Psalm 7–8

Psalm 7

A shiggaion^aby David; he sang it to the Lord about the ⸤slanderous⸥ words of Cush, a descendant of Benjamin. 

¹O Lord my God, I have taken refuge in you. 

Save me, and rescue me from all who are pursuing me. 

²Like a lion they will tear me to pieces 

and drag me off with no one to rescue me. 

³O Lord my God, 

if I have done this— 

if my hands are stained with injustice, 

⁴if I have paid back my friend with evil 

or rescued someone who has no reason to attack me— 

⁵then let the enemy chase me and catch me. 

Let him trample my life into the ground. 

Let him lay my honor in the dust. 

Selah 

⁶Arise in anger, O Lord. 

Stand up against the fury of my attackers. 

Wake up, my God.^c

You have already pronounced judgment. 

⁷Let an assembly of people gather around you. 

Take your seat high above them. 

⁸The Lord judges the people of the world. 

Judge me, O Lord, 

according to my righteousness, 

according to my integrity. 

⁹Let the evil within wicked people come to an end, 

but make the righteous person secure, 

O righteous God who examines thoughts and emotions. 

¹⁰My shield is God above, 

who saves those whose motives are decent. 

¹¹God is a fair judge, 

a God who is angered by injustice every day. 

¹²If a person does not change, God sharpens his sword. 

By bending his bow, he makes it ready ⸤to shoot⸥. 

¹³He prepares his deadly weapons 

and turns them into flaming arrows. 

¹⁴See how that person conceives evil, 

is pregnant with harm, 

and gives birth to lies. 

¹⁵He digs a pit and shovels it out. 

Then he falls into the hole that he made ⸤for others⸥. 

¹⁶His mischief lands back on his own head. 

His violence comes down on top of him. 

¹⁷I will give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness. 

I will make music to praise the name of the Lord Most High. 

Psalm 8

For the choir director; on the gittith;^aa psalm by David. 

¹O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth! 

Your glory is sung above the heavens. 

²From the mouths of little children and infants, 

you have built a fortress against your opponents 

to silence the enemy and the avenger. 

³When I look at your heavens, 

the creation of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars that you have set in place— 

⁴what is a mortal that you remember him 

or the Son of Man that you take care of him? 

⁵You have made him a little lower than yourself. 

You have crowned him with glory and honor. 

⁶You have made him rule what your hands created. 

You have put everything under his control: 

⁷all the sheep and cattle, the wild animals, 

⁸the birds, the fish, 

whatever swims in the currents of the seas. 

⁹O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!