A Prayer for Vindication and Deliverance

43¹ Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.
Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men. ² For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? ³ Oh, send out your light and your truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy hill,
To your tents. ⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my exceeding joy.
I will praise you on the harp, God, my God. ⁵ Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him:
my Savior, my helper, and my God.

Former Deliverances and Present Troubles

44¹ We have heard with our ears, God;
our fathers have told us,
what work you did in their days,
in the days of old. ² You drove out the nations with your hand,
but you planted them.
You afflicted the peoples,
but you spread them abroad. ³ For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword,
neither did their own arm save them;
but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face,
because you were favorable to them. ⁴ You are my King, God.
Command victories for Jacob! ⁵ Through you, will we push down our adversaries.
Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us. ⁶ For I will not trust in my bow,
neither shall my sword save me. ⁷ But you have saved us from our adversaries,
and have shamed those who hate us. ⁸ In God we have made our boast all day long,
we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.

⁹ But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor,
and don’t go out with our armies. ¹⁰ You make us turn back from the adversary.
Those who hate us take spoil for themselves. ¹¹ You have made us like sheep for food,
and have scattered us among the nations. ¹² You sell your people for nothing,
and have gained nothing from their sale. ¹³ You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. ¹⁴ You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples. ¹⁵ All day long my dishonor is before me,
and shame covers my face, ¹⁶ At the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses,
because of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this has come on us,
yet have we not forgotten you,
Neither have we been false to your covenant. ¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
neither have our steps strayed from your path, ¹⁹ Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals,
and covered us with the shadow of death. ²⁰ If we have forgotten the name of our God,
or spread forth our hands to a strange god; ²¹ won’t God search this out?
For he knows the secrets of the heart. ²² Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long.
We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter. ²³ Wake up!
Why do you sleep, Lord?
Arise!
Don’t reject us forever. ²⁴ Why do you hide your face,
and forget our affliction and our oppression? ²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our body cleaves to the earth. ²⁶ Rise up to help us.
Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.

A Song for the King's Marriage

45¹ My heart overflows with a noble theme.
I recite my verses for the king.
My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer. ² You are the most excellent of the sons of men.
Grace has anointed your lips,
therefore God has blessed you forever. ³ Gird your sword on your thigh, mighty one:
your splendor and your majesty. ⁴ In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness.
Let your right hand display awesome deeds. ⁵ Your arrows are sharp.
The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies.

⁶ Your throne, God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. ⁷ You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. ⁸ All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad. ⁹ Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women.
At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰ Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear.
Forget your own people, and also your father’s house. ¹¹ So the king will desire your beauty,
honor him, for he is your lord. ¹² The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift.
The rich among the people entreat your favor. ¹³ The princess inside is all glorious.
Her clothing is interwoven with gold. ¹⁴ She shall be led to the king in embroidered work.
The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you. ¹⁵ With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led.
They shall enter into the king’s palace. ¹⁶ Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You shall make them princes in all the earth. ¹⁷ I will make your name to be remembered in all generations.
Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.

The Folly of Trusting in Riches

49¹ Hear this, all you peoples.
Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, ² both low and high,
rich and poor together. ³ My mouth will speak words of wisdom.
My heart shall utter understanding. ⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb.
I will open my riddle on the harp. ⁵ Why should I fear in the days of evil,
when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

⁶ Those who trust in their wealth,
and boast in the multitude of their riches— ⁷ none of them can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give God a ransom for him. ⁸ For the redemption of their life is costly,
no payment is ever enough, ⁹ That he should live on forever,
that he should not see corruption. ¹⁰ For he sees that wise men die;
likewise the fool and the senseless perish,
and leave their wealth to others. ¹¹ Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever,
and their dwelling places to all generations.
They name their lands after themselves. ¹² But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure.
He is like the animals that perish. ¹³ This is the destiny of those who are foolish,
and of those who approve their sayings. Selah. ¹⁴ They are appointed as a flock for Sheol.
Death shall be their shepherd.
The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.
Their beauty shall decay in Sheol,
far from their mansion.

¹⁵ But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. Selah. ¹⁶ Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich,
when the glory of his house is increased. ¹⁷ For when he dies he shall carry nothing away.
His glory shall not descend after him. ¹⁸ Though while he lived he blessed his soul—
and men praise you when you do well for yourself— ¹⁹ he shall go to the generation of his fathers.
They shall never see the light. ²⁰ A man who has riches without understanding,
is like the animals that perish.

Longing for God's House

84¹ How lovely are your dwellings,
Yahweh of Armies! ² My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. ³ Yes, the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young,
near your altars, Yahweh of Armies, my King, and my God. ⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house.
They are always praising you. Selah. ⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you;
who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage. ⁶ Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs.
Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings. ⁷ They go from strength to strength.
Everyone of them appears before God in Zion.

⁸ Yahweh, God of Armies, hear my prayer.
Listen, God of Jacob. Selah. ⁹ Behold, God our shield,
look at the face of your anointed. ¹⁰ For a day in your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. ¹¹ For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield.
Yahweh will give grace and glory.
He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly. ¹² Yahweh of Armies,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.

A Prayer for God's Mercy on Israel

85¹ Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land.
You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. ² You have forgiven the iniquity of your people.
You have covered all their sin. Selah. ³ You have taken away all your wrath.
You have turned from the fierceness of your anger. ⁴ Turn us, God of our salvation,
and cause your indignation toward us to cease. ⁵ Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you draw out your anger to all generations? ⁶ Won’t you revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you? ⁷ Show us your loving kindness, Yahweh.
Grant us your salvation.

⁸ I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, his saints;
but let them not turn again to folly. ⁹ Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land. ¹⁰ Mercy and truth meet together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. ¹¹ Truth springs out of the earth.
Righteousness has looked down from heaven. ¹² Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good.
Our land will yield its increase. ¹³ Righteousness goes before him,
And prepares the way for his steps.

The Privileges of Dwelling in Zion

87¹ His foundation is in the holy mountains. ² Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. ³ Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah.

⁴ I will record Rahab [1] and Babylon among those who acknowledge me.
Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia:
“This one was born there.” ⁵ Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her;”
the Most High himself will establish her. ⁶ Yahweh will count, when he writes up the peoples,
“This one was born there.” Selah. ⁷ Those who sing as well as those who dance say,
“All my springs are in you.”