³ Our God comes; he ^(F)does not keep silence;^[a]
    before him is a devouring ^(G)fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
^4 (H)He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made ^(I)a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
^6 (J)The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for ^(K)God himself is judge! Selah

^7 (L)“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    ^(M)I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices ^(N)do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
^11 (O)I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    ^(P)for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
^14 (Q)Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^[b]
    and ^(R)perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and ^(S)call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will ^(T)deliver you, and you shall ^(U)glorify me.”

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
^17 (V)For you hate discipline,
    ^(W)and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ If you see a thief, ^(X)you are pleased with him,
    ^(Y)and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹ “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    ^(Z)and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
²¹ These things you have done, and I ^(AA)have been silent;
    you thought that I^[c] was one like yourself.
But now I ^(AB)rebuke you and ^(AC)lay the charge before you.

²² “Mark this, then, you who ^(AD)forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be ^(AE)none to deliver!
²³ The one who ^(AF)offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who ^(AG)orders his way rightly
    I will show the ^(AH)salvation of God!”

⁴ For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not ^(G)stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is ^(H)their necklace;
    violence covers them as ^(I)a garment.
⁷ Their ^(J)eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸ They scoff and ^(K)speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find ^(L)no fault in them.^[a]
11 And they say, ^(M)“How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹² Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they ^(N)increase in riches.
¹³ All in vain have I ^(O)kept my heart clean
    and ^(P)washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all the day long I have been ^(Q)stricken
    and ^(R)rebuked ^(S)every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed ^(T)the generation of your children.

¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me ^(U)a wearisome task,
¹⁷ until I went into ^(V)the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their ^(W)end.

¹⁸ Truly you set them in ^(X)slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹ How they are destroyed ^(Y)in a moment,
    swept away utterly by ^(Z)terrors!
²⁰ Like ^(AA)a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when ^(AB)you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
²¹ When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was ^(AC)brutish and ignorant;
    I was like ^(AD)a beast toward you.

²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you ^(AE)hold my right hand.
²⁴ You ^(AF)guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will ^(AG)receive me to glory.
^25 (AH)Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
^26 (AI)My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is ^(AJ)the strength^[b] of my heart and my ^(AK)portion ^(AL)forever.

²⁷ For behold, those who are ^(AM)far from you shall perish;
    you put an end to everyone who is ^(AN)unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But for me it is good to ^(AO)be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my ^(AP)refuge,
    that I may ^(AQ)tell of all your works.

⁴ Your foes have ^(BB)roared in the midst of your meeting place;
    ^(BC)they set up their ^(BD)own signs for ^(BE)signs.
⁵ They were like those who swing ^(BF)axes
    in a forest of trees.^[d]
6 And all its ^(BG)carved wood
    they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They ^(BH)set your sanctuary on fire;
    they ^(BI)profaned ^(BJ)the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it down to the ground.
⁸ They ^(BK)said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see our ^(BL)signs;
    ^(BM)there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is none among us who knows how long.
¹⁰ How long, O God, ^(BN)is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why ^(BO)do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
    Take it from the fold of your garment^[e] and destroy them!

¹² Yet ^(BP)God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ You ^(BQ)divided the sea by your might;
    you ^(BR)broke the heads of ^(BS)the sea monsters^[f] on the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of ^(BT)Leviathan;
    you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You ^(BU)split open springs and brooks;
    you ^(BV)dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established ^(BW)the heavenly lights and the sun.
¹⁷ You have ^(BX)fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
    you have made ^(BY)summer and winter.

^18 (BZ)Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
    and ^(CA)a foolish people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your ^(CB)dove to the wild beasts;
    ^(CC)do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Have regard for ^(CD)the covenant,
    for ^(CE)the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
²¹ Let not ^(CF)the downtrodden ^(CG)turn back in shame;
    let ^(CH)the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, O God, ^(CI)defend your cause;
    ^(CJ)remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    ^(CK)the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!