Psalm 10–12

A Prayer for Justice

10Why are you so far away, O Lord?

Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?

²The wicked are proud and persecute the poor;

catch them in the traps they have made.

³The wicked are proud of their evil desires;

the greedy curse and reject the Lord.

⁴The wicked do not care about the Lord;

in their pride they think that God doesn’t matter.

⁵The wicked succeed in everything.

They cannot understand God’s judgements;

they sneer at their enemies.

⁶They say to themselves, “I will never fail;

I will never be in trouble.”

^7*Their speech is filled with curses, lies, and threats;

they are quick to speak hateful, evil words.

⁸They hide themselves in the villages,

waiting to murder innocent people.

They spy on their helpless victims;

⁹they wait in their hiding places like lions.

They lie in wait for the poor;

they catch them in their traps and drag them away.

¹⁰The helpless victims lie crushed;

brute strength has defeated them.

¹¹The wicked say to themselves, “God doesn’t care!

He has closed his eyes and will never see me!”

¹²O Lord, punish those wicked people!

Remember those who are suffering!

¹³How can the wicked despise God

and say to themselves, “He will not punish me”?

¹⁴But you do see; you take notice of trouble and suffering

and are always ready to help.

The helpless commit themselves to you;

you have always helped the needy.

¹⁵Break the power of wicked and evil people;

punish them for the wrong they have done

until they do it no more.

¹⁶The Lord is king for ever and ever.

Those who worship other gods

will vanish from his land.

¹⁷You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly;

you will give them courage.

¹⁸You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;

you will judge in their favour,

so that mortal men may cause terror no more.

Confidence in the ^o

11 I trust in the Lord for safety.

How foolish of you to say to me,

“Fly away like a bird to the mountains,^p

²because the wicked have drawn their bows and aimed their arrows

to shoot from the shadows at good people.

³There is nothing a good person can do

when everything falls apart.”

⁴The Lord is in his holy temple;

he has his throne in heaven.

He watches people everywhere

and knows what they are doing.

⁵He examines the good and the wicked alike;

the lawless he hates with all his heart.

⁶He sends down flaming coals^q and burning sulphur on the wicked;

he punishes them with scorching winds.

⁷The Lord is righteous and loves good deeds;

those who do them will live in his presence.

A Prayer for Help^r

12 Help us, Lord!

There is not a good person left;

honest people can no longer be found.

²All of them lie to one another;

they deceive each other with flattery.

³Silence those flattering tongues, O Lord!

Close those boastful mouths that say,

⁴“With our words we get what we want.

We will say what we wish,

and no one can stop us.”

⁵“But now I will come,” says the Lord,

“because the needy are oppressed

and the persecuted groan in pain. I will give them the security they long for.”

⁶The promises of the Lord can be trusted;

they are as genuine as silver

refined seven times in the furnace.

^7–8The wicked are everywhere,

and everyone praises what is evil.

Keep us always safe, O Lord,

and preserve us from such people.