Book Order Plan

¹Judge and vindicate me, O God; plead my case against an ungodly nation. O rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man!

²For You are the God of my strength [my stronghold—in whom I take refuge]; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

³O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places.

⁴Then I will go to the altar of God, To God, my exceeding joy; With the lyre I will praise You, O God, my God!

⁵Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you restless and disturbed within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my [sad] countenance and my God.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us The work You did in their days, In the days of old.

²You drove out the [pagan] nations with Your own hand; Then you planted and established them (Israel); [It was by Your power that] You uprooted the [pagan] peoples, Then You spread them abroad.

³For our fathers did not possess the land [of Canaan] by their own sword, Nor did their own arm save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, Because You favored and delighted in them.

⁴You are my King, O God; Command victories and deliverance for Jacob (Israel).

⁵Through You we will gore our enemies [like a bull]; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

⁶For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me.

⁷But You have saved us from our enemies, And You have put them to shame and humiliated those who hate us.

⁸In God we have boasted all the day long, And we will praise and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

⁹But now You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, And You do not go out with our armies [to lead us to victory].

¹⁰You make us turn back from the enemy, And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

¹¹You have made us like sheep to be eaten [as mutton] And have scattered us [in exile] among the nations.

¹²You sell Your people cheaply, And have not increased Your wealth by their sale.

¹³You have made us the reproach and taunt of our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those around us.

¹⁴You make us a byword among the nations, A laughingstock among the people.

¹⁵My dishonor is before me all day long, And humiliation has covered my face,

¹⁶Because of the voice of the taunter and reviler, Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You, Nor have we been false to Your covenant [which You made with our fathers].

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back, Nor have our steps wandered from Your path,

¹⁹Yet You have [distressingly] crushed us in the place of jackals And covered us with [the deep darkness of] the shadow of death.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God Or stretched out our hands to a strange god,

²¹Would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

²²But for Your sake we are killed all the day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Awaken, do not reject us forever.

²⁴Why do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵For our life has melted away into the dust; Our body clings to the ground.

²⁶Rise up! Come be our help, And ransom us for the sake of Your steadfast love.

¹To the Chief Musician; set to the [tune of] "Lilies." A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. A Song of Love. My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my psalm to the King. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

²You are fairer than the sons of men; Graciousness is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever.

³Strap Your sword on Your thigh, O mighty One, In Your splendor and Your majesty!

⁴And in Your majesty ride on triumphantly For the cause of truth and humility and righteousness; Let Your right hand guide You to awesome things.

⁵Your arrows are sharp; The peoples (nations) fall under You; Your arrows pierce the hearts of the King's enemies.

⁶Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

⁷You have loved righteousness (virtue, morality, justice) and hated wickedness; Therefore God, your God, has anointed You Above Your companions with the oil of jubilation.

⁸All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia; From ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

⁹Kings' daughters are among Your noble ladies; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

¹⁰Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear [to my instruction]: Forget your people and your father's house;

¹¹Then the King will desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, bow down and honor Him.

¹²The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people will seek your favor.

¹³Glorious is the King's daughter within [the palace]; Her robe is interwoven with gold.

¹⁴She will be brought to the King in embroidered garments; The virgins, her companions who follow her, Will be brought to You.

¹⁵With gladness and rejoicing will they be led; They will enter into the King's palace.

¹⁶In place of your fathers will be your sons; You shall make princes in all the land.

¹⁷I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the peoples will praise and give You thanks forever and ever.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song. God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable], A very present and well-proved help in trouble.

²Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,

³Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.

⁴There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High.

⁵God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved; God will help her when the morning dawns.

⁶The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved; He raised His voice, the earth melted.

⁷The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

⁸Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has wrought desolations and wonders in the earth.

⁹He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire.

¹⁰"Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, all you people; Shout to God with the voice of triumph and songs of joy.

²For the LORD Most High is to be feared [and worshiped with awe-inspired reverence and obedience]; He is a great King over all the earth.

³He subdues peoples under us And nations under our feet.

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory and excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah.

⁵God has ascended amid shouting, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises; Sing praises to our King, sing praises.

⁷For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises in a skillful psalm and with understanding.

⁸God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.

⁹The princes of the people have gathered together as the people of the God of Abraham, For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted.

¹A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain.

²Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth, Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north, The city of the great King.

³God, in her palaces, Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

⁴For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, They [came and] passed by together.

⁵They saw it, then they were amazed; They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.

⁶Panic seized them there, And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.

⁷With the east wind You shattered the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so have we seen In the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish her forever. Selah.

⁹We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God, In the midst of Your temple.

¹⁰As is Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad, Let the daughters of Judah rejoice Because of Your [righteous] judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, go all around her; Count her towers,

¹³Consider her ramparts, Go through her palaces, That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].

¹⁴For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even until death.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all peoples; Listen carefully, all inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high, Rich and poor together:

³My mouth will speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart will be understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear and consent to a proverb; On the lyre I will unfold my riddle.

⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil, When the wickedness of those who would betray me surrounds me [on every side],

⁶Even those who trust in and rely on their wealth And boast of the abundance of their riches?

⁷None of them can by any means redeem [either himself or] his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him—

⁸For the ransom of his soul is too costly, And he should cease trying forever—

⁹So that he should live on eternally, That he should never see the pit (grave) and undergo decay.

¹⁰For he sees that even wise men die; The fool and the stupid alike perish And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is that their houses will continue forever, And their dwelling places to all generations; They have named their lands after their own names [ignoring God].

¹²But man, with all his [self] honor and pomp, will not endure; He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident, And of those after them who approve [and are influenced by] their words. Selah.

¹⁴Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead); Death will be their shepherd; And the upright shall rule over them in the morning, And their form and beauty shall be for Sheol to consume, So that they have no dwelling [on earth].

¹⁵But God will redeem my life from the power of Sheol, For He will receive me. Selah.

¹⁶Be not afraid when [an ungodly] man becomes rich, When the wealth and glory of his house are increased;

¹⁷For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lives he counts himself happy and prosperous— And though people praise you when you do well for yourself—

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never again see the light.

²⁰A man [who is held] in honor, Yet who lacks [spiritual] understanding and a teachable heart, is like the beasts that perish.