Psalm 120–124

A Prayer for Help

120When I was in trouble, I called to the Lord,

and he answered me.

²Save me, Lord,

from liars and deceivers.

³You liars, what will God do to you?

How will he punish you?

⁴With a soldier’s sharp arrows,

with red-hot charcoal!

⁵Living among you is as bad as living in Meshech

or among the people of Kedar.^d

⁶I have lived too long

with people who hate peace!

⁷When I speak of peace,

they are for war.

The Our Protector

121I look to the mountains;

where will my help come from?

²My help will come from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

³He will not let you fall;

your protector is always awake.

⁴The protector of Israel

never dozes or sleeps.

⁵The Lord will guard you;

he is by your side to protect you.

⁶The sun will not hurt you during the day,

nor the moon during the night.

⁷The Lord will protect you from all danger;

he will keep you safe.

⁸He will protect you as you come and go

now and for ever.

In Praise of Jerusalem^e

122 I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the Lord’s house.”

²And now we are here,

standing inside the gates of Jerusalem!

³Jerusalem is a city restored

in beautiful order and harmony.

⁴This is where

the tribes come, the tribes of Israel,

to give thanks to the Lord

according to his command.

⁵Here the kings of Israel

sat to judge their people.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May those who love you prosper.

⁷May there be peace inside your walls

and safety in your palaces.”

⁸For the sake of my relatives and friends

I say to Jerusalem, “Peace be with you!”

⁹For the sake of the house of the Lord our God

I pray for your prosperity.

A Prayer for Mercy

123Lord, I look up to you,

up to heaven, where you rule.

²As a servant depends on his master,

as a maid depends on her mistress,

so we will keep looking to you, O Lord our God,

until you have mercy on us.

³Be merciful to us, Lord, be merciful;

we have been treated with so much contempt.

⁴We have been mocked too long by the rich

and scorned by proud oppressors.

God the Protector of His People^f

124 What if the Lord had not been on our side?

Answer, O Israel!

²“If the Lord had not been on our side

when our enemies attacked us,

³then they would have swallowed us alive

in their furious anger against us;

⁴then the flood would have carried us away,

the water would have covered us,

⁵the raging torrent would have drowned us.”

⁶Let us thank the Lord,

who has not let our enemies destroy us.

⁷We have escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap;

the trap is broken, and we are free!

⁸Our help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.