God's Eternity and Man's Transitoriness

901 Lord, you have been our resting-place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were made, before you had given birth to the earth and the world, before time was, and for ever, you are God. 3 You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men. 4 For to you a thousand years are no more than yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. 5 ... 6 In the morning it is green; in the evening it is cut down, and becomes dry.

7 We are burned up by the heat of your passion, and troubled by your wrath. 8 You have put our evil doings before you, our secret sins in the light of your face. 9 For all our days have gone by in your wrath; our years come to an end like a breath. 10 The measure of our life is seventy years; and if through strength it may be eighty years, its pride is only trouble and sorrow, for it comes to an end and we are quickly gone. 11 Who has knowledge of the power of your wrath, or who takes note of the weight of your passion?

12 So give us knowledge of the number of our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Come back, O Lord; how long? let your purpose for your servants be changed. 14 In the morning give us your mercy in full measure; so that we may have joy and delight all our days. 15 Make us glad in reward for the days of our sorrow, and for the years in which we have seen evil. 16 Make your work clear to your servants, and your glory to their children. 17 Let the pleasure of the Lord our God be on us: O Lord, give strength to the work of our hands.

Abiding in the Shadow of the Almighty

911 Happy is he whose resting-place is in the secret of the Lord, and under the shade of the wings of the Most High; 2 Who says of the Lord, He is my safe place and my tower of strength: he is my God, in whom is my hope. 3 He will take you out of the bird-net, and keep you safe from wasting disease. 4 You will be covered by his feathers; under his wings you will be safe: his good faith will be your salvation. 5 You will have no fear of the evil things of the night, or of the arrow in flight by day, 6 Or of the disease which takes men in the dark, or of the destruction which makes waste when the sun is high. 7 You will see a thousand falling by your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. 8 Only with your eyes will you see the reward of the evil-doers.

9 Because you have said, I am in the hands of the Lord, the Most High is my safe resting-place; 10 No evil will come on you, and no disease will come near your tent. 11 For he will give you into the care of his angels to keep you wherever you go. 12 In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone. 13 You will put your foot on the lion and the snake; the young lion and the great snake will be crushed under your feet. 14 Because he has given me his love, I will take him out of danger: I will put him in a place of honour, because he has kept my name in his heart. 15 When his cry comes up to me, I will give him an answer: I will be with him in trouble; I will make him free from danger and give him honour. 16 With long life will he be rewarded; and I will let him see my salvation.

Praise for the LORD's Goodness

921 It is a good thing to give praise to the Lord, and to make melody to your name, O Most High; 2 To make clear your mercy in the morning, and your unchanging faith every night; 3 On a ten-corded instrument, and on an instrument of music with a quiet sound. 4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad through your work; I will have joy in the works of your hands. 5 O Lord, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep. 6 A man without sense has no knowledge of this; and a foolish man may not take it in.

7 When the sinners come up like the grass, and all the workers of evil do well for themselves, it is so that their end may be eternal destruction. 8 But you, O Lord, are on high for ever. 9 For see! your haters, O Lord, will be put to death; all the workers of evil will be put to flight; 10 But my horn is lifted up like the horn of the ox: the best oil is flowing on my head. 11 My eyes have seen trouble come on my haters; my ears have news of the fate of the evil-doers who have come up against me. 12 The good man will be like a tall tree in his strength; his growth will be as the wide-stretching trees of Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will come up tall and strong in his gardens. 14 They will give fruit even when they are old; they will be fertile and full of growth; 15 For a sign that the Lord is upright; he is my Rock, there is no deceit in him.

The Majesty of the LORD

931 The Lord is King; he is clothed with glory; the Lord is clothed with strength; power is the cord of his robe; the world is fixed, so that it may not be moved. 2 The seat of your power has been from the past; you are eternal. 3 The rivers send up, O Lord, the rivers send up their voices; they send them up with a loud cry. 4 The Lord in heaven is stronger than the noise of great waters, yes, he is stronger than the great waves of the sea. 5 Your witness is most certain; it is right for your house to be holy, O Lord, for ever.

A Prayer for Vengeance

941 O God, in whose hands is punishment, O God of punishment, let your shining face be seen. 2 Be lifted up, O judge of the earth; let their reward come to the men of pride. 3 How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners have joy over us? 4 Words of pride come from their lips; all the workers of evil say great things of themselves. 5 Your people are crushed by them, O Lord, your heritage is troubled, 6 They put to death the widow and the guest, they take the lives of children who have no father; 7 And they say, Jah will not see it, the God of Jacob will not give thought to it. 8 Give your mind to my words, you who are without wisdom among the people; you foolish men, when will you be wise? 9 Has he by whom your ears were planted no hearing? or is he blind by whom your eyes were formed? 10 He who is the judge of the nations, will he not give men the reward of their acts, even he who gives knowledge to man? 11 The Lord has knowledge of the thoughts of man, for they are only a breath.

12 Happy is the man who is guided by you, O Jah, and to whom you give teaching out of your law; 13 So that you may give him rest from the days of evil, till a hole is made ready for the destruction of the sinners. 14 The Lord will not give up his people, or take away his support from his heritage; 15 But decisions will again be made in righteousness; and they will be kept by all whose hearts are true. 16 Who will give me help against the sinners? and who will be my support against the workers of evil? 17 If the Lord had not been my helper, my soul would quickly have gone down into death. 18 If I say, My foot is slipping; your mercy, O Lord, is my support. 19 Among all my troubled thoughts, your comforts are the delight of my soul. 20 What part with you has the seat of sin, which makes evil into a law? 21 They are banded together against the soul of the upright, to give decisions against those who have done no wrong. 22 But the Lord is my safe resting-place; my God is the Rock where I am safe. 23 And he has made their evil designs come back on themselves, cutting them off in their sin; the Lord our God will put an end to them.

A Song of Praise and Worship

951 O come, let us make songs to the Lord; sending up glad voices to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody with holy songs. 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all gods. 4 The deep places of the earth are in his hand; and the tops of the mountains are his. 5 The sea is his, and he made it; and the dry land was formed by his hands. 6 O come, let us give worship, falling down on our knees before the Lord our Maker.

7 For he is our God; and we are the people to whom he gives food, and the sheep of his flock. Today, if you would only give ear to his voice! 8 Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land; 9 When your fathers put me to the test and saw my power and my work. 10 For forty years I was angry with this generation, and said, They are a people whose hearts are turned away from me, for they have no knowledge of my ways; 11 And I made an oath in my wrath, that they might not come into my place of rest.