Psalm 6-9

International Standard Version

⁴ Return, Lord,
    save my life!
        Deliver me, because of your gracious love.
⁵ In death, there is no memory of you.
    Who will give you thanks where the dead are?^[e]

⁶ I am weary from my groaning.
    Every night my couch is drenched with tears,
        my bed is soaked through.
⁷ My eyesight has faded because of grief,
    it has dimmed because of all my enemies.

⁸ Get away from me, all of you who practice evil,
    for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The Lord has heard my plea;
    the Lord receives my prayer.
¹⁰ As for all my enemies, they will be put to shame;
    they will be greatly frightened
        and suddenly turn away ashamed.

³ Lord, my God, if I have done this thing,
    if there is injustice on my hands,
⁴ if I have rewarded those who did me good with evil,
    if I have plundered my enemy without justification,
⁵ then, let my enemy pursue me,
    let him overtake me,
        and let him trample my life to the ground.
Interlude
Let him put my honor into the dust.

⁶ Get up, Lord, in your anger!
    Rise up, because of the fury of my enemies;
Arouse yourself for me;
    you have ordained justice.
⁷ Let the assembly of the peoples gather around you,
    and you will sit^[i] high above them.
⁸ For the Lord will judge the peoples.
    Judge me according to my righteousness, Lord,
        and according to my integrity, Exalted One.

⁹ Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
    but establish the righteous.
For you are the righteous God
    who discerns the inner thoughts.^[j]
10 God is my shield,^[k]
    the one who delivers the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
    a God who is angry with sinners^[l] every day.

¹² If the ungodly one^[m] doesn’t repent,
    God will sharpen his sword;
        he will string his bow and prepare it.
¹³ He prepares weapons of death for himself,
    he makes his arrows into fiery shafts.

¹⁴ But the wicked one^[n] travails with evil,
    he conceives malice and gives birth to lies.
¹⁵ He digs a pit, even excavates it;
    then he fell into the hole that he had made.
¹⁶ The trouble^[o] he planned will return on his own head,
    and his violence will descend on his skull.
¹⁷ But as for me,
    I will praise the Lord for his righteousness,
        and I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High.

³ When I look at the heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
        the moon and the stars that you established—
⁴ what is man that you take notice of him,
    or the son of man^[r] that you pay attention to him?
⁵ You made him a little less than divine,^[s]
    but you crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You gave him dominion over the work of your hands,
    you put all things under his feet:
⁷ Sheep and cattle—all of them,
    wild creatures of the field,
⁸ birds in the sky,
    fish in the sea—
        whatever moves through the currents of the oceans.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
    how excellent is your name in all the earth!

³ When my enemies turn back,
    they will stumble and perish before you.
⁴ For you have brought about justice for me and my cause;
    you sit on the throne judging righteously.
⁵ You rebuked the nations,
    you destroyed the wicked,
        you wiped out their name forever and ever.
⁶ The enemy has perished,
    reduced to ruins forever.
You uprooted their cities,
    the very memory of them vanished.

⁷ But the Lord sits on his throne^[v] forever;
    his throne is established for judgment.
⁸ He will judge the world righteously
    and make just decisions for the people.

⁹ The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
    a refuge in times of distress.
¹⁰ Those who know your name will trust you,
    for you have not forsaken those who seek you, Lord.

¹¹ Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion;
    declare his mighty deeds among the peoples.
¹² As an avenger of blood, he remembers them;
    he has not forgotten the cry of the afflicted.

¹³ Be gracious to me, Lord,
    take note of my affliction,
        because of those who hate me.
You snatch me away from the gates of death,
¹⁴ so I may declare everything for which you should be praised^[w]
in the gates of the daughter of Zion,^[x]
    so I will rejoice in your deliverance.

¹⁵ The nations have sunk down into the pit they made,
    their feet are ensnared in the trap^[y] they set.
¹⁶ The Lord has made himself known,
    executing judgment.
The wicked are ensnared
    by what their hands have made.
Interlude^[z]

¹⁷ The wicked will turn back to where the dead are^[aa]—
    all the nations that have forgotten God.
¹⁸ For he will not always overlook the plight of the poor,
    nor will the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
¹⁹ Rise up, Lord,
    do not let man prevail!
        The nations will be judged in your presence.
²⁰ Make them afraid, Lord,
    Let the nations know that they are only human.^[ab]
Interlude