surveyed
    all who dwell on the earth.
He fashions their heart one and all.
    He understands all their doings.
The king is not rescued through surfeit of might,
    the warrior not saved through surfeit of power.
The horse is a lie for rescue,
    and in his surfeit of might he helps none escape.
Look, the LORD’s eye is on those who fear Him,
    on those who yearn for His kindness
to save their lives from death
    and in famine to keep them alive.
We urgently wait for the LORD.
    Our help and our shield is He.
For in Him our heart rejoices,
    for in His holy name do we trust.
May Your kindness, O LORD, be upon us,
    as we have yearned for You.

Every moment I bless you
Your praise is always in my mouth
My soul boasts of you
The humble hear it and rejoice

Join me—let’s enlarge God
Let’s shout and dance the nameless together
I looked for you and you found me
Delivered me from all that I feared

All who search for you are radiant
Their faces never eclipsed in shame
This poor man cried out and you heard him
Delivered him from his distress

Your angel makes camp
Near those who are brushed by awe
Who taste and see your goodness—
Happy are they who trust you

Holy ones, be awestruck in God
And you’ll want nothing more
Young lions crave and go prowling
But those who seek you are satisfied

Come, children, listen to me
I will teach you how to fall back in awe
Who has a passion for life
Loves every day and exults in happiness?

Guard your tongue from crookedness
And your lips from deceit
Avoid evil, do good
Seek peace—pursue it

Your eyes are directed toward them
Your ears lean into their cries
But your anger turns on those who do evil
To cut off its seed from earth’s remembering

They cry out and you hear them
And bring them home, back from their distresses
You are close to them in their brokenheartedness
Embracing them in their contrition

The faithful know many sorrows
But in the midst of them you appear and turn them
You hold them as close as their bones
And not one is broken

Pain will snap the crooked
Oppressors will know remorse
But you enliven those who love you
And none who trust you will know remorse

Take my part, LORD, against my contesters,
    Fight those who fight me.
Steady the shield and the buckler,
    and rise up to my help.
Unsheathe the spear to the haft
    against my pursuers.
Let them be shamed and disgraced,
    who seek my life.
Let them retreat, be abased,
    who plot harm against me.
Let them be like chaff before the wind,
    with the LORD’s messenger driving.
May their way be darkness and slippery paths,
    with the LORD’s messenger chasing them.
For unprovoked they set their net-trap for me,
    unprovoked they dug a pit for my life.
Let disaster come upon him unwitting
    and the net that he set entrap him.
        May he fall into it in disaster.
But I shall exult in the LORD.
    shall be glad in His rescue.
All my bones say,
    “LORD, who is like You?
Saving the poor from one stronger than he
    and the poor and the needy from his despoiler.”
Outrageous witnesses rose,
    of things I knew not they asked me.
They paid me back evil for good—
    bereavement for my very self.
And I, when they were ill, my garment was sackcloth,
    I afflicted myself with fasting.
        May my own prayer come back to my bosom.
As for a friend, for a brother,
    I went about as though mourning a mother,
        in gloom I was bent.
Yet when I limped, they rejoiced, and they gathered,
    they gathered against me,
like strangers, and I did not know.
    Their mouths gaped and they were not still.
With contemptuous mocking chatter
    they gnashed their teeth against me.
O Master, how long will You see it?
    Bring back my life from their violence,
        from the lions, my very being.
I shall acclaim you in a great assembly,
    in a vast crowd I shall praise you.
Let not my unprovoked enemies rejoice over me,
    let my wanton foes not leer.
For they do not speak peace
    and against the earth’s quiet ones plot words of deceit.
They open their mouths wide against me.
    They say, “Hurrah! Hurrah! Our eyes have seen it.”
You, LORD, have seen, do not be mute.
    My Master, do not keep far from me.
Rouse Yourself, wake for my cause,
    my God and my Master, for my quarrel.
Judge me by Your justice, LORD my God,
    and let them not rejoice over me.
Let them not say in their heart,
    “Hurrah for ourselves.”
        Let them not say, “We devoured him.”
Let them be shamed and abased one and all,
    who rejoice in my harm.
Let them don shame and disgrace,
    who vaunted over me.
May they sing glad and rejoice,
    who desire justice for me,
and may they always say,
    “Great is the LORD
        Who desires His servant’s well-being”
and my tongue will murmur Your justice,
    all day long Your praise.

I feel the heedless impulse in my heart
It speaks to me as to the wicked
Saying, “Pay no attention to God who is before your eyes”

Instead he loves his own eyes
That blind him to desire’s poisons
So that he doesn’t know enough to seek the good
The words of his mouth are crooked and deceitful
What wisdom’s in his heart he fails to notice
What goodness is natural to him he pushes aside
He lies on his bed at night devising schemes
So that in the morning he stumbles down crooked paths
Of suffering but he does not know what he is doing

Your kindness reaches into the darkened center
Your faithfulness all the way up to the empty sky
Your uprightness is like the mountains
Your actions like the sea
Giving birth to all creatures endlessly

How precious is your kindness!
And those who seek your wide wings’ shelter—
They will be satisfied with your provisions
They will drink the delights of your seams
For you are life’s wellspring
You are the light within the light

Draw down finer the thread of your kindness
For those who recognize you
Draw down the strong filament of your uprightness
For those whose hearts are upright
Don’t let the foot of pride be in my step
Or the hand of wickedness be raised up in in mine
There they are—those who have lost their way—
Thrust down
Unable to rise

Do not be incensed by evildoers.
    Do not envy those who do wrong.
For like grass they will quickly wither
    and like green grass they will fade.
Trust in the LORD and do good.
    Dwell in the land and keep faith.
Take pleasure in the LORD,
    that He grant you your heart’s desire.
Direct your way to the LORD.
    Trust Him and He will act,
and He will bring forth your cause like the light,
    and your justice like high noon.
Be still before the LORD and await Him.
    Do not be incensed by him who prospers,
        by the man who devises schemes.
Let go of wrath and forsake rage.
    Do not be incensed to do evil.
For evildoers will be cut off,
    but those who hope in the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
And very soon, the wicked will be no more.
    You will look at his place—he’ll be gone.
And the poor shall inherit the earth
    and take pleasure from great well-being.
The wicked lays plots for the just
    and gnashes his teeth against him.
The Master will laugh at him,
    for He sees that his day will come.
A sword have the wicked unsheathed
    and drawn taut their bow,
to take down the poor and the needy,
    to slaughter those on the straight way.
Their sword shall come home in their heart
    and their bows shall be broken.
Better a little for the just
    than wicked men’s great profusion.
For the wicked’s arms shall be broken,
    but the LORD sustains the just.
The LORD embraces the fate of the blameless,
    and their estate shall be forever.
They shall not be shamed in an evil time
    and in days of famine they shall eat their fill.
For the wicked shall perish, and the foes of the LORD,
    like the meadows’ green—gone, in smoke, gone.
The wicked man borrows and will not pay,
    but the just gives free of charge.
For those He blesses inherit the earth
    and those He curses are cut off.
By the LORD a man’s strides are made firm,    
    and his way He desires.
Though he fall, he will not be flung down,
    for the LORD sustains his hand.
A lad I was, and now I am old,
    and I never have seen a just man forsaken
        and his seed seeking bread,
all day long lending free of charge
    and his seed for a blessing.
Turn from evil and do good
    and abide forever.
For the LORD loves justice
    and will not forsake His faithful.
They are guarded forever,
    but the seed of the wicked is cut off.
The just will inherit the earth
    and abide forever upon it.
The just man’s mouth utters wisdom
    and his tongue speaks justice.
His God’s teaching in his heart—
    his steps will not stumble.
The wicked spies out the just man
    and seeks to put him to death.
The LORD will not forsake him in his hands
    and will not condemn him when he is judged.
Hope for the LORD and keep His way
    and He will exalt you to inherit the earth;
        you will see the wicked cut off.
I have seen an arrogant wicked man
    taking root like a flourishing plant.
He passes on, and, look, he is gone,
    I seek him, and he is not found.
Watch the blameless, look to the upright,
    for the man of peace has a future.
And transgressors one and all are destroyed,
    the future of the wicked cut off.
The rescue of the just is from the LORD,
    their stronghold in time of distress.
And the LORD will help them and free them,
    He will free them from the wicked and rescue them,
        for they have sheltered in Him.

LORD, do not rebuke me in Your fury
    nor chastise me in Your wrath.
For Your arrows have come down upon me,
    and upon me has come down Your hand.
There is no whole place in my flesh through Your rage,
    no soundness in my limbs through my offense.
For my crimes have welled over my head,
    like a heavy burden, too heavy for me.
My sores make a stench, have festered
    through my folly.
I am twisted, I am all bent.
    All day long I go about gloomy.
For my innards are filled with burning
    and there is no whole place in my flesh.
I grow numb and am utterly crushed.
    I roar from my heart’s churning.
O Master, before You is all my desire
    and my sighs are not hidden from You.
My heart spins around, my strength forsakes me,
    and the light of my eyes, too, is gone from me.
My friends and companions stand off from my plight
    and my kinsmen stand far away.
They lay snares, who seek my life and want my harm.
    They speak lies, deceit utter all day long.
But like the deaf I do not hear,
    and like the mute whose mouth will not open.
And I become like a man who does not hear
    and has no rebuke in his mouth.
For in You, O LORD, I have hoped.
    You will answer, O Master, my God.
For I thought, “Lest they rejoice over me,
    when my foot slips, vaunt over me.”
For I am ripe for stumbling
    and my pain is before me always.
For my crime I shall tell,
    I dread my offense.
And my wanton enemies grow many,
    my unprovoked foes abound.
And those who pay back good with evil
    thwart me for pursuing good.
Do not forsake me, LORD.
    My God, do not stay far from me.
Hasten to my help,
    O Master of my rescue.

I said, I will be careful
Lest I err with my tongue
I will muzzle my mouth
While in the presence of crookedness

I was dumb, in deep silence
Quite still, restrained
Yet I was in great pain

My heart burned inside me
And in my holding fast
There were flames
And then I spoke

Tell me my end
The measure of my days
What it is—
l want to know
When I will cease to be

You have made me for a shape in time
That has an end, a final day
But to you it is nothing

Yes, as nothing, less than nothing
Does every person stand where he is
Walk about like a shadow, an image.

Yes, making a useless noise
Amassing things
Without knowing who will use them in the end

And now—what shall I expect?
I have hope
But it is only for you

Deliver me from my confusion
Don’t let me be foolish
I am dumb, I say nothing
Only you speak

Cure this disease you’ve afflicted me with
I am lashed with your whip

You straighten my crookedness
And all my accomplishments are eaten away in the dark
Like clothing by a moth
A person is no more than a breath

Hear my prayer
Open your ears to my cry
Don’t be silent to my tears
For I have wandered unknowing into your presence
As my forebears did

Look away from me for a time
So I can recover my strength
Before I travel on
And am gone

I urgently hoped for the LORD.
    He bent down toward me and heard my voice,
and He brought me up from the roiling pit,
    from the thickest mire.
And He set my feet on a crag,
    made my steps firm.
And He put in my mouth a new song—
    praise to our God.
May many see and fear
    and trust in the LORD.
Happy the man who puts
    in the LORD his trust
and does not turn to the sea monster gods
    and to false idols.
Many things You have done—You,
    O LORD our God—Your wonders!
And Your plans for us—
    none can match You,
I would tell and I would speak:
    they are too numerous to recount.
Sacrifice and grain-offering You do not desire.
    You opened ears for me:
        for burnt-offering and offense-offering You do not ask.
Then did I think: Look, I come
    with the scroll of the book written for me.
To do what pleases You, my God, I desire,
    and Your teaching is deep within me.
I heralded justice in a great assembly.
    Look, I will not seal my lips.
        LORD, You Yourself know.
Your justice I concealed not in my heart.
    Your faithfulness and Your rescue I spoke.
        I withheld not from the great assembly your steadfast truth.
You, LORD, will not hold back
    Your mercies from me.
Your steadfast truth
    shall always guard me.
For evils drew round me
    beyond count.
My crimes overtook me
    and I could not see—
more numerous than the hairs of my head—
    and my heart forsook me.
Show favor, O LORD, to save me.
    LORD, to my help, hasten.
May they be shamed and abased one and all,
    who seek my life to destroy it,
may they fall back and be disgraced,
    who desire my harm.
Let them be devastated on the heels of their shame,
    who say of me, “Hurrah! Hurrah!”
Let all who seek You
    exult and rejoice in You.
May they always say, “God is great!”—
    those who love Your rescue.
As for me, I am lowly and needy.
    May the Master account it for me.
My help, he who frees me You are.
    My God, do not delay.

Happy who looks to the poor.
    On the day of evil may the LORD make him safe.
May the LORD guard him and keep him alive.
    May he be called happy in the land.
        And do not deliver him to his enemies’ maw.
May the LORD sustain him on the couch of pain.
    —You transformed his whole bed of illness.
I said, “LORD, grant me grace,
    heal me, though I offended you.”
My enemies said evil of me:
    “When will he die and his name be lost?”
And should one come to visit,
    his heart spoke a lie.
He gathered up mischief,
    went out, spoke abroad.
One and all my foes whispered against me,
    against me plotted my harm:
“Some nasty thing is lodged in him.
    As he lies down, he will not rise again.”
Even my confidant, in whom I did trust,
    who ate my bread,
        was utterly devious with me.
And You, O LORD, grant me grace, raise me up,
    that I may pay them back.
In this I shall know You desire me—
    that my enemy not trumpet his conquest of me.
And I, in my innocence, You sustained me
    and made me stand before You forever.

Blessed is the LORD God of Israel
    forever and forever,

As the hart thrills for the fresh brook
So do I thrill for you
I am thirsty for you—for my life—
When will I go there?
When will I be seen?
When will I enter your utter presence?

I have swallowed my tears all day and all night
Because people mock me all day saying
“Where is your beloved? Show us, convince us”

When I remember these things
My heart pours out within me:
How I journeyed with the pilgrim throngs
My ears alive with thanksgiving songs
Up to your house for the festival—
Why am I downcast and disturbed?

My hope is yet in you
One day I will thank you
When in you I find wholeness
And my anguish is gone

How my heart is broken, pours out within me!
Therefore I will remember you
From the land of Jordan, from the peaks of Hermon
From the foothills there

Deep calls out to deep
In your towering waterfall
Waves and billows drench me

In the daytime you summon your kindness
And at night you sing to me
A prayer for my life to be living

So I will rise in the morning and sing to you,
My rock, why have you forgotten me?

Why must I walk
Grieving up and down
Oppressed and opposed?
My very bones snap

When the others revile me all day long saying,
“Where is your beloved? Show me, convince me”
Why is my heart broken, pouring out within me?

My hope is yet in you
And one day I will give you thanks
When I am whole

Grant me justice, O God,
    take up my case against a faithless nation,
        from a man of deceit and wrong free me.
For You, O God, my stronghold,
    why should You neglect me?
        Why should I go in gloom, pressed by the foe?
Send forth Your light and Your truth.
    It is they that will guide me.
They will bring me to Your holy mountain
    And to Your dwelling-place.
And let me come to God’s altar,
    to God, my keenest joy.
And let me acclaim You with the lyre,
    O God, my God.
How bent, my being, how you moan for me!
    Hope in God, for yet will I acclaim Him,
        His rescuing presence and my God.

God, with our own ears we have heard,
    our fathers recounted to us
a deed that You did in their days,
    in days of yore.
You, Your hand dispossessed nations—and You planted them.
    You smashed peoples and sent them away.
For not by their sword they took hold of the land,
    and it was not their arm that made them victorious
but Your right hand and Your arm,
    and the light of Your face when You favored them.
You are my king, O God.
    Ordain the victories of Jacob.
Through You we gore our foes,
    through Your name we trample those against us.
For not in my bow do I trust,
    and my sword will not make me victorious.
For You rescued us from our foes,
    and our enemies You put to shame.
God we praise all day long,
    and Your name we acclaim for all time.        selah
 Yet You neglected and disgraced us
    and did not sally forth in our ranks.
You turned us back from the foe,
    and our enemies took their plunder.
You made us like sheep to be eaten
    and scattered us through the nations.
You sold Your people for no wealth
    and set no high price upon them.
You made us a shame to our neighbors,
    derision and mockery to those round us.
You made us a byword to nations,
    an object of scorn among peoples.
All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face,
from the sound of revilers and cursers,
    from the enemy and the avenger.
All this befell us, yet we did not forget You,
    and we did not betray Your pact.
Our heart has not failed,
    nor have our footsteps strayed from Your path,
though You thrust us down to the sea monster’s place
    and with death’s darkness covered us over.
Had we forgotten the name of God
    and spread out our palms to an alien god,
would not God have fathomed it?
    For He knows the heart’s secrets.
For Your sake we are killed all day long,
    we are counted as sheep for slaughter.
Awake, why sleep, O Master!
    Rouse up, neglect not forever.
Why do You hide Your face,
    forget our affliction, our oppression?
For our neck is bowed to the dust,
    our belly clings to the ground.
Rise as a help tous
    and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness.

My heart is astir with a goodly word.
    I speak what I’ve made to the king.
        My tongue is the pen of a rapid scribe.
You are loveliest of the sons of man,
    grace flows from your lips.
        Therefore has God blessed you forever.
Gird your sword on your thigh, O warrior,
    your glory and your grandeur.
And in your grandeur pass onward,
    mount on a word of truth, humility and justice,
        and let your right hand shoot forth terrors,
your sharpened arrows—
    peoples fall beneath you—
        into the heart of the king’s enemies.
Your throne of God is forever more.
    A scepter of right, your kingship’s scepter.
You loved justice and hated evil.
    Therefore did God your God anoint you
        with oil of joy over your fellows.
Myrrh and aloes and cassia
    all your garments.
From ivory palaces
    lutes gladdened you.
Princesses are your cherished ones,
    the consort stands at your right in gold of Ophir.
Listen, princess, and look, incline your ear,
    and forget your people, and your father’s house.
And let the king yearn for your beauty,
    for he is your master,
        and bow down to him.
Daughter of Tyre, with tribute
    the people’s wealthy will court your favor.
All the princess’s treasure is pearls,
    filigree of gold her raiment.
In embroidered stuff she is led to the king,
    maidens in train, her companions.
They are led in rejoicing and gladness,
    they enter the palace,
        brought to you, king.
In your fathers’ stead your sons will be.
    You will set them as princes in all the land.
Let me make your name heard in all generations.
    Therefore do peoples acclaim you forever more.

You are our protection and strength
Help in the storm of anguish and despair
Exactly and easily found close at hand
So we are not afraid

Even when earth’s in upheaval
When mountains are carried to the sea
When the sea’s waters roar and foam
And the mountains quake and tremble with the waters’ swelling—

In the middle of the world there is a river
Streams run to it, making glad your cities
Making glad the places where you are known
You flow as the waters of that river
And she shall not be moved
For you are with her
You are the morning that dawns over the quiet waters

Nations rage, kingdoms tumble—
This is the sound of your voice
This is the earth melting away

You are with us, our defense, our silent center
What we see is all your doing
These desolations
These terrifying moments—
Only your unmoving movement—

You cause wars to cease when they cease, to cease forever
You break the bow, snap the spear
Burn up the war wagons

Be still—be still
And know me
Be still and know
That I am what the nations grope toward
I am earth’s desire

So we know you are with us
Our defense at the silent center of things

All peoples, clap hands,
    shout out to God with a sound of glad song.
For the LORD is most high and fearsome,
    a great king over all the earth.
He crushes peoples beneath us
    and nations beneath our feet.
He chooses for us our estate,
    pride of Jacob whom He loves.        selah
God has gone up with a trumpet-blast,
    the LORD with a ram’s horn sound.
Hymn to God, hymn,
    hymn to our king, O hymn.
For king of all earth is God,
    hymn joyous song.
God reigns over the nations,
    and sits on His holy throne.
The princes of peoples have gathered,
    the people of Abraham’s God.
For God’s are the land’s defenders.
    Much exalted is He.

Great is the LORD and highly praised
    in our God’s town, His holy mountain.
Lovely in heights, all the earth’s joy,
    Mount Zion, far end of Zaphon,
        the great king’s city.
God in its bastions
    is famed as a fortress.
For, look, the kings have conspired,
    passed onward one and all.
It is they who have seen and so been astounded,
    were panicked, dismayed.
Shuddering seized them there,
    pangs like a woman in labor.
With the east wind
    You smashed the ships of Tarshish.
As we heard, so we see
    in the town of the LORD of armies, in the town of our God.
        May God make it stand firm forever!        selah
We witnessed, O God, Your kindness
    in the midst of Your temple.
Like Your name, O God, so Your praise—
    to the ends of the earth.
        With justice Your right hand is full.
Let Mount Zion rejoice,
    let Judea’s townlets exult
        because of Your judgments.
Go around Zion, encircle it.
    Count its towers.
Set your mind to its ramparts,
    scale its bastions
        to recount to the last generation.
For this is God, our God, forevermore.
    He will lead us forever.

People, listen to me
Open your ears, inhabitants of the perishable world
Low and high, rich and needy, all of you—

My mouth will speak wisdom
My heart’s speech will be true
I will give myself over to my meaning
Will sing it, play it out on the lyre—

Why should I fear the sorrow
Of being diminished by the honored of the world
Who trust in their wealth
And glory in their riches?

No amount of money can redeem a soul
It cannot be ransomed with gold
For a soul is worth far too much
And if you try to purchase it
It is lost forever

Will the wealthy live endlessly?
Will they buy their way out of the grave?
They are not blind—
They can see that the wise also die
So the fool and the powerful must likewise perish
And leave their wealth to others

Inwardly they imagine
That their legacies will last forever
That their immense houses and estates
Will stand for generations
They even give them their names
In the languages of the countries where they stand

Nevertheless
A person is not an enduring idea
A person perishes, like any animal
Such is the foolish faith of self-confidence
The end of those pleased with their own talk

Like sheep they’re herded into death
Who eats them alive at night
And the next morning they find themselves servants of the upright
And their substance thins all through the day
And by nightfall they have little left to be proud of

My fate is otherwise—
For you
Will guide my soul
Even in the land of the dead
It won’t hurtle there blind—
You will take me

So don’t be afraid of the rich
Don’t envy the increase of their houses
For when they die none of it matters
When they go down their glory won’t follow them
Though they congratulate themselves in their lifetimes
Their souls surfeited with self-satisfaction
They will never see the light again

Because such people make no effort to understand this
They lose their birthright of splendor
And perish, like any animal

You—out of your namelessness—
Spoke
Summoning the world
From the rising to the setting of the sun
Out of Zion, beauty’s perfection
You shone forth
Arriving
Breaking the silence
A fire before you
Swirled round with a terrible cloud
Calling out the heavens above
And the earth below
For proving your people

Gather the faithful
Through whose pledge
They are bound together with me

Then the heavens shone forth your justice
And you proved what is

Hear, people, and I will speak—
You who struggle with me
You who question me I will testify
For I am the is of what is—
Yours that is—

Your sacrifice doesn’t appease me
Nor the offerings you dutifully make
I will not take a bullock out of your house
Nor a goat from your fold

All the life of all the forests
All the cattle on a thousand mountains
Is already mine—
I embrace the mountain fowl
Whatever moves in the fields moves in me

If I were hungry, would I come crying to you for food?
I am the world and all that animates it
Do I need to eat the flesh off fatted calves
Or drink the blood of goats?

Offer me your heart’s intention
Pay me your forged words
Give me your sorrows—call on me
So I can answer you
So that your soul can speak to me

And to the crooked you said—

Who are you to repeat my words
To mouth my commitments?
You recite but the words don’t go in
Instead you throw them down behind you
When you see a thief you congratulate him
Betrayers are your comrades
You flex your mouth with crooked words
Loosen your tongue with deceit
Speak against your brother
Against your own mother’s son spew out slander

All this you do ordinarily
Blind to your own actions
And I have kept silence
To see what you would do

And you thought I approved you
Because you cannot think with your own mind
So now I will make it clear
So that it is set in order before your eyes
Think about it
Think about your heedlessness
And do it soon
Before the backlash of your deeds
Tears you to pieces
And even I cannot help you—

Who offers me his heart’s intention
Brightens me, extends me
Who turns his course around
Will feel my kindness and my help

Be gracious with me in your loving-kindness
In your tenderness blot out my confusion
Wash me, let my impurity run off
Cleanse me, squeeze the poison out
For of my twistedness I’m painfully aware
My weakness is before my eyes all day long

Against you, weaver of the hidden pattern of things
Has the shape of my actions inclined
Necessarily—
For I am human
And my pain must rend the cloth
Unraveling right and wrong
Tearing the fabric of my own heart
That in its woundedness it has no choice but to seek for you

From the first I was this way
Mothered in conception and division—
Your eye looks through the fabric to the nothing beyond—
Cause me there, in my soul’s exile, to find brightness
Freshen me with hyssop
Wash my heart and my body will be whiter than snow
Let me hear with the inward ear the gladness and the joy
Of my sensual life
So that the bones you’ve crushed in bringing me to be
Can click and sing, repaired
Let the light of your eye in mine
Clarify my tangles and snarls
So they do not pull nor strangle
And my heart becomes clear
And my spirit new
Don’t push me away
Don’t remove your natural love
Remind me of the joy I find in immersion in you
Support me—free me—
And I will remember you to all who’ve fallen away
And they’ll rise up, face to face with you again
Deliver me from division within myself
That I can find my tongue to sing your allness—
Open my lips and my mouth will praise you
For this is what you desire, not sacrifice

If you wanted burnt offerings I’d give them
But the sacrifice you desire is a broken heart
A humbled heart, quiet and receptive
You will always receive
Take it and make Zion strong
Take it and pile high the walls of Jerusalem
And then the rites and rituals will make sense
Then the bullocks and the incense can be offered on the altars

Why boast of evil, O hero?
    —God’s kindness is all day long.
Disasters your tongue devises,
    like a well-honed razor, doing deceit.
You love evil better than good,
    a lie more than speaking justice.            selah
You love all destructive words,
    the tongue of deceit.
God surely will smash you forever,
    sweep you up and tear you from the tent,
        root you out from the land of the living.    selah
And the righteous shall see and be awed
    and laugh over him.
Look, the man who does not make
    God his stronghold,
and who trusts in his great wealth,
    who would be strong in his disaster!
But I am like a verdant olive tree
    in the house of our God.
        I trust in God’s kindness forever more.
I shall acclaim You forever, for You have acted,
    and hope in Your name, for it is good,
        before your faithful.

The scoundrel has said in his heart,
    “There is no God.”
They corrupt and do loathsome misdeeds.
    There is none who does good.
The LORD from the heavens looked down
    on the sons of humankind
to see, is there someone discerning,
    someone seeking out God.
All are tainted,
    one and all are befouled.
There is none who does good.
    There is not even one.
Do they not know,
    the wrongdoers?
Devourers of my people devoured like bread.
    They did not call on God.
There did they sorely fear.
    —There was no fear,
for God scattered the bones of your besieger.
    You put them to shame, for God spurned them.
O, may from Zion come Israel’s rescue
    when God restores His people’s condition.
May Jacob exult.
    May Israel rejoice.

God, through Your name rescue me,
    and through Your might take up my cause.
God, O hear my prayer,
    hearken to my mouth’s utterances.
For strangers have risen against me,
    and oppressors have sought my life.
        They did not set God before them.        selah
Look, God is about to help me,
    my Master—among those who support me.
Let Him pay back evil to my assailants.
    Demolish them through Your truth!
With a freewill offering let me sacrifice to You.
    Let me acclaim Your name, LORD, for it is good.
For from every strait He saved me,
    and my eyes see my enemies’ defeat.

Listen to my prayer
Don’t hide from my petition
Listen and respond

I am tossed about, moaning
Deafened by the clamor of the wicked
Pressed down by the weight of the heedless
Who bring down their darkness upon me
And prick me on all sides with their restless fury

My heart convulses
Death’s terror invades
Fear and trembling rattle my bones
My whole body shudders

I said, O that someone
Would give me the wings of a dove
I would fly away from here to a quiet place
I would lie down in the evening in the wilderness
I would find shelter from the punishing wind
And from the storm

Confuse their speech!
For I have seen violence and strife in the city
Day and night they surround her walls
And inside there is confusion and meanness
Hatred gathers in the square
Deceit and twistedness growl in the streets

It is not an enemy who bests me—
    I could bear that
Not one who hates me and grows large with hatred—
    Against him I would know how to hide

No. it is someone close, warm, intimate
My friend and my guide
With whom I walked arm and arm in your house
In sweet fellowship—

Whose heart is divided
Enters death alive
Living in the shadows of disjunction
I call on you
Knowing you will make me whole

In the evening and the morning and at noon
I moan and shout out my anguish
And I am heard
Delivered by you unharmed
From these endless battles

In you I have thousands by my side
You who occupy the sovereign throne
Since time’s beginning
Hear me
And pull them down—
Those who do not recognize the power of change
And so forget you
Who betray friends, who break trust
Whose creamy words flow smoothly from the mouth
But whose heart hates
Whose words soothe like oil
Yet they are drawn swords

I entrust myself wholly to you—
You hold me up
You never let the upright collapse
But you will bring them down—
Those of blood, those of the lie
The partial ones will not live out half their days

My trust is yours

Grant me grace, O God,
    for a man tramples me,
        all day long the assailant does press me.
My attackers trample me all day long,
    for many assail me, O High One.
When I fear, I trust in You,
    in God, Whose word I praise,
        in God I trust, I shall not fear.
            What can flesh do to me?
All day long they put pain in my words,
    against me all their plots for evil.
They scheme, they lie low,
    they keep at my heels
        as they hope for my life.
For their mischief free me from them.
    In wrath bring down peoples, O God.
My flagrant fate You Yourself have counted out—
    put my tears in Your flask.
        Are they not in Your counting?
Then shall my enemies turn back
    on the day I call.
        This I know, that God is for me.
In God, Whose word I praise,
    in the LORD Whose word I praise,
in God I trust, I shall not fear.
    What can man do to me?
I take upon me, O God, my vows to You.
    I shall pay thanksgiving offerings to You.
For You saved me from death,
    yes, my foot from slipping,
to walk in God’s presence
    in the light of life.

Be gracious, be gracious, be gracious
For my soul flies out to your protection
Flies up to the refuge of your wings
Until this anguish passes

I call on you, my guide
Confident of your kindness to me
You who swirls out from the center
And penetrates me with your love
Though the one who wants to swallow me up
Utters curses and accusations
Your faithfulness will still them all

I am in the company of lions by day
At night I lie down in flames
Their teeth are spears and arrows
Their tongues a sharpened blade

    Raise yourself up and blaze out over all the body of earth!

They prepared a net to ensnare my foot—
    I was almost caught
They dug a pit for me—
    But they fell into it

My heart is firm, my heart is firm, my heart is firm
I sing it, I chant it, I pluck it on the lyre
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and psaltery!
I will wake up the dawn with my song!
I will go out among the people with my chanting!
I will rouse the nations with my playing!

For your kindness swirls about the entire center
And your truth reaches as far as the empty sky

    Raise yourself up and blaze out over all the body of earth!

Do you, O chieftains, indeed speak justice,
    in rightness judge humankind?
In your heart you work misdeeds on earth,
    weigh a case with outrage in your hands.
The wicked backslide from the very womb,
    the lie-mongers go astray from birth.
They have venom akin to the serpent’s venom,
    like the deaf viper that stops up its ears,
so it hears not the soothsayers’ voice
    nor the cunning caster of spells.
God, smash their teeth in their mouth.
    The jaws of the lions shatter, O LORD.
Let them melt away, like water run off.
    Let Him pull back his arrows so they be cut down.
Like a snail that moves in its slime,
    a woman’s stillbirth that sees not the sun,
before their thorns ripen in bramble,
    still alive and in wrath rushed to ruin.
The just man rejoices when vengeance he sees,
    his feet he will bathe in the wicked one’s blood.
And man will say, “Yes, there is fruit for the just.
    Yes, there are gods judging the earth.”

Save me from my enemies, my God,
    over those who rise against me make me safe.
Save me from the wrongdoers,
    and from men of bloodshed rescue me.
For, look, they lie in wait for my life,
    the powerful scheme against me
        —not for my wrong nor my offense, O LORD.
For no misdeed they rush, aim their bows.
    Rise toward me and see!
And You, LORD, God of armies, God of Israel,
    awake to make a reckoning with all the nations.
        Do not pardon all pernicious traitors.        selah
They come back at evening,
    they mutter like dogs.
        They prowl round the town.
Look, they speak out with their mouths—
    and swords in their lips—
        for who would hear?
And You, LORD, laugh at them,
    You mock all the nations.
My Strength, for You I keep watch,
    for God is my fortress.
My steadfast God will come to meet me,
    God will grant me sight of my foes’ defeat.
Do not kill them lest my people forget.
    Through Your force make them wander, pull them down,
        our shield and Master.
Through their mouth’s offense, the word of their lips
    they will be trapped in their haughtiness,
        and through the oaths and the falsehood they utter.
Destroy, O destroy in wrath, that they be no more,
    and it will be known to the ends of the earth
        that God rules over Jacob.            selah
They come back at evening,
    they mutter like dogs.
        They prowl round the town.
They wander in search of food
    if they are not sated, till they pass the night.
But I shall sing of Your strength,
    and chant gladly each morning Your kindness.
For You were a fortress for me,
    a haven when I was in straits.
My Strength, to You I would hymn,
    for God is my fortress,
        my steadfast God.

God, You have abandoned us, breached us.
    You were incensed—restore us to life!
You made the land quake, You cracked it.
    Heal its shards, for it has toppled.
You sated Your people with harsh drink,
    You made us drink poison wine.
You once gave to those who fear You
    a banner for rallying because of the truth.        selah
So that Your friends be set free,
    rescue with Your right hand and answer us.
God once spoke in His holiness:
    “Let Me exult and share out Shechem,
        and the valley of Sukkoth I shall measure.
Mine is Gilead and Mine Manasseh,
    and Ephraim My foremost stronghold,
        Judah My scepter.
Moab is My washbasin,
    upon Edom I fling My sandal,
        over Philistia I shout exultant.”
Who will lead me to the beseiged town,
    who will guide me to Edom?
Have You not, O God, abandoned us?
    You do not sally forth, God, with our armies.
Give us help against the foe
    when rescue by man is in vain.
Through God we shall gather strength,
    and He will stamp out our foes.

Hear, God, my song,
    listen close to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call You.
    When my heart faints, You lead me to a rock high above me.
For You have been a shelter to me,
    a tower of strength in the face of the foe.
Let me dwell in Your tent for all time,
    let me shelter in Your wings’ hiding-place.        selah
For You, God, have heard my vows,
    You have granted the plea of those who fear Your name.
Days may You add to the days of the king,
    his years be like those of generations untold.
May he ever abide in the presence of God.
    Steadfast kindness ordain to preserve him!
So let me hymn Your name forever
    as I pay my vows day after day.

My soul waits quietly for you
From you comes my deliverance
Only you are my rock my redemption
My haven: I shall not be moved

How long will they press on me
Push on me as though I were a leaning wall
A tottering fence?

Whenever I rise up
They pull me down
Delighting in deception
Blessing with their mouths
But cursing in their hearts

Yes, wait quietly my soul
For you only do I hope in silence
Only you are my rock, my deliverance
My haven: I shall not be moved

You are my completion, my brightness
You my strength, my protection

Let us trust you always
Pouring out our hearts to you
Our refuge, our solace

To be human is nothing
To be great is a lie
Heaped up on the scale
They rise up in the balance
For altogether they are lighter than nothing

Don’t rely on deception
Or put your hope in robbery
Even if they bring you prosperity
It will do no good

You spoke once
And you spoke again
What I have heard:

That strength is built on you
That kindness flows from you
That you are the certain recompense
For all according to their acts

God, my God, for You I search.
    My throat thirsts for You,
my flesh yearns for You
    in a land waste and parched, with no water.
So, in the sanctum I beheld You,
    seeing Your strength and Your glory.
For Your kindness is better than life.
    My lips praise You.
Thus I bless You while I live,
    in Your name I lift up my palms.
As with ripest repast my being is sated,
    and with lips of glad song my mouth declares praise.
Yes, I recalled You on my couch.
    In the night-watches I dwelled upon You.
For You were a help to me,
    and in Your wings’ shadow I uttered glad song.
My being clings to You,
    for Your right hand has sustained me.
But they for disaster have sought my life—
    may they plunge to the depths of the earth.
May their blood be shed by the sword,
    may they be served up to the foxes.
But the king will rejoice in God,
    all who swear by him will revel,
        for the mouth of the liars is muzzled.

Hear, God, my voice in my plea.
    From fear of the enemy guard my life.
Conceal me from the counsel of evil men,
    from the hubbub of the wrongdoers,
who whetted their tongue like a sword,
    pulled back their arrow—a bitter word—
to shoot in concealment the innocent,
    in a flash shot him down without fear.
They encourage themselves with evil words.
    They recount how traps should be laid.
        They say, Who will see them?
“Let them search out foul deeds!
    We have hidden them from the utmost search,
in a man’s inward self,
    and deep is the heart.”
But God will shoot an arrow at them.
    In a flash they will be struck down.
And their tongue will cause them to stumble,
    all who see them will nod in derision.
And all men will fear
    and tell of God’s act,
        and His deed they will grasp.
May the righteous rejoice in the LORD and shelter in Him,
    and may all the upright revel.

For you praise waits in Zion
Vows pile up to be paid
All that lives readies to advance
To you who hears these words

I am weary of the world’s crookedness
And my own confusions—
You will straighten and correct it
With forgiveness wiping woes away

Happy are those you choose
Who approach you and dwell in your house
Who are satisfied with that happiness
The holiness of your house

Terrific deeds of rightness are your answer to our words
You who are the confidence of rock and sea
The faithfulness of mountains
Their might and majesty
Who guides the roaring of the seas
The pounding of the towering waves
The tumultuous fortunes of nations

Those who dwell in the outermost lands
Are awed by your daily wonders
The dawning of the morning
And the fading of the evening
They rejoice in as your body’s calling

Your thought of earth
Is the gathering of her waters
The enriching of her soils
Your brook runs with water

And so you prepare the harvest
That feeds life

Saturating her furrows
Smoothing her ridges
Softening her with showers
Murmuring the blessings
Of her growing

Your crown is the ample unfolding of the years
Your body the presence in physical places
The pastures of the wilderness distill it
The hills of the settlements disperse its joy
The meadows are clothed with flocks
The valleys mantled with grain
The people give voice to it with words
They murmur it, shout it, sing it out

Shout out to God, all the earth.
    Hymn His name’s glory.
        Make His praise glory.
Say to God, “How awesome Your deeds.
    Before Your great strength Your enemies quail.”
All the earth bows down to You,
    and they hymn to You, hymn Your name.        selah
Come and see the acts of God,
    awesome in works over humankind.
He turned sea to dry land,
    the torrent they crossed on foot.
        There we rejoiced in Him.
He rules in His might forever.
    His eyes probe the nations.
        Let the wayward not rise up.            selah
Bless, O peoples, our God,
    and make heard the sound of His praise,
Who has kept us in life,
    and not let our foot stumble.
For You tested us, God,
    You refined us as silver is refined.
You trapped us in a net,
    placed heavy cords round our loins.
You let people ride over us.
    We came into fire and water—
        and You brought us out to great ease.
I shall come to Your house with burnt offerings
    I shall pay to You my vows
that my lips uttered,
    that my mouth spoke in my straits.
Fat burnt-offerings I shall offer up to You
    with the incense of rams.
        I shall sacrifice cattle and goats.        selah
Come listen and let me recount,
    all you who fear God,
        what He did for me.
To Him with my mouth I called out,
    exaltation upon my tongue.
Had I seen mischief in my heart,
    the Master would not have listened.
God indeed has listened,
    has hearkened to the sound of my prayer.
Blessed is God,
    Who has not turned away my prayer nor His kindness from me.

May God grant us grace and bless us,

    may He shine His face upon us.            selah
To know on the earth Your way,
    among all the nations Your rescue.
Nations acclaim You, O God,
    all peoples acclaim You.
Nations rejoice in glad song,
    for You rule peoples rightly,
        and nations on earth You lead.        selah
Nations acclaim You, O God,
    all peoples acclaim You.
The earth gives its yield.
    May God our God bless us.
May God bless us,
    and all the ends of earth fear Him.

Let God arise, let His enemies scatter,
    and let His foes flee before Him.
As smoke disperses may they disperse,
    as wax melts before fire,
        may the wicked perish before God.
And may the righteous rejoice and exult
    before God, and be gladdened in joy.
Sing to God, hymn His name.
    Pave the way for the Rider of Clouds,
        for Yah is His name, and exult before Him.
Father of orphans and widows’ judge,
    God in His holy abode.
God brings the lonely back to their homes,
    sets free captives in jubilation.
        But the wayward abide in parched land.
God, when You sallied forth before Your people,
    when You strode through the desert.            selah
The earth shook,
    the heavens, too, poured down before God,
        Sinai itself before God, God of Israel.
A bountiful rain You shed, O God.
    Your estate that had languished You made firm.
Your cohorts dwelled there,
    You made it firm in Your goodness for the lowly, O God.
The Master gives word—
    the women who bear tidings are a great host:
“The kings of armies run away, run away,
    and the mistress of the house shares out the spoils.”
If you lie down among sheepfolds…
    The wings of the dove are inlaid with silver,
        and her pinions with precious gold.
When Shaddai scattered the kings there,
    it snowed on Zalmon.
Mountain of God, Mount Bashan,
    crooked-ridge mountain, Mount Bashan.
Why do you leap, O crooked-ridged mountains,
    the mountain God desired for His dwelling?
        Yes, the LORD will abide there forever!
The chariots of God are myriads beyond count,
    thousands of thousands.
The Master among them
    —O, Sinai in holiness!
You went up to the heights,
    You took hold of your captives,
the wayward as well—
    so that Yah God would abide.
Blessed be the Master day after day.
    God heaps upon us our rescue.            selah
God is to us a rescuing God.
    The LORD Master possesses the ways out from death.
Yes, God will smash His enemies’ heads,
    the hairy pate of those who walk about in their guilt.
The Master said, “From Bashan I shall bring back,
    bring back from the depths of the sea.
That your foot may wade in blood,
    the tongues of your dogs lick the enemies.”
They saw Your processions, O God,
    my God’s processions, my King in holiness.
The singers came first and then the musicians
    in the midst of young women beating their drums.
In choruses bless God,
    the LORD, from the fountain of Israel.
There little Benjamin holds sway over them,
    Judah’s princes in their raiment,
        Zebulon’s princes, Naphftali’s princes.
Ordain, O God, Your strength,
    strength, O God, that You showed for us,
from Your temple, over Jerusalem.
    To You the kings bring gifts.
Rebuke the beast of the marsh,
    the herd of bulls among calves of the peoples—
cringing with offerings of silver.
    He scattered peoples that delighted in battle.
Let notables come from Egypt,
    Cush raise its hands to God.
Kingdoms of earth, sing to God,
    hymn to the Master.                    selah
To the Rider in the utmost heavens of yore.
    Look, He makes His voice ring, the voice of strength.
Acclaim strength to God,
    over Israel is His pride
        and His strength in the skies.
Awesome, O God, from Your sanctuaries!
    Israel’s God—He gives strength and might to His people.
        Blessed is God.

Rescue me, God,
    for the waters have come up to my neck.
I have sunk in the slime of the deep,
    and there is no place to stand.
I have entered the watery depths,
    and the current has swept me away.
I am exhausted from my calling out.
    My throat is hoarse.
My eyes fail
    from hoping for my God.
More numerous than the hairs of my head
    are my unprovoked foes.
My destroyers grow strong,
    my lying foes.
What I have not stolen
    should I then give back?
God, You know my folly,
    and my guilt is not hidden from You.
Let not those who hope for You be shamed through me.
    Master, O LORD of armies.
Let those who seek You be not disgraced through me,
    God of Israel.
Because for You I have borne reproach,
    disgrace has covered my face.
Estranged I have been from my brothers,
    and an alien to my mother’s sons.
For the zeal for Your house has consumed me,
    the reproach of Your reproachers has fallen on me.
And in fasting I wept for my being—
    it became a reproach for me.
I made sackcloth my garment
    and became for them a byword.
I was the talk of those who sit in the gate,
    the drunkards’ taunting song.
But I—may my prayer to You,
    O LORD, come in a favorable hour.
God, as befits Your great kindness,
    answer me with Your steadfast rescue.
Save me from the mire, that I not drown.
    Let me be saved from my foes and from the watery depths.
Let the waters’ current not sweep me away
    and let not the deep swallow me,
        and let the Pit not close its mouth on me.
Answer me, LORD, for Your kindness is good,
    in Your great compassion turn to me.
And hide not Your face from Your servant,
    for I am in straits. Hurry, answer me.
Come near me, redeem me.
    Because of my enemies, ransom me.
It is You who know my reproach,
    and my shame and disgrace before all my foes.
Reproach breaks my heart, I grow ill;
    I hope for consolation, and there is none,
        and for comforters, and do not find them.
They gave for my nourishment wormwood,
    and for my thirst they made me drink vinegar.
May their table before them become a trap,
    and their allies a snare.
May their eyes grow too dark to see,
    make their loins perpetually shake.
Pour out upon them Your wrath,
    and Your blazing fury overtake them.
May their encampment be laid waste,
    and in their tents may no one dwell.
For You—whom You struck they pursued,
    and they recounted the pain of Your victims.
Add guilt upon their guilt,
    and let them have no part in Your bounty.
Let them be wiped out from the book of life,
    and among the righteous let them not be written.
But I am lowly and hurting.
    Your rescue, O LORD, will protect me.
Let me praise God’s name in song,
    and let me extol Him in thanksgiving.
And let it be better to the LORD than oxen,
    than a horned bull with its hooves.
The lowly have seen and rejoiced,
    those who seek God, let their hearts be strong.
For the LORD listens to the needy,
    and His captives He has not despised.
Let heaven and earth extol Him,
    the seas and all that stirs within them.
For God will rescue Zion
    and rebuild the towns of Judea,
        and they will dwell there and possess it.
And the seed of His servants will inherit it,
    and those who love His name will dwell there.

God, to save me,
    LORD, to my help, hasten!
May those who seek my life be shamed and reviled.
    May they fall back and be disgraced,
        who desire my harm.
Let them turn back on the heels of their shame,
    who say “Hurrah, hurrah!”
Let all who seek You
    exult and rejoice,
and may they always say “God is great!”
    —those who love Your rescue.
As for me, I am lowly and needy.
    God, O hasten to me!
My help, the one who frees me You are.
    LORD, do not delay.

In You, O LORD, I shelter.
    Let me never be shamed.
Through Your bounty save me and free me.
    Incline Your ear to me and rescue me.
Be for me a fortress-dwelling
    to come into always.
You ordained to rescue me,
    for You are my rock and my bastion.
My God, free me from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grip of the wicked and the violent.
For You are my hope, Master,
    O LORD, my refuge since youth.
Upon You I relied from birth.
    From my mother’s womb You brought me out.
        To You is my praise always.
An example I was to the many,
    and You are my sheltering strength.
May my mouth be filled with Your praise,
    all day long Your glory.
Do not fling me away in old age,
    as my strength fails, do not forsake me.
For my enemies said of me,
    who stalk me counseled together,
saying, “God has forsaken him.
    Pursue and catch him, for no one will save him.”
God, do not keep far from me.
    My God, hasten to my help!
May my accusers be shamed, may they perish—
    may they be clothed with shame and reproach,
        who seek my harm.
As for me, I shall always hope
    and add to all Your praise.
My mouth will recount Your bounty,
    all day long Your rescue,
        for I know not numbers.
I shall come in the power of the Master, the LORD.
    I shall call to mind Your bounty—You only.
God, You have taught me since my youth,
    and till now I have told Your wonders.
And even in hoary old age,
    O God, do not forsake me.
Till I tell of Your mighty arm to the next generation,
    to all those who will come, Your power,
and Your bounty, O God, to the heights,
    as You have done great things,
        O God, who is like You?
As You surfeited me with great and dire distress,
    You will once more give me life,
        and from earth’s depths once more bring me up.
You will multiply my greatness
    and turn round and comfort me.
And so I shall acclaim You with the lute.
    —Your truth, my God.
Let me hymn You with the lyre,
    Israel’s Holy One.
My lips will sing glad song when I hymn to You,
    and my being that You ransomed.
My tongue, too, all day long
    will murmur Your bounty.
For they are shamed, for they are disgraced,
    those who sought my harm.

Endow power with justice
Let it embrace uprightness
So that people can see uprightness before them
And the downtrodden can be raised up in justice

Let the mountains hold peace fast for people
Let the hills reverberate with the movements of justice
Give power eyes to see the needy
So that it can serve them and their children
Crushing what holds them down

And all will respect you as long as the sun will shine
As long as the moon will glow in the night sky
For all the generations to come

Let power be for refreshment
Like rain upon mown grasses
Like showers on the open earth
Let it cause uprightness to grow lush
Let it make peace spring up in abundance
Till the moon falls out of the sky

And you will have dominion from sea to sea
From the river to the far end of the land
Before you all those yet wild will bow
And the enemies will lick the dust

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles will bring gifts
The kings of Sheba and Seba will likewise arrive with offerings
Even all the kings will bow before you
And all the nations will recognize you

For you respond to the needy when they cry out
To the sufferer when there is no hope
You care for the poor and the broken
You soothe their souls
Plucking out the barbs of crookedness and violence
Their lifeblood is precious to you
And they will live and you will give them Sheba’s gold
And will pray on their behalf constantly
Blessing them all the time

There will be grain in abundance in the land
To the tops of the mountains the sheaves will tremble
Rattling with fullness like the treetops of Lebanon
And people will blossom out of the cities
Like wild herbs spreading over the fields

Your name will flourish
People will bless themselves with your memory
Nations will understand happiness when they think of you

For you are blessedness
You who give strength to the strugglers
Who answer the questioners
Who alone animate wonders
Your unsayable name is glorious
It fills the world to the brim with its brightness

It is true—the strugglers
Find the good through you
When they find a pure heart

But as for me
I am easily unbalanced
Easily do I slip and almost fall
I am envious of the high and mighty
Desire the prosperity of the wicked
They do not seem to have mortal fears
Their strength seems self-sufficient
They seem to escape their human weakness
And they don’t bother with the worries of others
They wear pride for a necklace
Violence for a cloak
Their eyes stare out from fattened cheeks
For they’ve consumed more than any heart could desire
They dissemble, they speak out against oppression
Loftily do they speak
With their mouths fastened onto heaven
While their tongues run craftily about the earth
And when the thirsty return from their long journeys
The cup is dry for they have drained it
And they say with impunity
No one sees us, no one knows what we are
For the lofty God to whom we pray is far removed from here

Yes, these are the wicked
This is how they are
Yet daily they increase in wealth
And there seems no end to their successes

Why have I piously cleansed my heart?
Why have I bothered to wash these hands in innocence
Working all day to be pure
Waking up every morning aware of my shortcomings?
I am disgusted with it all
But if I dare speak of it
I betray my creed and fellows
Even to think of it
Would do damage to my own eyes

    But then
    I entered your house
    And now I understand truly
    How it is with the wicked

They are on high and the place is firm
But the spot is slippery
And in the darkness they find no step
And surely will they fall to their end in nothingness
In every moment
They perish desolately, meet themselves drastically
With terrific events
When you wake from your dream of them
Their outward selves even fade in the light of day

Before, my heart soured with anger
And I felt the bite of the reins of my envy
But I was foolish, unable to see
Your truth was spoken before me
Yet like an animal
I could not understand the words
Though my ears heard the sound

Now
I know
I am continually
With you
You have taken
My right hand
And led me quiet
Into your house
Guided me
With daily
Awareness of you
And when my life ends
You will take me again
 Into the limitless fire
That has always burned in me

What use is heaven?
And on earth I need nothing
Save you

Though my flesh and my heart shall fail
Yet my heart’s foundation
Does not come or go
Those who live far from you
Have already perished in that—
Your absence
Is their punishment
It is already done
    But as for me
    I draw nearer you always
    And it is good
    My trust is in knowing you
    In speaking only of what you are

Why have you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke at the flock you tend?
Remember us, yours for so long
Your image. your inheritance, closer to you than yourself
This Zion where your presence dwells

Lift up your feet
Walk onto these endless ruins
Hatred and division have wrecked your sanctuary
Violence has roared into the midst of the peaceful assembly

They’ve mistaken their signs for signs
Turning the world upside down
They’ve lifted up axes against the forests
Hacked away at your handiwork with hatchets and hammers
Set fire to your sanctuary
Burned to the ground
The dwelling place of your unsayableness

They have said in their hearts
We will oppress them altogether
They have burned up every place that is yours
No part of the land is untouched by them
So we can no longer see signs
And we cannot speak truth
And no one knows how long we will suffer this
 
How long
Will the adversary
Speak lies?
Will division
Forever ignore
Your unsayableness?
Why withdraw your hand
Your right hand?
Draw it out—
Act

You are our ruler
From times of old
Working out salvation
Here on the land

By your strength
You divided the sea
Broke into pieces
The beasts of the deep
Crushed Leviathan’s heads
And fed them to the people
Of the wilderness
And so made the world

You cracked open
Springs and torrents
Pushed back
Flooding rivers
You are the day
You are the night
Hauled up to the sky
The sun’s blaze
Tapped out the rhythm
Summer and winter
You breathed them

Don’t forget this:
That they’ve defiled you
That the foolish ones have trampled your unsayableness
Don’t give us up to the many heedless ones!
Don’t forget forever the congregation of the afflicted ones!

Don’t forget your promise
For in the shadows of the world violence thrives
Don’t send the oppressed back dismayed
Give the poor and needy good reason to praise you

Arise
Plead your own cause
Keep the memory of their defiance in your mind
Hear their voices in your ear
Their snarling noises ascending all the time

We give thanks to you, endless thanks
For the nearness of your unsayableness
That we touch in the memory of your wondrous doing

For I will when the right time comes
Make right judgment—
The earth and all living things melt away
It is I who keep the pillars firm

I say to the arrogant, let go of arrogance
And to the crooked, put down your horns—
Put them down, all the way down
And lower your proud stiff necks
For what truly lifts
Comes neither from the rising of the sun
Nor from the setting of the sun
Nor from the wild power of desert mountains
But only from me
Who when that time comes
Lowers one
And lifts another
I hold the cup in my hands
And the whipped wine foams
That I pour off clearly    
But the sour dregs they drain—
This is the drink of the crooked

I will endless sing a hymn to you
Who hack off the horns of the crooked
But the horns of the upright you raise   

God becomes known in Judah,
    in Israel His name is great.
And in Salem was set His pavilion,
    His dwelling in Zion.
There did He shatter the bow’s fiery shafts,
    the shield and the sword and the battle.    selah
Refulgent You were,
    mightier than the mountains of prey.
The stout-hearted were despoiled,
    they fell into a trance,
        and all the men of valor could not lift a hand.
By Your roar, O God of Jacob,
    chariot and horse were stunned.
You, O fearsome are You,
    and who can stand before You, in the strength of Your wrath?
From the heavens You made judgment heard,
    the earth was afraid and fell silent,
when God rose up for judgment
    to rescue all the lowly of earth.        selah
Even human fury acclaims You
    when You gird on all furies’ remains.
Make vows and fulfill them to the LORD your God.
    All round Him bring tribute to the Fearsome One.
He plucks the life-breath of princes.
    He is fearsome to the kings of the earth.

I shout out to you, I wail—
Give me your ear
In the day of my torment my eyes seek you
In the night of my despair my hands ceaselessly grope
My soul refuses to be comforted
I think of you and moan
I think of my life and my spirit is crushed
You keep my eyes from shutting
Until I am overcome and cannot speak
Remembering times gone by
Years of the past, repressed deeds
I sing ancestral songs
Communing with my heart
Inquiring acutely within my spirit

Will you cast me off forever?
Will I never gain your favor again?
Is your kindness depleted
Your promise dried up for all time?
Have you forgotten how to pity
Walled off with anger your compassion?
And I said, No—
It’s my own infirmity
My own withholding
That stays your hand

Against this will I recall your doing, contemplate your being
You whose path is holiness—
Where is there goodness to compare with yours?
You, architect of wonders
You, author of strength
Who saved the struggling, the captured, people

The waters saw you and were convulsed
To their depths they shuddered
The clouds threw off water
The skies rumbled
Lightning arrows shot zigzag across the sky
As the wheeling whirlwind voiced out thunder
And lightning flashed the world to shocked view—
The whole earth churned and rolled

Your way cut a path through the seas
A path through mighty waters
But your tracks could not be seen
You led us like a flock
In Moses and Aaron’s care

Hearken, my people, to my teaching.
    Lend your ear to the sayings of my mouth.
Let me open my mouth in a rhapsody,
    let me voice the verses of old,
that we have heard and we have known,
    and that our fathers recounted to us.
We shall not conceal from their sons,
    to the last generation recounting
the praise of the LORD and His might
    and His wonders that He did.
He established a precept in Jacob
    and His teaching put forth in Israel,
this He charged to our fathers
    to make them known to their sons,
so that the last generation might know,
    sons yet to be born
        might arise and recount to their sons,
and place their trust in God
    and forget not the acts of God,
        and observe His commands.
That they be not like their fathers,
    a wayward, rebellious generation,
a generation that was not firm of heart,
    and its spirit not faithful to God.
The Ephraimites, deft wielders of bows,
    turned tail on the day of battle,
and did not keep God’s pact,
    and His teaching refused to follow.
And they forgot His acts
    and His wonders that He showed them.
Before their fathers He did wonders,
    in the land of Egypt, in Zoan’s field.
He split open the sea and let them pass through,
    He made water stand up like a heap.
And He led them with the cloud by day
    and all night long with the light of fire.
He split apart rocks in the wilderness
    and gave drink as from the great deep.
He brought forth streams from stone,
    and poured down water like rivers.
And still they offended him more,
    to rebel against the High One in parched land.
And they tried God in their heart
    to ask food for their gullet.
And they spoke against God.
    They said: “Can God set a table in the wilderness?
Look, He struck the rock and water flowed
    and currents streamed.
Can He also give bread?
    Will He ready flesh for His people?”
Then the LORD heard and was angered,
    and a fire was lit against Jacob
        and wrath, too, went up against Israel.
For they had no faith in God
    and did not trust in His rescue.
And He charged the skies above,
    and the doors of the heavens He opened,
and rained on them manna to eat
    and the grain of the heavens He gave to them.
Princely bread a man did eat,
    provisions He sent them to sate them.
He moved the east wind across the heavens
    and drove the south wind with His might,
and rained flesh upon them like dust
    and like sand of the seas winged fowl,
brought it down in the midst of His camp,
    round about His dwelling-place.
And they ate and were fully sated,
    what they craved He brought to them.
They were not revolted by their craving,
    their food was still in their mouths,
when God’s wrath went up against them,
    and He killed their stoutest fellows.
        Israel’s young men He brought to their knees.
Even so, they offended still
    and had no faith in His wonders.
And they wasted their days in mere vapor
    and their years in dismay.
When He killed them, they sought Him out,
    and came back and looked for God.
And they recalled that God was their rock
    and the Most High God their redeemer.
Yet they beguiled Him with their lips,
    and with their tongue they lied to Him
And their heart was not firm with Him,
    and they were not faithful to His pact.
Yet He is compassionate, He atones for crime and does not destroy,
    and abundantly takes back His wrath
        and does not arouse all His fury.
And He recalls that they are flesh,
    a spirit that goes off and does not come back.
How much they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
    caused Him pain in the waste land!
And again did they try God,
    and Israel’s Holy One they provoked.
They did not recall His great hand,
    the day He ransomed them from the foe,
when He set out His signs in Egypt
    and His portents in Zoan’s field,
and He turned their rivers to blood,
    their currents they could not drink.
He sent against them the horde to consume them
    and the frogs to destroy them.
And He gave to the cicada their produce
    and their labor to the locust.
He blighted their vines with the hail,
    and their sycamores with the frost.
He gave over to the pestilence their beasts,
    and their cattle to the murrain.
He sent against them His smoldering fury,
    anger, indignation, and distress,
        a cohort of evil messengers.
He blazed a path for his fury,
    He did not keep them from death,
        and to the pestilence He gave their life.
And He struck down each firstborn in Egypt,
    first fruit of manhood in the tents of Ham.
And He led His people forward like sheep,
    drove them like sheep in the wilderness.
And He guided them safely—they feared not,
    and their enemies the sea covered.
And He brought them to His holy realm,
    the mount His right hand had acquired.
And He drove out nations before them
    and set them down in a plot of estate,
        and made Israel’s tribes dwell in their tents.
Yet they tried God the Most High and rebelled,
    and His precepts they did not keep.
They fell back and betrayed like their fathers,
    whipped around like an untrusty bow.
They vexed Him with their high places,
    incensed Him with their idols.
God heard and was angry,
    wholly rejected Israel.
He abandoned the sanctuary of Shiloh,
    the tent where He dwelled among men.
And He let His might become captive,
    gave His splendor to the hand of the foe.
He gave over his people to the sword,
    against His estate He was enraged.
His young men the fire consumed
    and His virgins no wedding song knew.
His priests fell to the sword,
    and His widows did not keen.
And the Master awoke as one sleeping,
    like a warrior shaking off wine.
And He beat back His foes,
    everlasting disgrace He gave them.
Yet He rejected the tent of Joseph,
    and the tribe of Ephraim He did not choose.
And He chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion that He loves.
And He built on the heights His sanctuary,
    like the earth He had founded forever.
And He chose David His servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds.
From the nursing ewes He brought him
    to shepherd Jacob His people
        and Israel His estate.
And with his heart’s innocence he shepherded them,
    with skilled hands he guided them.

God, nations have come into Your estate,
    they have defiled Your holy temple.
        They have turned Jerusalem to ruins.
They have given Your servants’ corpses
    as food to the fowl of the heavens,
        the flesh of Your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
They have spilled their blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
        and there is none to bury them.
We have become a disgrace to our neighbors,
    scorn and contempt to all round us.
How long, O LORD, will You rage forever,
    Your fury burn like fire?
Pour out Your wrath on the nations
    that did not know You
and on the kingdoms
    that did not call on Your name.
For they have devoured Jacob
    and his habitation laid waste.
Do not call to mind against us our forebears’ crimes.
    Quickly, may your mercies overtake us,
        For we have sunk very low.
Help us, our rescuing God
    for Your name’s glory,
and save us and atone for our sins
    for the sake of Your name.
Why should the nations say, “Where is their god?”
    Let it be known among the nations before our eyes—
        the vengeance for Your servants’ spilled blood.
Let the captive’s groan come before You,
    by Your arm’s greatness unbind those marked for death.
And give back to our neighbors sevenfold to their bosom
    their insults that they heaped on You, Master.
But we are Your people and the flock that You tend.
    We acclaim You forever.
        From generation to generation we recount Your praise.

Shepherd of Israel, hearken,
    He Who drives Joseph like sheep,
        enthroned on the cherubim, shine forth.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh
    rouse Your might
        and come to the rescue for us.
O God, bring us back,
    and light up Your face that we may be rescued.
LORD, God of armies,
    how long will You smolder against Your people’s prayer?
You fed them bread of tears
    and made them drink triple measure of tears.
You have put us in strife with our neighbors,
    and our enemies mock us.
God of armies, bring us back,
    and light up Your face that we may be rescued.
You carried a vine out of Egypt,
    You drove away nations and planted it.
You cleared space before it
    and struck its roots down,
        and it filled the land.
The mountains were covered by its shade,
    and by its branches the mighty cedars.
You sent forth its boughs to the sea
    and to the River its shoots.
Why did You break through its walls
    so all passers-by could pluck it?
The boar from the forest has gnawed it,
    and the swarm of the field fed upon it.
God of armies, pray, come back,
    look down from the heavens and see,
        and take note of this vine,
and the stock that Your right hand planted,
    and the son You took to Yourself—
burnt in fire, chopped to bits,
    from the blast of Your presence they perish.
May Your hand be over the man on Your right,
    over the son of man You took to Yourself.
And we will not fall back from You.
    Restore us to life and we shall call on Your name.
LORD God of armies, bring us back.
    Light up Your face, that we may be rescued.

Sing gladly to God our strength,
    shout out to the God of Jacob.
Lift your voices in song and beat the drum,
    the lyre is sweet with the lute.
Blast the ram’s horn on the new moon,
    when the moon starts to wax, for our festival day.
For it is an ordinance in Israel,
    a rule of the God of Jacob.
A decree He declared it for Israel
    when He sallied forth against Egypt’s land—
        a language I knew not, I heard.
“I delivered his shoulder from the burden
    his palms were loosed from the hod.
From the straits you called and I set you free.
    I answered You from thunder’s hiding-place.
        I tested you at the waters of Meribah.        selah
Hear, O my people, that I may adjure you.
    Israel, if You would but hear Me.
There shall be among you no foreign god
    and you shall not bow down to an alien god.
I am the LORD your God
    Who brings you up from the land of Egypt.
        Open your mouth wide, that I may fill it.
But My people did not heed My voice
    and Israel wanted nothing of Me.
And I let them follow their heart’s willfulness,
    they went by their own counsels.
If My people would but heed Me,
    if Israel would go in My ways,
in a moment I would humble their enemies,
    and against their foes I would turn My hand.
Those who hate the LORD would cringe before Him,
    and their time of doom would be everlasting.
And I would feed him the finest wheat,
    and from the rock I would sate him with honey.”

God takes His stand in the divine assembly,
    in the midst of the gods He renders judgment.
“How long will you judge dishonestly,
    and show favor to the wicked?        selah
Do justice to the poor and the orphan.
    Vindicate the lowly and the wretched.
Free the poor and the needy,
    from the hand of the wicked save them.
They do not know and do not grasp,
    in darkness they walk about.
        All the earth’s foundations totter.
As for Me, I had thought: you were gods,
    and the sons of the Most High were you all.
Yet indeed like humans you shall die,
    and like one of the princes, fall.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth,
    for You hold in estate all the nations.

O God, no silence for You!
    Do not be mute and do not be quiet, God.
For, look, Your enemies rage,
    and those who hate You lift their heads.
Against Your people they devise cunning counsel
    and conspire against Your protected ones.
They have said: “Come, let us obliterate them as a nation,
    and the name of Israel will no longer be recalled.”
For they conspired with a single heart,
    against You they sealed a pact—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
    Philistia with the dwellers of Tyre.
Assyria, too, has joined them,
    has become an arm for the sons of Lot.        selah
Do unto them as to Midian, as to Sisera,
    as to Jabin at the brook of Kishon.
They were destroyed at En-Dor,
    they turned into dung for the soil.
Deal with their nobles as with Oreb
    and as with Zeeb and Zebah and Zulmunna, all their princes,
who said, “We shall take hold for ourselves
    of all the meadows of God.”
O God, make them like the thistledown,
    like straw before the wind.
As fire burns down forests
    and as flame ignites the mountains,
so shall You pursue them with Your storm
    and with Your tempest dismay them.
Fill their faces with infamy
    that they may seek Your name, O LORD.
May they be shamed and dismayed forever,
    may they be disgraced and may they perish.
And may they know that You, Your name is the LORD.
    You alone are most high over all the earth.

How lovely is your house!
My soul thirsts for, longs for your courts
My heart and my flesh leap for joy
In your presence, life’s sovereignty
Just as the sparrow has found her proper nest
And the swallow a corner for herself
Where she may nurture and fledge her young
So have I found your altars
You who trail clouds of glory
To whom I look for my soul’s satisfaction
Happy are they who live in your house
Their lives are your continuous praise
Happy the ones whose hearts confide in you
Whose feet walk the pilgrim pathways
Passing the valley of weeping
They change it into a spring
And the morning rains cover it with blessing
They go from strength to strength, tower to tower
Appearing before you at Zion’s Mount
O you who trail clouds of glory—
Listen to me, incline your ear
And look upon my glistening face
For better is a day in your courts
Than a thousand days anywhere else
I would rather wait at the threshold of your house
Than dwell comfortable in the tents of the strong
For you are a warm sun, a glinting shield
Who beams grace, who shines glory
Never withholding goodness
From those who walk with integrity—
O you whose glory blazes behind you!
Happy is the one whose trust rests solid with you

You favored, O LORD, Your land,
    You restored the condition of Jacob.
You forgave Your people’s crime,
    You covered all their offense.         selah
You laid aside all Your wrath,
    You turned back from Your blazing fury.
Turn back, pray, God of our rescue
    and undo your anger against us.
Will You forever be incensed with us,
    will You draw out Your fury through all generations?
Why, You—will again give us life,
    and Your people will rejoice in You.
Show us, O LORD, Your kindness,
    and Your rescue grant to us.
Let me hear what the LORD God would speak
    when He speaks peace to His people and to His faithful,
        that they turn not back to folly.
Yes, His rescue is near for those who fear Him,
    that His glory dwell in our land.
Kindness and truth have met,
    justice and peace have kissed.
Truth from the earth will spring up,
    as justice from the heavens looks down.
The LORD indeed will grant bounty
    and our land will grant its yield.
Justice before Him goes,
    that He set His footsteps on the way.

Listen to me, answer me, for I am desperate
Protect my soul, for I am steadfast
O you to whom I am ever calling
In whom I am always trusting
Help me now
Be gracious with me
I call out to you all day long
Let my soul rejoice with relief
For I lift it up to you who are good, forgiving
Abundant in kindness to all who call out to you
Listen to my prayer, hear my desperation’s voice
On the day of my distress I call on you
Knowing you will answer
You the incomparable one
Whose deeds are inconceivable

All the nations you have made
Will come to bow before you
Honoring your unsayable name
For you are boundless greatness
And your deeds are wonders, inexplicable
There is only you, you alone

Teach me your path
And I will walk firmly in your truth
Let my heart be undivided in awe of your namelessness
And I will thank you with all my heart
And will honor your unsayableness forever
For your kindness toward me is great
You have saved my soul from the deep

Arrogant ones have risen against me
Ruthless ones seek my life
These are the ones who do not see you
But you are full of mercy
Gracious and kind
Slow to anger, steadfast in love and truth

O turn to me
Be gracious with me
Give me your strength
Save the child of your maidservant
Fix me with a sign of goodness
So those who oppose me can see it and be ashamed
Knowing you have helped me and given me comfort

His foundation on the holy mountains—
    The LORD loves the gates of Zion
        more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Splendid things are spoken of you,
    O town of God.                selah
Let me recall Rahab and Babel to my familiars.
    Look, Philistia and Tyre together with Cush,
        —this one was born there.
And of Zion it shall be said:
    every man is born in it,
        and He, the Most High, makes it firm-founded.
The LORD inscribes in the record of peoples:
    this one was born there.            selah
And singers and dancers alike:
    “All my wellsprings are in you.”

Now you are my only help

By day I cry out to your distances
And at night I stand naked before you
May my prayer touch you
your ear to it, hear me

For my soul is heavy with trouble
And my life is a living death
I am as those who’ve run out of time
Without vigor, afloat among the dead
Like a murdered corpse, forgotten and denied
Cut off in prime by your hand

You have lowered me to the bottom
Where it is darkest, the deepest dark
You pummel me with your fury
Pound me with your waves

You’ve driven away all my companions
Made me seem poisonous to them
I am imprisoned, bound, I cannot move

My eyes burn with acid sufferings
And every day I call out to you
Every day I reach out my hands toward you

Will you perform miracles for the dead?
Will the departed ones stand up and offer thanks to you?
Will they open their mouths to speak of your kindness?
Can your miracles be seen in this darkness?
Can your goodness be remembered
Here in the land of endless forgetting?

Yet I cry out more loudly more persistently to you
And in the morning I offer up again my prayer
Why do you throw my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?

All my life I am eaten by time
Full of affliction, perishing
I have borne your terrors
Till my mind is distracted

The fire of your anger
Passes over my body
Your terrors have been
My constant devastation
Swirling always about me
I am bathed in them
Pulled down to the bottom
Gasping for breath

You’ve driven away all my companions
The light in the eye of my lover, my friend
Is altogether put out

I will forever sing of your kindness
Throughout the generations with my words I’ll make it known
For I have pledged, Endless is your kindness confirmed
Even in the heavens is your faithfulness patterned

    I have made a covenant with the one I have chosen
    Have sworn to David, my servant, that I will confirm him forever
    Will hold up his throne throughout the generations

And the heavens are the praise of your wonders
Your faithfulness shakes the hallways of the holy ones
For where in the skies can your measure be found?
And who is like you even among all the powers that be?
The hallways of the powerful shrink before your presence
And all greatness trembles before the mention of your name
Whose power can compare with your endlessness
That is wreathed all round with steadfast kindness?

You rule the seas—when the waves come rushing upward you calm them
You crush original chaos as if it were a weak figment
You scatter the opposing forces and smooth life’s way
The heavens pulse with your spirit
The earth rolls on with your thought
As for the world and all that fills it—you stand within it all
North and south: you alone
Tabor and Hermon: your jubilant song
Yours is the powerful arm, the strong hand, exalted is your right hand

Your throne’s foundation is uprightness and justice
The air around it swirls with clouds of kindness and truth
Happy are those who hear the joyful trumpet blasts
For they’ll walk always firm in the light around your face
And they’ll be glad all day, soothed by the melody of your name’s silent syllables
And in your uprightness will they continuously exalt

For you are the glory of our strength
And through your favor are we exalted
For you are our shield and our sovereign—

Then you spoke to me in a vision and said:

    I have aligned myself with a worthy one
    Have raised up a youth from out of the heart of the people
    I have found David my servant there
    And have consecrated him, pouring over his head my holy oil
    With whom my hand will be firmly established
    And my arm will give him strength
    The enemy won’t gouge him like a crooked dealer
    Nor will the unjust ones overpower him
    For I will push aside from him his assailants
    And those that block his way I’ll plague
    He will always know my steadfast kindness
    And through my namelessness will his horn be exalted
    And I will place his hand upon the sea
    His upright hand upon the rivers
    And he will call out to me as his father, his rock, his deliverance
    Him will I appoint sovereign
    For him will I maintain my kindness forever
    My covenant with him forever
    And forever his forebears and his throne, as long as the heavens last

    But if his children ignore my pathways
    If they walk away from me in willful directions
    If they subvert my determinations and misapprehend my mind
    Then I will visit their ignorance with suffering
    Their self-centeredness I will crack with despair
    But I will never excise my forbearing kindness from him
    I will never betray this commitment I now make
    Will never go back on these words of my lips
    For I have sworn by my power once and for all
    That I will never be false to him
    His seed will endure endlessly, his throne like the sun before me
    Like the moon established forever
    A faithful witness in the sky

Yes, but now you have rejected, spurned, despised, crushed
Have become enraged at me your anointed one
You have voided your vaunted commitment
Have dragged down that lofty crown into the filth and dust
You’ve broken all my fences, shattered my protecting walls—
All who pass plunder me—I have become an embarrassment to my neighbors—
You’ve lifted up the right hand of my tormentors
And made all my enemies rejoice
Turned back the blade of my sword
And I’m bowed down in battle
My brilliance is darkened, my throne lies cracked on the ground
You’ve cut off my hopeful youthful days
Covered them with a sheath of shame

How long will you continually hide yourself from me?
How long will your anger singe me like fire?
Remember what I am: a feeble person, of brief life and quick death—
For what have I been created?
Who can live and not see death daily approaching?
Who can save himself from the dark depth’s triumph?
Where is the kindness you swore to me in the magnificence of your truth?

Remember now the hardship of your servant
The suffering I bear in my heart
Because of the abusers around me on every side
Remember that these enemies have defiled your purpose
Have caused to fumble the footsteps of your anointed
At every turn of the way

    You who are nonetheless blessed forever—
    In gratitude I speak these words to you

You have always been a refuge to me
Before the mountains, before the earth, before the world
From endlessness to endlessness
You are

You turn me around
You say
Return child

A thousand years to you are like a yesterday
Like a lonely hour in the middle of the night

You rush them away like a flood
Like a long sleep
Like grass
That rises up fresh in the morning
And in the evening withers

I am consumed by you
Terrified by time
And my despair is all too clear
In the light of your face

All my days pass
In your midst
All my years reverberate
Like a solemnly spoken word

The years of our life number seventy
If we are uncommonly strong maybe eighty
Yet they only bring trouble and sorrow
For we can’t forget how soon they pass
How swiftly they fly by

Who knows your power?

I can only fear it in the darkness of every night

Help me understand how to count my days
How to embrace my life
That I may nourish a heart of wisdom

    Turning around: how long, O Lord, how long!

Think of me
Satisfy me in the morning with your kindness
And I will rejoice all day long

Give me as many days of joy in you
As the days of my natural suffering
The days of my longing and my sorrow

Show me how
You live in me

Bless my children
Light my path with your beauty
So that all that I do will be inspired

Yes,
Establish my life in you
And let all that I do

Be yours

He who dwells in the Most High’s shelter,
    in the shadow of Shaddai lies at night—
I say of the LORD, “My refuge and bastion,
    my God in whom I trust.”
For He will save you from the fowler’s snare,
    from the disastrous plague.
With His pinion He shelters you,
    and beneath His wings you take refuge,
        a shield and a buckler, His truth.
You shall not fear from the terror of night
    nor from the arrow that flies by day,
from the plague that stalks in darkness
    nor from the scourge that rages at noon.
Though a thousand fall at your side
    and ten thousand at your right hand,
        you it will not reach.
You but look with your eyes,
    and the wicked’s requital you see.
For you—the LORD is your refuge,
    the Most High you have made your abode.
No harm will befall you,
    nor affliction draw near to your tent.
For His messengers He charges for you
    to guard you on all your ways.
On their palms they lift you up
    lest your foot be bruised by a stone.
On lion and viper you tread,
    you trample young lion and serpent.
“For Me he desired and I freed him.
    I raised him high, for he has known My name.
He calls Me and I answer him,
    I am with him in his straits.
        I deliver him and grant him honor.
With length of days I shall sate him,
    and show him my rescue.”

It is good to acclaim the LORD
    and to hymn to Your name, Most High,
to tell in the morning Your kindness,
    Your faithfulness in the nights,
on ten-stringed instrument and on the lute,
    on the lyre with chanted sound.
For You made me rejoice, LORD, through Your acts,
    of the work of Your hands I sing in gladness.
How great Your works, O LORD,
    Your designs are very deep.
The brutish man does not know,
    nor does the fool understand this:
the wicked spring up like grass,
    and all the wrongdoers flourish—
        to be destroyed for all time.
And You are on high forever, O LORD!
For, look, Your enemies, O LORD,
    for, look, Your enemies perish,
        all the wrongdoers are scattered.
And You raise up my horn like the wild ox.
    I am soaked in fresh oil.
And my eyes behold my foes’ defeat,
    those hostile toward me, my ears hear their fall.
The righteous man springs up like the palm tree,
    like the Lebanon cedar he towers.
Planted in the house of the LORD,
    in the courts of our God they flourish.
They bear fruit still in old age,
    fresh and full of sap they are,
to tell that the LORD is upright,
    my rock, there is no wrong in Him.

The LORD reigns, in triumph clothed,
    clothed is the LORD, in strength He is girded.
        Yes, the world stands firm, not to be shaken.
Your throne stands firm from of old,
    from forever You are.
The streams lifted up, O LORD,
        the streams lifted up their voice,
            the streams lift up their roaring.
More than the sound of many waters,
    the sea’s majestic breakers,
        majestic on high is the LORD.
Your statutes are very faithful.
    Holiness suits Your house.
        The LORD is for all time.

Shine your light on action
O shine your light

Dawn, rise up, illuminate, make clear
Brighten for the eye of the heedless
The darkness of their conduct
The effluent consequence of what they do

How long shall they exult?
How long shall their speech sputter noisily
Words that clash in the ear?

The evildoers in their ignorant confidence
Crush your people
Afflict your heritage

The widow and the stranger they slay
The parentless child they murder
Saying, No one will stop us
For no one sees this
God is too lofty to take notice of it

Take notice you heedless ones!
You doers of thoughtless cruelty
You who mistake your own humanness—

Understand:
When will you wake up?

Do you think that the one who is the hearing of the ear
Does not hear?
Do you think that the one who is the seeing of the eye
Does not see?

Do you think that the one who is profound goodness
Abandons goodness, the brightness of the heart?

And you
Who are our center:
You are the knowing of our endlessness
Awareness of our nothingness
Beyond recognition and name

Who rests in you
Who follows your way
Whose heart is lit with your brightness
Is happy

This one is peaceful in the evil times
Knowing that all deeds fashioned in darkness
Will be lit by your light one day

Knowing that you cannot forsake your people
For we are your heritage
And justice will return to justice—
The upright heart understands this

Where will I find light
In the darkness of my time?

Who will rise up for me
When crookedness lays me low?

Were you not the living center of things
I’d fall back into numb silence

When I feel no ground beneath me
When my foot gives way
Your kindness sustains me

When my painful thoughts collide in confusion
Your quietness is my stability

Can you sustain injustice
Support crooked arrangements made for the powerful?
They band together to twist your law
The holders of power diminish the good
Condemn the innocent, throw aside the weak

But you are ever my comfort
My sheltering rock
Bringing justice to justice
Evil to evil, each act according to its character

Brought home
Brought to wholeness in its time

Come, let us sing gladly to the LORD,
    let us shout out to the Rock of our rescue.
Let us greet Him in acclaim,
    in songs let us shout out to Him.
For a great god is the LORD
    and great king over all the gods.
In Whose hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the peaks of the mountains are His.
His is the sea and He made it,
    and the dry land His hands did fashion.
Come, let us bow and kneel,
    bend the knee before the LORD our maker.
For He is our God
    and we are the people He tends
        and the flock of His hand.
If you would only heed His voice!
    “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,
        as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your forefathers tested Me,
    tried Me, though they had seen My acts.
Forty years I loathed a generation,
    and I said, ‘They are a people of wayward heart.
        And they did not know My ways.’
Against them I swore in My wrath,
    ‘They shall not come to My resting-place.’”

Sing to the LORD a new song!
    Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless His name,
    Bring tidings every day of his rescue.
Recount among the nations His glory,
    among all the peoples His wonders.
For great is the LORD and most praised,
    awesome is He over all the gods.
For all gods of the peoples are ungods,
    but the LORD has made the heavens.
Greatness and grandeur before Him,
    strength and splendor in His sanctuary.
Grant to the LORD, O families of peoples,
    grant to the LORD glory and strength.
Grant to the LORD His name’s glory,
    bear tribute and come to His courts.
Bow to the LORD in sacred grandeur;
    quake before Him, all the earth.
Say among the nations: The LORD reigns.
    Yes, the world stands firm, will not shake.
        He metes out justice to peoples righteously.
Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult,
    let the sea and its fullness thunder.
Let the field be glad and all that is in it,
    then shall all the trees of the forest joyfully sing
before the LORD, for He comes,
    He comes to judge the earth.
He judges the world in justice
    and peoples in His faithfulness.

You are sovereign!
The earth is glad
And the islands rejoice

Clouds and thick darkness envelop you
Uprightness and justice support your throne

A fire precedes you
Burning before you all that resists you

Your lightning flashes through the world
The earth is convulsed at the sight
Mountains melt like wax at your presence
At the presence of the sovereign of the earth

The heavens speaking is your rightness
People’s seeing is your brightness
All who see something less
And boast of this limited sight
And think it is sufficient
Shall be ashamed one day
When they see that all is nothing but you

Zion, hearing this, rejoices
And glad are the daughters of Judah
Because of what you are and do decree

For you are sovereign over all the earth
Among the holy most holy

All those who love you cast off crookedness
You guard the soul’s goodness
Guide it through difficulty
And bring it safely home

Light shines on the upright
Radiance on the goodhearted
The upright rejoice in you
And give thanks for the holiness of memory

Sing to the LORD a new song,
    for wonders He has done.
His right hand gave Him victory,
    and His holy arm.
The LORD made known His victory,
    before the nations’ eyes He revealed His bounty.
He recalled His kindness and His faithfulness
    to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
    the victory of our God.
Shout out to the LORD, all the earth.
    Burst forth in glad song and hymn.
Hymn to the LORD on the lyre,
    on the lyre with the sound of hymning.
With trumpets and the sound of ram’s horn,
    sound loud before the king, the LORD.
Let the sea and its fullness thunder,
    the world and those dwelling in it.
Let the rivers clap hands,
    let the mountains together sing gladly
before the LORD, for He comes
    to judge the earth.
He judges the world in justice
    and peoples righteously.

The LORD reigns—peoples tremble,
    enthroned upon cherubim—the earth shakes.
The LORD is great in Zion
    and exalted over all the peoples.
They acclaim Your name:
    “Great and fearful,
        He is holy.
And with a king’s strength He loves justice.”
    You firmly founded righteousness,
        judgment and justice in Jacob You made.
Exalt the LORD our God
    and bow down to His footstool.
        He is holy.
Moses and Aaron among His priests
    and Samuel among those who call on His name
        called to the LORD and He answered them.
In a pillar of cloud did He speak to them.
    They kept His precepts and the statute He gave them.
LORD our God, it was You Who answered them,
    a forbearing God You were to them,
        yet an avenger of their misdeeds.
Exalt the LORD our God
    and bow to His holy mountain,
        for the LORD our God is holy.

Shout out to the LORD, all the earth,
    worship the LORD in rejoicing,
        come before Him in glad song.
Know that the LORD is God.
    He has made us, and we are His,
        His people and the flock He tends.
Come into His gates in thanksgiving,
    His courts in praise.
Acclaim Him,
    Bless His name.
For the LORD is good,
    forever His kindness,
        and for all generations His faithfulness.

Kindness and justice I would sing.
    To You, O LORD, I would hymn.
I would study the way of the blameless:
    when will it come to me?
I shall go about in my heart’s innocence
    within my house.
I shall not set before my eyes
    any base thing.
I have hated committing transgressions.
    It will not cling to me.
May a twisted heart turn far from me.
    May I not know evil.
Who defames in secret his fellow,
    him shall I destroy.
The haughty of eyes and the proud of heart,
    him shall I not suffer.
My eyes are on the land’s faithful,
    that they dwell with me.
Who walks in the way of the blameless,
    it is he who will serve me.
Within my house there shall not dwell
    one who practices deceit.
A speaker of lies shall not stand firm
    before my eyes.
Each morning I shall destroy
    all the wicked of the land,
to cut off from the town of the LORD
    all the wrongdoers.

Hear my prayer
Let my cry come before you    
Don’t hide your face from me now
When suffering overwhelms me
Bend your ear toward my wailing
And answer me swiftly

The days of my life have gone up in smoke
My bones are smoldering like hearth fire logs
And my heart is as dry as desert grass
I can’t eat—my groaning bones chatter inside my flesh
I am like a scavenger bird in the wilderness
Like an owl amid the ruins
All hungry eye like a lone bird on a nighttime rooftop

All day long I choke myself with disgust
My own name has become a curse to me
I eat ashes for bread
My drink is soured by my tears
Because of your indignation and wrath—
You who lifted me up
Have thrown me down
My days are like a lengthening shadow
Like the grass I wither and fall back

But you
Sit enthroned
Forever
Your memory
Inspired
Throughout the generations
You will arise
Will lift up Zion

For it is her time
Zion’s time is now

Her servants hold dear her stones
Even her dust they cherish
The nations will hold you in awe
The rulers of the world will honor your glory
When you strengthen the soul’s Zion
Your light will blaze forth
When you wrap yourself
In the prayer of the forsaken
When you lift that prayer up

This that I say will be written down
For a coming generation
So that those not yet born
Will know how to praise your unsayable name
That you looked down from the center
Opened out the bud of your eye
Full into the world
To bear the sighing of the desperate
To loosen up the binding of death
That the dwellers in Zion can sing out your name
That all Jerusalem can dance your praise
Gathered together in harmony in your service

Yes you weakened me on the journey
Yes you shortened my days
But still I say Do not take me away
In the midst of my life
You whose years go on throughout the generations
In times gone by you made the earth’s foundations
The heavens are your handiwork
Even all this will perish

But you will not perish
Yes—all will wear out like a garment
And you will change clothing
The world will be changed like clothing
But you will not change
And your years will know no limit

The children of those who serve you
Will live in the light of this presence
And their seed will be firmly planted
In the soil of this spirit

My soul is for your blessing
All that is within me
A blessing for your nameless holiness
My soul is for your blessing
And remembers your gifts

Who forgives everything
Who heals all diseases
Who redeems life from death
Who makes a sovereign crown
Of kindness and mercy
Who awakens the spirit
So that time’s refreshed
And grows back like an eagle’s feather
Who brings justice to the unfairly treated
Who makes known your ways to Moses our teacher
And acts in the lives of the strugglers
Who is kind, who is gracious
Steadfast and faithful
Who doesn’t contend forever
But lets anger slip away
Whose gifts are gracious and fortuitous
Whose generosity is blind to our shortcomings—

As high as heaven is above the earth
So far, so wide is your kindness to us who seek to know you
As far as east is from west
So far, so distant have you removed us from our limitations

As a parent loves a child
Freely and unsurpassingly
So have you loved us

For you know who we are
You remember we are dust
Our days like grass
We bloom like the flowers of the field
When only a wind passes over them
They are gone
And the field forgets them

But your kindness
Stretches from forever to forever
Your rightness
Flows down through the generations
To those who keep faith with you
To those who walk your ways

You establish your throne in the center of things
Your kingdom embraces all
Blessings to you from the mighty angels
Who carry out the messages of your words
Blessings to you from the surrounding hosts
From the servants who build up your works
Blessings to you from all that you have made and are
 In all the places throughout all the times—

My soul is for your blessing

My soul is for your blessing
For you are very great
Clothed with light and splendor
Wrapped in light like a garment
Who stretches out the sky like a curtain
Whose roof beams are fashioned with the waters
Whose chariots are the clouds
Who walks along the wind’s wings
Whose messengers are the winds
Whose ministers are fire’s flames
Who sets the earth upon her foundations
So that she cannot be moved
And covers her with waters like a robe
The waters stood high above the mountains
And with your blast they fled
Hearing your thunder they rushed away
Ascending the mountains
Pouring into the valleys
Until they found the place you’d set aside for them
Holding them within their borders
That they not return to engulf the earth
Who makes springs gush forth in the hills
So that between the hills brooks run clear
Giving drink to the roaming animals
There the deer come to slake their thirst
There the waterfowl nest
Sending out their voices
From between the nearby branches
You water the mountains from your lofts
Satisfy the earth with the fruits of your labor
Cause grasses to grow for the cattle
And herbs to respond to a human touch
So that people can bring forth crops from the land
And wine to gladden their hearts
And oil to make their faces glisten
And bread to sustain them
Full of sap are your trees
The cedars of Lebanon that you have planted
Where the birds make their nests
The heron has her home in the junipers
The high mountains are for wild goats
The cliffs a shelter for marmots
You made the moon for the seasons
Made the sun that knows when to set
You cause darkness to ripen into night
So that the night animals feel moved to stir
The young lions to roar for their prey
Asking you for their food
And when the sun comes up they return quietly home
To crouch asleep in their dens
Then people go out to do their work
And they labor until evening

How various are these deeds
That you have performed so shapely
The earth so full of your riches
Here is the vast wide sea
In which creatures without number
Of all sizes and kinds crawl and swim or drift and wave
There the great ships make their voyages
And huge whales journey and breach without tiring
All these wait upon you to give them their food in due season
What you give they gather
You open your hand and they are satisfied
Hide your face and they vanish
Remove your breath and they perish
Return to the dust they were made from
Breathe again your breath and they enter life renewed
Refreshing the face of the earth
Your glory endures forever
Your work is an endless rejoicing
You who glance at the earth and she trembles
Who touch the mountains and they smoke
While I live my songs will be for you
While I am I’ll speak my gratefulness
May my words be agreeable
Yes I will share your rejoicing
May all that denies you be denied
And all that demeans you pass
My soul is for your blessing—
I praise that too

Acclaim the LORD, call out His name,
    make His deeds known among the peoples.
Sing to Him, hymn to Him,
    speak of all His wonders.
Revel in His holy name.
    Let the heart of the LORD’s seekers rejoice.
Inquire of the LORD and His strength,
    seek His presence always.
Recall the wonders that He did,
    His portents and the judgments He issued,
O seed of Abraham His servant,
    sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
He is the LORD our God—
    through all the earth, His judgments.
He recalls His pact forever—
    the word He ordained for a thousand generations—
which He sealed with Abraham,
    and His vow to Isaac,
and He set it for Jacob as a statute,
    for Israel an eternal pact,
saying,
    “To you will I give the land of Canaan
        as the plot of your estate,”
when they were a handful of men,
    but a few, and sojourners there.
And they went about from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another people.
He allowed no man to oppress them
    and warned kings on their account:
“Touch not My anointed ones,
    and to My prophets do no harm.”
And He called forth famine over the land,
    every staff of bread He broke.
He sent a man before them—
    as a slave was Joseph sold.
They tortured his legs with shackles,
    his neck was put in iron,
until the time of his word had come,
    the LORD’s utterance that purged him.
The king sent and loosed his shackles,
    the ruler of peoples set him free,
made him master of his house
    and ruler of all his possessions,
to admonish his princes as he desired
    and to teach wisdom to his elders.
And Israel came to Egypt,
    Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
And He made His people very fruitful,
    made them more numerous than their foes.
He changed their heart to hate His people,
    to lay plots against His servants.
He sent Moses his servant,
    Aaron, whom He had chosen.
They set among them the words of His signs,
    His portents in the land of Ham.
He sent darkness, and it grew dark,
    yet they did not keep His word.
He turned their waters to blood
    and made their fish die.
Their land swarmed with frogs,
    into the chambers of their kings.
He spoke, and the swarm did come,
    lice in all their region.
He turned their rains into hail,
    tongues of fire in their land.
And He struck their vines and their fig trees
    and shattered the trees of their region.
He spoke, and the locust came,
    grasshoppers without number.
And they ate all the grass in their land
    they ate up the fruit of their soil.
And He struck down each firstborn in their land,
    the first yield of all their manhood.
And He brought them out with silver and gold,
    and none in His tribes did falter.
Egypt rejoiced when they went out,
    for their fear had fallen upon them.
He spread a cloud as a curtain
    and fire to light up the night.
They asked, and He brought the quail,
    and with bread from the heavens He sated them.
He opened the rock, and water flowed,
    it went forth in parched land as a stream.
For He recalled His holy word
    with Abraham His servant.
And He brought out His people in joy,
    in glad song His chosen ones.
And He gave them the lands of nations,
    they took hold of the wealth of peoples,
so that they should keep His statutes,
    and His teachings they should observe.
        Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!
Acclaim the LORD, for He is good,
    for His kindness is forever.
Who can utter the LORD’s mighty acts,
    can make heard all His praise?
Happy those who keep justice,
    who do righteousness at all times.
Recall me, O LORD, when You favor Your people,
    mark me for Your rescue,
to see the good of Your chosen ones,
    to rejoice in the joy of Your nation,
        to revel with Your estate.
 We offended like our fathers,
    we wronged, we did evil.
Our fathers in Egypt
    did not grasp Your wonders.
They did not call to mind Your many kindnesses
    and rebelled by the sea, at the Sea of Reeds.
Yet He rescued them for His name’s sake,
    to make known His might.
He blasted the Sea of Reeds, and it dried up,
    and He led them through the deep as through wilderness.
And He rescued them from the hand of the hostile
    and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their foes,
    not one of them remained.
And they trusted His words,
    they sang His praise.
Quickly they forgot His deeds,
    they did not await His counsel.
And they felt a sharp craving in the wilderness,
    they put God to the test in the waste land.
And He gave them what they had asked,
    sent food down their throats.
And they were jealous of Moses in the camp,
    of Aaron, the LORD’s holy one.
The earth opened and swallowed Dothan
    and covered Abiram’s band.
And fire burned through their band,
    flame consumed the wicked.
They made a calf at Horeb
    and bowed to a molten image.
And they exchanged their glory
    for the image of a grass-eating bull.
They forgot the God their rescuer,
    Who did great things in Egypt,
wonders in the land of Ham,
    awesome deeds at the Sea of Reeds.
And He would have wiped them out
    were it not for Moses His chosen one—
he stood in the breach before Him
    to turn back His wrath from destruction.
And they despised the land of desires,
    they did not trust His word.
And they muttered in their tents,
    they did not heed the voice of the LORD.
And He raised His hand against them,
    to make them fall in the wilderness,
to disperse their seed among the nations,
    to scatter them among the lands.
And they clung to Baal Peor
    and ate sacrifices to the dead.
And they provoked Him through their acts,
    and the scourge broke out among them.
And Phineas stood and prayed,
    and the scourge was held back
and it was counted for him as merit,
    generation to generation forever.
And they caused fury over the waters of Meribah,
    and it went badly for Moses because of them,
for they rebelled against him,
    and he pronounced rash things with his lips.
They did not destroy the peoples
    as the LORD had said to them.
And they mingled with the nations
    and learned their deeds.
And they worshipped their idols,
    which became a snare to them.
And they sacrificed their sons
    and their daughters to the demons.
And they shed innocent blood,
    the blood of their sons and their daughters
when they sacrificed to Canaan’s idols,
    and the land was polluted with blood-guilt.
And they were defiled through their deeds
    and went whoring through their actions.
And the LORD’s wrath blazed against His people,
    and He abhorred His estate,
and gave them into the hand of nations,
     their haters ruled over them.
And their enemies oppressed them,
    and they were subject to their power.
Many times did He save them,
    and they rebelled against His counsel
        and were brought low through their misdeeds.
And He saw when they were in straits,
    when He heard their song of prayer.
And He recalled for them His pact,
    relented through his many kindnesses.
And He granted them mercy
    in the eyes of all their captors.
Rescue us, LORD our God
    and gather us from the nations
to acclaim Your holy name
    and to glory in Your praise.

Blessed is the LORD God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people say: Amen, hallelujah!

Acclaim the LORD, for He is good,
    for His kindness is forever.
Let the LORD’s redeemed ones say,
    whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
and gathered them from the lands,
    from east and west, from north and south.
They wandered in wilderness, wasteland,
    found no road to a settled town,
hungry, thirsty, too,
    their life-breath failed within them.
And they cried to the LORD from their straits,
    from their distress he saved them.
And He led them on a straight road
    to go to a settled town.
Let them acclaim to the LORD His kindness
    and His wonders to humankind.
For He sated the thirsting throat
    and the hungry throat He filled with good—
dwellers in dark and death’s shadow,
    prisoners of tormenting iron.
For they rebelled against God’s sayings,
    the Most High’s counsel they despised.
And He brought their heart low in troubles.
    They stumbled with none to help.
And they cried to the LORD from their straits,
    from their distress He rescued them.
He brought them out from the dark and death’s shadow
    and their bonds He sundered.
Let them acclaim to the LORD His kindness
    and His wonders to humankind.
For He shattered the doors of bronze
    and the iron bars he hacked off.
 Fools because of their sinful way,
    because of their misdeeds they were afflicted.
All food their throat rejected,
    they came to the gates of death.
And they cried to the LORD from their straits,
    from their distress He rescued them.
He sent forth His word and healed them,
    and delivered them from their pit.
Let them acclaim to the LORD His kindness,
    and His wonders to humankind,
and offer thanksgiving sacrifices
    and recount His deeds in glad song.
Those who go down to the sea in ships,
    who do tasks in the mighty waters,
it is they who have seen the deeds of the LORD,
    and His wonders in the deep.
He speaks and raises the stormwind
    and it makes the waves loom high.
They go up to the heavens, come down to the depths,
    their life-breath in hardship grows faint.
They reel and sway like a drunkard,
    all their wisdom is swallowed up.
And they cry to the LORD from their straits
    from their distress He brings them out.
He turns the storm into silence,
    and its waves are stilled,
and they rejoice that these have grown quiet,
    and He leads them to their bourn.
Let them acclaim to the LORD His kindness
    and His wonders to humankind.
Let them exalt Him in the people’s assembly
    and in the session of elders praise Him.
He turns rivers into wilderness
    and springs of water into thirsty ground,
fruitful land into salt flats,
    because of the evil of those who dwell there.
He turns wilderness into pools of water,
    and parched land to springs of water,
and settles there the hungry,
    firmly founds a settled town.
And they sow fields and they plant vineyards,
    which produce a fruitful yield.
And He blesses them and they multiply greatly,
    and their beasts He does not let dwindle.
He pours contempt upon the princes,
    and makes them wander in trackless waste.
And they dwindle and are bowed down,
    from harsh oppression and sorrow.
And He raises the needy from affliction,
    and increases his clans like flocks.
Let the upright see and rejoice,
    and all wickedness shut its mouth.
He who is wise will watch these
    and take to heart the LORD’s kindnesses.

My heart is firm, O God.
    Let me sing and hymn
        with my inward being, too.
Awake, O lute and lyre.
    I would waken the dawn.
Let me acclaim You among the peoples, LORD.
    Let me hymn you among the nations.
For Your kindness is great over the heavens,
    and Your steadfast truth to the skies.
Loom over the heavens, O God.
    Over all the earth Your glory,
that Your beloved ones be saved,
    rescue with Your right hand, answer me.
God once spoke in His holiness:
    “Let Me exult and share out Shechem,
        and the valley of Sukkoth I shall measure.
Mine is Gilead, Mine Manasseh,
    and Ephraim My foremost stronghold,
        Judah My scepter.
Moab is My washbasin,
    upon Edom I fling My sandal,
        over Philistia I shout exultant.”
Who will lead me to the fortified town,
    who will guide me to Edom?
Have You not, O God, abandoned us?
    You do not sally forth, God, with our armies.
Give us help against the foe
    when rescue by man is in vain.
Through God we shall gather strength,
    and He will stamp out our foes.

You whom I regularly praise
Do not ignore me now
For the crooked and deceitful
Are opening their mouths against me
Speaking of me everywhere with lying tongues
They have surrounded me with a cloud of hateful words
Have attacked me for no reason
Have repaid my kindness with accusations
And reduced me to nothing but this prayer
They repay my good with evil
Give me hatefulness in exchange for my love

Appoint someone harsh over him
With an accuser at his right hand
Let him be judged and convicted
And let his prayers turn sour in his mouth
Let his days be few
Let him know that someone else has taken his place
May his children be fatherless
His wife a widow
Let his children be continually restless
Begging for their keep in ruined places
Let his creditors put a lien on his property
And let strangers take their pick of his prized possessions
Let no one extend kindness to him
Or to his orphaned children
So that his seed will be cut off
And in another generation no one will know his name

Remember forever every sin his father’s fathers ever committed
Let his mother’s mothers’ transgressions never be blotted out
Let all these misdoings be on your docket perpetually
So that any goodness they may have done has no chance of being remembered

Why all this?
Because he constantly remembered to be unkind
He persecuted the poor and needy
Those grieved in their hearts he rushed to destroy
He loved cursing-let it come back on him!
He hated blessing-let it be a million miles away!
May he wear cursing as his garment
May it enter into his body like water
Into his bones like oil
Let him wrap himself up in it like a cozy blanket
Let him hold up his pants with a cursing belt!
I ask you to give this for a reward to my accusers
To those who demean my soul for no good reason—

But you
O endless one—
Deal with me out of your better side
Kind as you are, save me
For I am poor and needy
And have a wounded heart
As the shadow fades at the close of day
So do I hasten away
As suddenly as locusts disappear
As abruptly will I be gone
My knees are knocking from my fasting
I am all skin and bones
When they see me they feel uneasy
And they shake their heads

Help me—out of your kindness save me
They will know that you have done it
They will see it is the work of your hand
Let them curse—you will bless
When they rise up in their haughtiness
Pull them down with shame
So that I can gloat
Let them be trussed up in their confusion
Wrapped up in their humiliation like a beggar’s cloak

If you do this
I will compose thanksgiving songs to you
And I will travel far and wide singing them
For you are stationed at the right hand of the needy
To save him from people like that

The LORD’s utterance to my master:
“Sit at My right hand
    till I make your enemies
        a stool for your feet.”
Your mighty scepter
    may the LORD send forth from Zion.
        Hold sway over your enemies.
Your people rally to battle
    on the day your force assembles
on the holy mountains, from the womb of dawn,
    yours is the dew of your youth.
The LORD has sworn, He will not change heart.
    “You are priest forever.
        By my solemn word, my righteous king.”
The Master is at your right hand.
    On the day of His wrath He smashes kings.
He exacts judgment from the nations,
    fills the valleys with corpses,
        smashes heads across the great earth.
From a brook on the way He drinks.
    Therefore He lifts up His head.

Hallelujah.
I acclaim the LORD with full heart
    in the counsel of the upright and the assembly.
Great are the deeds of the LORD,
    discovered by all who desire them.
Glory and grandeur His acts
    and His bounty stands for all time.
A remembrance he made of his wonders,
    gracious and merciful the LORD.
Sustenance he gives to those who fear him,
    He recalls forever His pact.
The power of His deeds He told His people,
    to give them the nations’ estate.
His handiwork, truth and justice,
    trustworthy all His precepts,
Staunch for all time, forever,
    fashioned in truth and right.
Redemption He sent to His people,
    forever commanded His pact.
    Holy and awesome His name.    
The beginning of wisdom—the fear of the LORD,
    good knowledge to all who perform it.
        His praise stands for all time.

Hallelujah.
Happy the man who fears the LORD.    
    His commands he keenly desires.
A great figure in the land his seed shall be,
    the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Abundance and wealth in his home,
    and his righteousness stands forever.
Light dawns in darkness for the upright,
    gracious and merciful and just.
Good is the man who shows grace and lends,
    he sustains his words with justice.
For he shall never stumble,
    an eternal remembrance the just man shall be.
From evil rumor he shall not fear.
    His heart is firm, he trusts in the LORD.
His heart is staunch, he shall not fear,
    till he sees the defeat of his foes.
He disperses, he gives to the needy,
    his righteousness stands forever.
        His horn shall be raised in glory.
The wicked man sees and is vexed,
    he gnashes his teeth and he quails.
        The desire of the wicked shall perish.   

Hallelujah.
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
    praise the LORD’s name.
May the LORD’s name be blessed
    now and forevermore.
From the place the sun rises to where it sets,
    praised be the name of the LORD.
High over all nations, the LORD,
    over the heavens His glory.
Who is like the LORD our God,
    Who sits high above,
Who sees down below
    in the heavens and on the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust,
    from the dungheap lifts the needy,
to seat him among princes,
    among the princes of his people.
He seats the barren woman in her home
    a happy mother of sons.
        Hallelujah.

When Israel came out of Egypt,
    the house of Jacob from a barbarous-tongued folk,
Judah became His sanctuary,
    Israel His dominion.
The sea saw and fled,
    Jordan turned back.
The mountains danced like rams,
    hills like lambs of the flock.
What is wrong with you, sea, that you flee,
    Jordan, that you turn back,
mountains, that you dance like rams,
    hills like lambs of the flock?
Before the Master, whirl, O earth,
    before the God of Jacob,
Who turns the rock to a pond of water,
    flint to a spring of water.

Not for our sake, O Lord, not for us
But for the glory of your namelessness
For the sake of your kindness
For the sake of your truth

Why should the nations say
Where is their God?
When you abide hidden in things
And always accomplish what you intend
Their idols are silver and gold
The work of human hands
With mouths that do not speak
Eyes that do not see
Ears that do not hear
Noses that do not smell
They have hands that touch nothing
Feet that walk nowhere
Nor do they utter anything out of their throats
And those that made them
Are like them—everyone that trusted them

O strugglers!
Trust the imageless presence
    You who are our help and our shield
O house of Aaron, trust that
    It is our help and our shield
Fear it, trust it
    The only help, the final shield

You are constantly mindful of us
Bless us
Bless the stragglers
Bless Aaron’s house
Bless those who fear you

The small together with the great
Who find increase more and more
For themselves and for their children
Who are blessed by the hand
That fashioned heaven and earth
Yours are the heavens
But the earth you give to the living
For the dead can’t praise you
Those that have gone down to silence

But as for us—
We sing blessings to you from this day forth
Until a timeless and endless tomorrow

I love the LORD, for He has heard
    my voice, my supplications.
For He has inclined His ear to me
    when in my days I called.
The cords of death encircled me—
    and the straits of Sheol found me—
        distress and sorrow did I find.
And in the name of the LORD I called.
    “LORD, pray, save my life.”
Gracious the LORD and just,
    and our God shows mercy.
The LORD protects the simple.
    I plunged down, but me He did rescue.
Return, my being, to your calm,
    for the LORD has requited you.
For You freed me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
        my foot from slipping.
I shall walk before the LORD
    in the lands of the living.
I trusted, though I did speak—
    Oh, I was sorely afflicted—
I in my rashness said,
    “All humankind is false.”
What can I give back to the LORD
    for all He requited to me?
The cup of rescue I lift
    and in the name of the LORD I call.
My vows to the LORD I shall pay
    in the sight of all His people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
    is the death of His faithful ones.
I beseech You, LORD,
    for I am Your servant.
I am Your servant, Your handmaiden’s son.
    You have loosed my bonds.
To You I shall offer a thanksgiving sacrifice
    and in the name of the LORD I shall call.
My vows to the LORD I shall pay
    in the sight of all His people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
    in the midst of Jerusalem.
        Hallelujah.

Praise the LORD, all nations;
    extol Him, all peoples.
For His kindness overwhelms us,
    and the LORD’s steadfast truth is forever.
        Hallelujah.

Gratitude to you for your goodness
For your kindness pierces time through

Let those who struggle Speak this
For your kindness pierces time through

Let the house of Aaron say this
For your kindness pierces time through

Let those whom you move with your power
Speak it out loud
For your kindness pierces time through

In my despair I called on you
And you answered me like the sky
You are for me—I cannot fear
For what can a man do to me?
You are for me—embrace me
And I can gaze with stillness at those who hate me

It is better to seek your shelter
Than to trust in people
It is better to seek your shelter
Than to trust in kings

Nations everywhere engulf me
But through your name I will surely cut them off

They encircle me all round,
Yes on all sides they surround me
But through your name I will surely cut them off

They buzz round me like bees
Blaze up like a thorn fire
But through your name I will surely cut them off

They thrust at me murderously
But you protect me

You are my strength and my song
My rescue

The voice of rejoicing and comfort rings through the tents of the upright
And your right hand upholds it
Exalts it
Your right hand upholds

I will not die I will live
To speak of what you do
You who have laid me low for my errors
But have never given me up

Open for me the gates of uprightness
I will enter them and give thanks
This is the gate that belongs to you
The gate the upright enter

I give thanks to you for you have answered me
Become my rescue

The stone that the builders rejected
Is now become the cornerstone
Because of you
And it is miraculous to our eyes

This is the day you have made
In it we will be glad and rejoice
And we pray: Send us happiness

Blessed is the one who comes in your name
Whom we bless out of your house
You are our sovereign, our light

Bind the festival offering with cord
Bring it to the horns of the altar

For you are my sovereign and I give thanks to you
You I exalt and praise

Accept my gratitude
Throughout your goodness

Happy whose way is blameless,
    who walk in the LORD’s teaching.
Happy who keep His precepts,
    with a whole heart they seek Him.
Yes, they did no wrong,
    in His ways they have walked.
You ordained Your decrees
    to be strictly observed.
Would that my ways be firm
    to observe Your statutes.
Then I would not be shamed
    when I look upon all Your commands.
I shall acclaim You with an honest heart
    as I learn Your righteous laws.
Your statutes I shall observe.
    Do not utterly forsake me.

How shall a lad make his path worthy
    to observe as befits Your word.
With all my heart I sought You.
    Make me not stray from Your commands.
In my heart I kept Your utterance
    so that I would not offend against You.
Blessed are You, O LORD.
    Teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I recounted
    all the laws You pronounced.
I rejoiced in the way of Your precepts
    as over all kinds of wealth.
Let me dwell on Your decrees
    and let me look upon Your paths.
In Your statutes I delight,
    I shall not forget Your word.

Requite Your servant—I shall live,
    and let me observe Your word.
Unveil my eyes that I may look
    upon the wonders of Your teaching.
A sojourner am I in the land.
    Do not hide from me Your commands.
I pine away desiring
    Your laws in every hour.
You blast the cursed arrogant
    who stray from Your commands.
Take away from me scorn and disgrace
    for Your precepts I have kept.
Even when princes sat to scheme against me,
    Your servant dwelled on Your statutes.
Yes, Your precepts are my delight,
    my constant counselors.

My being cleaves to the dust.
    Give me life as befits Your word.
My ways I recounted and You answered me.
    Teach me Your statutes.
The way of Your decrees let me grasp,
    that I may dwell on Your wonders.
My being dissolves in anguish.
    Sustain me as befits Your word.
The way of lies remove from me,
    and in Your teaching grant me grace.
The way of trust I have chosen.
    Your laws I have set before me.
I have clung to Your precepts.
    O LORD, do not shame me.
On the way of Your commands I run,
    for You make my heart capacious.

Instruct me, LORD, in the way of Your statutes,
    that I may keep it without fail.
Give me insight that I may keep Your teaching
    and observe it with a whole heart.
Guide me on the track of Your commands,
    for in it I delight.
Incline my heart to Your precepts
    and not to gain.
Avert my eyes from seeing falsehood.
    Through Your ways give me life.
Fulfill for Your servant Your utterance,
    which is for those who fear You.
Avert my disgrace that I feared,
    for Your laws are good.
Look, I have desired Your decrees.
    In Your bounty give me life.

And let Your favors befall me, LORD,
    Your rescue as befits Your utterance,
that I may give answer to those who taunt me,
    for I have trusted in Your word.
And do not take the least word of truth from my mouth,
    for I have hoped for Your laws.
And let me observe Your teaching always,
    forever more.
And let me walk about in an open space,
    for Your decrees I have sought.
And let me speak of Your precepts
    before kings without being shamed.
And let me delight in Your commands
    that I have loved.
And let me lift up my palms to Your commands
    that I have loved, and dwell on Your statutes.

Recall the word to Your servant
    for which You made me hope.
This is my consolation in my affliction,
    that your utterance gave me life.
The arrogant mocked me terribly—
    from Your teaching I did not turn.
I recalled Your laws forever,
    O LORD, and I was consoled.
Rage from the wicked seized me,
    from those who forsake Your teaching.
Songs were Your statutes to me,
    in the house of my sojourning.
I recalled in the night Your name, O LORD,
    and I observed Your teaching.
This did I possess,
    for Your decrees I kept.

The LORD is my portion, I said,
    to observe Your words.
I entreated You with a whole heart,
    grant me grace as befits Your utterance.
I have reckoned my ways,
    and turned back my feet to Your precepts.
I hastened and did not linger
    to observe Your commands.
The cords of the wicked ensnared me—
    Your teaching I did not forget.
At midnight I rose to acclaim You
    for Your righteous laws.
A friend am I to all who fear You,
    and to those who observe Your decrees.
With Your kindness, LORD, the earth is filled.
    Teach me Your statutes.

Good You have done for Your servant,
    O LORD, as befits Your word.
Good insight and knowledge teach me,
    for in Your commands I trust.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray,
    but now Your utterance I observe.
You are good and do good.
    Teach me Your statutes.
The arrogant plaster me with lies—
    I with whole heart keep Your decrees.
Their heart grows dull like fat—
    as for me, in Your teaching I delight.
It was good for me that I was afflicted,
    so that I might learn Your statutes.
Better for me Your mouth’s teaching
    than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.

Your hands made me and set me firm.
    Give me insight, that I may learn Your commands.
Those who fear You see me and rejoice,
    for I hope for Your word.
I know, LORD, that Your laws are just,
    and in faithfulness You did afflict me.
May Your kindness, pray, console me,
    as befits Your utterance to Your servant.
May Your mercies befall me, that I may live,
    for Your teaching is my delight.
May the arrogant be shamed, for with lies they distorted my name.
    As for me, I shall dwell on Your decrees.
May those who fear You turn back to me,
    and those who know Your precepts.
May my heart be blameless in Your statutes,
    so that I be not shamed.

My being longs for Your rescue,
    for Your word I hope.
My eyes pine for Your utterance,
    saying, “When will You console me?”
Though I was like a skin-flask in smoke,
    Your statutes I did not forget.
How many are the days of Your servant?
    When will You exact justice from my pursuers?
The arrogant have dug pitfalls for me,
    which are not according to Your teaching.
All Your commands are trustworthy,
    For no reason they pursued me—help me!
They nearly put an end to me on earth,
    yet I forsook not Your decrees
As befits Your kindness give me life,
    that I may observe Your mouth’s precept.

Forever, O LORD,
    Your word stands high in the heavens.
For all generations Your faithfulness.
    You made the earth firm and it stood.
By Your laws they stand this day,
    for all are Your servants.
Had not Your teaching been my delight,
    I would have perished in my affliction.
Never shall I forget Your decrees,
    for through them You gave me life.
I am Yours, O rescue me,
    for Your decrees I have sought.
Me did the wicked hope to destroy.
    I gained insight from Your precepts.
For each finite thing I saw an end—
    but Your command is exceedingly broad.

How I loved Your teaching.
    All day long it was my theme.
Your command makes me wiser than my enemies,
    for it is mine forever.
I have understood more than all my teachers
    for Your precepts became my theme.
I gained insight more than the elders
    for Your decrees I kept.
From all evil paths I held back my feet,
    so that I might observe Your word.
From Your laws I did not swerve,
    for You Yourself instructed me.
How sweet to my palate Your utterance,
    more than honey to my mouth.
From Your decrees I gained insight,
    therefore I hated all paths of lies.

A lamp to my feet is Your word
    and a light to my path.
I swore and I will fulfill it—
    to observe Your just laws.
I have been sorely afflicted.
    O LORD, give me life, as befits Your word.
Accept my mouth’s free offerings, LORD,
    and teach me Your laws.
My life is at risk at all times,
    yet Your teaching I do not forget.
The wicked set a trap for me,
    yet from Your decrees I did not stray.
I inherit Your precepts forever,
    for they are my heart’s joy.
I inclined my heart to do Your statutes
    forever without fail.

The perverted I hated
    and Your teaching I loved.
My shelter and shield are You.
    For Your word I have hoped.
Turn away from me, evildoers,
    that I may keep the commands of my God.
Support me as befits Your utterance, that I may live,
    and do not shame me in my expectation.
Uphold me that I may be rescued
    to regard Your statutes at all times.
You spurned all who stray from Your statutes,
    for their deception is but a lie.
Like dross You destroy all the earth’s wicked;
    therefore I love Your precepts.
My flesh shudders from the fear of You,
    and of Your laws I am in awe.

I have done justice and righteousness;
    do not yield me to my oppressors.
Vouch for Your servant for good.
    Let not the arrogant oppress me.
My eyes pined for Your rescue
    and for Your righteous utterance.
Do for Your servant as befits Your kindness
    and teach me Your statutes.
Your servant I am, grant me insight,
    that I may know Your precepts.
It is time to act for the LORD—
    they have violated Your teaching.
Therefore I love Your commands
    more than gold, and more than fine gold.
Therefore by all Your ordinances I walked a straight line.
    All paths of lies I have hated.

Wondrous Your precepts,
    therefore did I keep them.
The portal of Your words sends forth light,
    makes the simple understand.
I opened my mouth wide and panted,
    for Your commands I craved.
Turn to me, grant me grace,
    as is fit for those who love Your name.
Make firm my footsteps through Your utterance,
    and let no wrongdoing rule over me.
Ransom me from human oppression,
    that I may observe Your statutes.
Shine Your face upon Your servant
    and teach me Your statutes.
Streams of water my eyes have shed
    because men did not observe Your teaching.

Just are You, O LORD,
    and upright are Your laws.
You ordained Your just precepts,
    and they are most trustworthy.
My zeal devastated me,
    for my foes forgot Your words.
Your utterance is most pure,
    and Your servant has loved it.
Puny am I and despised,
    yet Your decrees I have not forgotten.
Your righteousness forever is right,
    and Your teaching is truth.
Straits and distress have found me—
    Your commands are my delight.
Right are Your precepts forever.
    Grant me insight that I may live.

I called out with a whole heart.
    Answer me, LORD. Your statutes I would keep.
I called to You—rescue me,
    that I may observe Your precepts.
I greeted the dawn and cried out,
    for Your word did I hope.
My eyes greeted the night-watches
    to dwell on Your utterance.
Hear my voice as befits Your kindness.
    O LORD, as befits Your law, give me life.
The pursuers of the loathsome draw near,
    from Your teaching they have gone far away.
You are near, O LORD,
    and all Your commands are truth.
Of old I have known of Your precepts,
    because You have fixed them forever.

See my affliction and free me,
    for Your teaching I have not forgotten.
Argue my cause and redeem me,
    through Your utterance give me life.
Far from the wicked is rescue,
    for Your statutes they have not sought.
Your mercies are great, O LORD,
    as befits Your laws give me life.
Many are my pursuers and my foes,
    yet from Your decrees I have not swerved.
I have seen traitors and quarreled with them,
    who did not observe Your utterance.
See that I love Your decrees.
    O LORD, as befits Your kindness give me life.
The chief of Your words is truth,
    and forever all Your righteous laws.

Princes pursued me without cause,
    yet my heart has feared Your word.
I rejoice over Your utterance
    as one who finds great spoils.
Lies I have hated, despised.
    Your teaching I have loved.
Seven times daily I praised You
    because of Your righteous laws.
Great well-being to the lovers of Your teaching,
    and no stumbling-block for them.
I yearned for Your rescue, O LORD,
    and Your commands I performed.
I observed Your precepts
    and loved them very much.
I observed Your decrees and Your precepts,
    for all my ways are before You.

Let my song of prayer come before You, LORD.
    As befits Your word, give me insight.
Let my supplication come before You,
    as befits Your utterance, save me.
Let my lips utter praise,
    for You taught me Your statutes.
Let my tongue speak out Your utterance,
    for all Your commands are just.
May Your hand become my help,
    for Your decrees I have chosen.
I desired Your rescue, O LORD,
    and Your teaching is my delight.
Let my being live on and praise You,
    and may Your laws help me.
I have wandered like a lost sheep.
    Seek Your servant, for Your commands I did not forget.

To the LORD when I was in straits
    I called out and He answered me.
LORD, save my life from lying lips,
    from a tongue of deceit.
What can it give you, what can it add,
    a tongue of deceit?
A warrior’s honed arrows
    with broom-wood coals.
Woe to me for I have sojourned in Meshech,
    dwelt among the tents of Kedar.
Long has my whole being dwelt
    among those who hate peace.
I am for peace, but when I speak,
    they are for war.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains:
    from where will my help come?
My help is from the LORD,
    maker of heaven and earth.
He does not let your foot stumble.
    Your guard does not slumber.
Look, He does not slumber nor does He sleep,
    Israel’s guard.
The LORD is your guard,
    the LORD is Your shade at your right hand.
By day the sun does not strike you,
    nor the moon by night.
The LORD guards you from all harm,
    He guards your life.
The LORD guards your going and your coming,
    now and forevermore.

Joy drenched me when you said
Come inside my house
Now our feet stand within your gates, Jerusalem
Planted upon your wholeness

Jerusalem,
Place where each is welcome
All belong

For this is the place
Toward which people ascend
Giving thanks with their mouths
Singing the thousand names of the nameless
And here stand the upright chairs of David’s justice

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Pray that all who love her will be well
May there be peace within her walls
Plenty in her palaces

For the sake of all that lives and is
Let me speak these heart words:
Peace, peace,
Peace for Jerusalem

And for your sake
From inside your house
I pledge myself to seek the good

Up toward you
I lift my eyes:
Look!
As manservants raise eyes toward masters
As maidservants raise eyes toward mistresses
Humble and expectant
In reflected gratefulness
So do we direct our gaze
Up to you

Reflect in our souls your clear light
Enlarge our hearts

For we are diminished and dimmed with the world’s opinions
Diminished and dimmed with possession and worry
With accomplishment’s undertow
With reputation’s crazy wind
Oppressed by the disdaining other
Inside and out

If you had not stood by us
We who rise to question and struggle
We would have said: If you had not stood by us
When the world’s weight fell we are broken
When the world’s flood surged we are swept down
Souls sunk in a watery cell
Breath cut off
The torrents washing out our dispersal
The presumptuous waters
Rolling down the nothing
The zero that remains

So we speak the unsayable name
Blessing you who have held us whole
Kept us from all that is trapped partial and torn

Because of you
Our soul flutters light
Like a bird escaped from a fowler’s snare
The snare is snapped and we fly up

Our help is in your unnameable name
Word of all words inside the ear
You to whom all speech is addressed

Those who trust in the LORD
    are like Mount Zion never shaken,
        settled forever.
Jerusalem, mountains around it,
    and the LORD is around His people
        now and forevermore.
For the rod of wickedness will not rest
    on the portion of the righteous,
so that the righteous not set their hands
    to wrongdoing.
Do good, O LORD, to the good
    and to the upright in their hearts.
And those who bend to crookedness,
    may the LORD take them off with the wrongdoers.
        Peace upon Israel!

When you bring us out from enclosure
We will be like dreamers
Our heads thrown back with laughter
Our throats vibrating with song
And the others will say

Yes
Great happenings
Have happened to them
The ones who have struggled
Long with their questions

Yes
Great things would have happened to us
And we would be dizzy with the joy of them
Drunk on water in an arid land
Our tears our joy’s seed
We’d go out weeping
And come back singing
Our arms full of sheaves