God Is the Judge

50¹ The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. ² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. ³ Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him. ⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: ⁵ "Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!" ⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah

⁷ "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. ⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. ¹⁰ For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. ¹¹ I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. ¹² "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. ¹⁵ Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? ¹⁷ For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. ¹⁸ You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers. ¹⁹ "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother's child. ²¹ These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. ²² "Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver. ²³ Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God."

The Folly and Wickedness of Men

53¹ Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good. ² God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. ³ They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. ⁴ Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God? ⁵ There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly; they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them. ⁶ O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

A Prayer for Help against the Foe

60¹ O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; now restore us! ² You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering. ³ You have made your people suffer hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us reel. ⁴ You have set up a banner for those who fear you, to rally to it out of bowshot. Selah ⁵ Give victory with your right hand, and answer us, so that those whom you love may be rescued.

⁶ God has promised in his sanctuary: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the Vale of Succoth. ⁷ Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. ⁸ Moab is my washbasin; on Edom I hurl my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph." ⁹ Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? ¹⁰ Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies. ¹¹ O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless. ¹² With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.

God Abases the Wicked and Exalts the Righteous

75¹ We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near. People tell of your wondrous deeds. ² At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. ³ When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants, it is I who keep its pillars steady. Selah ⁴ I say to the boastful, "Do not boast," and to the wicked, "Do not lift up your horn; ⁵ do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with insolent neck."

⁶ For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; ⁷ but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. ⁸ For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed; he will pour a draught from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. ⁹ But I will rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. ¹⁰ All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.