³ Lord, what are human beings,
    that you should care about them,
or mortal man,
    that you should think about him?
⁴ The human person is a mere empty breath;
    his days are like a fading shadow.

⁵ Bow your heavens, Lord, and descend;^[c]
    touch the mountains, and they will smolder.
⁶ Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy,^[d]
    shoot your arrows and confuse them.
⁷ Reach down your hand from your high place;
    rescue me and deliver me from mighty waters,
        from the control of foreigners.^[e]
8 Their mouths speak lies,
    and their right hand deceives,^[f]

⁹ God, I will sing a new song to you.
    On a harp of ten strings I will play to you—
¹⁰ to you who gives victory to kings,
    rescuing his servant David from cruel swords.
¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me
    from the control of foreigners,^[g]
whose mouths speak lies,
    and whose right hand deceives.^[h]

¹² May our sons in their youth be like full-grown plants,
    and our daughters like pillars
        destined to decorate a palace.
¹³ May our granaries be filled,
    storing produce in abundance;
may our sheep bring forth thousands,
    even tens of thousands in our fields.
¹⁴ May our cattle grow heavy with young,
    with no damage or loss.
May there be no cry of anguish in our streets!

¹⁵ Happy are the people to whom these things come;
    happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

¹⁰ ‘Your mother was like a vine
    entwining a pomegranate,^[a]
planted by water, full of fruit,
    and full of branches
        because it had been watered generously.
¹¹ Strong were its boughs,
    suitable for use in the scepter of a ruler.
It reached to the clouds,
    noticeable because of its height
        and its abundant branches.
¹² Yet in anger it was uprooted
    and cast down to the earth.
An east wind desiccated its fruit;
    its strong branches broke off and withered,
        and a fire consumed them.
¹³ Now it is planted in the desert,
    in a dry and thirsty land!
¹⁴ Fire had burned through its branches,
    consuming its shoots and fruits.
No strong branches remain in it,
    and there is no scepter to rule!’

“Look! I am laying a chosen, precious cornerstone^[b] in Zion.
    The one who believes in him will never be ashamed.”^[c]

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,^[d]
8 a stone they stumble over
    and a rock they trip on.”^[e]

¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
    but now you are the people of God.
Once you had not received mercy,
    but now you have received mercy.