Psalm 44-48

Tree of Life Version

¹ For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
² We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
³ With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
⁴ For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
    for You favored them.
⁵ You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
⁶ Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
⁷ For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
⁸ For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
⁹ In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
¹⁰ Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
¹¹ You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
¹² You gave us to be devoured like sheep^[a]
and have scattered us among the nations.
¹³ You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
¹⁴ You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
¹⁵ You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
¹⁶ All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
¹⁷ because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
¹⁸ All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
¹⁹ Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
²⁰ Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
²¹ If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
²² would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
²³ But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.^[b]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
²⁵ Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
²⁶ For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
²⁷ Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.

¹ For the music director, according to “Lilies.” Of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song, a love song.
² My heart is stirred with a good word.
I speak my verses to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
³ You are the most handsome of the sons of men.
Grace pours from your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.
⁴ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and your majesty.
⁵ In your majesty ride victoriously,
on behalf of truth, meekness and justice.
Let your right hand display awesome things.
⁶ Your arrows are sharp.
Peoples fall beneath you—
into the heart of the king’s enemies.
⁷ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and a scepter of justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
⁸ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore, God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.^[c]
9 All your robes have myrrh, aloes, cassia.
From ivory palaces, stringed instruments
make you glad.
¹⁰ Kings’ daughters are among your honored women.
At your right hand stands the queen
in gold of Ophir.

¹ For the music director, of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song.
² God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
³ Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth change,
though the mountains topple into the heart of the seas,
⁴ though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains quake at their swelling. Selah

¹ For the music director, a psalm for the sons of Korah.
² Clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of joy!
³ For Adonai Elyon is awesome,
a great King over all the earth.
⁴ He subdues peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
⁵ He chooses our inheritance for us,
the glory of Jacob whom He loved. Selah
⁶ God is gone up amidst shouting,
Adonai amidst the sound of the shofar.
⁷ Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
⁸ For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing praises with a skillful song.
⁹ God reigns over the nations.
God sits upon His holy throne.
¹⁰ The princes of the peoples are gathered as a people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of earth belong to God—
He is greatly exalted!

¹ A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
² Great is Adonai, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God—His holy mountain.
³ A beautiful height—the joy of the whole earth—
is Mount Zion, on the northern side of the city of the great King.^[f]
4 God, in her palaces,
is known as a stronghold.
⁵ For behold, the kings assembled,
they advanced together.
⁶ They saw, then they were astounded,
they fled in terror.
⁷ Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman in labor.
⁸ With an east wind
You broke the ships of Tarshish.
⁹ As we have heard, so have we seen,
in the city of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the city of our God.
God will establish her forever. Selah
¹⁰ We have meditated on Your lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of Your Temple.
¹¹ Like Your Name, O God,
so is Your praise
    to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹² Mount Zion is glad,
the daughters of Judah rejoice,
    because of Your judgments.
¹³ Walk about Zion, go around her.
Count her towers.
¹⁴ Consider her ramparts,
go through her palaces,
so you may describe it to the next generation.
¹⁵ For this God is our God, forever and ever!
He will guide us to the end.