Daily Wisdom Plan

¹A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician; set to chant mournfully. A didactic or reflective poem of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried out [for help] by day and in the night before You.

²Let my prayer come before You and enter into Your presence; Incline Your ear to my cry!

³For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead).

⁴I am counted among those who go down to the pit (grave); I am like a man who has no strength [a mere shadow],

⁵Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead, Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave, Whom You no longer remember, And they are cut off from Your hand.

⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in the depths.

⁷Your wrath has rested heavily upon me, And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah.

⁸You have put my friends far from me; You have made me an object of loathing to them. I am shut up and I cannot go out.

⁹My eye grows dim with sorrow. O LORD, I have called on You every day; I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer].

¹⁰Will You perform wonders for the dead? Shall the departed spirits arise and praise You? Selah.

¹¹Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (the underworld)?

¹²Will Your wonders be known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

¹³But I have cried out to You, O LORD, for help; And in the morning my prayer will come to You.

¹⁴O LORD, why do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?

¹⁵I was afflicted and close to death from my youth on; I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.

¹⁶Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

¹⁷They have surrounded me like flood waters all day long; They have completely encompassed me.

¹⁸Lover and friend You have placed far from me; My familiar friends are in darkness.

¹A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the goodness and lovingkindness of the LORD forever; With my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness from generation to generation.

²For I have said, "Goodness and lovingkindness will be built up forever; In the heavens [unchangeable and majestic] You will establish Your faithfulness."

³[God has said] "I have made a covenant with My chosen one; I have sworn to David My servant,

⁴I will establish your seed forever And I will build up your throne for all generations." Selah.

⁵The heavens (angels) praise Your wonders, O LORD, Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? Who among the divine beings is like the LORD,

⁷A God greatly feared and reverently worshiped in the council of the holy [angelic] ones, And awesome above all those who are around Him?

⁸O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds You [as an intrinsic, unchangeable part of Your very being].

⁹You rule the swelling of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them.

¹⁰You have crushed Rahab (Egypt) like one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

¹¹The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all that is in it, You have founded and established them.

¹²The north and the south, You have created them; Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon shout for joy at Your name.

¹³You have a strong arm; Mighty is Your hand, Your right hand is exalted.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.

¹⁵Blessed and happy are the people who know the joyful sound [of the trumpet's blast]! They walk, O LORD, in the light and favor of Your countenance!

¹⁶In Your name they rejoice all the day, And in Your righteousness they are exalted.

¹⁷For You are the glory of their strength [their proud adornment], And by Your favor our horn is exalted.

¹⁸For our shield belongs to the LORD, And our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹Once You spoke in a vision to Your godly ones, And said, "I have given help to one who is mighty [giving him the power to be a champion for Israel]; I have exalted one chosen from the people.

²⁰"I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him,

²¹With whom My hand shall be established and steadfast; My arm also shall strengthen him.

²²"The enemy will not outwit him, Nor will the wicked man afflict or humiliate him.

²³"I will crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him.

²⁴"My faithfulness and My steadfast lovingkindness shall be with him, And in My name shall his horn be exalted [great power and prosperity shall be conferred upon him].

²⁵"I will also set his hand on the [Mediterranean] sea, And his right hand on the rivers [the tributaries of the Euphrates].

²⁶"He will cry to Me, 'You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.'

²⁷"I will also make him My firstborn (preeminent), The highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸"My lovingkindness I will keep for him forevermore, And My covenant will be confirmed to him.

²⁹"His descendants I will establish forever, And his throne [will endure] as the days of heaven.

³⁰"If his children turn away from My law And do not walk in My ordinances,

³¹If they break My statutes And do not keep My commandments,

³²Then I will punish their transgression with the rod [of discipline], And [correct] their wickedness with stripes.

³³"Nevertheless, I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail.

³⁴"My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.

³⁵"Once [for all] I have sworn by My holiness, [My vow which cannot be violated]; I will not lie to David.

³⁶"His descendants shall endure forever And his throne [will continue] as the sun before Me.

³⁷"It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the heavens is ever faithful." Selah.

³⁸But [in apparent contradiction of all this] You [the faithful LORD] have cast off and rejected; You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.

³⁹You have spurned and repudiated the covenant with Your servant; You have profaned his crown [by casting it] in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken down all his [city] walls; You have brought his strongholds to ruin.

⁴¹All who pass along the road rob him; He has become the scorn of his neighbors.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice.

⁴³Also, You have turned back the edge of his sword And have not made him [strong enough] to stand in battle.

⁴⁴You have put an end to his splendor And have hurled his throne to the ground.

⁴⁵You have shortened the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember how fleeting my lifetime is; For what vanity, [for what emptiness, for what futility, for what wisp of smoke] You have created all the sons of men!

⁴⁸What man can live and not see death? Can he rescue his soul from the [powerful] hand of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)? Selah.

⁴⁹O Lord, where are Your former lovingkindnesses [so abundant in the days of David and Solomon], Which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?

⁵⁰Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants [scorned, insulted, and disgraced]; How I bear in my heart the reproach of all the many peoples,

⁵¹With which Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, With which they have mocked the footsteps of Your anointed.

⁵²Blessed be the LORD forevermore! Amen and Amen.

¹A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place [our refuge, our sanctuary, our stability] in all generations.

²Before the mountains were born Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.

³You turn man back to dust, And say, "Return [to the earth], O children of [mortal] men!"

⁴For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, Or as a watch in the night.

⁵You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep [forgotten as soon as they are gone]; In the morning they are like grass which grows anew—

⁶In the morning it flourishes and springs up; In the evening it wilts and withers away.

⁷For we have been consumed by Your anger And by Your wrath we have been terrified.

⁸You have placed our wickedness before you, Our secret sins [which we tried to conceal, You have placed] in the [revealing] light of Your presence.

⁹For all our days pass away in Your wrath; We have finished our years like a whispered sigh.

¹⁰The days of our life are seventy years— Or even, if because of strength, eighty years; Yet their pride [in additional years] is only labor and sorrow, For it is soon gone and we fly away.

¹¹Who understands the power of Your anger? [Who connects this brevity of life among us with Your judgment of sin?] And Your wrath, [who connects it] with the [reverent] fear that is due You?

¹²So teach us to number our days, That we may cultivate and bring to You a heart of wisdom.

¹³Turn, O LORD [from Your fierce anger]; how long will it be? Be compassionate toward Your servants—revoke Your sentence.

¹⁴O satisfy us with Your lovingkindness in the morning [now, before we grow older], That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad in proportion to the days You have afflicted us, And the years we have suffered evil.

¹⁶Let Your work [the signs of Your power] be revealed to Your servants And Your [glorious] majesty to their children.

¹⁷And let the [gracious] favor of the Lord our God be on us; Confirm for us the work of our hands— Yes, confirm the work of our hands.