Psalm 7–12

In You Do I Take Refuge

7A ^lShiggaion¹ of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

¹O Lord my God, in you do I ^mtake refuge;

ⁿsave me from all my pursuers and deliver me,

²lest like ^oa lion they tear my soul apart,

rending it in pieces, with ^pnone to deliver.

³O Lord my God, ^qif I have done this,

if there is ^rwrong in my hands,

⁴if I have repaid ^smy friend² with evil

or ^tplundered my enemy without cause,

⁵let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,

and let him ^utrample my life to the ground

and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

^6vArise, O Lord, in your anger;

^wlift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

^xawake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;

over it return on high.

⁸The Lord ^yjudges the peoples;

^zjudge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness

and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

and may you establish the righteous—

you who ^atest ^bthe minds and hearts,³

O righteous God!

¹⁰My shield is ^cwith God,

who saves ^dthe upright in heart.

¹¹God is ^ea righteous judge,

and a God who feels ^findignation every day.

¹²If a man⁴ does not repent, God⁵ will ^gwhet his sword;

he has ^hbent and ⁱreadied his bow;

¹³he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,

making his ^jarrows ^kfiery shafts.

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man ^lconceives evil

and is ^lpregnant with mischief

and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵He makes ^ma pit, digging it out,

and falls into the hole that he has made.

¹⁶His ⁿmischief returns upon his own head,

and on his own skull his violence descends.

¹⁷I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,

and I will ^osing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

How Majestic Is Your Name

8To the choirmaster: according to The ^pGittith.¹ A Psalm of David.

¹O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your ^qname in all the earth!

You have set your ^rglory above the heavens.

^2sOut of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established ^tstrength because of your foes,

to still ^uthe enemy and the avenger.

³When I ^vlook at your heavens, the work of your ^wfingers,

the moon and the stars, ^xwhich you have set in place,

^4ywhat is man that you are ^zmindful of him,

and ^athe son of man that you ^bcare for him?

⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than ^cthe heavenly beings²

and crowned him with ^dglory and honor.

⁶You have given him ^edominion over the works of your hands;

^fyou have put all things under his feet,

⁷all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I Will Recount Your Wonderful Deeds

9¹ To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben.² A Psalm of David.

¹I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of your ^gwonderful deeds.

²I will be glad and ^hexult in you;

I will ⁱsing praise to your name, ^jO Most High.

³When my enemies turn back,

they stumble and perish before³ your presence.

⁴For you have ^kmaintained my just cause;

you have ^lsat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

⁵You have ^mrebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;

you have ⁿblotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;

their cities you rooted out;

the very memory of them has perished.

⁷But the Lord sits enthroned forever;

he has established his throne for justice,

⁸and he ^ojudges the world with righteousness;

he ^pjudges the peoples with uprightness.

⁹The Lord is ^qa stronghold for ^rthe oppressed,

a stronghold in ^stimes of trouble.

¹⁰And those who ^tknow your name put their trust in you,

for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹Sing praises to the Lord, who ^usits enthroned in Zion!

Tell among the peoples his ^vdeeds!

¹²For he who ^wavenges blood is mindful of them;

he ^xdoes not forget the cry of the afflicted.

^13yBe gracious to me, O Lord!

See my affliction from those who hate me,

O you who lift me up from ^zthe gates of death,

¹⁴that I may recount all your praises,

that in the gates of ^athe daughter of Zion

I may ^brejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have sunk in ^cthe pit that they made;

in ^dthe net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.

¹⁶The Lord has made himself ^eknown; he has executed judgment;

the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion.⁴ Selah

¹⁷The wicked shall ^freturn to Sheol,

all the nations that ^gforget God.

¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

and ^hthe hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

¹⁹ⁱArise, O Lord! Let not ^jman prevail;

let the nations be judged before you!

²⁰Put them in fear, O Lord!

Let the nations know that they are but ^jmen! Selah

Why Do You Hide Yourself?

10Why, O Lord, do you stand ^kfar away?

Why ^ldo you hide yourself in ^mtimes of trouble?

²In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;

let them ⁿbe caught in the schemes that they have devised.

³For the wicked ^oboasts of the desires of his soul,

and the one greedy for gain ^pcurses¹ and ^qrenounces the Lord.

⁴In the pride of his face² the wicked does not ^qseek him;³

all his thoughts are, ^r“There is no God.”

⁵His ways prosper at all times;

your judgments are on high, ^sout of his sight;

as for all his foes, he ^tpuffs at them.

⁶He ^usays in his heart, “I shall not be moved;

throughout all generations I ^vshall not meet adversity.”

^7wHis mouth is filled with cursing and ^xdeceit and ^yoppression;

^zunder his tongue are ^amischief and ^biniquity.

⁸He sits in ambush in the villages;

in ^chiding places he murders the innocent.

His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

⁹he lurks in ambush like ^da lion in his ^ethicket;

he ^flurks that he may seize the poor;

he seizes the poor when he draws him into his ^gnet.

¹⁰The helpless are crushed, sink down,

and fall by his might.

¹¹He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,

he has ^hhidden his face, he ⁱwill never see it.”

^12jArise, O Lord; O God, ^klift up your hand;

^lforget not the afflicted.

¹³Why does the wicked ^mrenounce God

and say in his heart, “You will not ⁿcall to account”?

¹⁴But you do see, for you ^onote mischief and vexation,

that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless ^pcommits himself;

you have been ^qthe helper of the fatherless.

^15rBreak the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

^scall his wickedness to account till you find none.

^16tThe Lord is king forever and ever;

the ^unations perish from his land.

¹⁷O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

you will ^vstrengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

¹⁸to ^wdo justice to the fatherless and ^xthe oppressed,

so that ^yman who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple

11To the choirmaster. Of David.

¹In the Lord I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

^zFlee like a bird to your mountain,

²for behold, the wicked ^abend the bow;

^bthey have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

³if ^cthe foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?¹

^4dThe Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s ^ethrone is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids ^ftest the children of man.

⁵The Lord ^gtests the righteous,

but ^hhis soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

⁶Let him rain coals on the wicked;

ⁱfire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be ^jthe portion of their cup.

⁷For the Lord is righteous;

he ^kloves righteous deeds;

^lthe upright shall behold his face.

The Faithful Have Vanished

12To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith.¹ A Psalm of David.

¹Save, O Lord, for ^mthe godly one is gone;

for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.

²Everyone ⁿutters lies to his neighbor;

with ^oflattering lips and ^pa double heart they speak.

³May the Lord cut off all ^oflattering lips,

the tongue that makes ^qgreat boasts,

⁴those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,

our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

⁵“Because ^rthe poor are plundered, because the needy groan,

^sI will now arise,” says the Lord;

“I will place him in the ^tsafety for which he longs.”

^6uThe words of the Lord are pure words,

like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times.

⁷You, O Lord, will keep them;

you will guard us² from this generation forever.

⁸On every side the wicked prowl,

as vileness is exalted among the children of man.