Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

31 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1  oIn you, O Lord, do I ptake refuge;

qlet me never be put to shame;

in your rrighteousness deliver me!

2  Incline your ear to me;

rescue me speedily!

Be sa rock of trefuge for me,

a strong fortress to save me!

3  For you are my rock and my fortress;

and for your uname’s sake you lead me and guide me;

4  you vtake me out of wthe net they have hidden for me,

for you are my xrefuge.

5  yInto your hand I commit my spirit;

you have redeemed me, O Lord, zfaithful God.

6  I ahate1 those who pay bregard to worthless cidols,

but I trust in the Lord.

7  I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,

because you have seen my affliction;

you have dknown the distress of my soul,

8  and you have not edelivered me into the hand of the enemy;

you have set my feet in fa broad place.

9  Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am gin distress;

hmy eye is wasted from grief;

my soul and my body also.

10  For my life is spent with sorrow,

and my years with sighing;

my strength fails because of my iniquity,

and imy bones waste away.

11  Because of all my adversaries I have become ja reproach,

especially to my kneighbors,

and an object of dread to my acquaintances;

those who see me in the street lflee from me.

12  I have been mforgotten like one who is dead;

I have become like na broken vessel.

13  For I ohear the whispering of many—

terror on every side!—

pas they scheme together against me,

as they plot to take my life.

14  But I qtrust in you, O Lord;

I say, “You are my God.”

15  My rtimes are in your hand;

srescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

16  tMake your face shine on your servant;

save me in your steadfast love!

17  O Lord, ulet me not be put to shame,

for I call upon you;

let the wicked be put to shame;

let them go vsilently to Sheol.

18  Let the lying lips be mute,

which wspeak xinsolently against the righteous

in pride and contempt.

19  Oh, how abundant is your goodness,

which you have stored up for those who fear you

and worked for those who take refuge in you,

yin the sight of the children of mankind!

20  In zthe cover of your presence you hide them

from the plots of men;

you astore them in your shelter

from the strife of tongues.

21  Blessed be the Lord,

for he has wondrously bshown his steadfast love to me

when I was in ca besieged city.

22  I had said in my dalarm,2

“I am ecut off from fyour sight.”

But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy

when I cried to you for help.

23  Love the Lord, all you his gsaints!

The Lord preserves the faithful

but abundantly hrepays the one who acts in pride.

24  iBe strong, and let your heart take courage,

all you who wait for the Lord!

Blessed Are the Forgiven

32 A Maskil1 of David.

1  jBlessed is the one whose ktransgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

2  Blessed is the man against whom the Lord lcounts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit mthere is no deceit.

3  For when I kept silent, my nbones wasted away

through my ogroaning all day long.

4  For day and night your phand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up2 as by the heat of summer. Selah

5  I qacknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I rwill confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

6  Therefore let everyone who is sgodly

offer prayer to you at a time when you tmay be found;

surely in the rush of ugreat waters,

they shall not reach him.

7  You are a vhiding place for me;

you preserve me from wtrouble;

you surround me with xshouts of deliverance. Selah

8  I will yinstruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will zcounsel you with my eye upon you.

9  aBe not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bbit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

10  cMany are the sorrows of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds the one who dtrusts in the Lord.

11  eBe glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

and fshout for joy, all you gupright in heart!

The Steadfast Love of the Lord

33 hShout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!

iPraise befits the upright.

2  Give thanks to the Lord with the jlyre;

make melody to him with jthe harp of kten strings!

3  Sing to him la new song;

play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

4  For the word of the Lord is upright,

and all his work is done in mfaithfulness.

5  He nloves righteousness and justice;

othe earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

6  By pthe word of the Lord the heavens were made,

and by qthe breath of his mouth all rtheir host.

7  He gathers the waters of the sea as sa heap;

he tputs the deeps in storehouses.

8  Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

9  For uhe spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

10  The Lord vbrings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

11  wThe counsel of the Lord stands forever,

the plans of his heart to all generations.

12  xBlessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people whom he has ychosen as his heritage!

13  The Lord zlooks down from heaven;

he sees all the children of man;

14  from awhere he sits enthroned he blooks out

on all the inhabitants of the earth,

15  he who fashions the hearts of them all

and observes all their deeds.

16  cThe king is not saved by his great army;

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

17  dThe war horse is a false hope for salvation,

and by its great might it cannot rescue.

18  Behold, ethe eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

fon those who hope in his steadfast love,

19  that he may gdeliver their soul from death

and keep them alive in hfamine.

20  Our soul iwaits for the Lord;

he is our jhelp and kour shield.

21  For our heart is lglad in him,

because we mtrust in his holy name.

22  Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

Taste and See That the Lord Is Good

34 1 Of David, when he nchanged his behavior before oAbimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.

1  I will bless the Lord pat all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2  My soul qmakes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and rbe glad.

3  Oh, smagnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

4  I tsought the Lord, and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears.

5  Those who look to him are uradiant,

and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6  vThis poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

and wsaved him out of all his troubles.

7  xThe angel of the Lord yencamps

around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8  Oh, ztaste and see that athe Lord is good!

bBlessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9  Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

10  cThe young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who dseek the Lord lack no good thing.

11  eCome, O children, listen to me;

fI will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12  gWhat man is there who desires life

and loves many days, that he may hsee good?

13  iKeep your tongue from evil

and your lips from jspeaking deceit.

14  kTurn away from evil and do good;

seek peace and lpursue it.

15  mThe eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous

nand his ears toward their cry.

16  oThe face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

to pcut off the memory of them from the earth.

17  nWhen the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears

and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18  The Lord is near to qthe brokenhearted

and saves rthe crushed in spirit.

19  sMany are the afflictions of the righteous,

tbut the Lord delivers him out of them all.

20  He keeps all his bones;

unot one of them is broken.

21  vAffliction will slay the wicked,

and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22  The Lord wredeems the life of his servants;

none of those who take refuge in him will be xcondemned.

Great Is the Lord

35 Of David.

1  Contend, O Lord, with those who ycontend with me;

zfight against those who fight against me!

2  Take hold of ashield and buckler

and rise for my help!

3  Draw the spear and javelin1

against my pursuers!

Say to my soul,

“I am your salvation!”

4  bLet them be cput to shame and dishonor

who seek after my life!

Let them be dturned back and disappointed

who devise evil against me!

5  Let them be like echaff before the wind,

with the angel of the Lord driving them away!

6  Let their way be dark and fslippery,

with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!

7  For gwithout cause hthey hid their net for me;

without cause they dug ia pit for my life.2

8  Let jdestruction come upon him kwhen he does not know it!

And let the net that he hid ensnare him;

let him fall into it—to his destruction!

9  Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord,

lexulting in his salvation.

10  All my mbones shall say,

“O Lord, nwho is like you,

delivering the poor

from him who is too strong for him,

the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

11  oMalicious3 witnesses rise up;

they ask me of things that I do not know.

12  pThey repay me evil for good;

my soul is bereft.4

13  But I, qwhen they were sick—

I rwore sackcloth;

I safflicted myself with fasting;

I prayed twith head bowed5 on my chest.

14  I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;

as one who laments his mother,

I ubowed down in mourning.

15  But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;

they gathered together against me;

vwretches whom I did not know

tore at me without ceasing;

16  like profane mockers at a feast,6

they wgnash at me with their teeth.

17  How long, O Lord, will you xlook on?

Rescue me from their destruction,

ymy precious life from the lions!

18  I will thank you in zthe great congregation;

in the mighty throng I will praise you.

19  aLet not those rejoice over me

who are bwrongfully my foes,

and let not those cwink the eye

who dhate me ewithout cause.

20  For they do not speak peace,

but against those who are quiet in the land

they devise words of deceit.

21  They fopen wide their mouths against me;

they say, g“Aha, Aha!

Our eyes have seen it!”

22  hYou have seen, O Lord; ibe not silent!

O Lord, jbe not …