Beginning
A prayer of Moses, God's servant.
God lives for ever![a]
90 Lord, from long ago,
you have always been a safe home for us.[b]
2 From before the mountains began,
and before you made the world,
you were already there, as God.
You have no beginning and no end.
3 People return to dust in the ground when they die.
You say, ‘Become dust again, you people.’[c]
4 For you, a thousand years is only a short time.
They pass as quickly as a day for you,
or just a few hours in the night.
5 You cause people's lives to end,
as a dream finishes when you wake up.
People are like grass that appears in the morning.
6 During the morning, it grows well.
By the evening,
it becomes dry and it dies.
7 Your anger destroys us,
and we become very afraid.
8 All our sins are there for you to see.
You even see the sins that we have tried to hide.
9 Your anger gives us trouble all through our lives.
Then our lives end in a short groan.
10 The number of our days make 70 years,
or maybe 80 years if we are strong enough.
But even in the best years of our lives,
we have trouble and pain.
Our lives quickly pass,
and we hurry towards death.
11 Lord, nobody knows all the power of your anger.
It is your anger that causes people to be afraid of you.
12 Teach us to count carefully the days of our short lives.
Then we will be wise in how we live.
13 Lord, return to help us!
How long will you be angry with us?
Please be kind to us, your servants!
14 Show your faithful love to us every morning.
Then we will sing with joy,
and we will be happy for as long as we live.
15 For many years you have sent trouble to us.
Now, please make us happy
for as many years as you have given us pain.
16 Do great things again,
so that we, your servants, see them!
Let our children see that you rule as King!
17 Yes, may the Lord our God bless us.
May everything that we do go well!
Yes, may everything go well!
God is a safe place[d]
91 If anyone lives in Almighty God's safe place,
the Most High God protects that person.
2 I will say to the Lord,
‘You are the strong place where I will be safe.
You are my God,
and I trust in you.’
3 God will keep you safe,
so that no trap will catch you.[e]
He will not let any illness kill you.
4 He will keep you safe,
like a bird keeps its babies safe under its wings.
Because he keeps his promises,
he will keep you safe like a shield and armour.
5 Do not be afraid of troubles that come in the night,
or of your enemy's arrows during the day.
6 Do not be afraid of any illness that comes when it is dark,
or any trouble that comes in the middle of the day.
7 A thousand people may die near you.
Even ten thousand people may die at your side.
But nothing will hurt you.
8 Your own eyes will see this happen.
You will see wicked people
receive the punishment that they deserve.
9 You have come to the Lord to make you safe.
The Most High God has become your home.
10 No bad thing will happen to you.
No illness will come to your home.
11 For God will tell his angels to keep you safe.[f]
They will protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you safely in their hands,
so that you do not hurt your foot on a stone.[g]
13 You will win against lions and snakes.
You will walk over them!
14 The Lord says, ‘If someone loves me,
I will keep him safe.
Because he worships me,
I will protect him.
15 When he calls to me for help,
I will answer him.
When he has trouble,
I will be with him.
I will rescue him,
and people will respect him.
16 I will give to him a long life,
so that he is happy.
He will see that I have the power to save people.’
This psalm is a song to sing on Sabbath days.
A song to praise God
92 It is good to thank the Lord!
We sing to praise your name, Most High God.
2 We sing in the morning
to thank you for your faithful love.
We sing at night
to say that you are always faithful.
3 We make beautiful music
with lutes, harps and lyres.[h]
4 The things that you do, Lord,
make me very happy.
I sing with joy
because of the things that your hands have made!
5 Yes, Lord, you have done great things!
Your thoughts are more than we can understand!
6 Here is something that stupid people do not know.
Fools do not understand it.
7 Wicked people may continue to grow,
like green grass.
Evil people may grow like weeds.
But in the end you will destroy them
and they will never grow again.[i]
8 You, Lord, will rule as King for ever!
9 Yes, Lord, look at your enemies!
Your enemies will all die!
Those people who do evil things will all disappear!
10 You have made me as strong as a wild bull.
You have poured pure olive oil on me.[j]
11 With my own eyes,
I have seen my enemies fall.
With my own ears,
I have heard them cry out in pain.
12 Righteous people will do well,
like a palm tree that makes new leaves.
They will become strong,
like a tall cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 They are like trees that someone has planted in the Lord's house.
They grow well in the yard of our God's temple.
14 When they are old,
they will still give fruit!
They will always be strong,
with fresh, green leaves.
15 They will tell everyone,
‘The Lord always does what is right.
He is my strong, safe rock.
There is nothing bad in him.’
The Lord is King![k]
93 The Lord rules as King!
He wears royal power as his clothes.
His strength is like a belt round his body.[l]
So the world is safe and strong.
Nothing can shake it from its place.
2 You, Lord, have always ruled as King,
since before the beginning of time.
3 The floods of water have risen up, Lord.
They have risen with a loud noise.
Their waves beat against the land.[m]
4 But the Lord rules as King
high above everything!
He rules over the powerful waves of the sea,
with all their great noise!
5 Lord, your rules remain strong and true.
Your house will always be holy,
because you are holy.
God judges all people
94 Lord, you are the God
who punishes guilty people.
God, show your power
to punish people as they deserve![n]
2 Judge of all people on the earth, do something!
Punish proud people as they deserve!
3 How long will wicked people continue to be happy?
Yes, Lord, how long?
4 Those people who do evil things
speak many proud words.
They boast about how great they are.
5 Lord, see how they hurt your own people.
They are cruel to the people that belong to you.
6 They kill widows
and foreign people who live in our land.
They murder children that have no family.
7 They say, ‘The Lord does not see us.
Israel's God does not see what we are doing.’
8 Think again, all you fools among the people!
Stupid people, become wise!
9 God made our ears!
Can he himself not hear?
He made our eyes!
Does he not see?
10 He teaches the nations what is right.
Will he not punish you,
when you do what is wrong?
He teaches people what they should know.
11 The Lord knows what people think.
He knows that their thoughts are empty.
12 Lord, when you teach people what is right,
you have really blessed them.
You use your Law to teach them.
13 When those people have troubles,
you keep them safe.
Then the wicked people fall into a deep hole
that you have dug to catch them.
14 The Lord will not leave his people alone.
He will not forget to help the people that belong to him.
15 Once again, judges will do what is right and fair,
and good, honest people will agree.
16 Who would fight for me
against the wicked people?[o]
Who would keep me safe
from the people who do evil things?
17 Unless the Lord had helped me,
I would soon have become silent in death.
18 When I think, ‘I am falling down,’
your faithful love keeps me safe, Lord.
19 When I have troubles in my mind,
so that I am afraid,
you help me to be happy again.
20 You will not become a friend of cruel rulers.
They make laws that only hurt people.
21 They join together to work against good people.
They say that people are guilty
who have done nothing wrong.
They say that they must die.
22 But the Lord is a strong place for me.
Yes, my God is a rock
where I can hide and be safe.
23 He will punish those wicked leaders.
He will destroy them,
because they do evil things.
The Lord our God will completely destroy them.
Worship God and obey him[p]
95 Come now! Let us sing together to worship the Lord!
We will shout aloud
to praise God, the strong Rock who makes us safe!
2 Let us come near to God
and thank him![q]
Let us sing songs to praise him,
because we are so happy!
3 Yes, the Lord is the great God.
He is the great king who rules over all gods.
4 The deepest places of the earth are in his hand.
The highest mountains belong to him.
5 The seas are his,
because he made them.
He also made the dry land,
with his own hands.
6 Come now! Let us bend down to worship him!
Let us bend our knees in front of the Lord.
He is the one who made us.
7 He is our God.
He takes care of us,
like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.[r]
As his sheep, he gives us what we need.
Today, you must listen to him
and obey him.
8 He says, ‘Do not refuse to obey me,
like my people did at Meribah.
They also did that one day at Massah,
in the desert.
9 Your ancestors tested me there,
to see if I would punish them.
But they had already seen the great things
that I had done for them!
10 So I was angry with those people
all the time for 40 years.
I said, “These people love to go the wrong way.
They refuse to follow my ways.”
11 I was very angry and I promised,
“They will never come into my place of rest.” ’[s]
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