38:1Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. 38:2For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me. 38:3There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. 38:4For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. 38:5My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness. 38:6I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long. 38:7For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. 38:8I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart. 38:9Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you. 38:10My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me. 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away. 38:12They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long. 38:13But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth. 38:14Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs. 38:15For in you, Yahweh, do I hope. You will answer, Lord my God. 38:16For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.” 38:17For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me. 38:18For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. 38:19But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous. 38:20They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow what is good. 38:21Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me. 38:22Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation.
39:1I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” 39:2I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. 39:3My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: 39:4“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah. 39:6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. 39:7Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. 39:8Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. 39:9I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. 39:10Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. 39:11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah. 39:12“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. 39:13Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”
40:1I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry. 40:2He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. 40:3He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh. 40:4Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies. 40:5Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted. 40:6Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. 40:7Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. 40:8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.” 40:9I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know. 40:10I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly. 40:11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me. 40:12For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me. 40:13Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh. 40:14Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. 40:15Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!” 40:16Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let Yahweh be exalted!” 40:17But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
41:1Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. 41:2Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. 41:3Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness. 41:4I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.” 41:5My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” 41:6If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it. 41:7All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me. 41:8“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.” 41:9Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me. 41:10But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them. 41:11By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me. 41:12As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. 41:13Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.
42:1As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. 42:2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 42:3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” 42:4These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. 42:5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. 42:6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me. 42:8Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life. 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 42:10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” 42:11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
43:1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men. 43:2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 43:3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents. 43:4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God. 43:5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
44:1We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the days of old. 44:2You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad. 44:3For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because you were favorable to them. 44:4You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob! 44:5Through you, will we push down our adversaries. Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us. 44:6For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. 44:7But you have saved us from our adversaries, and have shamed those who hate us. 44:8In God we have made our boast all day long, we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah. 44:9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies. 44:10You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take plunder for themselves. 44:11You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations. 44:12You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale. 44:13You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. 44:14You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. 44:15All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face, 44:16At the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger. 44:17All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant. 44:18Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from your path, 44:19Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death. 44:20If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god; 44:21won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. 44:22Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter. 44:23Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever. 44:24Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? 44:25For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth. 44:26Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.
45:1My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer. 45:2You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. 45:3Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one: your splendor and your majesty. 45:4In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds. 45:5Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies. 45:6Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. 45:7You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. 45:8All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad. 45:9Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir. 45:10Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house. 45:11So the king will desire your beauty, honor him, for he is your lord. 45:12The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift. The rich among the people entreat your favor. 45:13The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold. 45:14She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you. 45:15With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led. They shall enter into the king’s palace. 45:16Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth. 45:17I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.
46:1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 46:2Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; 46:3though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah. 46:4There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. 46:5God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn. 46:6The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice, and the earth melted. 46:7Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 46:8Come, see Yahweh’s works, what desolations he has made in the earth. 46:9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire. 46:10“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” 46:11Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
47:1Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 47:2For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth. 47:3He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet. 47:4He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 47:5God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet. 47:6Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises. 47:7For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. 47:8God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. 47:9The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!
48:1Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. 48:2Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. 48:3God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge. 48:4For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. 48:5They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away. 48:6Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail. 48:7With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish. 48:8As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah. 48:9We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the middle of your temple. 48:10As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. 48:11Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice, Because of your judgments. 48:12Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. 48:13Mark well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation. 48:14For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.
49:1Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, 49:2both low and high, rich and poor together. 49:3My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart shall utter understanding. 49:4I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will open my riddle on the harp. 49:5Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me? 49:6Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches— 49:7none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. 49:8For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough, 49:9that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption. 49:10For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others. 49:11Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves. 49:12But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish. 49:13This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah. 49:14They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion. 49:15But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah. 49:16Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 49:17for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him. 49:18Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself— 49:19he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light. 49:20A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.
50:1The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset. 50:2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out. 50:3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him. 50:4He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people: 50:5“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” 50:6The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah. 50:7“Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God. 50:8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. 50:9I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. 50:10For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. 50:11I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. 50:12If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 50:13Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 50:14Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. 50:15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” 50:16But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, 50:17since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? 50:18When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. 50:19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. 50:20You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. 50:21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. 50:22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver. 50:23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
51:1Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 51:2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. 51:3For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. 51:4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. 51:5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. 51:6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 51:7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 51:8Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. 51:9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 51:11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me. 51:12Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. 51:13Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. 51:14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. 51:15Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise. 51:16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. 51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 51:18Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 51:19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.
52:1Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually. 52:2Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 52:3You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. 52:4You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. 52:5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. 52:6The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, 52:7“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” 52:8But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever. 52:9I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.
53:1The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good. 53:2God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God. 53:3Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one. 53:4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God? 53:5There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them. 53:6Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
54:1Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might. 54:2Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth. 54:3For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah. 54:4Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul. 54:5He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth. 54:6With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good. 54:7For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.
55:1Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication. 55:2Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan, 55:3Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me. 55:4My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. 55:5Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me. 55:6I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest. 55:7Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah. 55:8“I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.” 55:9Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 55:10Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her. 55:11Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets. 55:12For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. 55:13But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. 55:14We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company. 55:15Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling. 55:16As for me, I will call on God. Yahweh will save me. 55:17Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice. 55:18He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, although there are many who oppose me. 55:19God, who is enthroned forever, will hear, and answer them. Selah. They never change, who don’t fear God. 55:20He raises his hands against his friends. He has violated his covenant. 55:21His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. 55:22Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved. 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
56:1Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me. 56:2My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. 56:3When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 56:4In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 56:5All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil. 56:6They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life. 56:7Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God. 56:8You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book? 56:9Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me. 56:10In God, I will praise his word. In Yahweh, I will praise his word. 56:11I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? 56:12Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you. 56:13For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
57:1Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed. 57:2I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for me. 57:3He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth. 57:4My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 57:5Be exalted, God, above the heavens! Let your glory be above all the earth! 57:6They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dig a pit before me. They fall into the middle of it themselves. Selah. 57:7My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises. 57:8Wake up, my glory! Wake up, lute and harp! I will wake up the dawn. 57:9I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. 57:10For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies. 57:11Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.