Psalm 91-95

The Message

^14-16 “If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,
    “I’ll get you out of any trouble.
I’ll give you the best of care
    if you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;
    I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life,
    give you a long drink of salvation!”
92 ^1-3 What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
    the full-bodied music of strings.

^4-9 You made me so happy, God.
    I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
    How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
    fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
    and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
    finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
    Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
    Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!

^10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
    you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
    the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
    “Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
    transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
    lithe and green, virile still in old age.”

¹⁵ Such witnesses to upright God!
    My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!
93 ^1-2 God is King, robed and ruling,
God is robed and surging with strength.

    And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
    Your throne ever firm—you’re Eternal!

^3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.

    Stronger than wild sea storms,
    Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
    Mighty God rules from High Heaven.

⁵ What you say goes—it always has.
“Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time.
94 ^1-2 God, put an end to evil;
    avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
    throw the book at the arrogant.

^3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
    how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
    and crow about their crimes!

^5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
    exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
    if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
    Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”

^8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
    fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
    Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
    the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
    knows your stupidity,
    sees your shallowness.

^12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
    the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
    while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
    never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
    and every good heart put right.

^16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
    Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
    I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
    your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
    you calmed me down and cheered me up.

^20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
    Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
    plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
    God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
    for their evil ways he wiped them out,
    our God cleaned them out for good.
95 ^1-2 Come, let’s shout praises to God,
    raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into his presence singing praises,
    lifting the rafters with our hymns!

^3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
    High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
    in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
    His hands sculpted Earth!

^6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
    on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
    and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.

^7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
    “Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
    when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
    as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
    ‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
    Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
    ‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
    never be able to sit down and rest.’”