O Lord, Do Not Delay

70 To the choirmaster. Of David, ffor the memorial offering.

1  gMake haste, O God, to deliver me!

O Lord, make haste to help me!

2  Let them be put to shame and confusion

who seek my life!

Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

3  Let them turn back because of their shame

who say, “Aha, Aha!”

4  May all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you!

May those who love your salvation

say evermore, “God is great!”

5  But I am poor and needy;

hhasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay!

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

71 iIn you, O Lord, do I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame!

2  In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

incline your ear to me, and save me!

3  Be to me a rock of jrefuge,

to which I may continually come;

you have kgiven the command to save me,

for you are my lrock and my fortress.

4  mRescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.

5  For you, O Lord, are my nhope,

my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

6  Upon you I have leaned ofrom before my birth;

you are he who ptook me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

7  I have been as qa portent to many,

but you are my strong refuge.

8  My rmouth is filled with your praise,

and with your glory all the day.

9  sDo not cast me off in the time of old age;

forsake me not when my strength is spent.

10  For my enemies speak concerning me;

those who twatch for my life uconsult together

11  and say, “God has forsaken him;

pursue and seize him,

for there is none to deliver him.”

12  O God, be not vfar from me;

O my God, wmake haste to help me!

13  May my accusers be xput to shame and consumed;

ywith scorn and disgrace may they be covered

who zseek my hurt.

14  But I will ahope continually

and will bpraise you yet more and more.

15  My cmouth will tell of your righteous acts,

of your deeds of salvation all the day,

for dtheir number is past my knowledge.

16  With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;

I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

17  O God, from my youth you have taught me,

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

18  So even to eold age and gray hairs,

O God, fdo not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might to another generation,

your power to all those to come.

19  Your grighteousness, O God,

reaches the high heavens.

You who have done hgreat things,

O God, iwho is like you?

20  You who have jmade me see many troubles and calamities

will krevive me again;

from the depths of the earth

you will bring me up again.

21  You will increase my greatness

and comfort me again.

22  I will also praise you with lthe harp

for your faithfulness, O my God;

I will sing praises to you with the lyre,

O mHoly One of Israel.

23  My lips will shout for joy,

when I sing praises to you;

my soul also, which you have nredeemed.

24  And my otongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,

for they have been pput to shame and disappointed

who sought to do me hurt.

Give the King Your Justice

72 Of qSolomon.

1  Give the king your rjustice, O God,

and your righteousness to the royal son!

2  May he sjudge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice!

3  Let the mountains bear tprosperity for the people,

and the hills, in righteousness!

4  May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,

give deliverance to the children of the needy,

and crush the oppressor!

5  May they fear you1 while uthe sun endures,

and as long as the moon, vthroughout all generations!

6  May he be like wrain that falls on xthe mown grass,

like yshowers that water the earth!

7  In his days may zthe righteous flourish,

and apeace abound, till the moon be no more!

8  May he have dominion from bsea to sea,

and from bthe River2 to the cends of the earth!

9  May desert tribes dbow down before him,

and his enemies elick the dust!

10  May the kings of fTarshish and of gthe coastlands

render him htribute;

may the kings of iSheba and jSeba

bring gifts!

11  May all kings kfall down before him,

all nations serve him!

12  For he delivers lthe needy when he calls,

the poor and him who has no helper.

13  He has pity on the weak and the needy,

and saves the lives of the needy.

14  From oppression and violence he redeems their life,

and mprecious is their blood in his sight.

15  Long may he live;

may ngold of Sheba be given to him!

May prayer be made ofor him continually,

and blessings invoked for him all the day!

16  May there be abundance of grain in the land;

on the tops of the mountains may it wave;

may its fruit be like Lebanon;

and may people pblossom in the cities

like the qgrass of the field!

17  rMay his name endure forever,

his fame continue as long as the sun!

sMay people be blessed in him,

tall nations call him blessed!

18  uBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

who alone does vwondrous things.

19  Blessed be his wglorious name forever;

may xthe whole earth be filled with his glory!

yAmen and Amen!

20  zThe prayers of aDavid, the son of Jesse, are ended.

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

73 A Psalm of bAsaph.

1  Truly God is good to cIsrael,

to those who are dpure in heart.

2  But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

3  eFor I was fenvious of the arrogant

when I saw the gprosperity of the wicked.

4  For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

5  They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not hstricken like the rest of mankind.

6  Therefore pride is itheir necklace;

violence covers them as ja garment.

7  Their keyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

8  They scoff and lspeak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

9  They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

10  Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find mno fault in them.1

11  And they say, n“How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12  Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they oincrease in riches.

13  All in vain have I pkept my heart clean

and qwashed my hands in innocence.

14  For all the day long I have been hstricken

and rrebuked severy morning.

15  If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have betrayed tthe generation of your children.

16  But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me ua wearisome task,

17  until I went into vthe sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their wend.

18  Truly you set them in xslippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

19  How they are destroyed yin a moment,

swept away utterly by zterrors!

20  Like aa dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when byou rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

21  When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

22  I was cbrutish and ignorant;

I was like da beast toward you.

23  Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you ehold my right hand.

24  You fguide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will greceive me to glory.

25  hWhom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26  iMy flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is jthe strength2 of my heart and my kportion lforever.

27  For behold, those who are mfar from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is nunfaithful to you.

28  But for me it is good to obe near God;

I have made the Lord God my prefuge,

that I may qtell of all your works.