I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

88 A Song. A Psalm of zthe Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to aMahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of bHeman the Ezrahite.

1  O Lord, cGod of my salvation,

I dcry out day and night before you.

2  Let my prayer come before you;

eincline your ear to my cry!

3  For my soul is full of troubles,

and fmy life draws near to gSheol.

4  I am counted among those who hgo down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

5  like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom iyou remember no more,

for they are jcut off from your hand.

6  You have put me in kthe depths of the pit,

in the lregions dark and mdeep.

7  Your wrath nlies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with oall your waves. Selah

8  You have caused pmy companions to shun me;

you have made me qa horror2 to them.

I am rshut in so that I cannot escape;

9  smy eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O Lord;

I tspread out my hands to you.

10  Do you work wonders for the dead?

uDo the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

11  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

12  Are your vwonders known in wthe darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of xforgetfulness?

13  But I, O Lord, cry yto you;

zin the morning my prayer comes before you.

14  O Lord, why ado you cast my soul away?

Why bdo you hide your face from me?

15  Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.3

16  Your wrath has swept over me;

your cdreadful assaults destroy me.

17  They dsurround me like a flood eall day long;

they fclose in on me together.

18  You have caused gmy beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.4

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

89 A Maskil1 of hEthan the Ezrahite.

1  iI will sing of jthe steadfast love of the Lord, forever;

with my mouth I will make known your kfaithfulness to all generations.

2  For I said, j“Steadfast love will be built up forever;

in the heavens lyou will establish your kfaithfulness.”

3  You have said, “I have made ma covenant with my nchosen one;

I have osworn to David my servant:

4  ‘I will establish your poffspring forever,

and build your qthrone for all generations.’ ” Selah

5  Let rthe heavens praise your swonders, O Lord,

your faithfulness in the assembly of tthe holy ones!

6  For uwho in the skies can be compared to the Lord?

uWho among the heavenly beings2 is like the Lord,

7  a God greatly vto be feared in the council of tthe holy ones,

and awesome above all wwho are around him?

8  O Lord God of hosts,

xwho is mighty as you are, O yLord,

with your faithfulness all around you?

9  You rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you zstill them.

10  You acrushed bRahab like a carcass;

you cscattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

11  dThe heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;

ethe world and all that is in it, you have ffounded them.

12  gThe north and the south, you have created them;

hTabor and iHermon jjoyously praise your name.

13  You have a mighty arm;

strong is your hand, high your right hand.

14  kRighteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

lsteadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

15  Blessed are the people who know mthe festal shout,

who walk, O Lord, in nthe light of your face,

16  who exult in your oname all the day

and in your righteousness are pexalted.

17  For you are qthe glory of their strength;

by your favor our rhorn is exalted.

18  For our sshield belongs to the Lord,

our king to tthe Holy One of Israel.

19  uOf old you spoke in a vision to your godly one,3 and said:

“I have vgranted help to one who is wmighty;

I have exalted one xchosen from the people.

20  yI have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have zanointed him,

21  so that my ahand shall be established with him;

my arm also shall strengthen him.

22  The enemy shall not outwit him;

bthe wicked shall not humble him.

23  I will ccrush his foes before him

and strike down those who hate him.

24  My dfaithfulness and my dsteadfast love shall be with him,

and in my name shall his ehorn be exalted.

25  I will set his hand on fthe sea

and his right hand on fthe rivers.

26  He shall cry to me, ‘You are my gFather,

my God, and hthe Rock of my salvation.’

27  And I will make him the ifirstborn,

jthe highest of the kings of the earth.

28  My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,

and my kcovenant will stand firm4 for him.

29  I will establish his loffspring forever

and his lthrone as mthe days of the heavens.

30  nIf his children forsake my law

and do not walk according to my rules,5

31  if they violate my statutes

and do not keep my commandments,

32  then I will punish their transgression with othe rod

and their iniquity with stripes,

33  but I will not remove from him my steadfast love

or be false to my faithfulness.

34  I will not violate my kcovenant

or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

35  Once for all I have sworn pby my holiness;

I will not qlie to David.

36  His loffspring shall endure forever,

rhis lthrone as long as sthe sun before me.

37  Like sthe moon it shall be established forever,

ta faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

38  But now you have ucast off and rejected;

you are full of wrath against your vanointed.

39  You have wrenounced xthe covenant with your servant;

you have ydefiled his zcrown in the dust.

40  You have abreached all his walls;

you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41  aAll who pass by plunder him;

he has become bthe scorn of his neighbors.

42  You have exalted the right hand of his foes;

you have made all his enemies rejoice.

43  You have also turned back the edge of his sword,

and you have not made him stand in battle.

44  You have made his splendor to cease

and cast his throne to the ground.

45  You have cut short cthe days of his youth;

you have dcovered him with shame. Selah

46  eHow long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath fburn like fire?

47  gRemember hhow short my itime is!

For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48  jWhat man can live and never ksee death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of lSheol? Selah

49  Lord, where is your msteadfast love of old,

which by your mfaithfulness you swore to David?

50  nRemember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,

and how I bear in my oheart the insults6 of all the many nations,

51  with which your enemies mock, O Lord,

with which they mock pthe footsteps of your qanointed.

52  rBlessed be the Lord forever!

Amen and Amen.

Book Four

From Everlasting to Everlasting

90 A sPrayer of Moses, the tman of God.

1  Lord, you have been our udwelling place1

in all generations.

2  vBefore the wmountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

xfrom everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3  You return man to dust

and say, y“Return, zO children of man!”2

4  For aa thousand years in your sight

are but as byesterday when it is past,

or as ca watch in the night.

5  You dsweep them away as with a flood; they are like ea dream,

like fgrass that is renewed in the morning:

6  in ithe morning it flourishes and is renewed;

in the evening it jfades and kwithers.

7  For we are brought to an end by your anger;

by your wrath we are dismayed.

8  You have lset our iniquities before you,

our msecret sins in the light of your presence.

9  For all our days pass away under your wrath;

we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

10  The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span3 is but toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.

11  Who considers the power of your anger,

and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12  nSo teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

13  oReturn, O Lord! pHow long?

Have qpity on your servants!

14  Satisfy us in the smorning with your steadfast love,

that we may trejoice and be glad all our days.

15  Make us glad for as many days as you have uafflicted us,

and for as many years as we have seen evil.

16  Let your vwork be shown to your servants,

and your glorious power to their children.

17  Let the xfavor4 of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish ythe work of our hands upon us;

yes, establish the work of our hands!

My Refuge and My Fortress

91 He who dwells in athe shelter of the Most High

will abide in bthe shadow of the Almighty.

2  I will say1 to the Lord, “My crefuge and my dfortress,

my God, in whom I etrust.”

3  For he will deliver you from fthe snare of the fowler

and from the deadly pestilence.

4  He will gcover you with his pinions,

and under his hwings you will ifind refuge;

his jfaithfulness is ka shield and buckler.

5  lYou will not fear mthe terror of the night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

6  nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7  A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

8  You will only look with your eyes

and nsee the recompense of the wicked.

9  Because you have made the Lord your odwelling place—

the Most High, who is my crefuge2—

10  pno evil shall be allowed to befall you,

qno plague come near your tent.

11  rFor he will command his sangels concerning you

to tguard you in all your ways.

12  On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you ustrike your foot against a stone.

13  You will tread on vthe lion and the wadder;

the young lion and xthe serpent you will ytrample underfoot.

14  “Because he zholds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;

I will protect him, because he aknows my name.

15  When he bcalls to me, I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and chonor him.

16  With dlong life I will satisfy him

and eshow him my salvation.”