God's Goodness and Israel's Waywardness

811 To the chief Musician. Upon the Gittith. [A Psalm] of Asaph. Sing ye joyously unto God our strength, shout aloud unto the God of Jacob; 2 Raise a song, and sound the tambour, the pleasant harp with the lute. 3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the set time, on our feast day: 4 For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob; 5 He ordained it in Joseph [for] a testimony, when he went forth over the land of Egypt, [where] I heard a language that I knew not. 6 I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket. 7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

8 Hear, my people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken unto me! 9 There shall no strange ·god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any foreign ·god. 10 I am Jehovah thy God, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people hearkened not to my voice, and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' stubbornness: they walked after their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, that Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I would soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of Jehovah would have come cringing unto him; but their time would have been for ever. 16 And he would have fed them with the finest of wheat; yea, with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied thee.

A Prayer for Deliverance from Death

881 A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite. Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee. 2 Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry. 3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol. 4 I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength: 5 Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand. 6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps. 7 Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah. 8 Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 9 Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

10 Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah. 11 Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction? 12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee. 14 Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me? 15 I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted. 16 Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought: 17 They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together. 18 Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.

Praise for the LORD's Goodness

921 A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High; 2 To declare thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness in the nights, 3 Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the lute; upon the Higgaion with the harp. 4 For thou, Jehovah, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 5 Jehovah, how great are thy works! Thy thoughts are very deep: 6 A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand it.

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed for ever. 8 And thou, Jehovah, art on high for evermore. 9 For lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like a buffalo's: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 11 And mine eye shall see [its desire] on mine enemies; mine ears shall hear [it] of the evil-doers that rise up against me. 12 The righteous shall shoot forth like a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon. 13 Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God: 14 They are still vigorous in old age, they are full of sap and green; 15 To shew that Jehovah is upright: [he is] my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The Majesty of the LORD

931 Jehovah reigneth, he hath clothed himself with majesty: Jehovah hath clothed himself, he hath girded himself with strength; yea, the world is established, it shall not be moved. 2 Thy throne is established of old; thou art from eternity. 3 The floods lifted up, O Jehovah, the floods lifted up their voice; the floods lifted up their roaring waves. 4 Jehovah on high is mightier than the voices of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea. 5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever.