Beginning

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who can always be found in times of trouble.
² That is why we will not fear when the earth dissolves
and when the mountains tumble into the heart of the sea.
³ Its waters roar and foam.
The mountains quake when it rises. Interlude

⁴ There is a river—its streams bring joy to the city of God,
to the holy dwelling of the Most High.
⁵ God is in her. She will not fall.
God will help her at daybreak.
⁶ Nations are in turmoil. Kingdoms fall.
God raises his voice. The earth melts.
⁷ The Lord of Armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is a fortress for us. Interlude
⁸ Come, look at the works of the Lord.
What a wasteland he has made of the earth!
⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.
He shatters the bow. He cuts up the spear.
He burns the carts^[b] with fire.
¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted on the earth.”

¹ All you peoples, clap your hands!
Shout to God! Sing a loud song!

¹ The Lord is great. He deserves to be praised
    in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
² His mountain is lofty and beautiful, the joy of the whole earth.
Mount Zion, the northern mountain, is the city of the Great King.
³ God is in her citadels.
He is famous as her fortress.

⁴ Look! See! The kings came together.
They advanced together.
⁵ They saw. Yes, they were amazed.
They were terrified. They were put to flight.
⁶ Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman giving birth.
⁷ You shattered them with an east wind, like ships of Tarshish.

⁸ What we have heard, we now have also seen:
    In the city of the Lord of Armies,
    in the city of our God, Interlude
    God establishes her forever.
⁹ Inside your temple, O God, we meditate on your mercy.
¹⁰ Your praise, O God, reaches to the ends of the earth,
just as your fame does.
Righteousness fills your right hand.
¹¹ Mount Zion rejoices.
The daughters of Judah^[d] celebrate because of your judgments.
¹² Go around Zion. Yes, go all the way around her.
Count her towers. ¹³ Consider her rampart.^[e]
View her citadels, so that you may tell the next generation about them.
¹⁴ For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will guide us beyond death.^[f]

¹ Hear this, all you peoples.
Pay attention, all you inhabitants of this world,
² all you children of Adam, all mankind,
rich and poor alike.
³ My mouth will speak wisdom.
The meditation of my heart will give understanding.
⁴ I will listen carefully to wise teaching.
With a lyre I will explain deep truths.

⁵ Why should I fear days of trouble,
days when the wickedness of my pursuers surrounds me?^[g]
6 They trust in their wealth.
They place their confidence in the abundance of their riches.
⁷ But no one can by any means redeem himself.^[h]
He cannot give God a ransom for himself—
⁸ (Yes, the ransom for their souls is costly.
Any payment would fall short.)^[i]
9 —so that he could live on forever and not see the pit.
¹⁰ Yes, we can see that wise men die.
The fool and the senseless alike perish,
and they leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ They think their houses will remain forever,
their dwellings for generation after generation^[j]
because they named lands after themselves.
¹² But man, though he has riches, does not even spend a night here.
He is like the animals that perish.
¹³ This way of theirs is foolishness,
but their followers approve of what they say. Interlude
¹⁴ They are like a flock destined for the grave.
Death will be their shepherd.
The upright will rule over them in the morning.
Their bodies will be consumed by the grave,
    far from their mansions.^[k]

¹⁵ But surely God will redeem my life from the power of the grave.
Yes, he will take me to himself. Interlude

¹⁶ Do not be afraid when a man grows rich,
when the glory of his house increases,
¹⁷ because when he dies, he cannot take anything along.
His glory will not go down with him.
¹⁸ Throughout his life he congratulates himself:
“People praise you because you have done so well for yourself.”
¹⁹ He will go to the gathering place of his fathers.
They will never see the light!
²⁰ A man who has riches but does not understand
    is like the animals that perish.

¹ God, God the Lord, has spoken.
He calls to the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.
³ Our God comes and he will not be silent.
Fire devours in front of him.
Around him a storm rages.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth
    to judge his people.
⁵ “Gather to me my favored ones,
who make a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
⁶ So the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    because God himself is judge. Interlude

⁷ Listen, my people, and let me speak, O Israel.
Then I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.

⁸ It is not because of your sacrifices that I rebuke you
or because of your burnt offerings that are always in front of me.
⁹ I do not need to take a bull from your barn
    or goats from your pens,
¹⁰ because every animal in the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand mountains.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
and everything that moves in the field is with me.
¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
because the world is mine, and all that fills it.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or do I drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴ Sacrifice a thank offering to God,
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
¹⁵ Call on me in the day of distress.
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.

¹⁶ But to the wicked, God says:
What right do you have to recite my statutes
or to take up my covenant with your mouth?
¹⁷ As for you—you hate discipline,
and you throw my words behind your back.
¹⁸ If you see a thief, you approve of him,
and you cast your lot with adulterers.
¹⁹ You devote your mouth to evil,
and your tongue weaves deceit.
²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother.
You slander your own mother’s son.

²¹ These things you have done, and I kept silent.
You thought I was just like you.
I will indict you and accuse you to your face.
²² Now consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces,
and there will be no one to rescue you.

²³ The one who sacrifices a thank offering honors me,
and he sets up the way by which I will show him the salvation of God.