Psalm 7-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 7
Plea for Help against Persecutors
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,(A)
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart;
they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.(B)
3 O Lord my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,(C)
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm
or plundered my foe without cause,(D)
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me,
trample my life to the ground,
and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O Lord, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake, O my God;[a] you have appointed a judgment.(E)
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you,
and over it take your seat[b] on high.(F)
8 The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.(G)
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous,
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God.(H)
10 God is my shield,
who saves the upright in heart.(I)
11 God is a righteous judge
and a God who has indignation every day.(J)
12 If one does not repent, God[c] will whet his sword;
he has bent and strung his bow;(K)
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.(L)
14 See how they conceive evil
and are pregnant with mischief
and bring forth lies.(M)
15 They make a pit, digging it out,
and fall into the hole that they have made.(N)
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads,
and on their own heads their violence descends.(O)
17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness
and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.(P)
Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.(Q)
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.(R)
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;(S)
4 what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals[d] that you care for them?(T)
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God[e]
and crowned them with glory and honor.(U)
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,(V)
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!(W)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.