1211 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? 2 No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. 3 He won't let you stumble, your Guardian God won't fall asleep. 4 Not on your life! Israel's Guardian will never doze or sleep. 5 God's your Guardian, right at your side to protect you - 6 Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke. 7 God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. 8 He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.
1231 I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help. 2 Like servants, alert to their master's commands, like a maiden attending her lady, We're watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy. 3 Mercy, God, mercy! We've been kicked around long enough, 4 Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men, kicked when we're down by arrogant brutes.
1241 If God hadn't been for us - all together now, Israel, sing out! - 2 If God hadn't been for us when everyone went against us, 3 We would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, 4 Swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent; 5 We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God! He didn't go off and leave us. He didn't abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs. 7 We've flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we're free as a bird in flight. 8 God's strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth.
1251 Those who trust in God are like Zion Mountain: Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain you can always depend on. 2 Mountains encircle Jerusalem, and God encircles his people - always has and always will. 3 The fist of the wicked will never violate What is due the righteous, provoking wrongful violence.
4 Be good to your good people, God, to those whose hearts are right! 5 God will round up the backsliders, corral them with the incorrigibles. Peace over Israel!
1281 All you who fear God, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road! 2 You worked hard and deserve all you've got coming. Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness! 3 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. 4 Stand in awe of God's Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God! 5 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem every day of your life. 6 And enjoy your grandchildren. Peace to Israel!
1291 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young" - this is how Israel tells it - 2 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down. 3 Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back; 4 Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds."
5 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation; 6 Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest, 7 Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop, 8 Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, "Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"
1301 Help, God - the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! 2 Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy. 3 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? 4 As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.
5 I pray to God - my life a prayer - and wait for what he'll say and do. 6 My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. 7 O Israel, wait and watch for God - with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption. 8 No doubt about it - he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
