Daily Wisdom Plan

¹Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

²No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

⁴They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

⁵so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.

⁶O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!

⁷Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.

⁸Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

⁹Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

¹Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me;

²deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men.

³For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD,

⁴for no fault of mine, they run and make ready. Awake, come to meet me, and see!

⁵You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah

⁶Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.

⁷There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips — for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”

⁸But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.

⁹O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.

¹⁰My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

¹¹Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!

¹²For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,

¹³consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah

¹⁴Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.

¹⁵They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.

¹⁶But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

¹⁷O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

¹O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.

²You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters.

³You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.

⁴You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. Selah

⁵That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!

⁶God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth.

⁷Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.

⁸Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

⁹Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

¹⁰Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies.

¹¹Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!

¹²With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.