But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more.

Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.

When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.

“Hear my prayer, O Lord, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.

Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah.

We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old:

Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;

Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see light.

A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.

Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

But turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

He shall cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless.

When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.

As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, We have done wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.

Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.

Let there be none to extend mercy to him, Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.