God's Eternity and Man's Transitoriness

901 Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 3 You turn man to destruction, saying,
“Return, you children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past,
like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as they sleep.
In the morning they sprout like new grass. 6 In the morning it sprouts and springs up.
By evening, it is withered and dry.

7 For we are consumed in your anger.
We are troubled in your wrath. 8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days have passed away in your wrath.
We bring our years to an end as a sigh. 10 The days of our years are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty years;
yet their pride is but labor and sorrow,
for it passes quickly, and we fly away. 11 Who knows the power of your anger,
your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?

12 So teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 Relent, Yahweh!
How long?
Have compassion on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work appear to your servants;
your glory to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us;
establish the work of our hands for us;
yes, establish the work of our hands.

Abiding in the Shadow of the Almighty

911 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,
and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers.
Under his wings you will take refuge.
His faithfulness is your shield and rampart. 5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
nor of the arrow that flies by day; 6 nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand;
but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes,
and see the recompense of the wicked.

9 Because you have made Yahweh your refuge,
and the Most High your dwelling place, 10 no evil shall happen to you,
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. 11 For he will put his angels in charge of you,
to guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands,
so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and cobra.
You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot. 14 “Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him.
I will set him on high, because he has known my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him, and honor him. 16 I will satisfy him with long life,
and show him my salvation.”

Praise for the LORD's Goodness

921 It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh,
to sing praises to your name, Most High; 2 to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning,
and your faithfulness every night, 3 with the ten-stringed lute, with the harp,
and with the melody of the lyre. 4 For you, Yahweh, have made me glad through your work.
I will triumph in the works of your hands. 5 How great are your works, Yahweh!
Your thoughts are very deep. 6 A senseless man doesn’t know,
neither does a fool understand this:

7 though the wicked spring up as the grass,
and all the evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever. 8 But you, Yahweh, are on high forevermore. 9 For, behold, your enemies, Yahweh,
for, behold, your enemies shall perish.
All the evildoers will be scattered. 10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.
I am anointed with fresh oil. 11 My eye has also seen my enemies.
My ears have heard of the wicked enemies who rise up against me. 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 They are planted in Yahweh’s house.
They will flourish in our God’s courts. 14 They will still bring forth fruit in old age.
They will be full of sap and green, 15 to show that Yahweh is upright.
He is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The Majesty of the LORD

931 Yahweh reigns!
He is clothed with majesty!
Yahweh is armed with strength.
The world also is established.
It can’t be moved. 2 Your throne is established from long ago.
You are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, Yahweh,
the floods have lifted up their voice.
The floods lift up their waves. 4 Above the voices of many waters,
the mighty breakers of the sea,
Yahweh on high is mighty. 5 Your statutes stand firm.
Holiness adorns your house,
Yahweh, forevermore.

A Prayer for Vengeance

941 Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs,
you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth. 2 Rise up, you judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud what they deserve. 3 Yahweh, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked triumph? 4 They pour out arrogant words.
All the evildoers boast. 5 They break your people in pieces, Yahweh,
and afflict your heritage. 6 They kill the widow and the alien,
and murder the fatherless. 7 They say, “Yah will not see,
neither will Jacob’s God consider.” 8 Consider, you senseless among the people;
you fools, when will you be wise? 9 He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear?
He who formed the eye, won’t he see? 10 He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish?
He who teaches man knows. 11 Yahweh knows the thoughts of man,
that they are futile.

12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah,
and teach out of your law; 13 that you may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For Yahweh won’t reject his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15 For judgment will return to righteousness.
All the upright in heart shall follow it. 16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? 17 Unless Yahweh had been my help,
my soul would have soon lived in silence. 18 When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
Your loving kindness, Yahweh, held me up. 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me,
your comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you,
which brings about mischief by statute? 21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood. 22 But Yahweh has been my high tower,
my God, the rock of my refuge. 23 He has brought on them their own iniquity,
and will cut them off in their own wickedness.
Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.

A Song of Praise and Worship

951 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving.
Let’s extol him with songs! 3 For Yahweh is a great God,
a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are also his. 5 The sea is his, and he made it.
His hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let’s worship and bow down.
Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,

7 for he is our God.
We are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep in his care.
Today, oh that you would hear his voice! 8 Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tempted me,
tested me, and saw my work. 10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation,
and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart.
They have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They won’t enter into my rest.”