Psalm 9–10

Thanksgiving to God for His Justiceⁿ

9 I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all the wonderful things you have done.

²I will sing with joy because of you.

I will sing praise to you, Almighty God.

³My enemies turn back when you appear;

they fall down and die.

⁴You are fair and honest in your judgements,

and you have judged in my favour.

⁵You have condemned the heathen

and destroyed the wicked;

they will be remembered no more.

⁶Our enemies are finished for ever;

you have destroyed their cities,

and they are completely forgotten.

⁷But the Lord is king for ever;

he has set up his throne for judgement.

⁸He rules the world with righteousness;

he judges the nations with justice.

⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,

a place of safety in times of trouble.

¹⁰Those who know you, Lord, will trust you;

you do not abandon anyone who comes to you.

¹¹Sing praise to the Lord, who rules in Zion!

Tell every nation what he has done!

¹²God remembers those who suffer;

he does not forget their cry,

and he punishes those who wrong them.

¹³Be merciful to me, O Lord!

See the sufferings my enemies cause me!

Rescue me from death, O Lord,

¹⁴that I may stand before the people of Jerusalem

and tell them all the things for which I praise you.

I will rejoice because you saved me.

¹⁵The heathen have dug a pit and fallen in;

they have been caught in their own trap.

¹⁶The Lord has revealed himself by his righteous judgements,

and the wicked are trapped by their own deeds.

¹⁷Death is the destiny of all the wicked,

of all those who reject God.

¹⁸The needy will not always be neglected;

the hope of the poor will not be crushed for ever.

¹⁹Come, Lord! Do not let human beings defy you!

Bring the heathen before you

and pronounce judgement on them.

²⁰Make them afraid, O Lord;

make them know that they are only mortal beings.

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.