Chronological

¹ Judge me justly, O God,
and plead my case against an ungodly nation.
Rescue me from the deceitful, wicked man.
² I know you are God, my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go around mourning
    because of oppression by the enemy?
³ Send out your light and your truth.
Let them guide me.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling.
⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and gladness.
Then I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you so depressed, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
    for my salvation from the face of my God.^[a]

¹ God, our ears have heard.
Our fathers have told us the work you performed
    in their days, in days long ago.
² By your hand you drove out the nations,
but you planted your people.
You crushed the peoples,
but you sent your people forward.
³ For it was not by their sword
    that they took possession of the land.
It was not their arm that saved them.
It was your right hand and your arm,
and the light from your face,
because you took pleasure in them.

⁴ You are the one who is my King, O God.
Command victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through you we drive back our foes.
Through your name we trample our adversaries.
⁶ For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not save me.
⁷ But you save us from our foes,
and you put those who hate us to shame.
⁸ In God we make our boast all day,
and we will praise your name forever. Interlude

⁹ But now you have rejected and humbled us,
and you do not go out with our armies.
¹⁰ You made us turn back before the foe,
and those who hate us have taken plunder for themselves.
¹¹ You give us up for food like sheep,
and you have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You sold your people for no great price,
and you have not profited from their sale.
¹³ You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
scorn and ridicule to those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a laughingstock among the nations,
a reason for the peoples to shake their heads.
¹⁵ All day my disgrace is right in front of me,
and the shame on my face covers me,
¹⁶ because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.
¹⁷ All this came on us, though we had not forgotten you.
We had not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our hearts had not turned back.
Our steps had not slipped off your path.
¹⁹ But you crushed us and made us a home for jackals,
and you covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God have discovered this,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all day long.
We are considered sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Get up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up!
Do not reject us forever.
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our misery and our oppression?
²⁵ For our souls bow down to the dust.
Our bellies cling to the earth.
²⁶ Stand up! Help us!
Redeem us because of your mercy.

¹ My heart is bubbling over with a beautiful theme.
I am reciting my works for the King.
My tongue is the pen of a rapid writer.

² You are the most beautiful of the sons of Adam.
Grace is poured out on your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.

¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, look and listen.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
¹¹ because the king desires your beauty.
Because he is your lord, bow down to him.
¹² Then the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift.
The richest people will seek your favor.
¹³ The princess, who waits inside, is all glorious.
Her dress is interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ In embroidered garments she is led to the king.
Virgins who follow her as attendants are brought to you.
¹⁵ They are brought with joyful celebration.
They enter the palace of the king.

¹⁶ Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You will make them princes in all the earth.
¹⁷ I will preserve the memory of your name through all generations.
Therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.

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?^[a]
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.^[b]
He cannot give God a ransom for himself—
⁸ (Yes, the ransom for their souls is costly.
Any payment would fall short.)^[c]
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^[d]
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.^[e]

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 How I love your dwelling place, O Lord of Armies.
² My soul grows weak and even wastes away,
as I long for the courtyards of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
³ Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow has found a nest for herself,
where she may place her young near your altars,
O Lord of Armies, my King and my God.

⁴ How blessed are those who live in your house. Interlude
They are always praising you.
⁵ How blessed is everyone whose strength is found in you.
The highways to Jerusalem^[c] are in their hearts.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baca,^[d]
    it becomes full of springs.^[e]
The autumn rain also covers it with pools.^[f]
7 They go from strength to strength.
Each one will appear before God in Zion.

⁸ O Lord, God of Armies, hear my prayer. Interlude
Give ear, O God of Jacob.
⁹ Look upon our Shield, O God.
Look with favor on the face of your Anointed One.^[g]

¹⁰ Yes, one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather wait at the doorway of the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
¹¹ For the Lord is a sun and shield.
God gives grace and glory.
The Lord does not withhold any good thing
    from those who walk with integrity.
¹² O Lord of Armies, how blessed is everyone who trusts in you.

¹ You showed favor to your land, O Lord.
You restored Jacob.
² You removed the guilt of your people. Interlude
You covered all their sin.
³ You put away all your wrath.
You turned from your burning anger.

⁴ Restore us, O God who saves us.
Put an end to your indignation with us.
⁵ Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you extend your anger through all generations?
⁶ Will you not turn and revive us,
so that your people may rejoice in you?

⁷ Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and give us your salvation.
⁸ I will hear what the true God, the Lord, will say.
He indeed speaks peace to his people, to his favored ones,
but do not let them turn to foolish ways.
⁹ Surely his salvation is near for those who fear him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
¹⁰ Mercy and truth meet together.
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
¹¹ Truth springs up from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
¹² The Lord will indeed give good things,
and our land will yield its harvest.
¹³ Righteousness walks in front of him.
It prepares the way for his footsteps.

¹ The city he founded is on the holy mountains.
² The Lord loves the gates of Zion
    more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. Interlude
³ Glorious things are spoken about you, O City of God.

⁴ I will register Rahab^[a] and Babylon among those who know me.
Look! Philistia and Tyre are there, along with Cush!
Of them I say, “This one was born there in Zion.”^[b]
5 And about Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,
and the Most High himself will establish her.”
⁶ When he registers the peoples,
the Lord will write: Interlude
“This one was born there.”
⁷ Then the singers, as they dance, will sing,
“All my springs are in you.”