Psalm 137–144

Psalm 137

¹For David himself.

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: for thou hast heard the words of my mouth. I will sing praise to thee in the sight of the angels:

²I will worship towards thy holy temple, and I will give glory to thy name. For thy mercy, and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy holy name above all.

³In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me: thou shalt multiply strength in my soul.

⁴May all the kings of the earth give glory to thee: for they have heard all the words of thy mouth.

⁵And let them sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.

⁶For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low: and the high he knoweth afar off.

⁷If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, thou wilt quicken me: and thou hast stretched forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies: and thy right hand hath saved me.

⁸The Lord will repay for me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: O despise not the works of thy hands.

Psalm 138

¹Unto the end, a psalm of David.

Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:

²Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up.

³Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.

⁴And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.

⁵Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.

⁶Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.

⁷Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face?

⁸If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present.

⁹If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:

¹⁰Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.

¹¹And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.

¹²But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee.

¹³For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁶Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.

¹⁷But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

¹⁸I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand, I rose up and am still with thee.

¹⁹If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me:

²⁰Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in vain.

²¹Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pined away because of thy enemies?

²²I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become enemies to me.

²³Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.

²⁴And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.

Psalm 139

¹Unto the end, a psalm of David.

²Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: rescue me from the unjust man.

³Who have devised iniquities in their hearts: all the day long they designed battles.

⁴They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent: the venom of asps is under their lips.

⁵Keep me, O Lord, from the hand of the wicked: and from unjust men deliver me. Who have proposed to supplant my steps:

⁶The proud have hidden a net for me. And they have stretched out cords for a snare: they have laid for me a stumblingblock by the wayside.

⁷I said to the Lord: Thou art my God: hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication.

⁸O Lord, Lord, the strength of my salvation: thou hast overshadowed my head in the day of battle.

⁹Give me not up, O Lord, from my desire to the wicked: they have plotted against me; do not thou forsake me, lest they should triumph.

¹⁰The head of them compassing me about: the labour of their lips shall overwhelm them.

¹¹Burning coals shall fall upon them; thou wilt cast them down into the fire: in miseries they shall not be able to stand.

¹²A man full of tongue shall not be established in the earth: evil shall catch the unjust man unto destruction.

¹³I know that the Lord will do justice to the needy, and will revenge the poor.

¹⁴But as for the just, they shall give glory to thy name: and the upright shall dwell with thy countenance.

Psalm 140

I have cried to thee, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to thee.

²Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.

³Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.

⁴Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins. With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them.

⁵The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased:

⁶Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up. They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed:

⁷As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground: Our bones are scattered by the side of hell.

⁸But to thee, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in thee have I put my trust, take not away my soul.

⁹Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumblingblocks of them that work iniquity.

¹⁰The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

Psalm 141

¹Of understanding for David, A prayer when he was in the cave.

²I cried to the Lord with my voice: with my voice I made supplication to the Lord.

³In his sight I pour out my prayer, and before him I declare my trouble:

⁴When my spirit failed me, then thou knewest my paths. In this way wherein I walked, they have hidden a snare for me.

⁵I looked on my right hand, and beheld, and there was no one that would know me. Flight hath failed me: and there is no one that hath regard to my soul.

⁶I cried to thee, O Lord: I said: Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.

⁷Attend to my supplication: for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

⁸Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the just wait for me, until thou reward me.

Psalm 142

¹A psalm of David, when his son Absalom pursued him.

Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in thy truth: hear me in thy justice.

²And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight no man living shall be justified.

³For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath brought down my life to the earth. He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been dead of old:

⁴And my spirit is in anguish within me: my heart within me is troubled.

⁵I remembered the days of old, I meditated on all thy works: I meditated upon the works of thy hands.

⁶I stretched forth my hands to thee: my soul is as earth without water unto thee.

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

⁸Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning; for in thee have I hoped. Make the way known to me, wherein I should walk: for I have lifted up my soul to thee.

⁹Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to thee have I fled:

¹⁰Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land:

¹¹for thy name’s sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice. Thou wilt bring my soul out of trouble:

¹²And in thy mercy thou wilt destroy my enemies. And thou wilt cut off all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Psalm 143

Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.

²My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer: My protector, and I have hoped in him: who subdueth my people under me.

³Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

⁴Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.

⁵Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

⁶Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.

⁷Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters: from the hand of strange children:

⁸Whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

⁹To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to thee.

¹⁰Who givest salvation to kings: who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword:

¹¹Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:

¹²Whose sons are as new plants in their youth: Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:

¹³Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth:

¹⁴Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.

¹⁵They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 144

¹Praise, for David himself.

I will extol thee, O God my king: and I will bless thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever.

²Every day will I bless thee: and I will praise thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever.

³Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and of his greatness there is no end.

⁴Generation and generation shall praise thy works: and they shall declare thy power.

⁵They shall speak of the magnificence of the glory of thy holiness: and shall tell thy wondrous works.

⁶And they shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and shall…